Credit Crunch Truths

Archive for the ‘Random Stuff’ Category

My hometown of Detroit has been all over the news recently. Thankfully, it’s been for something other than the transgressions of our former mayor.

The rest of the country (and world, it seems) has realized that Detroit has incredibly cheap real estate, and plenty of it. Investors – some from as far as away as the U.K. – are buying up lots of houses (for as little as $10,000) to fix up and rent out.

While it might be tempting to buy an investment property for only $10,000, there are at least three reasons to be cautious:

• In comparison to other parts of the country, real estate taxes in depressed areas are high and could get worse. A shrinking population means a smaller tax base, so everyone left has to cough up more money.

• Take your rehab bill and double it. Not because of cost overruns but because your upgrades will walk out the door at night. Theft is a major problem.

• Don’t count on getting government-assisted renters. The easy days of the government sending you the rent check are long gone. According to a friend of mine who has a few rental properties in Detroit, the number of landlords looking for Section 8 renters far outstrips the supply.

With that being said, I believe investing in Detroit is worth considering… as long as you do your homework first. Where else can you buy a house for less than a new car and generate cash flow every month?

[Ed. Note: Whether you're interested in real estate, the stock market, or other investment opportunities, you can get Christian Hill's take in Investor's Daily Edge, Early to Rise's sister publication. Sign up for free right here.

Buying and renting out real estate is just one investment you can profit from in 2009. This June, 9 financial experts will show you exactly how you can make a fortune in today's market. Find out how you can get their top recommendations for making 2009 the best year ever for your portfolio right here.]  

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I told my readers to short oil when it was at $120 per barrel on April 23, 2008. I was a little early to the party, but oil did drop below $33 a barrel in December of 2008. Now, I think oil has bottomed and is about to head higher.

Here are just a few reasons why I think the time has come to consider investing in oil again:

• There are many potential geopolitical flashpoints around the world that could flare up at any moment and disrupt oil supply.

• Americans have forgotten about past high gas prices and are back to buying SUVs and forgoing the carpool.

• Crude oil prices held up in the face of the recent 12-year lows in the stock market. This is very bullish for oil.

• Most of the world’s cheap oil has already been discovered, and oil exploration companies are drilling in places that are harder to reach. This adds to their costs and results in higher oil prices.

• Soon we could see demand increase to a level that will start to exceed supply. Demand will grow in the years ahead as India and China continue to modernize.

While oil inventories are high right now, they may start to decline toward the end of the year. I suggest you start looking at investing in oil over the next few months and use big down days as buying opportunities.

If you invest in oil, keep an eye on the economy. If the current slowdown gets worse and lasts longer than expected, it could have a negative effect on oil prices. Currently, my technical indicators are pointing to higher oil prices in the near term.

[Ed. Note: Ted Peroulakis has over 14 years of experience in the financial industry and is a top options trader and financial analyst. You can read more of Ted's advice on the most profitable investments in Investor's Daily Edge. Sign up for free here.

Oil isn't the only investment you can profit from in 2009. This June, 9 investment experts will show you exactly how you can make a fortune in today's market. Find out how you can get their top recommendations for making 2009 the best year ever for your portfolio right here.]

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In honor of April Fool’s Day, let’s look once again at the lighter side of language.

You’ve surely heard, or perhaps even committed, a spoonerism – the exchange, often accidental, of the initial letters or sounds of two words, which results in a surprising and funny new meaning. For instance, one might intend to say “It’s time to leave the house” but inadvertently say “It’s time to heave the louse.”

Since childhood, I’ve been fascinated by spoonerisms. In 1991, Dell published Cruel and Unusual Puns, my book on the subject. I still occasionally write articles about the genre for fellow logophiles.

The word spoonerism derives from William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), a clergyman and a scholar and official at Oxford University. He supposedly uttered these blunders constantly. Scolding a student: “You have hissed all my mystery lectures. You have tasted two worms.”

Only a handful of genuine spoonerisms are attributed to Dr. Spooner, and even those have been disputed. Mischievous students invented most of his alleged bloopers, yet the myth that Spooner said them persists to this day.

Spoonerisms continue to be crafted deliberately for humorous purposes. Consider the following specimens. If any stump you, remember the principle of reversing the initial letters of two of the words.

• Unadoptable section of the animal shelter: Nixed mutts.

• First lesson for Starbucks’ baristas: Heed the foamless!

• Why celebrities usually tolerate autograph seekers: A good fan is hard to mind.

• Alert for Australian soldiers: But mate – there’s war!

• What it’s called nowadays when teenage girls know so much that their beleaguered dads can’t keep up: The well-aware daughter gap.

• That bittersweet feeling on returning from summer vacation: One sighs; it’s fall.

• Homer Simpson’s reaction when he belatedly heard about Chamberlain’s 1938 appeasement of Hitler: Better the Neville you… d’oh!

Is all this just silly fun, without practical value? No! The study of spoonerisms and other speech errors gives us a “window into the mind,” say neurologists, psychologists, and linguists who do research in human behavior. It yields important clues about how the mind works; how language is acquired, structured, and retrieved; and how language disabilities such as dyslexia might be treated or cured.

My hunch is that you’ll now be on the alert whenever you encounter tips of the slung. Er, I mean, “slips of the tongue”!

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book recently published by AWAI that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]  

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It’s not surprising that the economy is wreaking havoc on Americans’ health. Nearly 30 percent of Americans are losing sleep because of it. And – according to the findings of a landmark Gallup poll – Americans’ stress levels soared in 2008 and continue to rise in 2009.

But one recession-related health risk isn’t so obvious…
More and more Americans are turning to a tried-and-true stress reliever for comfort: Candy.
Auto manufacturers and insurance companies may be struggling. But candy companies are thriving. Cadbury’s profits rose 30 percent in 2008. Nestle’s increased by nearly 11 percent. And Hershey’s profits surged by 8.5 percent in the last quarter of 2008.
Sure, indulging in sugary foods may make you feel better temporarily. But in the long run, it’s going to ruin your health.

According to organic chemist and nutrition expert Shane Ellison, “If left unchecked, an addiction to sweets spikes blood sugar and the fat-storing hormone insulin, disrupts satiety (causing you to overeat), and gives rise to age-accelerating molecules known as AGEs (advanced glycation end products). AGEs are responsible for causing wrinkles and age-related blindness, as well as premature heart attacks and stroke.”

Eventually, too much sugar can result in horrifying health problems, including insulin resistance, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

If you’re turning to sweets to feel better, Shane recommends that you try confections made with safe sweeteners like erythritol, stevia, agave,   xylitol, and luo han guo. They are all healthy and practically indistinguishable from sugar. Or stick to dark chocolate, which is high in antioxidants and has a host of other health benefits.

Shane Ellison (www.thepeopleschemist.com) is an author, organic chemist, an internationally recognized authority on therapeutic nutrition, and the founder of The AM-PM Fat Loss Discovery package. Click here to learn more.

You can find dozens of healthy eating strategies plus delicious recipes for meals that can help you feel better and live longer. And that’s not all… (read on here)]

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If you’re an entrepreneur, CEO, public speaker, author, or information marketer, you owe it to yourself, your business, and your lifestyle to take a closer look at the revenue-generating potential of teleseminars – even if you’ve never listened to one.

One of the most profitable teleseminars I’ve ever conducted took place on the evening of December 4, 2008. It was a “Preview Call” to help find buyers for my Teleseminar Secrets training series.

More than 255 prospective customers ended up making a $2,500 purchase. 

If you’re counting, that’s over $637,500.

How can you achieve results like these with your own teleseminars? (Or with practically any other form of promotional communication?)

One of the best sales-making techniques I’ve found is called the AIDA Formula. It’s been proven to work for over 100 years, and involves only four simple steps.

The four steps are simple to remember: First, you grab your prospect’s Attention (A) about your offer. Second, you elicit their Interest (I) about your offer. Third, you amplify their Desire (D) to purchase your offer. And fourth, you influence them to take Action(A) with their wallet.

Easy, right?

Unfortunately, many marketers don’t understand exactly how to implement this powerful technique.

I’ve observed dozens of veteran marketers make the mistake of moving too fast to the second half of the AIDA Formula – the Desire and Action part. And that often results in losing the sale (and the prospect) for life!

This mistake is easy to avoid. Here’s how…

Picture the AIDA process as an inverted triangle, like the one you see here:

As you can see, the inverted triangle has four sections. Each section (from the top down) becomes smaller, representing the percentage of prospects you’re likely to influence at that point in the AIDA process.

The section at the top (Attention) is the largest, because getting a prospect’s Attention is easier than eliciting his Interest to continue watching, listening, or reading more about your offer.

The second section (Interest) is larger than the third section (Desire), because it is easier to elicit a prospect’s Interest in your offer than to amplify his Desire to buy.

And the third section (Desire) is larger than the fourth and final section (Action), because it’s easier to amplify a Desire to buy than to influence Action.

A problem arises when the marketer makes the mistake of expecting one promotional communication - such as one e-mail message, one teleseminar, or one direct-mail letter – to do all the heavy lifting and capture the sale.

It IS possible to do that. A powerful sales letter, for instance, can grab a prospective customer’s attention and move him through the entire four parts of the triangle to take action. However, it can be easier to convert even your most skeptical prospects into buyers just by splitting the AIDA inverted triangle in two parts instead of four: Attention-Interest and Desire-Action.

Let’s use a teleseminar as our example. (But this technique works with practically any marketing medium.)

Teleseminars work wonders in grabbing Attention and eliciting Interest from prospects to learn more about your offer. But it takes a website to amplify their Desire and influence Action.

Remember the teleseminar I told you about earlier? I was able to get more than 255 people to make a $2,500 purchase. Yet, if you listen to the call, you’ll notice that its purpose was to simply grab Attention and elicit Interest from my listeners.

Where Desire and Action came in is when I referred the 1,600+ listeners to my website TeleseminarSecrets.com. It was at the website that most of the promotional heavy lifting was done. We included video testimonials, frequently asked questions, success stories, irresistible bonus gifts, and a solid money-back guarantee.

The people who visited my site after the teleseminar were already Interested in what I was offering. My site just amplified their Desire and got them to take Action – and become customers.

[Ed. Note: Alex Mandossian knows a thing or two about marketing. He has generated over $233 million in sales for his clients. And in the past three years, he increased his own revenues from $1.5 million to $5 million. You can get Alex's advice and practical marketing tips for info-publishers, small-business owners, and entrepreneurs for free at http://www.AlexMandossianToday.com

Interested in making between $50,000 and $5 million - starting this year? Find out how to do so right here.]

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“We can’t afford to live in the States anymore.”

We’d just finished dinner with a couple who’ve decided to buy a house in Merida, where my wife Suzan and I live, and move here permanently.

“Healthcare and insurance costs alone are killing us. Add property tax, and it’s too much… especially when you consider that the value of our house in the States is falling fast.”

Suzan and I have been hearing this a lot from Americans wondering where they can go to retire in style.

Real estate prices in the U.S. are becoming more attractive thanks to the huge dose of reality injected into the market by the mortgage bubble burst. But people still keep shopping in Mexico, Ecuador, Uruguay, Brazil… throughout Latin America. Throughout the world.

“It doesn’t make any difference that you can now get a great deal on a place in the States,” a friend recently said. “You still can’t afford to live in it. And you sure won’t make any money on it in the near future if you try to sell it.” Not a great option for a retiree on a fixed income.

Outside the States, we’ve seen real estate prices in almost every market appreciating 10, 20, 30, even 50 percent a year for the past decade. I expect that to stop. After all, crashing markets, rising unemployment, inflation… these things won’t be limited to the U.S.

It’s a big world, and most things in it are relative. Even if the global cost of living rises 50 percent in the next few years, there will still be places on the globe where the cost of living is 50 percent less than in the States.

And with no real help in sight for rising taxes and healthcare and insurance costs in the U.S. (does anyone really believe the insurance and medical lobbies will allow universal healthcare?), smart folks will think about where to retire, do the math, and move to where the money they’ve managed to keep for themselves will go the furthest.

And that, I believe, will help support property prices in the places they want to escape to… places like Mexico, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Brazil.

Not that Suzan and I plan to flip our place in Merida any time soon. We’re having way too much fun here… not the least of which is having dinner with new friends. But I don’t see the value of our property slipping 30 percent in a year, which is what we’ve seen in markets like Florida and California lately.

I expect the value of our properties abroad to stay steady, especially as the global economy gets worse. We live and have invested in places that make sense from a cost of living, climate, and convenience point of view. And as more and more people realize that they have options for where to retire (other than just sitting where they are and watching their money drain away), I expect we’ll have many more dinners with new friends shopping for a better life in Merida and other prime locations around the world.

[Ed. Note: Dan Prescher is the publisher of International Living. Discover how you can live better for less... travel farther and have more fun... and maybe make a lot of money when you expand your world beyond U.S. shores. Get free tips by subscribing to International Living's daily e-letter right here. ]

For more off-the-radar and off-Wall-Street ideas for where to stow your money, become a member of ETR’s Liberty Street League. Get the details here ]

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It was possibly the worst sales pitch I’d ever heard – a National Public Radio commercial for a touring company coming to South Florida.

“If you see one Broadway show this year… you might want to see Les Miserables.”

It’s like saying, “Hey, the show is so-so. You might want to go to a movie instead.”

Are you engaging in this sort of halfway marketing with your business? Are you hesitant to make strong claims and scared to “sell” – sending out lukewarm sales messages instead?

You shouldn’t be. If you’re in business, you believe in the quality and value of your products. You think they will help people. Make sure they do – and be proud to sell them. Tell your prospects that your products are the best ones out there. Enthusiastically urge them to buy.

Review your marketing efforts. Get rid of half-measures. Adopt this model and your sales will skyrocket.

[Ed. Note: For more straightforward business-building and marketing advice, check out Michael Masterson's Wall Street Journal bestseller, Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat. It's full of wisdom, techniques, and insider "secrets" that Michael has learned in his 40-year career. Get your copy today. ]

Last week, my wife Karin and I received an e-mail inquiry about one of the goal-setting programs we offer through Early to Rise. The gentlemen indicated that he was at a point where he was looking for a real change, not a temporary fix. He was interested in the program, yet skeptical. He wanted more than a money-back guarantee. He said that he would follow the material to the letter, but was hesitant to invest his time unless we could guarantee that his time wouldn’t be wasted – that the program would work specifically for him.

Karin and I talked about how best to reply. Of course, we stand behind our programs. But, as with any product, a blanket guarantee of results is impossible. Yes, we can return his money if he’s not satisfied. (ETR has an exceptional money-back guarantee.) But no, we can’t return his time.

Our decision was to politely thank the gentleman for his interest.

Taking Action: the Most Important Key to Success

A good program will provide you with the raw materials for achieving your goal – but no one can guarantee that you will actually achieve it.

For instance, an Internet business-building program will give you instructions for setting up a website, starting an e-mail newsletter, and writing sales copy. But the best Internet business-building program in the world won’t help you build a million-dollar business unless you put what you learn to work in the real world. You’ve got to follow those steps for setting up a website and set up a website. You’ve got to use that copywriting information to write sales copy.

When I started off in insurance sales, I had to invest a lot of time in studying to pass the licensing test. Did having an insurance license automatically guarantee that I would make sales? Of course not. I became a successful insurance salesman because I took action. I marketed myself. I mastered dozens of sales techniques. I learned my product inside and out.

Taking action may be the most important component of success – but it’s not the only one. There are three more:

Know What You Want

It is interesting to me that many people spend precious time thinking and talking about what they don’t want. Like that fellow who said he didn’t want to waste his time on our goal-setting program if we couldn’t guarantee it would work for him. Or the people who say they don’t want to be broke… or don’t want to be overweight… or don’t want to lose their jobs… or don’t want more stress.

What they should be doing is turning those negative thoughts around and taking a positive approach: By telling yourself what you want to do (I want to be fit and trim… I want to create additional income… I want to feel relaxed), not what you don’t want to do, you will inspire yourself to take action to achieve the goal.

It starts with forming a specific and detailed plan. This is where visualization is helpful.

If you want to be fit and trim, visualize a new post-weight-loss achievement outfit you are going to buy… or that favorite pair of jeans you want to get back into. In addition, visualize the favorable responses you will get from people when you reach your ideal weight and fitness goal.

If you want to increase your income, visualize how you will feel when you see your bank account balance increase… and what you will do for your family with that money. Would you buy a bigger house? If so, picture exactly where you’ll live – the neighborhood, the size and color of the house, etc. A new car? Picture the exact car you’ll buy.

Measure Your Results Along the Way Keeping track of how you are doing with your goal-setting plan helps you determine the effectiveness of your actions.

You may find that you no longer want to pursue a goal you assigned yourself. Or perhaps you want to modify that goal. Maybe you want to keep the goal but you’ve discovered a more convenient and efficient way to get to the “finish line.” Let’s say you set a physical fitness and weight-loss goal. And the plan you came up with to achieve that goal was to go to the gym three nights a week. You’ve been doing that for two months, and you’re happy with the results. But now you think there’s a good chance you can stay on track by working out at home.

Okay.

Only YOU can determine the most effective way to use your time. But you won’t be able to do that if YOU don’t measure and monitor your progress along the way. Make Constant Improvements The Japanese principle known as “kaizen” (which means continuous improvement) can be applied to all aspects of life. But it is perhaps best known for the way it’s been applied to business.

Some scholars think kaizen is what enabled Japan to go from defeat in World War II to being one of the world’s strongest economies. What the Japanese did was commit to continuously improving their manufacturing industries to be more efficient, cost-effective, and productive. The idea was that everything could always be done better.

This is exactly what we here at ETR want for you! We want you to believe that you can always find new and better ways to achieve your goals. If an action is working and bringing the desired results – do it more often. If an action is not working or throwing you off track – do it less often. (Or eliminate it altogether.)

The beauty of goal setting is that it is all about YOU and what you want to achieve. You choose… you act… you monitor your actions… you celebrate and continue refining your actions.

Each one of us is very different, yet we are all alike in that we are success-seekers on a life journey that is just that – a journey to success. You want guarantees? I can guarantee that you won’t have success unless you are proactive in using the four simple success components I outlined for you today.

[Ed. Note: You can turn your dreams into reality just by implementing a few simple techniques. Success mentor Bob Cox has dozens of powerful strategies that can help you reach new heights in your business and personal life. In fact, these very same techniques helped four "ordinary Joes" become BILLIONAIRES. Discover how to get Bob's proven advice right here. ]

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Biding your time until your “dream” job falls in your lap is a recipe for disappointment. But by using Michael Masterson’s principle of chicken entrepreneurship, you can create your own dream job and secure your financial future at the same time.

Simply start a side business based on something you’re passionate about.

Have you kept tropical fish most of your life? If so, you’re an expert in fish care and aquariums. And it’s possible that people will pay for your advice. Have you always had a “flair” for cooking? Gardening? You could create and sell an e-book, start an e-mail newsletter, create an instructional video, etc. Useful, expert information can be sold in almost any form imaginable.

Granted, not every passion can be turned into a saleable information product. You have to test the waters before you go too far.

Start by checking to see if you have any competitors. Do a Google search. Check Amazon and eBay. If nobody else is selling a similar product to your intended market, that’s not a good thing. It probably means there are no customers for it.

If your initial research looks promising, test your idea online. The easiest way is to set up a Google AdWords campaign. If a lot of people click on your ads (which should link to a landing page that makes the actual sale), you know you’ve got something worth pursuing.

Don’t put in a lot of time or money creating a product. If you get a lot of orders, rushing to fulfill them will be a good problem to have.

[Ed. Note: Your dream "job" could be around the corner... At Early to Rise's Profits in Paradise conference this week, you could learn dozens of ways to break out of the rat race and build a lifetime of wealth from our cast of experts in real estate, investing, self-development, and Internet marketing. Find out how Profits in Paradise could change your life today.]

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Here are three sentences, drawn from an Internet search:

• “Legalizers suggest that heroin should be used much in the same way as is morphine presently… .”
• “[I] am from India, presently residing in the United States.”
• “Where are you presently in your career?”

The above uses of presently are incorrect – or at least dicey enough to warrant rephrasing the sentences. The word is used correctly in this sentence: “Bill is almost finished with the Thompson audit and he will presently begin work on the Witherspoon report.”

Hundreds of years ago, presently meant “now.” But it subsequently came to mean “soon,” “later,” “in a while.” Today, once again, people frequently use it in the “now” sense. But the “later” meaning is regarded as standard.

It’s easy to imagine how this ambiguity might result in confusion. Understanding whether something is happening now or will occur later could be important. So it’s best to avoid the word entirely and substitute now, currently, or at present. These alternatives are simpler and clearer. In communication, that’s always a good thing.

Can you recall when and where you first encountered certain words?

As a kid in the 1950s and early ’60s, I was a fan of superhero comic books. A convention of the genre was to caption the top of a panel “Presently…” I was puzzled by it at first, but quickly realized that the action in the captioned panel was happening at a later time, not simultaneously with the previous sequence. That’s how I learned the word and its proper meaning.

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book recently published by AWAI that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]

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