Black Education – An Evaluation

Black education and Western education – are they different? Dr. Carter G. Woodson, father of Black History Month, in his 1933 The Mis-education of the Negro said that they should be, not so much because of the differences in race as the difference of circumstances in which many African Americans are forced to live. In today’s terms, blacks are no longer insulated by the caring communities that segregation necessitated. Black teachers, community elders and neighbors are no longer a sure factor in the extended education of black children. Western education may be the only legitimate education they receive.

For me personally, I was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana where integration of the school system did not truly begin until the late 1970s. When I began to score well on academic tests, I was placed in advanced classes where I was usually one of perhaps two or three black students in a class full of whites. I learned the Western curriculum so well that by the time I entered college I had no means of articulating what I thought blackness meant.

Here is a very embarrassing illustration.

Although I was a successful high school student, most of my success was due to trial and error. In college, for the subject of a freshman English paper, I chose the Civil War. Not understanding that history books are written to reflect the values of the researchers, the evidence that I used to support my paper promoted the heroism of a Confederate general.

So there I stood with a completed paper done by my own hands as I was taught through my integrated education, defending a Confederate general who defended the enslavement of my own ancestors. Worse, my parents, during mornings before going to school, picked cotton on plantation fields much like their ancestors before them in slavery, suffering overseers with unchanged antebellum attitudes and means.

Can you imagine a Jewish child being taught to defend the Nazis? While no one held a gun to my head and said write that paper, my Western education had only taught me to write term papers, not how to evaluate the evidence. I felt sick realizing that it was too late for me to change the topic and that I had to turn the paper in.

My paradigm shifted as a result. A black education became a necessity for me from that point on. I actively sought black teachers who could show me how to evaluate materials so that I could articulate my own experiences and points of view. Eventually, I attended an HBCU, Historically Black College or University. I learned that there is a great deal of diversity within the black race. I met black people from all over the world, from different economic backgrounds, and those who represented all shades of color and perspectives.

It was also at an HBCU where I first learned of Dr. Woodson’s book. According to him, a mis-educated Negro is one who receives a comprehensive Western education and thereby is unable to offer any effective solutions to help advance her own race because she identifies herself so thoroughly with Western culture, denying the value of her own.

A black education, especially one at an HBCU, teaches value of oneself, supplementing Western education. It has the power to help African Americans feel more rounded and fulfilled.

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Making an MLM Business Work for You As a Home Based Business

There are a multitude of home based business opportunities and finding the one that works for you is crucial if you are striving for a work/life balance or simply want to be your own boss. A multi level marketing (MLM) business is one of the viable opportunities for a home based business. Making an MLM business work for you as a home based business requires proper planning and research.

If you are looking for a get rich quick scheme this is not it. If you are willing to put in time and effort to make your business work, this is one of the ways to go. There are many MLM business opportunities on the internet. Some are scams and some are viable money making opportunities if you are willing to put forth the effort.

To make this a viable money making business requires first finding a company to work with that has good products and services and one that has been around for many years and is not a “fly-by-night” company.

To succeed in a MLM business requires several steps, some of which are discussed below.

1. Recruitment

This is very important because MLM businesses involve network marketing and made up of downlines and uplines. Uplines are those who recruited you and others whereas downloads are the people that you recruit. Those recruited including you will sell the company’s products and services and well as the business model to others.

Commissions are made on the sales or purchases made by others. If you have a significant downline making sales and purchases, your income potential will be immense. To put it simply, you can only succeed if your downline if successful which means that you need to properly manage your team or downline to keep them active and motivated.

Uplines and downlines must work together towards a common goal of success. Without the upline or downline, your MLM business will become fruitless and will not function properly.

If your do not work to increase your network or downline, you will have no income and shall become ineffective in your MLM home based business. There shall be no marketing of goods and services and no one handling customer needs and desires which will lead to no consumptions of the company’s products and services.

2. Maintaining Minimum Sales

If the company provides good products and services, you and your downline should not have a problem marketing the products and services to others. Keep up with the sales and purchases and related expenses on a daily basis to determine whether your business is progressing the way that you want it to.

3. Training Downline

Reputable MLM companies should provide the tools that you need to enable you to train your downline to become more effective representatives of the company. Since this is network marketing, relationship building is crucial to success. You and your downline need to have the same vision. Effectively training your downline may be the difference between success and failure. In addition, the MLM company should provide tools to help you become more effective in your efforts that you put into the MLM home based business.

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Home Based Business is the Best Work From Home Decision

Home based business generally means working for yourself from your home. Preferably you will want to earn enough income to support yourself or your family. Many successful stay at home moms and dads will never go back to being an employee for someone else ever again. There are many benefits to working from home for yourself in your own home based business.Chances are, you or someone you know, has been adversely affected by the current recession. There is no longer any job security. When you really stop to think about it, there never really was. Job security is like one of those urban legends that has been passed from one generation to the next. the truth is, when times get tough, employers will start to cut costs and that can lead to job losses.Most business owners can streamline their operations when economic pressures affect their bottom line profits. In order to stay solvent, they may have to make some tough decisions. The one thing you can be 100% sure of, is that when your employer has to make a choice between preserving his income or yours, you will lose every time.Still, understanding how a traditional business operates will give you a good idea of what you will need to do to build a successful company at home. Every successful enterprise starts with an idea and a desire to turn that idea into a source of income. People who can not get past the urban legend of job security may never bridge the gap to being in business for themselves.Three Things That Keep You Stuck in a Rut:1. Your Belief System:Believing that you can be your own boss is one of the most important keys to making the leap from employee to business owner. You must believe in yourself and your ability to apply the skills you have to creating a viable work from home income for yourself.2. Knowing Who and Where Your Customers Are:Employees rarely think of their job in terms of customers. An employee is hired to perform a specific function that may never put them in touch with the end consumer. Business is all about customers regardless of what your function or skills are. Without customers you can never have a viable business opportunity. Everything is about providing your customers with a service regardless of what the task is. When you stop thinking about being in a “job” and start to consider how you can be of value to someone else, you have taken the first step to becoming a work from home entrepreneur.3. Fooling yourself:Separate fact from fiction. Not everyone wants the responsibility of owning a business. Working at home does not mean you can sleep late, work for an hour while you sip coffee with your feet up. Creating a business takes time, consistency, diligence and most importantly, work. Some people actually prefer to put in their 8 hour day and then go home and forget about the job till the next work day. When you are your own employer it is totally up to you to get the jobs done.Home based business should never be taken lightly. Your success or failure is totally dependent on you. There is no one else to blame if something is not done properly. There is no one who looks over you shoulder to make sure you are doing what you are supposed to be do. Be honest with yourself. You can easily change your mind and way of thinking once you have identified your real views about working for yourself.Once you have made your decision to become your own boss it is time to develop your step by step plan to reach your target market. Get ready! It is time to start your own home based business.

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To Get Clients For Your Home Based Business, You Have to Talk Them

Even when you’ve done everything else right with your home-based business, if you don’t get your message out to potential customers, your business is not going to grow. Of course, everyone knows this. The more difficult part is weighing your options for how to get your message out. If you want to get clients, you need to have a well-developed marketing strategy that targets your ideal customers, and you have to use the latest technology.Narrow the FieldFirst of all, if most of the clients for your home-based business fit into a specific demographic, or if they have a specific need, why would you go through the trouble of putting your marketing message in front of everyone? Sure, if you have the resources to use a marketing technique that reaches thousands of people, this can be a good strategy. But most home-based businesses operate on a smaller scale, simply because they have smaller marketing budgets.That’s why non-web-based tactics like TV commercials or billboards usually aren’t practical for small businesses. Web-based tactics like banner ads or Pay-Per-Click marketing for high volume keywords are much the same. They can work if you have a huge marketing budget, but smaller businesses usually need to try other things.In short, if you want to get clients for your home-based business, you don’t have to cast a wide net. Instead, you have to put your message where your ideal clients will be looking. If your ideal client has a problem, where do they go to find a solution? Do they do a Google search? Do they read articles or web forums? The key to web-based marketing is to figure out the typical process that your ideal clients use to find your product or service, and to place your message somewhere where they will find it during that process.The Internet is Your Best Marketing ToolIf you don’t already have a high-quality, well-designed website for your business, it’s time to get one. This takes time and effort, but it’s worth it. Ask anyone who runs a successful home-based business, and practically every one of them will say that they would not get clients if they didn’t have their website.But you can’t just put your website up and expect people to come. You have to give your potential clients something else they want. Place a blog on your site, and update it regularly with useful, well-written content. This will help establish your credibility, and it will make your customers like you. Also, don’t forget to get your website out there on web forums and through article marketing. This way, when they’re looking for information, you’ll be there to help.

Making Home Based Business Marketing Plans Work

Those who operate home based businesses are getting more creative with their marketing plans. At one time, the most common method for network marketers was to simply present the information to friends and family members. As network marketers have bounced from one organization to the next, they eventually became members of the NFL, or simply no friends left.Over the years, companies have made millions generating network marketing and home based business leads for NFL members as well as new network marketers who simply did not want to approach their warm market. The companies entice internet surfers to submit their information and become a lead for someone looking to sign up new network marketers.There are well over 200 marketing possibilities available to home based business owners. Of course, just about all new network marketers ask the same exact question. They all want to know what marketing method works best.Usually, new home based business owners will gravitate to a simple marketing method that they have been told is easy to duplicate. Buying names and phone numbers and calling those people while reading a script to them is probably the most common.Less than five percent of the people who start a new home based business ever make any money from the business. There are several reasons for the failure rate, but one big reason is that most new marketers choose a marketing plan that is not a match for them. Lots of them try to call people and read scripts, but if their hearts are not in it, they never really connect with the people at the other end of the phone.Others see internet marketing as the cool and clean way to market their network marketing business. Most, who try to market on the internet, don’t make any money. Internet marketers who succeed don’t rely on the “Field of Dreams” theory. The motto of that baseball movie was “Build it and they will come”. As many internet marketers who have built fancy websites realize, they don’t just come. They need to get them there.Many who think they can succeed using internet marketing as the primary method of generating sales for their home based business never make any money. Either they are not tech oriented or they just don’t properly market their websites. Either way, internet marketing was not a match for them.By now, you may be catching on to the theme here. It’s not good enough to choose a marketing method that people say you can duplicate or one you think looks cool. Network marketers have to choose the marketing method that is the best match for them.When network marketers stop just following the leader and expose themselves to all the marketing possibilities, they are able to logically choose the best marketing plan for them. If home based business owners choose a method that involves activities they enjoy, they will take the time to learn all about it. Don’t you like to read and watch films about things you enjoy?If network marketers choose a plan they enjoy working, they will probably stick with it until they start generating income and that is more than half the battle. On average it takes at least three attempts at something to have success. Did you know the average network marketer makes less than one attempt? That’s because so many quit in the planning stage.Most of the time network marketers are forced by others into marketing plans that are not a match for them. The marketing method may require them to do activities they don’t look forward to, like calling strangers on the phone or reading complex internet marketing books.Whenever network marketers try to work a marketing plan that involves activities they don’t enjoy, they will look for ways to avoid working. Most people don’t really fail with a network marketing business that they are committed to. The failures just tend to gradually drift away from performing the activities that would lead to the success they desire. Owners of home based businesses, who don’t perform the required activities, don’t make money.

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More Return On Equity For Your Investment Property Dollar

Few would deny that real estate is a solid investment. It provides an attractive combination of stability, reliable cash flow, preservation of principal and capital appreciation. However, many investment property owners nearing retirement find themselves in a quandary. They are equity rich, but cash poor, with increases in the value of their property far outpacing income growth. They also are often tied down by the day-to-day issues of property management and, particularly in cities like San Francisco, California, shackled to the constraints of rent (and eviction) control. In fact, San Francisco is home to some of the lowest cash return on equity in the state’s real estate marketplace, which is somewhat counter-intuitive given California’s ever-booming property market.The obvious answer is to sell the property and unleash the dormant equity, but that can be problematic. These investors face the reality of prohibitive capital gains taxes and recaptured depreciation, as well as the task of identifying an alternate investment venue; or locating, acquiring and financing suitable replacement property in the time period allowed, taking advantage of tax deferral under IRS code section 1031.An ideal solution for many investment property owners may be to reinvest the proceeds from the sale of their property and utilize a subsequent 1031 exchange into a tenancy-in-common (TIC) ownership type, also known as co-ownership of real estate (CORE) interest in a suitable replacement property.1031 exchanges, also known as Starker exchanges or tax-deferred exchanges, permit owners to sell investment property and defer tax payments by reinvesting the proceeds into another investment property (or investment properties). In order to completely defer the payment of tax, among other things, the replacement property must be of equal or greater value and all the equity from the sold property must be reinvested in the new property. The marriage of 1031 exchange and TIC/CORE allows investors not only to defer their capital gains taxes but also to upgrade their investment real estate.TIC/CORE is a way of sharing ownership of property among two or more persons whereby each tenant holds an undivided interest in the property. Tenants-in-common may own interests of differing sizes. TIC/CORE investors are on the title and considered separate owners of the real estate. They share pro rata in the income, tax benefits and appreciation of the property. Their TIC/CORE interest can be purchased, sold, gifted, bequeathed by will or inherited; and it is subject to property taxes, gift tax, and estate and inheritance taxes in the same manner as any property held in sole ownership. With a TIC/CORE property, each of up to thirty-five investors have the opportunity to own an undivided fractional ownership interest in an investment-grade property, such as an office building, shopping mall, apartment complex or industrial property, costing anywhere from $10 million to $150-plus million.The benefits of investing in TIC/CORE properties are substantial. Such properties employ professional asset and property management, relieving the investor of day-to-day tenant headaches. More important, investors often receive greater cash flow and overall returns than they had in their previous sole ownership property. Typically, many people receive between 2-3 percent of their equity in their property in rental income. By selling this property and placing the equity into a larger investment-grade property, they can potentially experience annualized cash flow from 6-8 percent, paid monthly, and 12-16 percent overall return on their investment. Also compelling is that TIC/CORE exchange investors can diversify among several property types, and geographic locations through fractionalized ownership, while still enjoying 1031 exchange benefits on each amount. Thus, investors can potentially reduce risk in their overall real estate portfolio.Investors seeking to exchange for a TIC/CORE property are best advised to work with a financial advisor experienced in 1031 exchanges. Such advisors work closely with top real estate providers, who give the investor access to the best properties available. In addition, many TIC/CORE opportunities have pre-arranged, non-recourse financing in place, which is perfect for investors working within the 1031 exchange time frame. Numerous hours of upfront investigation, evaluation, due diligence and life cycle planning transpires before a property is offered to an investor group. Investors faced with only a 45-day window to identify a suitable replacement property to complete a 1031 exchange can select a suitable project with confidence.Given the tax deferral, institutional-grade quality of the property, professional property management and pre-arranged, non-recourse financing aspects, a 1031 exchange replacement property structured as tenancy-in-common ownership can be a very wise and profitable solution. It allows the investor to maintain everything they like about real estate (monthly income, preservation of principal, capital appreciation, etc.), while eliminating most of the hassles of property ownership.(c) 2005, 1031 Exchange Options. Reprint rights granted so long as the article and by-line are reprinted intact and all links made live. This article is neither an offer to sell nor an offer to buy real estate or securities. There are material risks associated with the ownership of real estate. You must be an accredited investor. Securities offered through Sigma Financial Corporation, Member NASD/SIPC.

Finance Online Help – How to Manage Your Personal Finances Using Online Services

Finding Finance Online Help is possible if you need help in dealing with money troubles or other financial difficulties. You can find a great deal of financial help for your household finances, online loan applications and even applying for a personal loan online with online finance help sites, without paying the cost of high fees.

Dealing with financial planning is not something most of us enjoy, particularly if there is not so much coming in to actually plan with. However, it is necessary to properly manage our personal finances otherwise it could be too late once a downturn or emergency hits us.

Most of us turn to credit and bank institutions to help us through, which can compound the problems. Seeking out help from online financial help sites, blogs and services is a good place to start to discover valuable ideas to consolidate debts in order to lessen your payments or how to manage your tight budget as well as how to bring in some extra money from other sources.

If you want to seek out free finance online help websites you will be surprised to find you can organize your household finances and personal money issues for wealth building without paying a cent. It has never been easier to get help online and there are a ton of tools and articles that can help guide you to success.

The type of help you can expect to find with online finance sites will come in the from informative articles on managing your personal loan online, household budgeting, free personal accounting software downloads, to advice on debt consolidation, refinancing and getting financial aid, household finances and online loan applications. You’ll even find budgeting spreadsheets as well as free software to download as well.

Let us cover a few of the best online help services for managing your personal finances:

• First is YouTube. There are plenty of resourceful people giving so much advice and how tools on all sorts of money issues.

• Second is the Mint.com. It is a completely free website to help with personal finances, budgeting and expense tracking that includes a number of helpful tools and suggestions for reducing your expenses and tracking you’re spending.

• And of course there is always Google Search: This search engine contains millions of sites that give a wealth of information on just about anything from experts covering on topics from investing in gold to bad credit repair.

The benefits of getting online financial help means you don’t have to sit through presentations, waste your gas, pay for parking, or worst, waste your time and money, getting the wrong type of advice.

Do Government Assistance Programs In Fact Assist Small Businesses?

Government budgets are relayed to various assistance programs whose purpose is to encourage economic activity in small businesses. It is often asked whether these programs do in fact fulfill their purpose or maybe these budgets are wasted?

A groundbreaking research jointly conducted by Ben-Gurion University and the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor elucidates this issue. Researchers Dr. Rami Schayek and Prof. Dov Dvir have developed an innovative model which measures the effect of government assistance programs on small businesses, identifies the most important components incorporated in the assistance program and determines which managerial, operational and behavioral activities should be focused in order to improve on business performance. The research included one hundred and thirty five small businesses which participated in the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor’s Standard Coaching project. This project is one of several business coaching projects run by the ITL ministry and it is designed for small and medium businesses of five to one hundred employees. A business of five to ten employees is appointed up to one hundred coaching hours. A business of eleven to one hundred employees is appointed up to one hundred and fifty hours. The coaching project finances 75% of the cost of coaching. 25% are financed by the business.

Results indicate that there is a return on the tax payer’s money!

Findings indicate that government assistance program involvement positively affects small business performance. The basic research model, which examined only the direct effect the assistance program has on small business performance, shows that the greater the number of quantitative components (hours of consultation; proximity of consultation encounters; range of issues incorporated into the consultation), and the higher the standard of qualitative components (level of the consultant’s professional understanding of the respective subjects of consultation; level of organization and planning of the consultation process; level of trust, commitment and mutual understanding between consultant and small business owner), the higher will be the level of performance in the small business. When adding to the model an examination of indirect effects, assistance programs are shown to affect small business performance primarily through the consultant’s influence on the small business owner which is expressed in the latter’s motivation to take action, like as attention to the service provided after the sale, understanding the fluctuation in customer preferences and the small business’s operative environment, and the need to measure and analyze customer satisfaction and respond to the customer’s complaints regarding either the service or the product provided by the small business.

The consultant also affects the business owner with respect to the latter’s ability to manipulate business opportunities through utilization of competitors’ weaknesses and an understanding of the ways in which the small business as a whole may benefit the customer. Consultation raises the small business owner’s level of awareness as to the need to innovate, take risks and increase the level of activity, both in implementing changes in the service or products he provides and as regards conduct in the face of competition. In fact, the consultation process motivates the small business owner to take actions which would raise the level of market orientation and entrepreneurship in the small business, and as a result initiate an increase in its level of performance.

How is it possible to win an even greater return?

The findings of Dr. Schayek’s doctorate thesis supervised by Prof. Dov Dvir, facilitate recommendation on a number of issues which could intensify the effect of public assistance programs on performance in small businesses. Thus it is important that the consultant emphasize before the client that submitting reliable and comprehensive information to the consultant, as well as willingness on the part of the business owner to implement changes in accordance with decisions reached as a result of cooperation with the consultant, is paramount for the success of the assistance process and the improvement on performance in the small business. Based on the research model, the client constitutes an integral part of the assistance program. The more involved and active he becomes in the process of coaching, the greater will be the assistance program’s positive effect on the small business’ performance.

In addition, the research indicates that effort must be made on the part of the consultant in improving the client’s capacity of raising finance. The client’s capital raising capabilities which, according to the model constitute a parameter in the improvement of the level of performance, will improve if the client is given an explanation as to existing finance opportunities and is prepared as to the manner in which one should approach and present the small business’ requirements before possible financing sources (such as banks or credit companies).

The Finer Points of Internet Auctions

WHAT IS A PENNY AUCTION?

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

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

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

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

HOW PENNY AUCTIONS WORK!

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

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

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

HOW TO WIN!

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

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

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

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

HOW TO AVOID SCAM SITES!

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

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

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

CONCLUSION!

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

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

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

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How to Find Great Live Auctions for Resale Items

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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