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A Roadmap to Your True Financial Independence
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Michael S. DeVries
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Jun 26, 2005 05:53 PDT
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The Virtual Consulting Discussion List [VCDL]
http://www.TheVCF.com/vcdl.phtml
Sunday, June 26, 2005 Digest #24
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List Moderator: Michael S.DeVries DeVr-@cris.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ...
---> [NEW] <---
#1 A Roadmap to Your True Financial Independence - Part 1
- Generating A Passive Income For Yourself
- Michael S. DeVries
#2 Web Conferencing Tool - Reduce Your Communication Costs
- Diane Parker
#3 Business Marketing Strategy
- Joy Gendusa
#4 Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Copy - The Down and Dirty Details
- Maria Marsala / Jon Wuebben
---> [CONTINUED] <---
---> [RESOURCES] <---
---> [NEWS] <---
---> [INTRO] <---
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---> [ADMIN] <---
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#1 A Roadmap to Your True Financial Independence - Part 1
- Generating A Passive Income For Yourself
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Date: 06/20/2005
From: Michael S. DeVries <DeVr-@cris.com>
Reply To: Virtual-C-@topica.com
Are you searching for a way to true financial independence for yourself
and your family?
Aren't we all? ;)
Are you tired of being "trapped" in the "rat race", working day in and
day out to earn a paycheck that just covers your immediate and
short-term expenses?
Do you feel like you just aren't making any positive progress in this
way towards your true financial independence?
Do you, therefore, believe that there *must* be a better way?
And are you ready to take advantage of this better way when you see it?
In these articles, I will share with you what we believe is this "better
way" and provide you with a roadmap that you may customize to your
situation and needs and use for yourself to achieve your true financial
independence as soon as possible! :)
In a "nut shell", here is what we believe to be the simple roadmap,
listed in order of importance, to your financial independence:
1) Build and grow a truly passive income stream!
2) Generate additional revenue with commercial-off-the-shelf
(COTS) products (and/or others' services)
3) Use the money you earn from working, e.g. your "day job"
and/or business(es), to further fuel your investments in and
accelerate the returns on these investment from #1 and #2
above.
In this article, I will address Step #1, which is the one that we feel
is the critical success factor and the most important "piece in the
puzzle" to achieving and sustaining your true financial independence as
soon as possible! :)
We believe that the "key" to true financial independence is to have a
steady, and preferably growing, source of truly "passive income".
So ... What is a "passive income"?
A truly passive income is any source of income wherein you continue to
make money without having to expend any further time or effort to
maintain the source or level of this income.
You may probably already see that when you have a truly passive
income that generates sufficient funds to cover your necessary monthly
expenses then you are truly financially independent, since this means
that you no longer have to perform any further work to earn the money
you need to live on, right?! :)
So ... How do you get to a passive income that covers your expenses?
Well, like Robert T. Kiyosaki, author of the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" books,
T. Harv Ecker, author of "The Millionaire Mind", and so many other
"guru's" will tell you, the key to a truly passive income is making Your
Money Work hard for You! Rather than you working hard for your money!
Right?
So ... How do you get your money working hard for you?
Well, firstly, you have to have some money that you can put to work for
yourself, right?
And unless you are lucky enough to win the lottery or happen to inherit
(or find ;)) a large sum of money, then the chances are that you will
have to start with what you can afford out of what you currently have
saved and/or from your earnings and grow it from there, right?
Then, there are many, many ways in which you may earn a passive
income, from stocks and bonds, CD's, mutual funds, money market
accounts, real estate, commodities, investing in businesses, etc. etc.,
right?
And each of these has their Pro's and their Con's relative to all of the
rest.
Which of these is best for you and your particular needs and situation
is somewhat beyond the scope of this article, and may be addressed in
more detail in a future article, but herein the *point* we wish to have
you take away with you is ...
Pick whichever passive income generation methods are best for you,
start growing your passive income stream(s) and start getting your
money working for you Today! Right?
Please see the resource box below for more information regarding the
passive income generation method(s) which we prefer, use for
ourselves, and therefore recommend.
And although I know that I just stated that we were not going to go into
a detailed analysis and comparison of each of these passive income
generation techniques, which we are not, here are a few of the factors
that you may wish to consider and questions you may wish to answer for
yourself in your selection of which of these are the best passive income
generation methods for you, ok?
1) What are the true investment requirements?
What are the initial investment requirements? / How much money do
you have to have to get started?
What if any recurring investment requirements are there?
Do you need to continue to invest more money into this instrument in
order for it to maintain the level of passive income generation you
need?
2) What is the real net rate of return e.g. 1% a year, 10% a year, 1% a
day, etc.?
How much passive income is this technique going to generate for you,
each day / month / year, based on how much you invest in it?
Do these earnings compound upon themselves, and if so at what rate
and frequency?
3) How accessible are the earnings generated?
Can you really access the money generated when you need it, e.g. to
pay the mortgage and the monthly bills, etc. or do you have to wait and
plan ahead to withdraw your earnings?
What do you have to do to access the earnings generated, and how
easy to do is this for you?
4) How truly passive is it?
Do you have to constantly "watch the markets" and/or your investments
to avoid losing money and/or your potential earnings in them?
Do these investments require some continuing level of effort to manage
and/or maintain, e.g. real estate?
If so, then is this something you really want to do with your time in
order to "guard" or maintain your investments?
5) How long will it take for this method to generate the passive income
you need to cover your expenses such that you may achieve true
financial independence?
Will this generate enough for you to live on in a matter of months or
years or not until you are retirement age? This makes a Big Difference,
doesn't it! ;)
Will this method generate barely enough for you to get by or will it
continue to grow and provide you with added financial security?
6) What are the risks?
Could you lose your initial investment and/or your earnings if you
aren't vigilant or careful?
Compare the risks to the potential rewards and decide if the risks are
outweighed by the rewards and whether or not you are willing and able to
take these risks.
Your answers to each of these questions relative to the passive income
generation methods which you consider for your own financial
independence strategy and plan should help you chose those that are
right for you and your current needs and situation at the time, right?
Again, the objective is just to chose those that are best for you right
now, and get started generating a passive income, Today! Right?
The sooner you start generating a passive income and getting your
money working for you, the sooner and more likely you are to achieve
true financial independence as soon as possible! :)
In Part 2 of this series of articles, we will explore the various ways
in which you may generate additional revenue with
commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products (and/or others' services) and
how you may use the revenue generated from these sales to further fuel
and grow your passive income stream(s).
And then, in Part 3, of this series of articles, we will explore how you
may use the money you earn from working, e.g. your "day job" and/or
business(es), to further fuel your investments in and accelerate the
returns on these investment from both Step 1 and Step 2 above.
I hope that you have found this article helpful and beneficial to you!
Please feel free to pass it along to your friends and family who may
also be interested in achieving their own financial independence and
whom may benefit from it.
To Your Financial Independence,
- Michael S. DeVries
Michael S. DeVries is the Moderator of The Virtual Consulting
Discussion List (http://www.TheVCF.com/vcdl.phtml) and Principal of
The Virtual Consulting Firm (http://www.TheVCF.com). Learn more
about how You may Make Money online with No Selling, No Recruiting,
and No Risk! at: http://www.thevcf.com/CurrencyExchange/ECEP.phtml
-----------------------------------------------------------
#2 Web Conferencing Tool - Reduce Your Communication Costs
-----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 14:40:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Diane Parker" <article-@gmail.com>
Reply To: Virtual-C-@topica.com
For most people in business, meetings are a necessary evil.
Stop for a moment and consider how much hosting or attending
meetings cost your business and you may be in for a surprise;
precious time spent traveling to and from the meeting location,
travel expenses, and in some cases the hire of the meeting
facility. Now imagine you could attend that meeting without
having to leave your office or home. How much time and money
would save over a week, a month or a year? It soon adds up.
The cost savings associated with web conferencing are well
documented. Less time and money are spent on traveling, there
is no need to hire meeting facilities and staff can focus on
doing their jobs well instead of scheduling meetings.
Save On Traveling Expenses
Travel does not come cheap. Whether it's national or
international or by air, land or sea there will always be a cost
implication for your business; air tickets, parking tolls, hotel
accommodation - all these costs will affect your bottom line.
Web conferencing reduces the need for travel. Face to face
meetings can be conducted via the web, from multiple geographic
locations. Airport delays, flight cancellations, traffic jams
on the freeway - all these irritations are not only affecting
your blood pressure but are costing your company money, too. All that
time wasted while you wait for your flight to be called or the jam to
clear is money down the drain. Web conferencing cuts out not just the
frustrations but also the financial price of wasting time.
Saving Time Equals Saving Money
It's not just travel delays that waste time and costs money.
Time is spent organizing meetings and getting busy colleagues
together in the same place on the same day can be a complicated
task. Someone within your organization is having to spend time
pulling it all together. This is time that could be better
spent generating sales and income for your business.
Web conferencing allows your workforce to work smarter. With
web conferencing, a meeting that before may have taken a member
of staff out the office for several days, can be concluded in a
matter of hour, freeing up extra time. A few extra hours in the week
to get the job done is something most employees would appreciate.
Work Smarter And Reduce Costs
Document sharing is one of the many facilities available through web
conferencing. Documents can be viewed simultaneously by individuals,
regardless of where they are located. Projects can be completed more
quickly and more accurately. Documents can be updated in real time
and colleagues can edit them together. In the absence of web
conferencing, this form of collaboration would require an element of
travel, costing the business time and money.
There is a personal upside for employees who have their business
travel reduced, too. Less time spent traveling for work means they
have more time at home with their families and staff who are happier
in their home lives are likely to be more productive during their
working hours.
Diane Parker is a freelance writer and technology enthusiast
providing valuable information including: http://www.
conferencing-in-the-web.com/ , http://www.conferencing-in-the-web.
com/web-conferencing-tool.html and http://www.conferencing-in-
the-web.com/internet-conferencing.html
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-----------------------------------------------------------
#3 Business Marketing Strategy
-----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 22:12:19 -0500
From: Joy Gendusa <distri-@isnare.com>
Reply To: Virtual-C-@topica.com
What is it and who needs one?
The term business marketing strategy might sound like it is
esoteric or stratospheric, so let’s take the mystery out of it
so you can devise and implement your own business marketing
strategy that fits in to your small business plan.
Strategy comes from a Greek word “stratagein” meaning “to be a
general”. Think of a strategy as an overall plan of action
needed to win a war. The smaller, detailed actions are called
tactics. You can have tactical plans which help you achieve
your strategic marketing plan or overall business marketing
strategy. That’s simple enough, isn’t it?
A business marketing strategy or strategic marketing plan is an
overall plan of marketing actions you intend to take in order to
accomplish a specific goal for your company.
Start with a goal: $2 million in sales this year; expand into
new premises by a certain date; double the size of the company
in 2 years… whatever the goal may be. Something realistic but
challenging. That's the "war" you want to win. Guess who the
general is.
Then work out a simple, overall plan of the major marketing
steps needed to accomplish that (for example):
1. Publish a newsletter for all existing customers and mail out
quarterly.
2. Work out 4 special offers in the year and promote them to
all our customers.
3. Set up on-line shopping and expand the web site.
4. Direct mail campaign promoting the web site to all
customers.
5. Get mailing lists of (target markets) and do a series of 3
mailings of postcards to them and follow up on and close all
leads.
6. Etc.
You get the idea. Don’t rush this. Do your homework. What
worked in the past? Read up on successful marketing campaigns.
Your business marketing strategy needs to be laid out in the
right sequence and you should have some idea of budget when you
write it. “Run a series of 30 second TV ads during the
Superbowl” might sound like a good thing to do but can you
afford it? On the other hand, when you build your business
marketing strategy you mustn’t try and cut corners. If you
don’t promote heavily, it doesn’t matter how good your product
or service is, no one will know about it and you will go broke.
What really works when it comes to marketing?
Many business owners don't have a good enough answer to this
important question. I learned by a combination of study and
trial and error.
From my own hard won experienceI have discovered that a real
marketing campaign will take into consideration at least the
seven points which are outlined below:
1. Target Your Market
Your marketing will produce the best results for the lowest
cost when you target prospects with the greatest need for what
you offer.
Identify the best people to send your postcards to. Design your
postcards to appeal to their greatest need.
If you are able to break down your target market into sub
markets you can then write postcards that specifically speak to
the needs of those people (an example is breaking down your own
customer list into customers who buy most often, customers who
spend the most money with you, customers who have been your
customers the longest and then making them special offers based
on the category they fit into).
2. Create A USP For Your Business
USP stands for "Unique Selling Proposition".
It is a statement of what is different about your company and
its products. Your USP gives the reason people should do
business with you. It amplifies the benefit of doing business
with you and your company. My USP is POSTCARD MARKETING
EXPERTS.
Create your own USP and put it on all your promotional
materials, invoices, shipping labels etc.
Use your USP to communicate the benefit of doing business with
you and why you are better than any of your competitors.
3. Always Make an Offer
Make sure you ask your prospects and customers to do something
when they receive your postcard. By offering them something you
know they are likely to want and giving them a smooth path to
respond on, you are making it easy and desirable for them to
respond.
4. Create and Maintain a Database of The Customer Information
You Collect From The Responses To Your Mailings
Most people who receive a postcard from you won't contact you
the first time they receive one.
But once they contact you, you must create and maintain a
database which allows you to repeatedly contact them with
offers to respond to.
Fifty percent or more of many businesses' sales come as a
result of following up with people who were previously
contacted, but didn't buy right away.
No kidding, repeat contact does drive sales. One-time mailings
can get response, but are bound to leave sales on the table.
Those sales can be picked up with repeated mailings.
5. Take Away the Fear of Loss
People don't want to be fooled, plain and simple. Unfortunately
trust does not run high today between customers and businesses
in general. People have been disappointed too many times by
being sold one thing and getting another.
A guarantee or warranty is a good way to reduce or eliminate
the customers’ risk of getting something other than what they
bargained for.
Guarantees and warranties increase response and sales by
reducing customer risk.
6. Expand Your Product Line
Getting new customers is more expensive than selling to
existing ones. By regularly developing new products and
services to sell to your customers and offering these new
products and services to them, you can expand your business
efficiently and easily.
7. Test Your Postcard Promotions
Track the effectiveness of your postcard mailings. How many
people responded to your mailing? What dollar amount of sales
resulted from those responses?
Is the money you are spending to attract new business giving
you a good return? What can you do to make your marketing more
effective? Change your offer, headline, price, the timing of
your offer. When you do track the results and improve your
response.
These are the points to follow when designing your own
marketing strategy. When you are done, you will have laid out
the steps needed to accomplish your goal using existing
resources to achieve a great marketing ROI (return on
investment).
After that, you simply have to get those steps executed and
that might require further planning but it is all in the
context of your main business marketing strategy.
About The Author: Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998;
her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2004 the company did
$9 million in sales and employed over 60 persons. She
attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose
incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she’s
sharing her marketing secrets with others. Visit
www.postcardmania.com
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#4 Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Copy - The Down and Dirty Details
-----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 21:34:24 -0700
From: "Maria Marsala" <newsle-@coachmaria.com>
Reply To: Virtual-C-@topica.com
Today, being on the first page for your most popular keyword
phrase is like having the most memorable prime time
television commercial in 1973.
Essentially, that's where the power of advertising is going.
It's all about Search. And Search is only going to become
more important over the next ten years. If you can get on
that coveted first page organically, well then, more power
to you!
I know you probably have read other articles about writing
SEO copy and how it relates to achieving high search
rankings, there are plenty of them to go around. But some of
the articles are complicated; some are too long, others
boring. Still others don't explain that great SEO copy is
rarely effective just on it's own - in order to get those
high rankings (which is the goal after all), you have to do
other things too. So, we decided that what most people
really needed was a "down and dirty", easy to understand,
ten step method. You ask, and we deliver. Here are the
official ten steps in order:
1) Check your Competitors
Who are your competitors? Do you know? If you don't, you may
want to go online and do a search for your product or
service. Who is on the first two pages? That is your target.
Those are the companies that you want to compete with.
Because right now, they are getting your customers. Take a
look at their website. Notice the copy. Analyze their
business. Are they successful? What are they not doing
right? Look for the holes. You're going to meet the needs of
their customers (that they are not fulfilling) so they
become YOUR customers.
2) Research your Keyword Phrases
Remember, Keyword Phrase research is critically important.
It can also be a little tricky. Do you know what keywords or
keyword phrases your customers search for when they look for
you? Are you sure? Se what your competitors are using. You
can do this by right clicking on their home page, selecting
"View Source" and then checking their keyword meta tag.
Next, go on to Overture.com (Now Yahoo), click on "Visit the
Advertiser" section, and use their Keyword Selector Tool.
Its great - and its free. You can also use Wordtracker.com,
but it does cost $7.50/day.
3) Write Good Copy
Now its time to start writing. Or re-writing. And if you
can't write, you can hire a website copywriter to do it for
you. The bottom line is to write about benefits, not
features. Don't tell them how great your company is. They
will discover that for themselves when you overwhelm them
with your service and deliver the perfect product that meets
their every need. Make the copy to the point and snappy.
Make it sure it has impact, and asks the potential customer
for their business.
4) Integrate Your Keyword Phrases
After you figure out which keyword phrases you want to use
on your site, you need to integrate them into the copy of
your site. Think Home Page and Services page as the most
important pages to use them on. Essentially, you want to
them to make up 5% of the total words on the page. It's not
that hard actually. Just don't use them all over the place
like some stupid copywriters do - you could get de-listed
from the search engines. Definitely use them in your
headlines and sub headlines. That will get you extra points,
so to speak.
5) Check your Links, Build if necessary
Do you have any inbound links pointing to your site? If not,
no amount of awesome copy is going to get your site high
rankings. Links are very important. And even more so for
Google. Go to linkpopularity.com and see what you have. Also
check your competitors. If they have more than you, you need
to get some high quality links. You can either do that
yourself or hire someone to do it for you. It can be time
consuming and expensive. But you gotta do it. It makes you
look important to the search engines. A good way to do it is
to make sure you are listed on directories, including DMOZ
and industry related sites. Go to incominglinks.com to see
which ones you should be listed on. Then write articles and
submit them to article submission sites. That could
potentially give you hundreds of links for free.
6) Use Go Rank's Analytical Tools
GoRank.com is a fantastic free resource for SEO. They have a
Keyword Density Analyzer, Link Popularity Analyzer, Top 10
Keyword Analyzer, Research, News and lots of other great
stuff. It's a great tool and something I use every day. It
will help you in your SEO copy efforts.
7) Submit to the Search Engines
After you've ensured that your website copy and all the
other important SEO considerations have been completed, it's
time to submit to the Search Engines. Do it manually. Go to
the search engine and do it yourself. Definitely don't pay
someone to do it for you. You may have to resubmit a few
times, but eventually, your site will get noticed.
8) Tweak the Copy as necessary, Add New Content
After your site has been up for a while, go back and take a
second look. Ask friends and customers what they think of
it. Can anything be improved? You'll be surprised what you
may hear. If something isn't working, fix it. Make it sound
better. The other thing that you should also be doing is
adding content regularly. Build free resources into your
website. This will make your customers and potential
customers happy, and it will make you appear to be more
important in the eyes of the search engines. Adding articles
to your site is a great way to give your customers new, free
content. Write about things that they would find
interesting.
9) Partner with a Great SEO Firm
You may want to also consider partnering with a great Search
Engine Optimization firm. There are probably a hundred very
good ones out there. There are also 1000 bad ones. For the
good ones, check out topseos.com. and marketingsherpa.com.
They both list reputable firms. Whoever you go with, make
sure they have a list of client success stories complete
with stats to back it up.
10) Measure Your Success!
Finally, measure your success. (or progress) Get a software
program that will provide you with some web metrics as it
pertains to your site. WebTrends and Statcounter are great
ones. There are quite a few others as well.
As you can see, Search Engine Optimized copy is only part of
the overall SEO story. There is a lot to it, so make sure
you cover every area. After all, we want to get your web
site to the very top!
C2005 Jon Wuebben. Do you need Search Engine Optimized (SEO)
Web site copy that moves customers to buy? Are you looking
to create an effective newsletter/e-zine article or ad for
your business? We provide world class copy that helps you to
be found on the web. 10 years experience providing superior
copy to businesses nationwide. Contact us for a
complimentary Website Copy analysis. Subscribe to our
Better Business Writing (BBW) Newsletter and receive
2 free reports. http://www.customcopywriting.com/
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