Finding Out the Most Reliable Information For Online Education

It can be said without any doubt that the vision of obtaining a degree from an online university appears quite shady. As far as looking for a school that completely satisfies your needs is concerned, you may not even think about opting for a university that wants you to provide tens of thousands of dollars right from your pocket and sit in unnervingly dark and dingy classrooms. On the other hand, going for a school having the same level of accreditation as any ‘brick and mortar” institution, accompanying an improved view (specifically your bedroom) and a realistically advanced approach to funding seems highly reasonable.

Online universities are increasingly gaining popularity in the educational world, yet scores of individuals still find their legitimacy doubtful. Well, no worry as this issue isn’t as serious as it appears and certainly has a solution and that too online. You can find answers to your questions and concerns regarding online education by visiting a reliable Internet Portal for Online Study that lists the top online degree programs in the nation. Such a website enables individuals interested in online education to continue on a more non-traditional course to educational success, without even making them leave the comfort of their own homes.

Yes, there certainly are websites that can guide you through the process but the condition is that the site must be reliable and trustworthy. It can not be ignored that there exist sites that claim to be rich in informative resources relevant to online education but in real they are nothing more than “scams”. You must make sure that your guiding source offers you the best of online educational schemes and strategies. An ideal educational portal enlists universities having lecturers from various skilled backgrounds, with several having superior degrees in specific fields. And these universities apart from offering their students some of the greatest minds to learn from also provide a plethora of degree features and programs that will assist all students in changing his or her stars irrespective of their present circumstances. Whatever your passion, your potential target is, those listed universities are certain to offer something that will motivate your mind and most likely provide you with the tools essential to succeed regardless of whatever life throes at you.

In order to discover which school ideally harmonizes your needs, what you need to do is to take a look at the selection offered at a dependable and well-established educational; portal. Undoubtedly, there are online degree courses that will brighten your future with the confidence to hunt for higher education in order to get your career started, or seek higher education to give you the qualifications required to take a step ahead in a career of your choice. Each online university that a “Reliable, Trustworthy and Comprehensive Educational Portal” has listed accompanies vital description and an approach by means of which you may obtain additional information straightforwardly from the university.

The next step is to decide what features you’re seeking in a university. For nearly everyone, the opportunity to acquire an celebrated degree from a university with good reputation is sufficient to make payments through the backside; however, with an online degree you’re saving yourself practically hundreds of dollars for a four year education that is just as feasible through an online university that will eventually cost you a simple fraction of that payment. At the end of the day, it is money that rules –how much something costs and how much can be secured with the other choice. If you’re in search for a university that is as justifiable as it is easy on your bank account, visiting an ideal online educational website is your path to make educational and economic success certain.

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Get Into A Christian Home Based Business For Spiritual and Financial Growth

The teachings of the Bible put it that helping and serving others is a kind effort. It teaches everyone to trust your abilities, stay positive, and believe that God should be above everything else. Everything that you do must be dedicated to Him. Thus, extending your arms for the benefit of other people is truly what God wants. A Christian home based business is one of the opportunities that allow you to enrich yourself spiritually and financially. With this, a single mother can find a way to be able to supplement the family’s income, retirees can earn money during their free time, and also a way to spread the word of God.

The good thing is that Christians often tie up their business with their relationship with God. It is their way of spiritually developing themselves as well as helping others in their spiritual growth. Therefore, this business is set to strengthen the faith all the more. God is your guide and therefore your journey will be more of a means to understand yourself and your role in this world.

If at first you fail to accomplish your goals, it is not enough reason to give up. You should always try hard to make things work. And when building your business, it matters that you do research, contact people, and surf the Internet. Definitely, you will be able to find everything that you need quite simply.

What Christian home based business ideas will be good for you? Here are a couple of ideas.

Put up a Christian bookstore. One great business is an online Christian bookstore which will be the best avenue on how you can spread the word of God. Your market can thus be worldwide. Management skills, financial capital, and marketing skills are all you need to get it up and set things up. A basic skill that you need to work on is that of search engine optimization.

Engage in a marketing business. Marketing Christian products and services as part of your home based business will allow you to connect with the other Christians from all parts of the globe. You can even ask for the help of other Christian affiliates. Extending help to others who are part of your Church will be very much possible. You can be engaged in selling Christian items to be able to raise funds.

Do affiliate programs. It will only be difficult if you don’t have the time to spare for it. The best way to tackle an affiliate program is to search for websites and blogs wherein you can write some reviews about the Christian products and services. In turn, you can link them to the websites that offer those affiliate programs. Writing well and more can improve your ranking.

Christian home based business is indeed a wonderful way of gaining financial independence while keeping in mind the strengthening of one’s faith. But then again, you must be careful in dealing with companies as there are also a couple of scams around.

Want to get into a Christian home based business for spiritual and financial growth?

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Home-Based Business Vs Franchise Business – A Side-By-Side Comparison For Success

There are many popular franchise business opportunities that are available to those looking to run their own business. They provide a viable, proven system to produce income with a product that is highly-advertised and purchased by the vast majority of society.But one question you want to ask yourself is this: At what cost does success come with a franchise business opportunity?The two biggest models available to a brand-new entrepreneur are franchises and network marketing opportunities. This article weighs the pros and cons of starting a franchise business and a home-based network marketing business and will help you decide which model works best for you.1. Cost – This is a very important element and should be considered very early in your search for a new business, regardless of franchise or home-based. Most franchises cost thousands of dollars just to invest. Once you’ve invested, you have lots of overhead to consider, such as personnel, health benefits, inventory, marketing, advertising, and more. This will inevitably lead you to reach into your pockets for more, thus putting you further in the red before you even think about opening your doors.With network marketing, your start-up costs are significantly lower and relative to the company you join. Your overhead is also lower, as you don’t need to worry about hiring personnel, paying for health benefits, and in some cases, house boxes of inventory. If you decide this is a more viable route for your start-up budget, you want to be sure you expose yourself to the knowledge needed to market your business and product. Remember that your product won’t promote itself, and neither will your opportunity. So be sure your company provides marketing training. If they don’t, reserve a specific amount of your start-up capital for marketing courses and training.2. Time – This is extremely important to evaluate because most entrepreneurs are looking to leverage time in their favor by starting their own business. If you value your time, this is as much of a cost as your initial investment. If you’ve left ‘Corporate America’ schedule behind and are looking for a way to earn a steady stream of income on your own watch, a franchise business opportunity may not be the best direction to go. Until you get your business off the ground and have the revenue available to hire a staff, you are working from the second you open the door to the second you close, every single day. This can create more time imprisonment than an actual “9 to 5″ job.When you pit this against a network marketing business on the basis of time, network marketing will win every time. By starting a home-based network marketing business, you are still a business owner, but you are not confined to a corporate schedule that tells you when you have to be open. If you need to take an afternoon off, you have that luxury available to you. The important thing to keep in mind is you are 100% accountable for all of your output. You want to be sure you’re putting in the necessary effort to ensure your business survives and thrives. The good news is you are able to do this at your convenience. And if you don’t want to quit your day job right away, you can choose to work your business part-time.3. Length of time to turn a profit – In a franchise business, it can take anywhere from 2-5 years to recoup all of your initial investment. Also, keep your ‘time’ investment in mind as well. The amount of hours you spend trying to get out of the red can weigh tremendously on your psyche. Before making the investment, you want to make sure you are capable of going a lengthy amount of time before you see positive fiscal results.Contrarily, a network marketing business gives you the opportunity to turn a profit in a much quicker fashion. This is possible simply because your initial investment for starting your business is drastically lower. The thousands and thousands spent to start a franchise is normally reduced to hundreds when it comes to a home-based business. Most network marketing companies charge a small start-up fee and a monthly charge that provides the business owner with back-office assistance and several other key factors to running their business. If you market your business properly right from the start, you set yourself up for a much faster return on investment by taking the network marketing path.To conclude, no one model is the right way to go. Both franchise business and network marketing opportunities have proven to be successful over the years. It boils down to which level of investment you’re willing to make, how much time you’re willing to commit to your business’s success, and how long you’re willing to wait for a return on your investment. Regardless of which direction you decide to go, the same basic principle applies: Expect to get out your business what you put into it.

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How to Legalize Your Home Based Business

As you prepare to run your business from home, you must know that every business must be legally recognized by laws that govern the running of a business. This process of legalizing a home business can be challenging because most business laws do not cover businesses run from a home or entirely on the internet. However, there are a number of steps that you should follow to try to legalize your business. These are:a) Check local business laws in your locality to see whether companies run from home are covered or not. Most states and countries do not have rules and regulations in place for such companies but mat have a generalize category of businesses that do not fit preexisting categories.b) Apply for a business license if necessary. The license is your legal permission to operate your business. The fees and regulations of a home business vary depending on state and country and you must find the specific fees and procedures for your kind of business from the local government agents.c) Get a sales ID number depending on the business you are running. This ID can be obtained from a local tax office once you have the business registration certificate or a business license. This ID will also assist you not to pay taxes for products you purchase through the internet for company use.d) Be certain on the space that you are allowed to use. In most cases, a home based business will need only a small desk space to run everything, as long as it can accommodate most required hardware including a computer, printers, scanners and telephone handsets.e) Property tax is another issue that you must pay close attention to. Any property that you consider a business property like computers and other accessories must be duly registered and any taxes paid on them.f) Remember that for home based business, the city council will not allow vendors and clients to come to your home for business. Most cities and councils have rules in place that prohibits this. If you need to meet clients, you can choose to meet at a hotel or a public place. As for the company property, you will only be allowed to have a certain number of property e.g. cars registered under your business at your home.g) Conflicts also arise when it comes to business signs and erecting business boards at your home. Some cities and towns do not allow people to have signs in the residential areas advertising the businesses they run in their homes. You will need to check this with your local business laws to avoid unnecessary clashes with the law.h) Before you are granted a business license, an inspection may be required. Prepare for this inspection in advance and be sure that what you put on paper is the same as what the city inspectors will find at your business base. When you get a license, have it framed and hung on the wall in case of inspections, it will be easy to notice.

Making Your Home Based Business Portable

Many are making the move from corporate America to the home based business arena. Network marketing is red hot, particularly in the travel sector, but anything and everything that can be sold in a store can also be sold from home over the internet.The advantages of working from home are plentiful. Parents are home with the children and adult children are home with their aging parents. Home based business owners can care for loved ones and be right back at work in seconds. That kind of freedom is rarely available to workers in the corporate world.Over the years I have found some pitfalls to working at home. One big one is that the scenery never changes when you work where you sleep, eat, entertain, and relax. In the travel business, I quickly learned how to take my business with me and that process continues to be refined to this day.The first move was to abandon the desktop computer for a very portable laptop. At first, taking my business on the road meant taking red eye flights and staying at hotels with internet access. The late night flights allowed me to travel at times clients would not expect me to answer the phone or return email.I knew I wanted to run my business that way from the start, so my cellular number has always been my business number. For those making the transition, forwarding a business phone is easy. I simplified my business so everything was on the laptop and in a small 3 ring binder. I can take and process credit card orders over the phone anywhere an internet connection is available.Working out of hotels by day and exploring new surroundings at night was great at first. I then sought out hotels with wireless internet connections, so I could move my business out to the pool area and at least one resort had an internet connection on the beach.When not traveling, I sought the same freedom to move about with my home based business. Connecting to the internet at Starbucks is simple and recently became very inexpensive. Several businesses and even some cities provide wireless internet services free of charge.The ultimate feeling of freedom came when I got my first wireless device from Sprint. All the major wireless companies offer similar services. A wireless card like the one from Sprint allows you to connect to the internet from anywhere there is cellular service. A beach day can now be a work day.Some of the little tricks I learned can make running your business away from home more affordable. Signing up for Skype allowed me to make calls to the U S from Mexico without paying hotel or cellular company connection fees. If you don’t have unlimited minutes on your cellular phone plan, calling out on Skype from wireless locations or even with your wireless card is cheap. In the U S it’s about $4.00 a month for unlimited calls in the U S and Canada. International calls are a great deal too.With a laptop computer, cellular phone and wireless internet, people running a home based business are no longer confined to their homes as if they were under house arrest.

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Where is Florida Investment Property

Florida Investment Property – Why Investing is a Wise Decision
There are many reasons to purchase investment property in Florida, the foremost being value appreciation. Property values generally rise while debt decreases; making real estate purchases a good investment. Every year since 1968, the national median home price has risen. Usually, home values increase at around the rate of inflation, with a greater increase possible. In recent years, median prices have increased by as much as 9 percent, making purchasing investment property in Florida a wise long term investment. Building equity is an excellent reason to purchase investment property in Florida. Equity grows over time for owners while renters don’t see any return on their money. Purchasing property forces you to save, making you a wise investor without realizing it. Owning investment property in one Florida location may make it possible for you to expand, purchasing a second and third property as rental profits increase. Owning investment property in Florida gives you borrowing power, the ability to use your property equity to borrow funds for your own use, or for further investment. Owning investment property in Florida gives you a sense of stability, not only for the consistent rental income, but for the potential of it becoming a regular seasonal vacation home for your family. Imagine the pleasure and ease of knowing where you are going to vacation, there’s no need to decide on location and try to compete to make reservations, with prices changing every year. There is stability on owning an investment property in Florida that can also be used as a family vacation resort.Why the Interest in Florida Investment Property?Considering the myriad of investment property locations on the market, Florida investment property is one of the most desirable. Home to 11 of the country’s 100 fastest-growing counties, a Florida investment property has high potential as a profit-maker, unlike most other areas. Port St. Lucie, Miramar and Cape Coral are the fastest growing cities in Florida. It’s unlikely you will make a mistake investing in Florida real estate considering the vast number of tourists and new residents flocking to the land of sun and surf. The most difficult decision to make will be which location in Florida to purchase. Good investments abound in each area of the state, from Miami in the south to Clearwater on the gulf coast, going east to Daytona Beach and north to the panhandle. Selecting a location depends on your goals for purchasing Florida investment property. Carefully consider what you intend to do with your Florida investment property. Will your purchase be used mainly as a rental property for vacationers? Do you intend to have access to the property during certain seasons? Or is your goal rental of the property to local tenants? Some of these questions will help you in narrowing down your search. Once you have determined whether your Florida investment property will be used primarily for vacationers or for local renters, and whether you intend on using it as a vacation resort yourself, it is easier to choose the location.Florida Investment Property LocationsThere are so many location options of investment property in Florida, making it difficult to select just the right location. Let’s start from the top! Do you desire a beachfront location, or one close to the coast, or would you rather select property in a town setting. Tourist area or settled community, inland or beachside? Asking these questions helps you narrow down your search. Each area where an investment property in Florida is located has its own flavor, its own attractions. Let’s start with the Miami area. Miami is located in the southeastern corner of Florida and Miami Beach is a seven mile long island known as America’s Riviera. Home appreciation rate in the Miami area is about 11% with the median home price around $240,000. There are diverse offerings of single family homes, ocean front property and ocean view condominiums. Of course condo and home prices are offered in a vast range, with upscale areas bringing in up to $5 million. Condos and town homes may be cheaper, depending on location, but with price escalation and population density, even there it may be hard to find a bargain. Miami offers beautiful beaches with perennial sunshine but traffic congestion and the increasing population boom may be a deterrent to some. Just forty miles north of Miami, lies Boca Raton with five miles of coastline and gorgeous beaches. Appreciation rate here is around 11%. Clearwater, on the west coast of Florida borders Clearwater Harbor and the Gulf of Mexico. Indian Shores is a small historic community offering condos, gulf front property and Intracoastal Waterway homes and town homes. The appreciation rate for investment property in Florida, Clearwater is about 9%.Investment Property in Florida – Daytona Beach, Jacksonville and Destin
Moving north in our search for investment property in Florida, let’s take a look at the Daytona Beach area. Daytona is known as a spring break and family playground on Florida’s east coast about 50 miles northeast of Orlando. Homes prices are surprisingly reasonable here in comparison with other popular Florida beach locations. Appreciation is about 10% with homes starting as low as $80,000. A large variety of housing choices exist, everything from inland or waterfront property, to townhouses and single family homes, ocean front or inland. Older homes abound but there are also several new upscale building projects. Let’s take a look further north at Jacksonville. Jacksonville is known as Florida’s River City due to the ever-present St. John’s River which flows through the city, ponds and lakes. A modestly priced investment property in Florida can be found here with a range from $60,000 to several million. Appreciation is around 9% with continual growing home construction. Unique to Jacksonville is its diverse neighborhoods and building styles. Destin is located in the Emerald Coast of Florida, sitting on the Gulf of Mexico. It is just south of Alabama and was recently voted as having the best beaches in the US. Destin boasts great seafood, and excellent golfing and fishing. Home appreciation here is around 12% with the median home price about $165,000. Condos and townhouses here begin at $100,000 and can go upwards in the millions for waterfront property.Investment Property in Florida – Attractive Tourist AreasLet’s play a little word association. I’ll say Florida and chances are the majority of people will say Walt Disney World, or something relating to the Orlando area. Orlando has a thriving tourist economy that attracts close to thirty five million visitors each year. Real estate is booming here with the median price taking a dramatic jump from $166,000 to $200,000, an appreciation of 27%, making investing near Orlando a great venture. Conway Belle Isle, east Orange County, Maitland/Winter Park and northwest Orange County have seen the most dramatic property value increases. There is a strong job market here without forecasts of a downturn, keeping prices strong. There are a large variety of properties to choose from, including starter homes, modest cottages, older homes and impressive new developments. Orlando is called the City Beautiful and owes part of that title to its cleanliness, newness and innovation and variety of lakes and nearby attractions. Whether you are considering investment property in Florida as a rental for locals, as a tourist rental or to rent and use yourself, Orlando is an excellent choice in location. Consider the varied options of attractions in the Orlando area. Walt Disney World would be foremost as a draw card, followed by Sea World, and Universal Studios. But along with these well-known attractions, a plethora of other hot spots exist. Wet-N-Wild draws a huge number of the sizzling summer crowd, a great place to cool down on a scorching Florida summer day. Kennedy Space Center makes a great day trip as well as Cocoa Beach, home of Ron Jon’s Surf Shop and Daytona Beach, a world famous family and spring break destination.Investment Property in Florida – Locations near Disney WorldHaving established that owning investment property near Orlando would be a wise investment decision, the search now begins for a specific location. Disney World, Sea World and Universal Studios are located on the south side of Orlando. Condos, town homes and single family homes are commonly purchased for investment purchase in this area. Closest to the Disney area is the community of Kissimmee, Florida. Kissimmee was a sleepy cow town just a decade ago. It is now booming with tourist activity. A quaint downtown area still exists with a few cattle ranches on the outskirts but generally the flavor of Kissimmee now reflects its large tourist population. Close to Disney, within 30 to 45 minutes, lies the lesser-known town of Davenport, Florida. Surrounded by orange groves, it gives you the feel of old rural Florida, but is close enough to the major attractions to make this an attractive investment option. Looking to get into a ground floor investment opportunity? Bimimi Bay Resort, a brand new town home resort development is now offering purchase opportunities. The many amenities in the planning stages include a resort pool, 2 movie theatres, a major restaurant chain, club house, lazy river, food court and many others. For the price of principal, interest, taxes and insurance, the owner has the many advantages of using the property for a minimum rate while vacationing and letting Bimimi Bay take care of all the headaches of rental during the year, still receiving a reliable monthly income. It’s a no lose deal for investors.

Make Your Life Easier With Personal Finance Software

Personal finance is an extremely important part of our life. It is not only our responsibility, but our duty to manage our finances better. Today, personal finance management has become a little more complicated. It has become far more complex than it was few decades ago. As a result, many people take the help of financial expert to manage their finances.

But if you can’t afford to hire a professional or prefer to keep your personal finance “personal”, then good personal finance software is a great option for you. This software are perfect for people who don’t have much knowledge about intricacies of accounting and finance. Good software can be beneficial for you in the following ways:

• Speed: Such a software are extremely time saving. All you have to do is to enter the data about your income and expenditure in the software and leave the rest to the software. It will sort out your expenses and create plans for your future personal finance.

• Bill payments: The personal finance software can also pay your bills automatically. This is the best way to pay your bills on time and avoid late fees or discontinuation of services. Most good quality personal finance software can create a system that pays your bill automatically.

Some people think that they will need to purchase new computers or extra hardware to run personal finance software. But, most of the latest software are designed to work on all kinds of systems. You can purchase software for your MAC or Windows computer and you don’t have to change your computer system at all.

These days, there’s an over-kill of such types of software in the market. It looks like the market has sensed an unprecedented increase in the demand for such software. As a result, there are many personal finance software in the market which are not of the best quality, but still get sold because of marketing and other tactics.

In order to ensure that you only buy the best, follow these easy tips:

1. The software should have a strong automation system. Buy a program that can be completely automated. This will ensure that do the least amount of work and save maximum amount of your time.

2. The software should also have the program that calculates loan amounts and allows you to compare between different options. This is a great tool when you are looking to get some loan for your personal or business use.

3. Make sure that the software provides a large number of forms. These ready-made forms allow you to enter information directly in the software without any hassle. They are extremely time-efficient as all you have to do is to put the data in allotted ha Pre-Made Forms- Try and find tools with more number of pre-made forms. All you will have to do is enter information on these forms and rest will be taken care by the software.

Personal software has made the life of millions of people much easier. If you also make the right choice, then you can also get rid of most of your personal finance problems through it.

Developing Your Small Business Marketing Plan

Along with your business plan, your small business marketing plans is only of the most important long-term plans you’ll make for your small business. Some small business owners choose to ignore that advice, instead preferring to fly by the seat of their pants, so to speak, to “wing it.” While some of those small business owners are successful, they’re not nearly as successful as they could be had they laid out a well-defined small business marketing plan.

Small business marketing strategy step 1: Know your market

The first step in developing a successful small business marketing strategy is to make sure that you have a really solid handle on your target market. Ask yourself: Who are my customers? Once you’ve identified who they are, ask yourself: What are my customers’ problems? What are their dreams and aspirations? The surest way to answer those questions, of course, is to ask your customers themselves. Even if you can’t afford to hire a small business marketing firm that will conduct focus group tests for you, you can do your own simple survey by hitting the streets and talking to those people you plan to sell to (and make contacts at the same time!). You’d be surprised how powerful that simple task is yet how few businesses do it.

Small business marketing strategy step 2: Know yourself

The second step in developing your small business marketing strategy is to get to know yourself (your business), once you’ve gotten to know your customers. Ask yourself: What does my business do? How is my business different than my competitors’? How does my business help solve my customers’ problems or help them achieve their dreams? Answering these questions will help you to define your unique selling proposition – those aspects that set you apart from your competitors.

That unique selling proposition should become your brand – your business’s identity. Your brand is what will pervade all of your marketing materials and what your customers will use to identify you. The importance of diligently developing your brand as part of a successful small business marketing strategy can’t be overstated.

Small business marketing strategy step 3: Analyze your competitors’ small business marketing strategies

Once you’ve developed your brand – that unique identity that tells your customers who you are and how you’re different – you can begin thinking about how you’re going to actually market your business. First, look at your competitors’ small business marketing strategies. Are there obvious gaps that you could fill (and thereby stand out among the competition)? For example, if you see that none of your competitors have websites, you could stand out with a small business marketing strategy online.

Wherever you market your business, it must be where your customers are. For example, small business marketing online will be a waste if none of your potential customers use the Internet. Likewise, you may think that writing a monthly column in your local newspaper would be a great way to advertise your services and establish yourself as an expert; but if none of your potential customers read that paper, that small business marketing strategy will fail.

At this point, your small business marketing strategy will not only be defined by where your customers are and what your competitors are doing, but it will also depend on your small business marketing budget. A full-page spread in a national magazine may be the best way to reach your target audience, but if you can’t afford to shell out tens of thousands of dollars, it’s not the small business marketing strategy for you.

Wherever your small business marketing plan takes you, the careful development of your small business marketing strategy – by knowing your market, knowing your business, and analyzing your competitors’ strategies – will be a critical determinant of your long-term business success.

The Finer Points of Internet Auctions

WHAT IS A PENNY AUCTION?

Penny auctions have exploded in popularity with the massive growth of the internet. However, few people know the true origins of penny auctions.Beginnings actually stretch back to the Great Depression. Those were hard times for everyone, but even harder for farmers. Farmers struggled to bring in steady income because of droughts and crops not selling as well as they had previously. As a result, the banks would foreclose on the farmers who couldn’t keep up with their mortgage payments.

The banks weren’t satisfied with just repossessing the house, they wanted to raise as much capital as possible, so they resorted to selling off the possessions of the owners of the repossessed houses. There was not much the farmers could do about it so they began bidding ridiculously low prices, pennies, on the items while threatening others who dared to bid higher than a few pennies.

The auctions of today hardly resemble their tremulous beginnings. Being part of a penny auction today is exhilarating, fun, and addictive. It combines the selling format of auctioning with a little bit of chance factored in.Auctions are a game of strategy but also a game of luck.

The premise behind penny auctions is giving people the chance to win an item at a drastically reduced price.Auctions make that possible by spreading out the cost of the product among multiple bidders. In order for a person to take part in an auction, they must pay a set price for each bid. For example, if a person wanted to bid on a fifty dollar Amazon gift card then he would spend a dollar for each time a bid placed. If he ended up winning the gift card, then he would only have spent a few dollars for a fifty dollar gift card. Usually penny auctions sell bids in packages.

HOW PENNY AUCTIONS WORK!

The main foundation of penny auctions is the pay-per-bid format. It is the key that allows bidders to win items at the fraction of their retail value and allows the auction owners to keep their site profitable. Most y auction sites run on the same premise: people pay a set amount for each bid, whenever a person places a bid within the closing seconds of the auction time will be added, the last person left with a unique bid after the clocks runs out will win the item. There are a large variety of items that can be won, but they tend to be popular electronics or gift cards to popular stores.

There are two types of auctions: lowest unique bid auction and highest unique bid auction. Lowest unique auction sounds confusing but it is actually quite simple. A unique bid is when only one person has a bid at a certain price. Bids usually start at one penny, a bidder can then place a bid at two pennies. Until another bidder places a higher bid, the most recent bidder will be the lowest unique bid because that was the only bid at two cents and nobody bid higher. However, penny auctions generally don’t stop at one penny. It is not uncommon to find auctions that end up at a couple hundred dollars based on the popularity of the item being auctioned. However, the same principles apply for those auctions. Highest unique bid auctions follow the more traditional auction format such as eBay. The person with the highest bid at the end of the auction wins the item.

Auction site owners turn a profit by selling bids. Say twenty people are bidding on a ten dollar gift card at one dollar per bid, at the end of the auction if there were twenty bids placed in total then the site owner would have made twenty dollars with a ten dollar profit.Auctions do seem like a win-win situation:The site owner makes money while the bidder gets an item for dirt cheap. However, not everyone wins in penny auctions. The people who paid one dollar each bid but left with nothing to show for their investments will not be so happy.

HOW TO WIN!

Penny auction has a lot of chance mixed into it, but one can incorporate strategy that will help raise the chances of winning. Playing smart can make all the difference between gambling and auctioning.

The first crucial tip to winning penny auctions is to know how to manage your bids. Your goal should be to win as much as possible without spending a ton of money buying bids. Managing your bids means that you should already know how much you are willing to risk in order to win an item. The amount of capital you are willing to risk will determine how many bids you can use. Once you know how many bids you have to spend on an item, then you will be better able to manage how and when you place a bid. That will keep you from blowing away all of your bids in the first few seconds of the auction.

The next tip is to practice time management. When fighting in the trenches of penny auctions, you have two enemies: other bidders and time. Knowing when to bid is a must if you want to have success. Placing a bid when there is a lot of time left on the clock is never a good idea. You have to remember that the key to winning a penny auction is being the last one standing when the clock runs out and that each bid increases the amount of time left. It would be a good practice to wait until the last few minutes of the auction before you begin to bid.

The final tip for successful auctioning is to keep your emotions under control.Auctions have a lot of similarities to gambling, and just like gambling, your spending can get out of control. If you keep your emotions level, it will keep you from making rash decisions and blowing loads of cash. Keep your mind clear so that you can gage the behavior of the other bidders and outsmart them.

HOW TO AVOID SCAM SITES!

Penny auctions are a great addition to the web whether you want to win an item that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford or if you simply enjoy the thrill that comes with bidding in auctions. Unfortunately, scam sites have tarnished the reputation of the legitimate penny auction sites. However, there are ways that you can protect yourself from scamers and enjoy your auctioning without having to worry about losing your money due to dishonesty.

Checking the reputation of the auction site before you start spending your hard earned money is always a good idea. Chances are other people have tried the site before you and some of them have left reviews. The reviews are your way to gage whether a auction site is trustworthy or not. If a site is getting overwhelmingly negative reviews, then that is a clear indication that you should steer your business elsewhere.

Another tool you can use to protect yourself is checking the Alexia ranks of the auction sites. Alexia rank will give a solid view of how much traffic the auction is getting. If you see a huge difference in the amount of traffic Alexia is projecting and the amount of active bidders on the site, then warning signals should be ringing in your head. Some auction sites have been known to set up robots that automatically bid on projects in order to keep the auction going and inflate the price. That is known as shill bidding. You can sniff out those sites by comparing the traffic the site should be getting to the amount of users using this site.

CONCLUSION!

New legislation may come out later down the road that will officially make penny auctions gambling, but until then, it is a fun, exciting auction that allows one to win the item they’ve always wanted but couldn’t afford.Auctions are also quite lucrative for the site owners because of the pay-per-bid strategy they’ve incorporated. Penny auctions had humble beginnings with farmers who just wanted to get back at the banks who kicked them out of their house. More recently, auctions have enjoyed an explosion in popularity with the rise of the internet.

There are two main formats fora auctions, lowest and highest unique auction, however they both run on the same premise where the last unique bid wins the item. Winning a penny auction will require a certain amount of mental tactic and a bit of luck. However, you can increase your odds of winning by practicing certain techniques such as managing your bids wisely, learning how to work with the time, and keeping a level head and your emotions under control. When you combine those three strategies to your bidding plan, you will find that you win a lot more often.

It is important that you do your due diligence to protect yourself when participating in auctions. Not every auction is run by honest and trustworthy people. There are people out there who just want to take your money. You can protect yourself by ensuring that you only bid on sites that already have a very positive reputation from real users.

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How to Find Great Live Auctions for Resale Items

Hi, my name is Walt. I’m an auctioneer with 25 years of experience in the auction business and licensed in the state of MA. I own Quick Auction Service, a company that specializes in building and running custom auctions, I’m also the webmaster of my own site and have been on eBay for 8 years. Besides eBay, the types of auctions I run most frequently are antiques and on-site estate auctions, although I’ve run everything from business overstock auctions to charity & special event auctions.

I enjoy sharing my knowledge and stories of the auction business. My goal for article is to help folks get the absolute most out of their auction experience.

Whether your fresh out of the package or a seasoned dealer I think I can offer something in this article to help you with your auciton adventures.

There may be as many reasons to attend auctions as there are types of auctions to attend. Maybe you want to attend an auction to buy items for re-sale on eBay, or some other market. Maybe you want to furnish your home with wonderful antiques, or you want to furnish your home as inexpensively without sacrificing quality.Some folks are just looking for a fun night out. With a little perseverance all these things are possible.

There are antiques and estate auctions, auto auctions, overstock auctions, absolute and no reserve auctions, real estate auctions, specialty auctions where only one genre of items are sold, tailgate auctions, live auctions, online auctions, sealed bid auctions, silent auctions, charity and fund raising auctions and many more.

Can you really buy for pennies on the dollar at an auction? You bet! Many times I’ve seen folks buy and re-sell at the same auction on the same night for a good profit, although be advised, this should only be done after the auction is over.

There are a lot of ways to find an auction, but here are some tips on how to find and attend the best ones.

Visit the genre of shops in the area that apply to the type of auction you want to attend. IE: If your looking for a good antique auction to attend, stop in the local antiques shops and ask for what there are for good auctions in the area. Sounds obvious right? But listen to what they don’t say as well as what they do say. Oftentimes when a dealer speaks poorly about an auction he or she attends, it may be likely that they are trying to keep a good thing secret. Think for a moment, why would a dealer keep attending a lousy auction?

Newspaper ads: I personally like to find ads in the classified ad section rather than flashy display ads. Flashy ads are usually indicative of an auction that will be high priced, may have reserves, (a set price on an item), and usually an enormous crowd. While any auction can be profitable to attend, it is usually best to steer clear of the glitzy ones, at least for the beginner.

Here’s the minimum you want to find out before you go. If there is a phone number in the ad, call and ask for the terms of the sale. What forms of payment do they accept? Is it an absolute auction? An absolute auction is one that has no minimum or reserve bids on items. These are the best auctions to attend! Is there a buyers premium? A buyers premium is like a tax that everyone who makes purchases at that auction must pay above the winning bid price. Most auctions these days do charge a buyers premium, 10% is not unreasonable but I feel much more than that is greedy, and the auctioneer that charges over 10% is counting on most bidders not doing the extra math as the bids quicken in pace.

A fair auction will have ample time to inspect the merchandise, usually at least 2 or 3 hours. Find out when inspection starts and make sure to attend! Never attend an auction if you can’t make the inspection, not unless your prepared to gamble. Most auctioneers sell at a rate of about 100 items per hour, which is why they sell “as is”. They simply don’t have the time to give a detailed description of all the items. Since almost all items at auction are sold AS IS, there are sure to be some damaged, refinished, fake and incomplete items at any given auction. Beware of any auctions that offer very little or no inspection time.

Good auctions will usually have 150 to 400 lots. A lot may be one item or a group of items. The exception to this are specialty auctions, auto auctions, real estate auctions etc.

When you attend your first sale, take note of the 1/2 dozen or so dealers that buy the most often. See if you can find out about other area auctions they attend.

When you do find an excellent auction, attend it as often as possible. By frequenting good sales, you help increase the bottom line of that business. It’s difficult for many auctioneers to keep the quality of merchandise consistent, so good attendance certainly helps. And when an auctioneer gets to know you as a buyer, he/she will go out of the way to accommodate you, to keep you coming back.

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