Market Archives - Page 2 of 2 - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

The Not-So-Invisible Hand – How The Plunge Protection Team Killed The Free Market

“We’re now no different from any of those Western European semi-socialist welfare states that we love to deride. Italy? Sure, it’s had four governments since last Thursday, but none of them would have allowed this to go on; the Italians know how to rig an economy.”

– Bill Saporito, “How We Became the United States of France,” Time (September 21, 2008)

October 24 marks the 79th anniversary of the October 1929 stock market crash. Heavy selling started on Thursday, October 24, 1929, and accelerated the following week on Black Monday and Black Tuesday, October 28 and 29. Many feared a repeat of this disaster on Friday, October 24, 2008, after Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell nearly 10% during the night, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 8%, and Germany’s and Britain’s fell 5%.

“In a stunning turn of events,” reported Yahoo! Finance, “the futures for the major indices were ‘lock limit’ down before the start of trading Friday, meaning they had hit a 5% threshold that prevented them from trading any lower until the stock market opened Friday.” Traders prepared for the worst, but remarkably, disaster was averted. The U.S. market fell only 3.5%, just another “ordinary” bearish day.

Why the more modest drop in the U.S., where the financial debacle originated and should have hit hardest? Suspicious observers saw the covert hand of the Plunge Protection Team (PPT), the group set up under President Reagan to maintain market “stability” by manipulating markets behind the scenes. Bill Murphy commented in LeMetropoleCafe.com:

“Today the Muppets on CNBC were remarking how well our market acted, not falling apart as expected. All day long they spoke of how our market was acting differently today than every other stock market in the world. Well hello, the other countries don’t have a PPT, which is WHY our market is so different.

“There are those who might think what the PPT is doing is right. What they don’t realize is their making ‘Everything is fine’ for so long, and not allowing the market to trade freely . . . like allowing the stock market to fall the way it should, has kept the individual in the market . . . when they might have been SCARED out some time ago.”

In response to Bill Saporito’s comment in Time, it might be countered that Henry Paulson’s Plunge Protection Team is quite adept at rigging an economy. The difference between an acknowledged socialist state and the stealth socialism we have in the U.S. today is that in a socialist state, everyone expects the market to be rigged and operates accordingly. In a rigged pseudo-capitalist economy, investors are easily separated from their money because they expect the market to follow “free market principles” based on “supply and demand.” They are seduced into “pump and dump” schemes – artificial manipulations that allow insiders to unload stock at a high price or buy it at a low price – because they trust in Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” which is supposed to automatically set things right in a market left to its own devices. The market today is indeed controlled by an invisible hand, but it is not necessarily serving the interests of small investors.

PLUNGE PROTECTION FOR SOME, PLUNGE CREATION FOR OTHERS

The most egregious examples of market manipulation have been in gold, silver and oil. The official “spot” (or cash) prices of gold and silver were taken down sharply in the week before October 24, despite the fact that physical demand has been inexorable. Gold is available in the “real” market only at huge markups, and popular types of silver are not available at all.1 We were taught in school that communism does not work because when industry is in the hands of a single owner (the government), competition is eliminated and chronic shortages and black markets develop, since the government does not let prices respond to “supply and demand” but dictates them from the top. Today this is happening with gold and silver, with the true physical price varying radically from the reported paper price.

Gold is known as the “contra-investment,” the “go to” investment which historically has gone up when other stocks were failing. Investors see it as something tangible that will hold its value when everything else is falling apart. For that reason, rigging the market to “maintain stability” means suppressing the price of gold.

The current round of gold manipulations started on Thursday, October 16, at 10 am, when the price of gold suddenly suffered a freefall plunge of $45 within minutes. It continued to drop until it was down by nearly $60 in a little over an hour. Nothing happened on Thursday between 10 and 11 am to warrant this vertical drop. If anything, gold should have been shooting up in the same exponential fashion that it was falling. On Wednesday, the stock market had dropped over 700 points, and Dow futures (bets on which way the market would go) were down by 150 points Wednesday night. During the night, the Japanese stock market fell more than 10%, and all European markets were down.2 Thursday morning, among other very bad economic news, U.S. industrial output was reported to have posted its biggest fall in 34 years, and mid-Atlantic factory activity had crashed unexpectedly from September to October. Yet Dow futures were suddenly 130 points higher; and gold was slammed down right at 10 am, although physical gold was available only by paying huge premiums, and gold prices around the world were shooting up. The day continued in the same counterintuitive way, just one more egregious example of an ongoing pattern of manipulation that has become so blatant that either the manipulators have become supremely confident of their invulnerability or they are so terrified of impending doom that all pretense of plausible denial has been abandoned.

“THE MOST MASSIVE INTERVENTION SINCE ROOSEVELT”

Market manipulation is not generally discussed by the commentators on CNBC, but sense can hardly be made of today’s wildly unpredictable trading patterns unless the plays of powerful men behind the curtain are factored in. One commentator who does talk about this manipulation is Don Coxe, strategist for the Bank of Montreal. In a weekly conference call on September 5, 2008, he described what has been going on in the markets since July as “the most massive intervention of government into the capital markets or the financial system since Roosevelt closed the banks back in 1933.”3

According to the British Globe and Mail, Coxe is “no paranoid conspiracy theorist. As the chairman and chief strategist of Harris Investment Management in Chicago, he is one of the most respected investment authorities in North America.”4 The unprecedented intervention he described went back to when the financial establishment was facing a very banker-unfriendly market in July. Gold was about to break through the psychologically important $1,000 mark, oil was above $140 dollars a barrel, the dollar was breaking down, the bank stock index had dropped in six months from 90 to 50, and the Federal Reserve had a balance sheet to match, after making huge loans to banks on shaky collateral. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were on the verge of collapse, and hundreds of billions of their securities were held abroad. As if by magic, these trends all suddenly reversed, beginning with a dramatic reversal in the swooning dollar.

How was it done? The cat was let out of the bag by the Nikkei English News, which reported in late August that finance officials from the U.S., Japan and Europe had drawn up plans to strengthen the dollar following the collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns. The intervention called for the central banks to purchase dollars and sell euros and yen if the dollar’s value dropped significantly, with Japan providing the yen for the currency swap.5

As the dollar strengthened, gold, silver and oil plunged. The pundits read the drop in gold and silver as a reaction to the rise in the dollar, since precious metals rise historically when the dollar falls. But what they failed to explain was why the dollar was rising. As Bill Murphy observed, “the dollar rallies sharply whenever the US stock market comes under pressure. It is almost simultaneous.” He quoted one of his newsletter contributors:

“Since the [stock market] low on 22 SEP we have lost 8.3 trillion bucks worth of asset value within the equities markets and what happens? The US dollar goes up, and up, and up, and up, and up. From what? 72 to 84 now (up 1.14 just today??!!??)? A non-stop rally that is NEVER adversely affected by news or market events. It’s almost been a 45-degree ascent. THAT is pure unmitigated intervention of a huge degree.”6

How to explain the stunning reversal in the dollar’s slide? In Coxe’s September 5 conference call, he candidly laid out how the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, in conjunction with the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), colluded to manipulate this “necessary” bounce in the dollar, along with a corresponding boost to financial stocks and sudden collapse in the commodities markets. Coxe called it “brilliant,” but the play was at a cost of millions of dollars to commodities investors and short sellers who were betting on what a “free” market “should” do. Oil plunged more than 50%, from a high of $145 a barrel in July to a low of about $64 on October 24. The same pattern was seen in silver and gold, with gold falling from a high of over $1,000 an ounce to a low of $700 on October 23. It all added up to a massive “pump and dump” scheme, with insiders pocketing the fortunes lost by unsuspecting investors. It’s a messy business, but somebody has to rake in these obscene profits for the “greater good” of market stability.

“THE MOST SORDID SCHEME IN THE HISTORY OF FINANCE”

Theodore Butler, writing on SilverSeek.com on September 2, reported that there was more than just central bank collusion going on behind the scenes. He tracked an unprecedented wall of short selling of gold and silver – massive “borrowing” of stock to sell it into the market, forcing down the price, then “covering” by buying the stock back at the lower price. Butler wrote:

“In gold, no more than 3 U.S. banks sold short in one month more than 10% of world annual mine production. This was the largest short position in gold and silver ever recorded by U.S. banks. After the massive and concentrated silver and gold short position was established by these U.S. banks, the [gold and silver] markets experienced a historic decline in price. It all took place during the first widespread retail silver shortage in history. It is completely at odds [with] how the law of supply and demand works.”

Butler called it the most sordid scheme in the history of finance. “It makes a mockery of financial regulation and the rule of law,” he wrote. “It allows a large financial entity, or entities, to rip off the investing public and gouge them for obscene profits. It is cronyism, back-room dealing, market fixing and inside information at its worst.”7

While gold and silver were being shorted to oblivion, the SEC imposed a ban on the short selling of 19 select financial stocks, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was blatant favoritism for the privileged few, but Coxe said it was necessary to make financial stock look attractive to potential buyers (particularly sovereign wealth funds), in order to allow the banks to sell their stock and raise the capital necessary to start lending again.

At the same time, Treasury Secretary Paulson sought and was granted an unlimited credit line to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac directly from the U.S. Treasury, as well as the authority to buy the mortgage giants’ stock. Fannie and Freddie were put into a form of bankruptcy called a conservatorship; but unlike in the ordinary bankruptcy, in which creditors divide up the debtors’ available assets without government help, in this case the claims of the lenders were guaranteed by the Treasury. Foreign lenders were bailed out while the shareholders were wiped out – including banks, pension funds, and other institutions holding the savings of millions of Americans. In the long run, the “bailout” created more problems than it solved; but according to Coxe, it was a necessary sacrifice to keep the mortgage market functional for the near term.

How near? The Presidential election is now only weeks away. Markets have an uncanny way of looking good before elections.

Rob Kirby, writing in LeMetropoleCafe on September 9, observed that there are laws and stiff penalties against market collusion. The U.S. antitrust laws impose fines of up to $10 million and jail terms of up to 3 years for unfair practices that inhibit competition or monopolize markets in restraint of trade. “I admire [Coxe’s] candor,” said Kirby, “but my take on this is that all the perpetrators should face a firing squad, or worse, for treason.”8

That probably won’t happen, however, because the “perpetrators” can claim governmental immunity. The Plunge Protection Team, officially called the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, was formed by President Reagan in response to a stock market crash in 1987 for the express purpose of “maintaining investor confidence” by manipulating markets with public funds. The PPT includes the President, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).9 Calling the shots is no doubt Secretary Paulson, who now has a $700 billion fund to use for the purpose, after Congress passed his massive bank rescue plan on October 3.

“SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH”

Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at New York University, wrote on his popular blog Global EconoMonitor:

“Socialism is indeed alive and well in America; but this is socialism for the rich, the well connected and Wall Street. A socialism where profits are privatized and losses are socialized with the US tax-payer being charged the bill . . . .”10

Investment guru Jim Rogers told “Squawk Box Europe”:

“America is more communist than China is right now. You can see that this is welfare of the rich, it is socialism for the rich. . . it’s just bailing out financial institutions. . . .

“This is madness, this is insanity, they have more than doubled the American national debt in one weekend for a bunch of crooks and incompetents. I’m not quite sure why I or anybody else should be paying for this.”11

If we are going socialist, we should own up to it and have some transparency in what’s going on. We the people need to know how to plan and to invest for an uncertain future. If we’re nationalizing the banks, let’s nationalize them all the way, with the profits going back to the people along with the losses and risks. Better yet, let’s nationalize the Federal Reserve, so it can issue “the full faith and credit of the United States” directly, without having to back this credit with a multi-trillion dollar federal debt that will never get paid back but just continues to grow. It would actually be less inflationary for the government to print dollars directly than for it to print bonds that are swapped for dollars created on a printing press by a privately-owned central bank, because in the latter case both the bonds and the dollars remain in circulation. U.S. bonds not only serve as money around the world, but they count as the “reserves” for banks to create many times their face value in loans. These bonds never get paid off but just get rolled over from year to year, inflating the money supply just as if dollars were printed directly; but the bonds carry the added burden of perpetual debt and interest payments.

The costly bank bailouts and blatant market manipulations going on today are justified as being necessary to save a private banking system that we think we need to get the credit that keeps the economy running. But we don’t actually need private banks to get credit. Many authorities have attested that, contrary to popular belief, banks don’t lend their own money or their depositors’ money. Every dollar lent by a bank is money created out of thin air on a computer screen. It’s just “credit.” The bank “monetizes” the borrower’s own promise to repay. The government could issue its own credit in the same way. There are a number of successful historical precedents for this, including the publicly-owned central banks of Australia and New Zealand, which saved those countries from the devastating effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s; and the publicly-owned bank of the colony of Pennsylvania, which funded the Pennsylvania provincial government without taxes or debt in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Today’s bankrupt banks dug their own black hole when they loaded up their books with lucrative but highly risky derivative bets that are now backfiring on them. Instead of trying to clean up the banks’ books by throwing taxpayer money at this impossible-to-fill black hole, we would be better off simply letting the banks go bankrupt, as President Reagan did with the savings and loan industry in the 1980s. The banks’ bad debts could then be discharged in bankruptcy, and their assets could be absorbed into a public credit system with a new, untarnished set of books, a system that would serve the interests of the people and return the profits to the people.

SO WHAT IS AN INVESTOR TO DO?

That still leaves the question of how to negotiate today’s very unpredictable markets. The Friday before the white-knuckle October 24 ride, investors were being encouraged to get back into the market. Commentators cheerily announced the best market week in 5-1/2 years, after the Dow climbed from a low of 7,774 on October 10 to a high of 9,924 on October 14. But the week still ended below 9,000, and the market was coming off the most historic plunge since the Great Depression, down from a high of 10,845 on October 3 to below 8,000 a week later. By October 24, the Dow was again hovering near 8,000.

“Frankly, I’m sick of this,” said CNBC market watcher Erin Burnett as she tracked the Dow’s wild gyrations on October 23. “Up and down, up and down. It doesn’t seem to mean anything or be linked to anything.”

Beleaguered investors might well decide it’s time to pull their money out of a stock market that is looking more and more like a rigged and risky Las Vegas casino and put it somewhere else. As one talk show commentator quipped recently, “I’m fully diversified. I’ve got some under the mattress, some under the floor boards, some in the backyard.”

The Psychological Power of Graphic Design – Manipulating Your Market Through Eye Appeal

As a professional marketer, you are governed by whatever your clients are hoping to sell. Sometimes it’s a useful, valuable product; sometimes it’s a dry, esoteric concept. More often than not, it is something that no one really needs, but it is your job to sell it. The client has put his trust in you and will pay you for your effort. No one ever said marketing was always going to be fun and glamorous.

Given the task of creating an ad, a website, a brochure or trade show display, your goal is to present your client’s job so every eye will be drawn to it, regardless of whether they need it or will ultimately buy it.

First question I would ask is, who is its target market? If we’re selling a geriatric product or service, it’s far different from selling something to the tween segment. But many jobs we do in this field are far removed from the everyday ken of the mass consumer market. For example, selling a particular type of industrial technology to the world’s waste water engineers. Or presenting a series of books on World War I history to a tiny clutch of worldwide war buffs. Each of these examples demands a different approach to reach what “moves” a given market.

Recently, I was contacted by a dancing school owner who wanted her website redesigned to reflect her personality. She felt that if I were to visit her and watch her work, I could capture the essence of her spirit and come up with graphics to match.

This is a common misconception among people outside of the marketing field. They all believe they are truly unique and possess some kind of special quality that will make them an overnight sensation. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Working to package a marketing concept involves use of a finite assortment of type styles, textual content, colors, visual images, shapes and sizes dictated by the dimensions of the end product we are creating and has very little bearing on whether the client is a glamour queen or military madman. If what we are selling is related to those last two descriptions, then there may be some reason to apply such ideas. But in my thirty-five years of experience, graphic design is most effective when it relates to current aesthetic trends but surpasses the norm with innovation and surprise. It must be competitive with the world’s best efforts while being meaningful to its target market.

What type styles work best?

This is very much dependent on whom we are addressing. Just as tweens would have no appreciation for the grace and elegance of a classic font used tastefully in proper balance with its surrounding elements, an older market may bristle at an avant garde utilization of some brazen typeface scrawled defiantly across a bold design. Yet, there is a time and place for each of these techniques.

What colors work best?

According to multiple studies performed over a fifty year period in a number of different countries, regardless of age or gender, the color blue ranked as the most preferred color to use for a variety of purposes and goals. Second choices were green and purple. Least favorite colors were orange, grey and brown. However, each of the studies mentioned that cultural differences affected color favorites because of emotional relationships attached to color, e.g., associations with mourning, depression, mental illness, terrorism, etc. Other studies also concluded that men and women react to color differently with men being more oblivious to both color and subtlety, while women were more attentive and knowledgeable about both. Furthermore, in studies performed in laboratory settings to examine how color affected behavior, blue was found to have a calming, relaxing effect while red motivated quicker response. When age was more closely examined, the younger the subject the more likely the preference for bright colors such as red or yellow. Also, in the presence of these same bright colors, perceptions and judgments to size or value by all respondents tended to be larger and more favorable than when influenced by blues or greens which elicited more realistic and slower reactions.

What does this mean in terms of graphic design?

Much of what has been found through scientific or psychological study basically appears to be common sense. Young people like hot flashy colors and older people like cooler, more conservative colors. Yet, one truism about color doesn’t quite compute when reviewing the results of the various preference studies. According to color theory, there are three primary colors of red, blue and yellow with the complementary color of each primary color determined by mixing the other two primary colors together. This means that the complementary color of red is green; the complementary color of blue is orange; and the complementary color of yellow is purple. What sticks out like a sore thumb is that most people disliked orange; yet it is the most complementary color to use with everyone’s favorite color, blue.

So, do we throw these conclusions out the window? Hardly. It is a safe bet that if you were to use blue as the color scheme for women with breast cancer, men with a penchant for war and children shopping for shoes, none would be repulsed by the presentation. I think the use of an accent color would be the more sensitive issue and observation of the studies’ results should provide a reliable guide here. Also, not to be overlooked is the fact that there are an infinite number of shades and tones of blue which complicates the matter even further. If the blue you choose leans to the green, it is more likely described as a turquoise, while a blue leaning more to the red could be construed as more of a purple or magenta. These variations alter presumptions about use of secondary or tertiary colors to complement. Another important concern regarding color involves contrast which can affect legibility of text if misused.

What visual images sell best?

Years ago, before the existence of computers, desktop publishing and the Internet, it was common knowledge among this industry’s cognoscenti that babies and dogs were the images to use at the newsstand to capture the hearts of the magazine-buying public. In an extensive Google search, I have failed to support that theory today. Times have changed and with it tastes of our culture. Another mantra from years past was that “sex sells.” Whether we agree with that or not, sex rarely has a place within applications we professional marketers must utilize.

Here’s what one expert, Dick Stolley, the founding managing editor of People magazine, had to say about what cover images sell his magazine best:

“Young is better than old. Pretty is better than ugly. Rich is better than poor. Movies are better than music. Music is better than television. Television is better than sports…and anything is better than politics.” In 1999, he added: “And nothing is better than the celebrity dead,” a fact which has been strongly supported with the best-selling newsstand covers of all time at the death of John Lennon, Princess Diana and recently Michael Jackson.

For those of us selling widgets, however, these guidelines are immaterial. The correct image to use in marketing obviously must relate to what we are selling. This is not to say that we must show a photo or illustration of the subject. Sometimes that is not the best route to take. Instead, we must ask ourselves, what will best communicate to the ideal buyer why he must act immediately to proceed with a purchase of what we are presenting? How we “package” that appeal will be the magic bullet to motivate his response.

Well, that doesn’t give you much direction, does it? Having been in this predicament countless times in my career, this is what I have come to trust as the best way to accomplish this goal. After establishing the chief characteristic of the market based on the relevance of age, gender, occupation, education or location, I make the assumption that everyone wants to be treated as if they are the most desirable customers in the world. So I dress my presentations in the garb of the rich and successful, using sophisticated choices of font, intelligence, color, imagery and layout. I don’t resort to gimmicks or brash design. Rather, I rely on methods which utilize elegance and class.

One of the reasons I do this is because first and foremost, I must please the client. Since he is usually affluent and successful, he immediately can relate to this style. Secondly, typical of human nature, his prospective market, regardless of demographics, wants to identify with the rich and famous and probably will view the presentation as something that type of person would want. So, with his curiosity piqued, the presentation has achieved the first important step in the process. How well you have delivered the message and enticed him to act will determine whether he proceeds with a purchase.

While this methodology may contradict the logic of defining one’s target market if it turns out to be children or street gang members, in my experience the majority of those we are appealing to are people of means (hopefully) so they can afford whatever it is we are selling; of an age mature enough to comprehend and appreciate our proposal; and finally, a member of the American culture with needs and desires shaped by current technology, events and national outlook. With that as a starting point, my forays into marketing have been largely successful for those who have hired me based on the understanding that everyone prefers to go “first class.”

How Do I Market My Small Business – Article Marketing Is What I Advise All My Clients To Do

I work in the business of helping small businesses get noticed on the internet. Daily I am asked questions by small business owners about how I do so well in getting my clients ranked highly by the search engines. I have lots of tools in my bag of tricks, but if I had to say what is the main thing I use every single day it would be article marketing.

What is article marketing? Article marketing is a form of advertising in which businesses write short articles on topics relevant to their industry. These articles have what is called a resource box at the bottom of the article in which the author can link to their website or a website they are promoting. These articles are submitted to directories for publication. Many times if the content is well written the article will be syndicated to other sites all across the internet.

Article marketing is obviously good because of the traffic that it can bring you. If a person reads your article and thinks it was informative they are likely to click the link and read more on your website. They might join your list or buy a product from your site at this point. If your site is well done they may subscribe to your RSS feed or join your newsletter. If they do then you will have a consistent way to market to them provided that you continue to give them relevant, quality content.

One key that is often overlooked in article marketing is the fact that your articles provide your main website with lots of backlinks. Backlinks are when another site links to your site. When this happens you are seen by the search engines as more relevant and this you are ranked higher in the searches. The more popular the page is that has linked to you, the more weight the search engine gives it.

Another key that most businesses miss is that the article directories are often ranked very highly by Google and other search engines. When your articles are published you are seen as the industry expert because every time someone searches for information on your topic they see your articles. Wouldn’t you like it if every time a person did a search on Google they were inundated with articles written by you about that topic? If they saw all that and then found out they could have you to do the work for them they would not only let you do it, they would be excited to have you do it. That is where you want to be as a business owner.

Using the Power of Social Media to Market Your Online Business!

So how do you market your online business without draining your bank account? That’s a very good question, pay-per-click or PPC marketing is not necessarily the only way you can get fast results and generate more leads for your business. Social media marketing is becoming more and more popular and the best thing of all is it’s FREE!

Particularly if you are just starting out on the internet and have no experience at all I strongly suggest that you start your marketing using social media because PPC with Google, Yahoo and Bing can cost you a lot of money if you haven’t the experience with keyword research and campaign optimization. To learn the strategies to be a ‘Google Guru’ can take months when you can write an article or press release and shoot a quick video about something that interests you or share some knowledge you have about a particular subject with people, submit it and its out there for all to see. To give you an idea of the power of this social media revolution lets take a look at these statistics:

• There are more than 300 million active users on Facebook and half of those log in everyday!

• More than 75% of people using the internet read blogs!

• 20% of US adults use Twitter or some other similar service!

• 27 billion people used podcasts in 2009!

• There are 20 million viewers logging into the top 5 article sites per month!

• The top 10 book marketing sites attract more than 80 million visitors each month!

So as you can see this is BIG! This is why you need to learn how to use these incredible tools so you can build your brand, connect with your customers and very importantly position yourself as an expert. Don’t be intimidated if you’re just getting started in your online business and have no idea what I am talking about, social media really isn’t difficult and to get started try the formula I use. Write down 10 questions that you have about marketing your business and then do a Google search on a particular question and you will have a list of answers. Read through a few of them take good notes and before long you will have some great raw material to start your social media marketing.

Write an article and shoot a quick video, either using a video camera (it doesn’t have to be fancy) or webcam, each video being 2 to 4 minutes long. Submit your articles to 3 or 4 of the top article submission sites and blast out your videos to video sites and put them up on a blog. Do this consistently every day and you will soon see some significant results in your business. For more great tips on marketing listen to top earner Michael Force as he explains why you need a marketing educational platform to teach you how to effectively market your online business…

How to Market Your Small Business Online in 7 Fast and Easy Steps

Without completing each of these steps successfully..the chances of marketing your small business online dramatically decrease. There will always be exceptions but these seven steps should be considered your building blocks to your online marketing success.

1. Your own Website.

And by this I don’t mean a corporate/brochure style site which bores visitors and has them clicking away in seconds. No. You need to entertain as well as educate your visitors.

To do this best I think it is essential to have a WordPress Website attached to your main business website…or even on a separate domain. Don’t just name it blog! Give it a keyword rich, benefit laden title…tell them how your will make their lives better. Use the common terms others use to search for your business in Google [and the other search engines].

There is lots of advice online on how to set up a WordPress site. If you are unsure you can hire someone from a site such as Elance or RentaGuru.

The beauty of WordPress is that it is so easy to use. Non-techie small business owners can add fresh content, offers, audio, and videos to their site without having to pay a webmaster every time. Small business profits is as much about saving money as it is about increased revenue.

Oh, and of course, Google and Social Media love WordPress as well. More free visitors is always nice.

2. Add a means of capturing the names and addresses of your visitors.

Unfortunately, buying cycles are getting longer and longer. This means that people are rarely going to buy from you the first time they come across you.

So, to get around this you will need:

an optin/squeeze page an autoresponder [e.g. Aweber] a series of emails in your autoresponder a free gift valuable enough that visitors will be prepared to give your their info

This may sound daunting if you’ve never done it. However it is easy to hire someone to do it for you…or even better, learn to do it yourself. These are very low cost marketing tactics with excellent results when done right.

3. Generate some visitors to your site.

You can either pay for traffic or generate it using your own time. Either way there is no such thing as free traffic…you pay with time, money or both.

Personally, I think a mixture of paid and self-generated is best. It will depend for you on your present skills and whether you are time-rich or money-rich.

Pay-per-click [PPC] is the fastest way to generate traffic. You can have visitors to your site within the hour. Sadly PPC can be very expensive and there is a learning curve. But don’t get me wrong…well done it can be a gold mine..just tread carefully and test and track your results.

Add new fresh content to your site every week. Make it fun. Make people smile as they learn new stuff and they will reward you by staying longer on your site and coming back for more.

Use photos and videos. Get them involved with competitions and surveys. My favourite tip is this…see what your competition is doing and do the opposite. No one ever got wealthy following the herd!

Other tactics to consider:

Social marketing ezine ads swapping links get all your past and present customers to sign up put your website address on receipts, signs, and all your other marketing banner ads post articles to article directories.

The more you do of each the more success you’ll have.

4. Build relationships with your prospects who have signed up.

The way to do this is to talk about their problems and offer solutions. That will get their attention!

Make sure your personalize your emails. Tell them about yourself, your family and your business. Get them to see you as a friend/trusted advisor: give them tips and tricks industry news free info

5. Make them offers

When your have their trust and they know, like and trust you…they will no longer regard your offers with suspicion.

Keep in contact regularly…you need to decide what you feel is right…but a minimum of once a week.

Make them repeated offers: vary them different bonuses discounts bundle products and services together make sure every offer has a deadline new products and services ask them what they want and need.

6. Keep doing more of the same.

The fact is you will probably lose 20% of your list a month. Make sure you keep doing each of the first five steps…this will give you a list of hungry, loyal buyers. Subscribers who look forward to hearing form you. Who want to hear your latest tips, news, and offers.

7. Never lose sight of where your focus should be:

“How can I offer more value to my customers?”

The moment you forget them and start concentrating on only yourself…they’ll know. It will come across in all your communications and marketing. Put them first, and they will stay loyal, and you will reap the rewards.

10 Ways to Market Your Mobile App

1. App Store Optimization

App Store Optimization (ASO) requires many of the same factors that go into great SEO tactics. Things like keywords, titles, and descriptions play a role in the app store listings, so leveraging the right tool to understand these variables can really set your app for a path to a top-tier ranking.

Optimizing the keyword tags in the App or Google Play store can really benefit how your app is found. The keyword field allows you to associate your app with certain terms. The key here is to not repeat or use too many variations of the same word which could be portrayed as spam. A good tip is to conduct SEO type test to figure out the best keyword tags to use. You should ask yourself questions like “Which words describe my app?” and “Which words are my competitors using?” Once you get a feel for what words work best for you, be sure to be creative in your choices. Being unique could possibly help you drive traffic your competitors aren’t getting.

Titles are also an important aspect to take into consideration. Much like a title page for SEO purposes, the app name serves as a relevancy signal that the app store algorithms can pull search results from. Many companies include keywords into their main title to help pull their app to the top of search results within their category. A common mistake is to not include the actual name of the app into the title. The overall goal is to have a strong presence as a brand, therefore people need to know your name and not just what your app does.

When you have everything above figured out, it’s now time to write the description for your app. This should not be a painful task. The key here is to keep it short and sweet. You have to keep in mind that when someone is reading this they are not going to spend a lot of time looking at the description on their phone. Leave plenty of white space so that it is pleasing to the readers eyes and less cumbersome. Bullet points or asterisks are commonly used to list benefits of which your app brings to the end user. Sentences should be broken up with a mixture of long and short (5 words or less) sentences to keep the reader engaged. If you want to learn more, we have previously written extensively on the importance of good keywords in the app store.

2. Social Media Integration

Social media integration in an application has been emerging in popularity among many app developers. Giving users the ability to invite others, share gameplay, and view leader boards is a popular and useful aspect for increasing virality. Essentially it is free marketing for your app. When a user shares their recent high score or fitness goal on their social media pages they are then spreading the word of the app to their friends. This increases the number of views and in turn raises awareness of your application. All of which happens without you lifting a finger. Another side effect from this is that it implements a type of competitive atmosphere amongst friends to outdo the other persons high score or have a longer run tracked.

3. Press Kit

Having a press kit readily available is a proactive move to help expedite your marketing efforts farther down the line. Once you have an established microsite for you application you may get a couple of reviews, but to really market your newly developed app, you need to be able to provide quality material that other people can utilize. If people want to write about you, they may not always have the time to contact you to receive useful materials for them to use.

Materials that should be included in your press kit include high-quality icon of your app along with screenshots of the app in use. These will help expedite those bloggers or journalist that wish to write about your app to have official high quality visuals that can be used in their articles or blogs.

Another essential part of your press kit should be all of your relevant press releases. This helps individuals know the “history” of your mobile app and keeps them in the loop on upcoming updates or other company news. By doing this it will also establish a rapport with your audience because they will have a better understanding of you and your mobile app.

If you really want to go above and beyond you can add a company profile page. This can detail your company history and your staff. Links to your social accounts is also beneficial so that people can learn more about you and read what other people are saying.

4. Forum and Discussion Board Outreach

Identifying where your desired audience or key demographic congregates online is an important marketing aspect to identify. There are many technology and mobile applications blogs filled with individuals that read and keep up with news on mobile applications. This is especially helpful if your app is designed for a specific group. For example, if you app is designed to assist joggers track their daily runs, then posting relevant topics about your application on fitness discussion boards or blogs can be beneficial.

When reaching out to these forums the key is to not spam the blog with your business. Many blog and discussion boards ban users who post promotional material on their comment sections. Posting beneficial information and answering any questions is a good way to start. After you have built a rapport as a thought leader then you can start back linking information to your site or post an article about your product.

5. App Profiles

When it comes to marketing a new app raising awareness is an important aspect to increase downloads. The creation of app profiles on sites such as Appolicious and others like it is beneficial to do. With these profiles you can add a description of your app along with a link to the App or Google Play store that allows the user to download it. This is a simple and easy way to increase the awareness to your desired target audience.

6. Influencer Outreach

Along with reaching out to forums and other relevant blogs, contacting industry thought leaders or influencers for reviews is another avenue to market your app. Having reviews of your app is good, having a reviews written by a respected thought leader in the industry and posted on a respectable site is even better. Many of the popular influencers in an industry have millions of engaged followers that read their material daily. So to have a review written on your app by an influencer in the mobile application industry will give you an increased amount of awareness and possibly downloads (as long as you receive a positive review.)

You can go about this by identifying them (you already know who they are) and contacting them about a potential review. You can provide a promo code or demo to access your app for free. This is where the press kit would come into play. In your request you can attach your press release with all the relevant information we talked about above, therefore accommodating them with all the information and resources they may need.

7. Social Media

It is no secret that social media is a popular medium and can be utilized as an effective marketing tool. Creating pages specifically designed for your app on all social media channels is something that is strongly recommended to really engage your target audience and see their discussions. With a plethora of possible outlets that include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, to name a few, you have access to a vast population and you have the ability to find which ones work best for you. Keep in mind that these pages should compliment your overall company social accounts. Just like the app store, make sure your company name is on these social pages so that you increase your overall brand awareness.

Managing these accounts is another aspect of social media. Making sure you devote time and effort to monitor your different pages is crucial to really benefit from social media. Think of it as a window into viewing your consumers thoughts and concerns. The better you monitor and all the comments and questions the better you can learn how to improve your product which in turn will increase brand loyalty.

8. Teaser Campaign

Whether it be creating hype over a potential release date or providing an incentive with a promotional campaign, a teaser campaign is a good way to get your audience excited and engaged. This can be done as simple as producing a short teaser trailer paired with a “Coming Soon” animation on your microsite. If you have the resources you can also run a promotional contest or giveaway. To manage this you may even collect email addresses to keep people informed on updates. The more people you drive to your site and social media accounts the bigger the engagement and therefore building a community of followers.

9. Set Up Google Alerts

Setting up Google alerts can be beneficial to track what people are saying about your product. This beats visiting each individual site separately to see if there is a new review of your app. These alerts can can also help you research the app industry or competitors. Instead of doing extensive research across different sites to keep tabs on your competitors, you can simply set up an alert to advise you when any relevant news surfaces about your search query. All this information is easily emailed to you with the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc… ) based on your queries.

10. App Discounts

Lastly, individuals like to get things for free or for a discount. By providing discounts on specific days related to your application is a good way to get your followers engaged and excited. The key is to be creative. For example, if you have a zombie based mobile game, a good time to provide a promotional offer would be in October – around Halloween time.

There you have it. A complete top 10 list of ways to market your app. Of course there are hundreds of potential ways to market your mobile app, however this is a solid start. Stay tuned for more updates to come on how to get the most out of your mobile marketing efforts.

Paintless Dent Removal Technicians in Demand in a Niche Market

PDR Technician Earnings – Fact or Fiction?

Yes, that’s right – the claim made by some PDR Technicians are that an experienced PDR technician can earn as much as surgeons! The paintless dent removal industry has existed for the past 30 years in Australia and not many know about its existence! I would estimate that very few – perhaps 1 or 2 per cent of Australians have heard of this industry. Knowledge of those that do is often vague – referring to ‘sucking the dents out’. The industry has progressed technologically!

So when claims that there are people who train for up to a year or two and begin earning such money within 5 years, the reaction is often swift and hostile. I am often met with blank looks – friends politely nod and smile knowing that I normally don’t tell lies. Alas few if any accept the claims.

After all how can such an industry exist for so many years and not seem to appear in the media? How can people not know about it by word of mouth! The paintless dent removal industry has been rather secretive for years and deliberately so! Why would anyone want others to know what you are earning let alone how!

It may surprise you that actually the media has reported on this industry. After the controversial claims of bad practice by

“overseas hail chasers” were made after the 2011 Christmas Day Melbourne hailstorm. Check The Age news paper. Actually it was this media hype that consequently put the paintless dent removal industry into the spotlight!

“… One estimate puts chasers’ earnings at $5000 to $10,000 a week. It’s all pocketed, with no insurance costs to cover, no workplace premiums, no tax paid, no responsibility.”

Whatever the article set out to achieve ultimately underestimated the public reaction. Enquiries into PDR training skyrocketed!

Surgeons versus PDR Technicians

Analysing the earnings of the medical profession quoted by Business Insider – $250,000 to $500000 per year. Let’s not forget the investment into education and the years to get there! Just the cost of education can amount to $10,000 per year after HECS! We have not yet accounted for insurance. OK fair enough, PDR Technicians in the infancy of the industry paid between $10,000 to $40,000 for training or a business franchise in paintless dent removal industry. Now however, the cost of training PDR technicians have come down considerably to as low as $2900 for a 5 day PDR Course. Can it get any lower? Perhaps in the future – currently it has stabilised limited by the earnings of the PDR technicians themselves. For the time being, any lower than this and PDR technicians may as well just repair a car rather than train others – they can earn more!

Paintless Dent Removal Earnings can be substantial

Dwelling into what paintless dent removal is and their earnings – simply put, it is the art of removing dents without the requirement of painting the vehicle. The theory is that keeping the original factory paint work is important. PDR technicians complete an average hail damaged car within a day. OK so how can a PDR Technician clear 250K per year?

Consider a quotation on an average vehicle being about $2000-3000 during a hailstorm. Between 60-70 percent of this quotation goes to the PDR Technician. So even averaging $1000 per day to underestimate it during lost time, you are talking $200K to $300K per year!

Still not convinced? OK so not everyone can leave their family and chase hail around the country? There has to be an understanding between spouse and PDR Technician for them to go away for weeks or even months at a time not seeing their family!

The PDR Technician and Retail Sector Earnings

Well there is the retail market too. In the retail sector, paintless dent removal technicians contract to car sales yards, auctions, car rental fleet cars and the private clients to remove accidental vehicle damage such as car park and door dents. Although this usually requires more effort to come close to the larger earnings by hail repair standards, it still can be achieved! Here’s why…

The average rate for repair of one dent being $80 to $130 per dent depending on size or difficulty (not over-inflated when considering call out fees for plumbers and electricians). Repair one dent and charge even $80. Repairing 5 dents a day nets you $400! One dent can take a few minutes to 20 minutes to repair depending on experience. So hypothetically, even a single client can net $146000 per year! It is not uncommon to get several clients in a day but not every day. However, considering repeat clients and the odd customers who want their cars ‘clean’ of dents (cars are the second most important commodity in Australia), and further referrals for a good PDR technician, the numbers start adding up to that figure of $250k per year. And let’s face it, and you check yourself the next time you are stuck in a traffic jam, check the side of the cars for dents – you will be stunned to know how many dents there are around you! One in three readers of this article should have a dent on their vehicle…

So who qualified for paintless dent removal?

The next most common question I get asked is if I am not a panel beater, does it matter? The answer is no. Well, yes, a panel beater has knowledge of vehicles – models, panels, parts – they spend four years minimum learning the trade at TAFE and through apprenticeships. But so do spray painters. How about mechanics and their knowledge of cars. Throw in auto-scratch repairers, car detailers, window tinters and paint protection technicians. Yes, panel beaters are the most frequent clients for paintless dent removal training courses. But PDR courses can adopt other related trades.

What if I am not in a trade?

A course run in 2012 attracted a person who worked in administration within a bank. Yes a banker. It was our first non-industry person to train. We took on the challenge of training him but so did he! After a few hours on the first day of training, not only did he flourish, he actually excelled! Among his colleagues, it became apparent he was consistently producing the best dents amongst his group which included a panel beater! How can this be? He never touched a car in his life! He had to be taught how to remove and replace parts. Well, it is often said that attitude has a lot to do with success in PDR courses. He had everything to gain.

“Sometimes panel beaters are harder to teach if they come in with the wrong attitude, lack of patience or being two heavy handed.”

Are there women PDR technicians?

There is no secret that the paintless dent repair industry like the auto vehicle repair industry would be male dominated. Talking to a PDR trainer in 2015 who had trained mostly men but a few women. Those women however overall seemed to produce better work perhaps because they are not so “heavy handed” and perhaps some added “determination”. There are no conceivable reasons or barriers not to have women in the paintless dent repair industry.

A Career Changer?

The first phone call from clients tells me a lot about the person applying, their plans and underlying reasons. Some are subtle, others attempt to dominate the phone call – others simply know what they have researched and go for it! One of the myths however I immediately dispel is that this is not a “job” career change. Paintless dent removal is a business, a contractual business. Whether you work for yourself or contract to others it still is a business operation – no wages or salaries. So a sense of security is lost as well as challenges in finding the working clients. But there is a sense of freedom to work your own hours and choose your own clients once established. Despite the pros and cons, those that flourish are usually well known for their quality.

Can anyone do paintless dent removal?

In the extensive research across the internet and reading the many minds of PDR technicians themselves, there is a unique set of circumstances and conditions that has led PDR technicians to approach the industry and succeed. PDR technicians have the following qualities:

determination
perseverance
self belief to succeed at all odds
hard working
good eyesight
business minded
innovative
ability to work alone or in a team
ability to work in a variety of conditions
flexible

Most of the older generation of PDR technicians were fortunate enough to know or come across another PDR technician and get trained. Increasingly though more are getting into the industry through PDR training companies. The qualities listed above though are still important.

Success is hard earned

Becoming a PDR technician requires complete determination and perseverance because it is not easy to begun with. The first few hours of a paintless dent removal training course quickly sets the record straight: metal tool on metal panel is not a good mix. Paintless dent removal requires ultimate skill, determination and perseverance. It is too easy to get wrong, too easy to quit! Hundreds of hours of practice to make it through and become comfortable. In fact, two different sources of “training on a bonnet stand in the lounge room next to their wife watching TV” says it all. Just like intense determined training gets some to the Olympians to a gold medal – it takes such practice and determination to succeed in PDR.

Supply and demand

The old rule of “supply and demand” has a lot to do with the earnings of PDR Technicians. There are conflicting reports on there being too many PDR technicians out there. Are they simply trying to protect the industry for themselves? Because every time there is a major hailstorm, vehicle repairs often take up to 12 to 18 months to complete! Why? Supply and demand – there simply is a lack of quality PDR technicians in this country to do an ample amount of work. Furthermore, should we allow overseas PDR technicians to the work Australians can do? Heaven forbid when Sydney with a population of 5 million gets another April 1999 hailstorm! Why we still get car loving repairers into spray painting and panel beating when there are opportunities to get into the paintless dent removal industry defies belief!

Conclusion: Who will ride the lucrative rollercoaster?

Convincing anyone to enter this industry is like drawing blood from a stone! Making the change is difficult, requires planning and commitment. Do the risks outweigh the odds of success? You never know if you have what it takes to get into this industry. From the writing on the wall if you get through, whoever does ride the rollercoaster may be set for a lucrative and rewarding career! You never know if you have what it takes to get into this industry.To this day, I have yet to see an unsatisfied PDR Technician!

An Insider Review Of The Market America Business And The Market America Business Plan (Part 2 of 2)

In the first section of this 2 part series, we explored the nature of why many network marketing and MLM companies are setting you up for massive failure from the get-go. I’m not reviewing this statistic or trying to say this company and or that company is better for you, rather, I’m implying that if The Direct Selling Association is saying that a company representative can effectively work with 2.8 distribution channels over a lifetime, then why would you partner yourself with a company that goes against what the “average person” has been proven to profit from?

We also spoke about the horrific attributes of horizontal marketing. Once you understand the “woes” of the ways of conventional thinking, you’ll never view business the same again. I don’t claim to be the end-all-be-all or know-it-all, I simply enjoy being an informational vessel that has worked long and hard to acquire the necessary knowledge to lead prominent leaders.

The last point from part #1 of this 2 part series was that multi-level marketing (MLM) compounds the negative and ill-effects of horizontal marketing. The reason I said that you’ve bought into a roller-coaster ride is directly aimed at how the rigorous recruiting is never-ending for network marketing and MLM professionals.

It’s PROVEN that 97% of network marketers and MLM business builders spend more money than they make in their careers. Although I’m an advocate for the direct marketing industry, I want to share JR’s vision about why the Market America (MA) business plan is radically different from ANYTHING ELSE on the open market.

In building an UnFranchise® there are 4 logistical factors that must be considered when partaking in the process of doing your due diligence? You should know these differentiators if you aspire to learn more about being on the edge of ‘cutting edge’ in today’s economy.

When you personally sell a product in MA, everyone on the team can also get paid.
If a person sells a product, they can share 100% of the sale with their team.
UnFranchise® owners can open multiple locations. Some say, the MA business and the Market America business plan it capped – it’s not, and actually, you can pay your partners again for the same volume. This one strategy is completely earth-shattering and doesn’t exist anywhere!
When a product is sold, there is a 2x paying of self, plus everyone else benefits.

These 4 Market America business plan principles are the “game changers” for anybody that evaluates the Market America UnFranchise® business opportunity. The technology, people power and vast vision to surpass amazon.com in the next 3 years are present – so watch out world, there’s a new “big fish” online!

Hurricane Irma Gave Us a Bull Market

The great 1983 Eddie Murphy/Dan Aykroyd film Trading Places features two duffers pulling off a massive commodity futures scam. It was orange juice futures. They made a fortune by betting on the orange crop in Florida.

Thanks to Hurricane Irma carving a path of destruction through Florida, you can do the same thing today.

After Brazil, Florida is the world’s second-largest producer of oranges.

The orange juice industry is in a massive decline. Sales fell 14% – about a $98 million fall from 2012 to 2016. Some food exchange-traded funds that once held futures no longer use them as an investment.

It doesn’t help that we now know that it is bad for you. It has the nutritional value of soda.

Business Insider called orange juice the “biggest con of your life.” That’s important, as the U.S. is the world’s largest consumer by many times, over and above any other country on earth. We consumed over 630,000 metric tons of the drink last year.

Irma’s Impact

Frozen orange juice futures tanked over the past year. After peaking in October 2016 at $225, the JPMorgan Orange Juice Price Index fell 44% to a low of $125 in July 2017.

The price jumped 21% in two weeks as Hurricane Irma grew and took aim at Florida.

The Florida orange crop looked particularly strong this year. Shannon Shepp, the executive director of the Florida Department of Citrus, wrote:

Before Hurricane Irma, there was a good chance we would have more than 75 million boxes of oranges on the trees this season. We now have much less.

To put that in perspective, last year’s crop, the worst since 2005, was about 77.9 million boxes. That crop sold for $800 million. In Florida, 90% of the oranges become juice.

This year, the orange crop looks like it will be the lowest in 50 years. As you can imagine, that pushed the price of futures up.

Sadly, unless you trade commodities, regular investors struggle to get in on this position. One way is the Elements Agriculture Total Return ETN (NYSE: RJA). It holds 1.8% of its assets in orange juice futures.

That’s about the best way I found to trade what could be a nice winner in orange juice. That’s typical with these trends. Sometimes, it’s hard to find a way to profit from them, even when you find a great opportunity.