What Is A 21st Century Education?

Introduction

The concept of this modern day education might be an abstract and imaginative idea even today. Even when the wonders of technology and high finance continues to be an untapped resource where one can take advantage, the perception of most people still rely on the thinking process of the last century. As they say, people who are enjoying the trend are the ones who end up being ordinary. Thus the concept of this kind of education tries to change the olden perspective.

Education in the 21st Century

One can ask why wealth-building is a 21st century perspective. In other words, why is there a date to it?

The lingo denotes a lot of things. First, the twenty first century represents a trend and a future. This kind of education persists at a time where wealth creation through the latest technology exploits, and finance with ever increasing capital mobility is possible. Thus, this idea will continue to be relevant and critical for people willing to find the best economic standing today. Second, twenty first century education denotes a time removed from previous centuries. Therefore, there is a historical hinge to the meaning of this kind of education. The 19th century is a drive toward modernity where one can be successful by a good education and hard work. The 20th century talks about a highly urban lifestyle and the increasing relevance of college education and white collar jobs. The 21st century talks about a different perspective in which anyone who sees the trend can identify with.

Finally, the aim of this modern day education is to ask people why we think the same way for two centuries. It hopes to promote a new way of looking at a healthy financial lifestyle using today’s practices.

Challenging How We Learn

The key to education is to leave classic education behind or to modify it to be at par with the ever changing times. Unfortunately, the shift of university education to develop people with the skills of today’s demanding job cycles is not catching up. The new education does not only question how we learn but also why we need to study what we study. Does the current educational system adaptive enough to make a student successful ten to twenty years down the line? Are we teaching students about financial responsibility?

Changing Perspective

Knowing that there is a system to teach us how to be successful today is sadly not enough. Since there are no institutions that can put up a curriculum, we might be hard pressed to equip ourselves with this kind of education. However, if a few very successful people can apply it now, why can’t we?

This modern day education talks about catching up with a changed perspective. It all starts with opening our minds and being flexible with all the ideas an education feeds. There are some ideas that we might not agree on, but then we can contribute to the trend all the same. Learning the ropes of today’s world starts with finding way to think creatively in a very creative world, and getting your ideas out in a world that breathes on global fad.

Wealth creation is a 21st century perspective. It teaches us that wealth creation is not exclusive for the rich. This time, the masses can be empowered to create a healthy financial lifestyle. By applying the principles of this education, we can exploit the market lows, save us from debt, and ensure comfortable lifestyle years after retirement.

A Wise Investment

Acquiring a 21st century education is definitely not a get-rich quick scheme. Instead, it is an investment that should compound over time and give very rewarding returns. A changing mindset is the first step in being ahead of today’s financial curve along with taking the ideas as a serious educational form. Only with this realisation can we appreciate the importance of this modern day education.

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Games Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society Sports

Baby Boomers: 5 Cons of Running a Home Based Business

In part one of this article, we discussed five pros of running a home-based business. Here are five cons that you also need to be aware of.

The Cons

1. Having a Dedicated Space

While you might not have all the expenses of a conventional office, you now have to manage where you want to work. You will definitely need a place that will separate you from any distractions while you are working. You don’t want to hear the neighbor’s kids screaming in the background, or their lawnmowers, while speaking to a potential customer.

2. Test the waters

While being able to test the waters and taking your time making a decision is definitely a positive. If you take too long procrastinating, you may well miss some very lucrative money making business opportunities. Be decisive and make smart calculated decisions, but also be willing to take a risk.

3. Be your own boss

While being your own boss is great position to be in, along with that responsibility comes all the tough decisions you must make regarding your business. For example, knowing how much you can afford to invest in your new home-based business opportunity, and how much time you’re willing to devote to the business. In the beginning, you will need to set aside enough time to get the business up and running. Being in charge means you make all the decisions, and the success of failure of your business falls on your shoulders.

4. Set your own schedule

Setting your own schedule sounds wonderful in theory, but finding the right balance is often challenging. If you work endless hours on your new venture, it may be to detriment of other things you need to do. Creating balance needs to be done right at the onset.

5. Spend more time with your family

Establishing your family priorities should be an important part of your scheduling. It’s easy to get so caught up in your new home-based business, especially if it is an online business, that you easily lose track of time. Make sure that you don’t put your family relationships, especially with grandchildren, in jeopardy in your eagerness to make your business opportunity a success.

Running a home-based business is a wonderful and very freeing experience, so long as you understand the pros and cons. But, it is a business and you need to treat it as such. Plan your strategy carefully, set realistic goals and objectives, create the right working environment for yourself, and set yourself on a path of success.

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Games Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society Sports

Best Home Based Business – How Can Changing Your Attitude Make a Difference

Many successful businesses have closed down due to the attitudes and habits of their owners. These owners create barriers between them and the customers by adopting a negative attitude and ultimately drive the customers away. In order to run the best home based business, you must develop a positive attitude. You must know that winners never quit and quitters never win.Your attitude dictates your decisions and actions. You have a choice each day to choose your attitude and you alone are responsible for it. You cannot blame fate or destiny for whatever happens in your business.Take responsibility for how you feelBe objective and evaluate yourself in order to make your business the best home based business.Every change that you wish to make in your life must first begin with a personal, honest, evaluation of where you are in life. I know it is not an easy thing to do. Attitude issues often center around people. Let’s begin by talking about you – How do you feel about yourself? Do you have any negative thoughts?Try to identify the factors that prevent you from having a positive attitude. If you want to have the best home based business, then a change in your attitude is definitely necessary. You need to take full control of your attitude and subsequently your actions.Give customers priorityInstead of putting your needs first, you need to find out what your customers wants. Your business is not about exhibiting your power or ego. Customers come to you because you are fulfilling their need.Learn to say “No” Your ability to say “no” is vital to your success in business. However many business owners find it very difficult to say no to their clients, suppliers or business partners.If you want to protect the interests of your business, you need to say no to certain things. If you have a ‘no credit’ policy then you have to be firm and steadfast in saying no to your clients. You must not give in to customer’s demands for free samples, free installation or free service if it hurts your business.Be flexibleIn a home based business being rigid and inflexible can soon lead to bankruptcy. You can never run a business according to your will and wish alone. It can survive only if you listen to customers’ suggestions.Many entrepreneurs do not listen to customer’s needs and wants. They consider listening to customers as a nuisance. Soon these customers will flock to another accommodating home business owner who is open to their views and suggestions.In order to have the best home based business, you need to have a positive and aggressive attitude and be flexible towards your client needs and wants.

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Games Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society Sports

Qualities You Need to Have a Home Based Business

Having a home based business has the potential to be a wonderful opportunity if you possess or learn the following attributes. It is best if you analyze yourself and face up to your individual circumstances and what your unique situation may be. You have the highest potential to succeed if you possess or learn the following attributes.1) You have to be bold enough to let your client’s know you will be working from your home. Most often because of the nature of your business they infer or know. If not, they need to know up front. Before they hire you, they can voice concerns and you can discuss them or better yet, they may have the kind of personality that does not mind working around the situations that may present themselves with your situation. This may be the very case, the more unique your skills and the more demand for your skills.2) You need to have the personality that can focus and stay on the task for your work, even if things are not perfect in the kitchen or the rest of your home. You need to commit to putting in the hours that it takes to make your home-based business work and work other tasks in after business hours. If you are easily distracted, this has the potential to cause problems and interfere with your success.3) You have to know when to go to Plan B. If you thought you could work with the children in your home and that is not working, the sooner you acknowledge it and do something about it, the better it will be for your business. You may need to have the children in child care for 4 hours a day, if that is what it takes to make things work.4) You have to set business hours that fit for you and stay with that commitment. If things easily “get in the way” you will end up not making a successful go of it. The working hours you have set need to be seriously “written in concrete” to allow your business to survive. Sure, there will be happenings with the children that require your time, but if it occurs frequently, things will not work out successfully for a home-based business.5) You have to use your time wisely. Most likely, the motivating force behind your decision to have a home-based business is to have more time with your children and family. When you are working during the business hours you have set, it is important you make the time work for you. Analyze your demands and work as efficiently as possible. Learn to do things more efficiently as you see what works and doesn’t work with your home – based business. Utilize all the resources around you and involve older children in those tasks that meet their maturity level. All will work for good.6) You have to stick to your goals. In the beginning, you will certainly have frustrations until you work out all the wrinkles. Remember the reason you wanted a home – based business, the clients that made it possible, and all the other goals you’re working on that have brought you to this point.This is a great opportunity! If you keep working at it and possess a positive attitude and tweak those things you need to make it all work out, your efforts will be crowned with success!

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Games Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society Sports

Legitimate Home-Based Business Opportunities

Normally, at the beginning of each year everyone sets those unattainable goals that only tend to frustrate. Consequently, why should this year be any different, right? Not so fast!! This year you are going to set that one goal and give it everything that you have to reach it. Rather than trying to lose weight or quit smoking, this year you are going to research and find those legitimate home-based business opportunities that will enable you to quit your nine to five job and do something that you really want to do. Perhaps you just want to stay at home with your kids, or possibly you want to work in your pajama pants. It doesn’t matter what your goal is, what matters is that you start working toward it. During my research, I have found three legitimate home-based business opportunities that might interest you.The first is taking a passion and creating an online business. I am talking about taking the garage sale passion of so many people and turning that into a very lucrative business. This type of business can be online and/or brick and mortar. In the beginning, I would suggest purchasing your treasures and later selling them on eBay. As your business improves then you could start buying products wholesale subsequently selling them at a profit on either an eBay store or on your own site. Some Resellers can make a lot of money and some even a comfortable living off sales such as these. Setting up an e-commerce business like this can be fairly easy. Some of the decisions that you will have to make will be:
whether you want to operate as a used reseller or a bulk reseller
decide if you want your own online website, or if you want to continue with eBay
if you decide to continue your eBay relationship, then an auction account will need to be set up
do you feel that handling a single product will suffice or will you want to offer a combination of products
obtain your products through garage sales or bidding on defaulted storage units, (aka Storage Wars)
Additional investigation into legitimate home-based business opportunities has revealed the field of virtual assistant is growing very quickly. Virtual assistants are like secretaries were in the past. Normally virtual assistants are self-employed and work on a contract basis. They offer professional administrative support and other specialized services to businesses, entrepreneurs and others who do not have enough time to complete their work. Virtual assistants work remotely and receive their assignments by phone, fax, email or by instant message. Normally a virtual assistant will perform secretarial services. Although some specialize in IT support, graphic design, web design and marketing.Setting up your virtual assistant office is going to be similar to many other office arrangements. The list should include:
a room decorated so that you look forward to working in it each day
sizable desk or a regular computer desk and an additional table
comfortable chair
computer with at least a Pentium 4 processor and 2 GB of Ram
writable CD-ROM
17″ monitor
good printer with a scanner
online fax services
high-speed Internet
affordable long distance
a good backup system
consider a headset with microphone
This business is probably going to have several long days so don’t get it in your mind that your eight-hour days will continue after you start this endeavor. You will need to do a ‘bang up’ job for your clients. That way, your client list will grow, and consequently, your income will increase. You are an entrepreneur, and you are working hard to create and maintain a home-based business. So be ready to give it your all!As my research of legitimate home-based business opportunities came to a close the last enterprise, I found to be promising was blogging. This small business has the potential to bring some large profits.Normally, a blog is considered a personal journal and in truth most of them are, but today you can blog about anything. I have a couple of blogs that I maintain. One contains articles about starting your own home-based business. With each of the articles, I try to locate and research as many as three home-based businesses at a time. Then I describe each one and give my preferences. The other blog that I maintain gives tips and articles about customer service. I usually describe what I feel is good customer service and how businesses can offer incentives and train their associates to make their patrons feel at home, glad that they stopped by, and most importantly will return as a repeat purchaser.To help me maintain my blogs I have become affiliated with several companies. My favorite enterprise has several reasons that I promote it. Those include:
Low start-up costs: It is free to join, and you receive a free website.
Training is free: There are weekly webinars that you can replay if you miss. In addition, there is a set of 14 webinars that give you all of the information that you need to become a successful affiliate marketer.
Great Products: There are five different affiliate income streams for you to choose from. You can participate in one or all five.
Community Forum: A forum is available for you to go for answers or just for social fun.
Three tiered support: When there are problems, you have three different levels of support. The levels range in intensity from simple forum questions up to technical questions.
In conclusion finding your perfect fit from all of the legitimate home-based business opportunities will require research and time. However, it can be the best time you ever spent.

Top Goal for Small Businesses: The Eight Most Important Checkup Questions for 2021

Are you happy with your business this year? What are you going to do differently? How can you hire the right people to support your vision? Sadly, many small business owners do not spend enough time planning for the future. It’s quite understandable. Managers must keep pace with the daily demands of their businesses, including payroll, taxes, product/service delivery, and customer expectations.Fortunately, the end of the year is the perfect time for a comprehensive evaluation of your company. Your business needs a checkup. Most people can relate to a checkup with their local doctor, depending on their background and personality characteristics (age, sex, family medical history). The doctor will conduct a variety of tests, including blood, vision, heart, and hearing.In fact, one element like an individual’s weight is not the only indicator of overall good health. Likewise, small businesses could benefit from a good checkup too. Successful entrepreneurs think strategically when engaged in a hostile, global environment.After 27 years of managing projects and conducting over 100 organizational evaluations of business organizations, I realize that both large and small organizations struggle in implementing their operations effectively. This article examines how small businesses need to conduct an effective checkup of their organizations.Welcome to the New Normal! Yet, nearly a year after this pandemic, the full impact on the U.S. economy is unclear. According to recent studies, more than four million Americans have left the workforce, and nearly 10 million are now unemployed compared with last February.In fact, the number of unemployed people continues to rise. According to a business study conducted between March 28 and April 4, 2020, small businesses have been heavily damaged by the lockdowns due to Covid-19.In an analysis of more than 5,800 small businesses (reaching a network of 4.6 million small businesses), the research highlighted the damage caused by the pandemic. The results showed evident damage of the pandemic. At this juncture, 43% of businesses had temporarily closed, and nearly all of these closures were due to COVID-19.Respondents stated that they had temporarily closed, largely pointed to reductions in demand and employee health concerns as the reasons for closure. In fact, the businesses, on average, reported having reduced their active employment by 39% since January.All industries have been impacted. However, retail, arts and entertainment, personal services, food services, and hospitality businesses showed significant employment declines exceeding 50%. Some businesses hope for assistance from the government.According to a Babson’s Goldman Sachs report, 88% of U.S. small business owners have already exhausted their Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan; the Small Business Association gave these loans specifically to help businesses keep their workforce employed during the pandemic. These loans were helpful.Yet, these successes do not diminish the fact that more than 32% of PPP loan recipients already have laid off employees or cut wages. In fact, Forty-three percent of Black small business owners reported that their businesses’ cash reserves would be depleted by year’s end due to Covid-19.Today’s small businesses and entrepreneurs must retool themselves, given the potential impacts of Covid-19 have the necessary capacity to change their way of thinking because of their passion. However, small businesses must be willing to evaluate their current operations and make the required changes.For example, customers have largely gone online to purchase services due to the lockdowns. If a business does not have an online presence now, this company does not exist. Internet pioneer and CEO of PSINet Bill Schrader explains the significant of online visibility: “Almost overnight, the Internet’s gone from a technical wonder to a business must.”With the appropriate diagnosis of an organization, a business can develop more sustainable success. Thus, the right checkup is critical.Below are some critical questions to help you conduct your own self-checkup:

Do you have a clear vision for your business? What is it?

Do you know why your customers buy from you and why others do not buy from you?

What results are you getting from your marketing? Do you have an effective online presence on the web?

Are you collecting data or the right kind of data on your customers and competitors?

Are you keeping pace with your industry trends? If so, what are the key trends?

How are you measuring results (i.e., key performance indicators like cash flow and revenue)?

What are your key competitors’ marketing strategies?

Have you evaluated your strengths and weaknesses (i.e., SWOT Analysis)?

In summary, successful global businesses, like IBM and Google, have continuous systems in place to evaluate their performance. Let’s call this process an organizational checkup.Small businesses that want to succeed in this global and technological climate must be able to conduct this self-evaluation or checkup. This article demonstrated the relevancy of a good checkup to help improve a business by asking probing questions. In many cases, small businesses do not have to take on this organizational checkup along.There are various organizations like the Small Business Administration and local universities that can assist in this process. Have you conducted a checkup for your business this year? It’s not too late. Start the new year with a healthy business checkup.© 2021 by D. D. Green

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Games Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society Sports

Starting a Home Based Business? 5 Steps to Follow

Starting a home based business on the Internet has never been easier. With the current state of our economy it’s one of the best decisions that anyone can do to dramatically change his/her life. It has been statistically proven that for the first time in internet history, millions of people seeking their way out in this industry every day and the numbers are continuously growing.

People come to the internet looking for answers to money problems, home loan problems, real estate problems, and looking for employment. All these searches performed on Google or any other search engine mean potential customers for individuals who already run their online business.

If you have a solution to the searchers problems, there is tremendous potential in creating online wealth.The internet has millions of searchers each day and that information will equate to a six billion dollar e-commerce revenue projected for 2011. Internet revenue is expected to continually grow exponentially every year through 2015. Conservative analysis now estimates global Internet sales at 10 billion dollars in 2016.

Since we are just slowly recovering from the recession that hit millions of people, many entrepreneurial minded people are beginning to consider starting home based business as a good idea. And they are right but only if they will do their research and due diligence.

Many who will just jump blindly on any internet advertisement that says “Best Home Based Business Opportunity” will fail miserably. Unfortunately there is nothing like Get Rich Quick Scheme or a Push of a Button Scheme that would bring money flying out of your computer. You are better off buying a lottery and hoping for a good luck or miracle to happen..

The online success will not happen overnight. It takes commitment and hard work to build a successful home based business. Only with everyday devotion the success will be built gradually. By starting home based business you have to give up two things at the beginning, time and money. The reality is that those who will invest their time and money at the beginning will see the results ten times down the road.

Learning Internet Marketing is the best future investment that you can make right now.

Here are 5 simple steps to follow on how to start home based business that can put you well on your way to building an online business this year.

1. Starting Home Based Business – Think about a type of product or service that you would like to promote and sell. Make sure to do extensive research if that particular product is what others are searching for. Find a way to promote and sell it to them.

2. Creating a Home Office – Create a place where you can close the door and fully concentrate without any interruptions. Make sure you talk to other family members not to interrupt once the door is closed. Allocate specific time blocks when you going to work on your business. Time management is the biggest downfall of many home based business entrepreneurs.

3. Invest in training and education – Spend at least 60 minutes a day learning new internet marketing skills for the next 6 months and your business results will be ten times bigger than without the proper training. You can set up your own schedule and save tons of money if you study at home instead of spending 4 years in college.

4. Leading Home Based Business Corporations – Many of the leading home based business companies promote multi level marketing programs where you tell one friend and that friend tells another friend and so on earning small commissions that build from one friend to another. Or you can tap into Network Marketing companies that offer higher end education products or lifestyle related conferences. These are great long term residual income producers that can create huge incomes for those savvy enough to market their product.

5. Top Legitimate Home Based Business – Once you have found the top legitimate home based business for you, you’ll need to start marketing that business online. By becoming a member of a legitimate MLM or Network Marketing company, you will be provided with all the necessary tools and resources, you need to be successful online. There is usually a “Back Office” with these programs that will guide you through the sales procedures. Many of these companies will even supply you with your own website. Your job is to market their products online. You simply drive traffic to it through different social websites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google Groups, and hundreds of other sites that you join to discuss your products and services. I will also recommend to market with Google AdWords, Video Marketing and Blogging.

Starting home based business can be very easy if you have the right mindset, tools, resources, training, and system that you can follow and carbon copy.

Benefits of Targeted PPC Advertising Campaigns

PPC or pay per click is the most widely used paid advertisement option on the Internet. Small and large businesses as well as individual marketers are able to market their products and services in a very cost-effective way. Advertisements placed in print media, radio and TV do not give any guarantee of traffic conversion. In these types of advertisements, the advertiser never gets to assess the impact of advertisement. Such methods proved ineffective because the advertisement is watched by thousands or even millions of people but only a few of them buy that product. That is not the case with the targeted PPC advertising. This advertising method is so popular because of various advantages that it provides to businesses of all types and sizes.

Genuine Potential Customers
The first advantage with the targeted PPC advertising is that only people who are really interested in the advertised product or service click it. This means, the company receives only those visitors who are really interested in the company’s product. Such visitors can be converted easily into customers.

Cost-Effective
Compared to other advertising options like TV and print media ads, the targeted PPC advertising provides value for money. The advertiser has to pay only for genuine visitors who are really interested in the company’s products. Every penny spent is worth it because it results in gaining customers who need that product and are ready to spend money for that. Profit is lot more than the money spent on PPC advertisement.

Track Performance
The money spent on targeted PPC can be tracked for effectiveness. An ad solution provider provides all types of data analysis tools. This helps assess clearly if the advertisement is proving beneficial for the company. The analyzed data can be used to plan the advertisement strategy properly. Things that are working can be continued and strengthened, while ineffective promotions can be discontinued.

Dynamic Advertising
PPC advertisements take care of various permutations and combinations of the keyword. This eliminates the need for the advertiser to come up with the perfect single keyword. The advertisement shows up for different combinations of the main keyword.

Control Budget
With the help of targeted PPC advertising, a company can spend only the right amount on the advertising. Besides, the money is spent on advertisement that provides targeted customers and clients. This helps plan and manage the budget properly and efficiently.

Connect with the Right Customers and Clients
PPC advertisement is not clicked on by people who are not interested in that product or service. The company receives only genuine customers and clients. If these customers turn out to be long-term buyers then the advertiser keeps making money for years to come from a lead that cost only a few pennies.

Increase Brand Value
The targeted PPC advertising helps increase the brand value of the company. People rightly assume that if a company is capable of paid advertisements then it must have some substance. They also understand that a company spending money on advertisement has the financial wherewithal to provide all types of support system to make the purchase hassle-free for the customers.

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.

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society

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.

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society

« Older Entries