E - Learning in Today's Corporate World

The Importance of E- Learning in Today's Corporate World

The concept of e-learning is not new to corporate organizations and individuals albeit the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the need for organizations to leverage technology platforms to drive learning initiatives. In simple terms, e- Learning (Electronic Learning) is the act of learning (educating or training) through the use of digital resources such as computers, the internet, software programmes and mobile devices.

Now more than ever before, there is a heightened need for organizations to provide learning solutions to employees using digital platforms as the benefits far outweigh the demerits. With digital learning solutions, organizations are able to achieve much more than was possible in times past. This article brings to light the benefits of digital learning and reasons why organizations must rethink their learning strategies.

Why it is imperative for organizations to leverage digital platforms for learning

The use of digital platforms for learning is dramatically changing our education system and the corporate world should be willing to adopt this new reality. The days of classroom training are gradually coming to an end due to hi-speed internet and other advancements in technology. It is becoming more difficult for employees to stay engaged and attentive during lengthy classroom training sessions, the attention span of learners has declined significantly over the years. Research shows that e- Learning requires about 60% less time than learning the same information in a classroom setting. Training providers must look for ways to provide training programmes that ensure learners are properly engaged- leveraging technology makes this possible.

Advancement in technology has made access to information a lot easier and faster, individuals now have easy access to news articles, videos, podcasts and other forms of digital content. The benefits of e-learning are numerous, we have listed some of them below

1. E-Learning gives room for more flexibility in terms of training delivery method and timing.
2. Through digital learning, information can be accessed easily anywhere and at any time.
3. E-Learning courses are typically less expensive thus saving employers additional costs.
4. There is practically no limit to the number of learners that can take a course at the same time unlike a typical classroom training.
5. Digital learning allows learners learn at their own pace thereby increasing engagement and retention.

The future of corporate learning

For organizations to survive, they must constantly evolve to meet the needs of our ever-changing world and e-Learning is a key enabler for the success and growth of any organization. According to Forbes, "Companies like IBM, Sears, and Visa are starting to turn off their old systems and build a new generation of learning infrastructure that looks more like a 'learning network' and less like a single integrated platform." Forward thinking organizations acknowledge the fact that employees are more receptive to e-Learning, they understand that the younger generation of the workforce grew up with technology embedded in their daily lives and education, hence they are tailoring their training to accommodate, interactive videos and other multimedia learning techniques. This is an important piece in the continued success of such organizations while the other organizations that fail to evolve will eventually fade away.

A study by the Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education states that "Satisfaction level with web-enhanced teaching increased to 95% in the 2011 - 2012 investigation, compared to 73% - 87% in the 2003 - 2004 one." This study shows that in both investigations students were pleased with the concept of online learning, especially the students from 2011 - 2012. From such studies, organizations should realize that E- Learning is not simply an additional feature to education or training but is indeed a core and effective educational method that can and should be adopted, it is a powerful tool that provides businesses with highly skilled employees and also benefits the corporation economically. E- Learning is an important factor in training and education and it is here to stay.

The organizations that will survive now and in the future are those who constantly evolve their systems and processes to meet modern-day demands. Organizations that are serious about survival must not only update what their employees learn, they must also revamp how their employees learn.

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3 Simple and Effective Forex Strategies

Using simple but effective Forex strategies need not be difficult. There are three popular styles when it comes to actually trading currency. Ideally, you should try to apply aspects of each of these styles to maximize your success.

Here we will discuss them so that you can begin to implement in your Forex investment plan:

Technical Information Analysis

This is when you take advantage of all information available on the currency pair. This is especially useful because you can have constant updates and keep a very close eye on the best possible time to affect your buyout or trade.

This will allow you to leave trade options open until a currency or currency pair will achieve the price that you're looking for and keep a constant eye on happenings.

Sentiment Trades

This is a different aspect from technical trading because it involves market shifts that move based on feeling rather than specific fundamental facts. Market sentiment can often require you to react on a very visceral or gut driven basis and what you think the market will also react to.

It assumes that you have an understanding and intuitive feel for the market and currency trades based on prior experience. One huge advantage of this kind of trading is that it allows you to anticipate a market based on prior experience and outperform the herd consistently.

Specific Forex Strategies

There are literally dozens of books written on Forex trading strategies. Each specific strategy builds upon prior knowledge bases and allows you the opportunity to take advantage of proven methods when it comes to currency exchanges.

For example, the London Jammer trade takes example of specific volatility and indecision that has characterized many of the European markets. Tactics like this work best with certain kinds of reoccurring events happening in the market.

It becomes the responsibility of the trader to recognize events, trends and specific day trading sessions that will trigger the ability to choose the correct Forex strategy. When patterns are identified, you would then invoke the strategy that you would use to counter or take advantage of the events in the markets.

In the end, all investment strategies involve risk, sufficient information, a feel for the market and the ability to make decisions on the fly. Effective Forex strategies take advantage of all of these events and combine together for the right opportunity for you and your future investments.

If you want to be a successful Forex trader then discover how to use Forex by signing up for my "NO COST" Forex online training course, learn valuable Forex trading tips and get advice on how to be successful with easy to implement Forex trading tips go to: Answers About Forex and you will discover the secrets to being successful with Forex!

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Writing Your Business Plan (Traditional or Online Business)

How To Write A Business Plan

In my previous article, I talked about how you can plan your business startup. I defined a business plan as a written description of the future of your business. This is a document that indicates what you intend to do and how you intend to do it. I further explained that if all you have is a paragraph on the back of an envelope describing your business strategy, you have written a plan, or at least the beginning of a plan. I also said that a business plan consists of a narrative and several financial worksheets.

I mentioned that the 'writing of a business plan' as one of the pivotal steps involved in setting up a successful business. By now you should understand the need for writing a business plan. Writing a business plan, for a traditional brick and mortar business, will probably take a lot of time. It may take up to 100 hours or even more. For obvious reasons, a new business needs to carry out a lot of research before a business plan can even be developed.

For an online business, a detailed and in depth business plan is usually not necessary unless you are trying to combine your online business with a traditional business. For most online business startups, the detail involved with planning a traditional business is not required. However, it would still be beneficial to you if most of the topics were still covered, even if only briefly. Having a written plan in front of you will help you to focus on important aspects of the business.

You may not have thought much about your competition or outsourcing some of your work, but things like that will impact your ability to make a profit. And you will find this especially so in the beginning phases of your business. Even you are just opening a lemonade stand in the front yard, you will still need to know what Susie is selling her lemonade for on the next street over!

So, although a detailed business plan may not be required for an online business, I am going to include it here so you can at least look at and consider each section and determine yourself if it applies to your business.

Here I shall be discussing the basic steps involved in writing a business plan:

1. Executive Summary: The first step involved in writing a business plan is the executive summary. Here, include everything that you would cover in a five minute interview.

Explain the fundamentals of the proposed business: What will your product be? Who will your customers be? Who are the owners? What do you think the future holds for your business and your industry?

Make it enthusiastic, professional, complete, and concise.

If you are applying for a loan, state clearly how much you need and be precise in how you are going to use it. Also include detail about how the money will make your business more profitable, thereby ensuring repayment of the loan.

2. Business Description: After the executive summary, you need to write a short description of the business you are going into. You need to give a general description of the industry your business belongs to. You will write about your company's mission statement, goals and objectives, business philosophy, as well as its legal form of ownership (sole proprietor, corporation, LLC, etc.).

Describe your most important company strengths and core competencies. What factors will make the company succeed? What do you think your major competitive strengths will be? What background, experience, skills, and strengths do you personally bring to this new venture?

3. Marketing Analysis/Strategy: The next thing to write (after the general description) should be your marketing strategy. For new or existing businesses, market analysis is an important basis for the marketing plan and will help justify the sales forecast. Existing businesses will rely heavily on past performance as an indicator of the future. New businesses have a greater challenge - they will rely more on market research using libraries, trade associations, government statistics, surveys, competitor observations, etc. In all cases, make sure your market analysis is relevant to establishing the viability of your new business and the reasonableness of the sales forecast.

4. Location: Writing down the location of your business is very important. Locations with greater customer traffic usually cost more to buy or rent, but they require less spending for advertising to attract customers. This is especially true of retail businesses where traffic count and accessibility are critical.

If an online business, you need to go into detail how you will attract customers to your website. General statements like "I will use Face Book ads and email marketing" will contribute almost nothing to helping your cause unless you have detailed statistical analysis of tests you have conducted or of another similar business you have been associated with. If you do not have any data upon which you reference your estimates, it could show lack of proper thought to the remainder of your business plan.

5. Competitive Analysis: Business by nature is competitive, and few businesses are completely new. If there are no competitors, be careful; there may be no market for your products. Expand your concept of competition. If you plan to open the first roller skating rink in town, your competition will include movie theaters, malls, bowling alleys, etc.

6. Management and Operations: Because management problems are the leading cause of business failures, it is important to discuss management qualifications and structure. Resumes of the Principals should be included in supporting data. If your business will have few employees and rely heavily on outside professionals, list these key people and their qualifications. If you are seeking financing, include personal financial statements for all of the principals in the supporting data section.

7. Personnel: The success of any company depends on their ability to recruit, train and retain quality employees. The amount of emphasis in your plan for this section will depend on the number and type of employees required.

8. Projected Financial Statements: These statements are usually helpful, but not necessary. You will develop and describe your strategies for the business throughout your Business Plan. In the financial section, you will need to estimate the financial impact of those strategies by developing projected Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statements.

It is usually recommended that these projected statements be on a monthly basis for at least the first twelve months or until the business is projected to be profitable and stable. Activity displayed beyond the monthly detail may be in summary form (such as quarterly or annually). The forecast period for most business plans is two to four years.

9. Summary Section: This section is where you will be able to attach or explain any detail not applicable to the previous sections. This section should be used to provide the financial statements of the Principle's involved in the business and any other data you think an investor would be interested in seeing.

The main thing to remember in this section is not to provide new data, but to explain in detail data that has already been provided and to provide the support for that data.

When you sit down to compile all of the elements of your business plan, make sure you have each section able to stand on its own merits. This means you should not reference other sections sending the reader (your potential investor) back and forth between sections.

Do not try to write your business plan in one sitting. As I mentioned in the beginning, for a traditional brick and mortar business, it could take in excess of 100 hours to compile all of the information needed into a comprehensive but yet understandable document. For online businesses, probably not that long. But your final product should be well thought out, well documented and easily understandable.

On my website, http://www.bobthibodeau.com, I am helping those who are new to Internet Marketing not make the same mistakes I (and countless others) have made getting started. I also help those marketers who are struggling in an area of getting their business going. I offer no promises - just plain, straight forward training and assistance for those who are serious about making a serious, online income.

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The truth about failure and making mistakes

The biggest mistake you can make in life is to make none…

Sitting on the fence

Doing nothing instead of taking the risk

Not making the decision

Everyone has something they truly want – but how many people actually go after it?

I get it…

Taking a risk can be terrifying,

It’s understandable to be scared of failure.

To not want to make a mistake…

But here’s the thing:

Everyone fails, everyone makes mistakes and things won’t go to plan 100% of the time.

Let me be clear: that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything.

It doesn’t give you an excuse to hold back and not give it your all.

Don’t play it safe.

Have the courage to do it anyway.

Making a mistake isn’t fun. Failure can be painful.

But the only thing that matters is what you do after.

Make the mistake, then learn from it.

Don’t use it as an excuse for not trying, or letting yourself become so afraid of failing that you never stretch out of your comfort zone.

Instead, go for it.

When you do fail - own it, do something about it and most importantly learn from it.

Trust me: Some of your biggest mistakes will become your greatest lessons.

How To Know When It's Time To Change Careers

Thinking About A New Career?

There are a lot of people who are unhappy with their employment situation and often think about the steps that they should take to successfully change their career. That's the reason why I'm writing this article, to encourage you to not let anything keep you from moving forward and bettering your life situation.

Many have successfully changed their careers and greatly improved the quality of their lives and you can too.

There's some good news in that we all have the ability to learn and it's never been easier to successfully change careers due to the enormous amount of research that can be done on the internet on just about any topic. Is a career change really a good idea right now?

Here are 4 things that make people think about doing something different with their lives:

They are bored at work - Are you bored once in a while or every day? Is there a more fulfilling job available in your workplace that you can do? Is there a change in the daily routine available that can get rid of the source of boredom? Do you need another company or another career, or both?

Not enough income - Can you check out the possibilities for advancement in your present job and career situation? Would a better position and a rise in income, in the same field, be all that's needed?

Talents not being used - Is there another position available where you can better use your talents and do something more fulfilling? You might consider talking to the boss to see if you could make some changes to use those talents and perhaps even get a pay increase in the process.

Health issues - Are you physically unable to comfortably perform the present duties at work? Is it harder because of the age factor and stress on the body? Maybe it's time to evaluate yourself for the years ahead, what would you like to be doing 5-10 years from now? Sometimes after considering these things one can tell for sure if the idea of completely changing careers is right for their situation.Of course you must take family into consideration.

I would say that most often there is a real learning curve that takes place with your new career choice and the income might take many months to build up to what the person is currently earning. It's a must to have a good plan in place so that you can make it through the growing period and still maintain a certain comfort level.

You Gotta Have a Plan

Many would like to change their careers and they might go out looking for another job and find themselves in the same situations in a few years time. This is serious business due to the fact that we only have so many years in our working careers, and they go by quickly.

It's very important to have more than just an idea but a plan to follow that will bring you where you want to be in your older years. Think about how you can help others in your current or new career. See the rewards in their getting what they need and you being financially rewarded for your service.

Make Sure Of What You Want

Do you have a real desire or a short-lived and poorly thought out idea that gets replaced every so often with another great idea? Most people fail for lack of planning and a short-sighted view. Will the change bring you happiness and fulfillment or simply more money, and stress to go along with it?

My name is Pete, internet business entrepreneurs generally have multiple websites which are continuously attracting multiple sources of income. If you would like to learn about making money in your own online business, making your own websites, increasing site traffic, writing content-rich articles, it would be a great idea to take advantage of an absolutely FREE opportunity 10 FREE Certification Course Lessons and get 2 FREE WordPress websites to create, step by step, your own sites. There is No Card Required - Nothing To Lose. Come to see for yourself >>>NewCareerAt40.com

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How to Start a Small Business Online Today

Although many are drawn to the idea of having their own small internet business, many budding entrepreneurs do not know how to start a small business online.

Have a Solid Business Model

The first rule of how to start a small business online is to have a solid business model. There is no secret 'push-button' model to generating income online. There are many hyped-up schemes on the internet that promise that you will make millions of dollars for doing very little work by just pushing a few buttons. But these are just not reality. Having a small online business is just like any other business.

However, a small internet business is scalable and enjoys higher margins and lower set up costs than a traditional 'offline' business. A solid business model for an online business has the prefect mixture of recurring income, affiliate income and high ticket income.

Take Action

You have to be willing to actually get started. The internet is a great resource and there a many articles, forums and websites that all provide information on how start a small business online. It is important to do research on the best business that suits you, but you have to commit and get started building a list of potential customers. This list of potential customers will become a valuable asset as you start to build a relationship with them. You need to provide valuable and relevant information to them to build their trust so that they will be willing to buy from you.

Provide Value

As mentioned above, one of the keys of how to start a small business online is to provide value. In the business world of the internet, if you give, you will receive. If you provide valuable information to your potential customers for free, they will be grateful for it and want more and will be willing to buy it. If you provide rubbish, they will think that you product is rubbish too.

Generate Traffic

A business online without traffic is like a shop in the back street of a old run-down town with no passers-by and nobody knows that it is there. If you really want to know how to start a small business online, you need practical skills to generate traffic to your website pages. Website traffic can either be free or paid for and they both have their advantages and disadvantages. But, with a skilled combination of both, you can have a long term stream of potential customers coming to your online business.

Invest In Education

As with any business, if you want to know how to start a small business online the most important skill you can learn, is marketing. There are many online business entrepreneurs who have gone before you. If they have had success with a business model that interests you, you can learn from their efforts. It is vital to have access to a community and mentors because learning from someone who's already successful online will make a big difference to your results.

The internet and the new digital economy has made it possible for many people to discover how to start a small business online. An online business does not require a bricks and mortar premises, staff, stock or large financial investment in inventory to make it a success. If you have a computer and access to the internet you can start straight away. You do not have to buy stock or worry about how to supply it to your customers and your online business can work for you whilst you are sleeping!

If you want a step by step guide on how to start a small business online so that you can can quickly and easily get started earning money online from a fast growing profitable market even if you have no previous training, knowledge or your own products to sell go to http://www.jonallo.com

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Transitioning From Employee to Solopreneur

Is your number one Bucket List goal to establish your own entity and become a business owner or Solopreneur consultant? Are you planning to abandon the "safety" of a traditional job to directly market and sell your products or services to customers with the money and motive to do business with you?

Going out on one's own is a thrilling and sometimes frightening prospect. Those who take the plunge eventually discover that many resources that are casually taken for granted while working in an office are not readily available to those who step out on their own. As you weigh your options and prepare to write your business plan, be aware of a few changes and additional expenses to expect should you join the self-employed sector:

No paid days off

There will be no more paid sick days, holidays, vacation days, or personal days when you become the captain of your own enterprise. Neither will there be any pay for days off that result from bad weather. When winter arrives and snow begins to fall, there will be days when harsh weather conditions impact your business and your income. When the governor of your state declares a snow emergency, important meetings will be postponed and businesses may be unable to open and operate.

In particular for those who own a B2B or B2C venture where the business model requires you or your employees to visit the customer's location (e.g., cleaning services), or customers to visit your location (e.g., a laundromat), snow days = no revenue days. Small businesses have been known to go out of business within a year following periods of extreme weather.

Establish business credit

For tax purposes, it will be useful to open a separate business bank account and also apply for a business credit card or two. There will be business expenses to write off and you'll want to make it easy to monitor spending. Do yourself a favor and check your personal credit ASAP and pay off outstanding credit card balances to improve your credit score and correct any errors.

Financial management

Financial management will assume more than one form. As noted above, you'll need to establish credit for the business, so that you can order inventory and supplies without immediately impacting the business cash flow, for example. Those are Accounts Payable items. You will also need to ensure that customers pay you on time, or at all, and that is an Accounts Receivable function.

Maintaining sufficient cash flow is crucial to the business' survival and your own ability to keep a roof over your head, food on the table and your car on the road. You must develop a business budget and plan for the purchase of equipment, licensing costs (if applicable), insurance (if applicable), professional certifications (if applicable), or space rental (if needed).

In addition, you may consult with a business attorney or accountant to discuss the legal structure of your venture: Sole Proprietor, Corporation (chapter S or C), or Limited Liability Company (LLC). The type of business that you're in and your exit strategy will play a role in choosing the business legal entity.

Paying for office supplies

Free scanning and photocopying will be over. When you need to staple a few pieces of paper together, you must buy the stapler and the staples and you'll buy paper clips and envelopes, too.

There will likewise be no meeting space or audiovisual equipment for you to reserve. You'll have to meet at the client's office, or at a coffee shop or other restaurant. Privacy might be an issue and arranging a Power Point or other visual presentation might be awkward as well.

A lap top computer or tablet will be office equipment must-haves. It will be imperative to possess the tools of your trade and to always appear as a competent and prepared professional as you develop your reputation and build your brand. Good luck!

Thanks for reading,
Kim

Kim L. Clark is an external strategy and marketing consultant who brings agile skills to the for-profit and not-for-profit organization leaders with whom she works. Please visit http://polishedprofessionalsboston.com to learn how your organization can achieve mission-critical goals when you work with Kim.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kim_L._Clark/647250
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Multiple Revenue Streams Keep A Solopreneur Solvent

To build a successful career as a Solopreneur consultant requires courage, resilience, possession of marketable skills and relationships with people who are willing and able to refer or endorse you for paid project assignments. Solopreneur consultants must have a talent for selling, the discipline to create and pursue business goals, a knack for big picture thinking and implementing strategies and an understanding of human nature and motivation. The ability to attract good luck and dodge bad luck helps, too.

Precious few Solopreneurs are able to just "go to the office" everyday and delve into the usual work. In order to generate the preferred amount of business revenue, we understand that creating multiple revenue streams may be necessary and to make that possible, we must recognize the marketability of our skill sets, in aggregate and in segments. As well, we must learn to package, promote and sell our skills and value to prospective clients.

Consider my revenue streams, for example. When asked, in my short form elevator pitch I say that I'm a self-employed external consultant who provides business strategy and marketing solutions to mid-size for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. What that means in reality is that I've facilitated strategic planning meetings at not-for-profit organizations; edited a 100 page nonfiction book and also served as its photo editor and project manager; developed curriculum for a series of 90 minute sales skills training workshops; and periodically I teach business plan writing.

I've been fortunate enough to regularly win business strategy development or marketing campaign assignments, but the fact is that there are often gaps and in response, I've learned to branch out and offer segments of my skill set to clients or employers as a way to maintain my required cash-flow and, whenever possible, also enhance my brand. In my experience, it's the ability to leverage one's perhaps infrequently promoted competencies that help Solopreneurs to create and sustain a profitable business venture.

My friend Adela is a busy educational consultant who works with college bound high school juniors and their parents to identify suitable colleges for the student and navigate the application process. Adela's business appears to be thriving, yet she nevertheless teaches Spanish at a local university (she was born and raised in Mexico and came to the U.S. to attend Notre Dame University).

Jackie, a friend of many years, is the founder and manager of a small, full-service fitness center that became very successful in that highly competitive market, yet she teaches a fitness class at another gym a few miles away. Why? Because she gets to observe another style of fitness center management from the inside, she receives training in new fitness techniques that she can evaluate for inclusion in her own gym and she earns a few extra dollars each week, something that a mother of four can always use. Sometimes you can get paid to research the competition!

My friend Carole toggles between freelance marketing gigs at technology companies and corporate positions in that sector. She's a Lotus alumna who's also worked for tech giant EMC, distinctions that command respect and open doors in the tech industry. In between corporate gigs, Carole goes out on her own to develop marketing strategies for tech start-ups. A couple of years ago, she was offered a position as director of marketing at one of those start-ups, but when the inevitable reorganization occurs, she'll re-enter Solopreneur life.

So, Solopreneur friend, I invite you to put on your thinking cap and brainstorm how you can create additional revenue streams by exploring how certain segments of your skill set can be packaged and promoted to current and prospective clients!

Thanks for reading,
Kim

Kim L. Clark is an external strategy and marketing consultant who brings agile skills to the for-profit and not-for-profit organization leaders with whom she works. You can ensure that mission-critical goals at your organization will be achieved when you contact Kim at http://polishedprofessionalsboston.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kim_L._Clark/647250
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10 common investment mistakes that can ruin your retirement

 It is well known that as things stand, the majority of South Africans will not have enough money to sustain their current standard of living in retirement.

Recent increases to value-added tax and the fuel levy, among other things, have worsened the outlook for many.

Retirement savers would do well to avoid fairly common investment mistakes, according to chief executive officer at 10X Investments, Steven Nathan.

Here are the 10 mistakes retirement savers frequently make, and how to avoid them:

Mistake #1: Saving too little

The number one reason most people miss their retirement goal is because they don’t save enough.

“No rocket science here,” says Nathan. “You can’t save like a pauper and then expect to live like a prince in retirement.”

The basics of  a successful model for retirement is that people should save 15% of their gross salary throughout their working life (an average of 40 years) and invest in a balanced high equity fund that charges low fees.

Mistake #2: Paying high fees

Fees matter a lot more than most people imagine, says Nathan. In the context of a 6.5% real return (that is after inflation), every 1% paid in fees reduces the return by more than 15%.

If investors are paying 3% in fees the return will be reduced by 45%, which means that more than half of the real annual return is lost to fees.

When the effect of compounding, where you earn a return on your return, is included the negative impact can be devastating.

Nathan urges investors to understand the fees they are paying, and to look for a low-cost provider that charges no more than 1% in total annual fees.

Mistake #3: The wrong asset mix

Choosing an asset mix that mirrors personal risk tolerance, such as conservative or risk averse, but is not appropriate for the investment time horizon can dramatically damage a retirement outcome.

"It is critical to grow your savings at a high rate for the majority of your savings period, which is why you should be invested in a high equity fund," said Nathan.

"A lower growth portfolio would be insufficient in the context of a 40-year savings plan, based on a 15% savings rate."

A life-stage solution, where one can automatically be switched to the appropriate portfolio as the time horizon changes, is a simple and effective solution.

Mistake #4: Investing in an underperforming fund

Nathan said that, when it comes to retirement investing, it is more important to eliminate the downside risk and reach the minimum savings goal than to entertain upside risk in the hope of overshooting the savings goal.

"No one should be gambling with something as important as their retirement savings," says Nathan.

Mistake #5: Emotional switching

Chopping and changing funds or asset classes, especially during periods of market turbulence, often leads to buying high and selling low.

Investors should rather stick to their plan and avoid the temptation to switch or try to time the market.

Mistake #6: Inadequate diversification

If you are over-invested in one asset class or security, you assume concentration risk, the risk that one investment will have a disproportionate impact on your savings outcome. As a retirement investor, you cannot afford the downside risk as it may ruin your pension.

Nathan says: “Remember, it’s about reaching your goal with the lowest possible risk; it is not about speculating your way to a dream existence.”

Savers should invest in various asset classes (equities, bonds, property and cash), each providing exposure to many different underlying securities, held across different currencies (local and international) and regions (for example, developed and emerging countries).

Mistake #7: Saving outside retirement funds

Tax-free deductions and investment returns can potentially increase the value of your retirement savings by up to 30%.

And you score again because your retirement income is almost always taxed at a lower average rate than the marginal tax you saved on your contributions.

Mistake #8: Starting to save too late

Few people in their 20s worry about retirement but, ideally, we should start saving towards retirement from our first pay cheque. We should keep it up throughout our working life (around 40 years on average).

Nathan says it is important to remember that contributions are only one source of your future retirement income. The other is the net investment return you earn on your contributions.

“The sooner you start contributing to your retirement fund, the longer your money has to grow.”

Initially, Nathan adds, the returns add only a little to your total pot, but once compounding (earning a return on your return) kicks in, the growth will pick up and continue building momentum.

“The effect is much like a snowball rolling down a mountain, until the compounded investment return totally overwhelms your contributions.”

Mistake #9: Cashing in savings on changing jobs

Not preserving what has already been saved is a very common mistake in South Africa: up to 80% of fund members have at some point cashed out their savings when they changed jobs.

Not preserving is like starting late: people lose not just the accumulated savings, but the return on those savings for the remainder of the savings term.

The foregone return becomes a big number when a fund is cashed in 30 years ahead of time.

Mistake #10: Underestimating how much money is required

Using a quality retirement calculator (based on accurate inputs and assumptions) provides a good sense of where savers stand relative to their goal, and what they could do to improve their savings outcome.

“When it comes to retirement planning, various factors are beyond your control, such as the macroeconomic environment and stock market performance, which makes it even more important to understand and control the many factors that you can,” says Nathan.

Steven Nathan is the chief executive officer at 10X Investments.

The Passive Income Myth

According to the IRS there are three categories of income: Active, passive, and portfolio.

Active is what it sounds like. You do income-producing activities that you get income.

Portfolio is also what it sounds like. You invest money into things like stocks, real estate funds, or other investment vehicles and - in the best of times - your investment yields gains, or income.

Then there is passive income.

The sacred cow of network marketing companies and continuity/membership site experts.

The goal of every over-worked, under-earning, praying-for-a-miracle self-employed type.

Passive intimates no work. You, on the beach, cocktail in hand, checking your PayPal account for the sales every few hours. Or, better yet, you, on your couch, in your jammies, binge watching GOT or House. Again.

I googled a ton of content on passive income and although there are some sound possibilities out there - lend money for interest for instance - many take a sound idea and run it right off the rails, like this one that admits you must frontload the work to get to passive: "first you need to haul ass and do something crazy, e.g. write a quality 20,000-word eBook (insane, not passive hahahah)", but here is where it runs wild -"but then you get to sit back and enjoy seeing PayPal sale messages pop up on your iPhone each morning as sale after sale after sale is made... on an ongoing basis and without any additional work. That's some seriously Pina Colada flavored passive goodness!"

There's some seriously delusional-flavored thinking.

Let's look at digital products. You write or create it once, set it up on a landing page, hook up the cart, drive traffic and you are off to the beach to collect your moolah.

A well done e-book or virtual program takes hours of research, writing, producing, formatting, etc. Those hours cost your time, and during those hours you are not making money. But OK, we can all agree, there has to be work on the front end right?

Right, but it doesn't end there.

Now we have marketing. If your landing page is optimized, your copy is killer, and your ads are spot on - something by the way that takes daily monitoring - and your e-book/product/program is targeted to the right audience, you could see recurring revenue from this evergreen type product.

Phew. We've done quite a bit of work so far and there are lots of "ifs" from a marketing perspective. (If your landing page converts because you've got conversion copy and the page is optimized for SEO, and you are targeting an audience that wants what you've got from you, and on and on.)

And marketing doesn't end if you want to keep the sales coming.

What about managing affiliate partners, returns, customer service? Even outsourced, there is still some active participation.

This type of income, as you see, is far from passive but it is leveraged.

Leveraged is good. It's how businesses grow and in our case, entrepreneurs, how we get out of the income-capping trap in the fee-for-service-only model.

I don't want to be Debbie downer, but part of my commitment to my clients and you, my readers, is to bring the truth; shine a light on traps, false gods, and naked emperors.

Am I suggesting not to do an e-book, a virtual program, or a continuity program? NO! (Well, I might in the case of the membership/continuity program, and I'm getting a few experts together to parse the good and bad and who should and shouldn't and when. I'll have details next week here.)

I am suggesting that you examine your attraction to a marketing idea before jumping in. No one idea will "save" a shaky business - sales is the exception here - and one idea that promises to "change everything" in your business is likely to fall short of its promise. What it really requires will only be found in the mice type - that tiny print at the bottom of webpages and print ads that gives you the disclaimer.

Always read the mice type.

And start researching leveraged income streams. Find out what it will really take to set one up and get started. It may not be passive, but it's income that requires less of you one-on-one or one-to-many. And that means more time to work on your portfolio or pina coladas.

Gregory Anne Cox is a free spirited entrepreneur who offers marketing in a fashion without using tired and boring content but a new fresh approach getting away from "Squishy Language" From becoming a freelance writer in NYC, to opening her own restaurant in San Diego, she is also a world renown author. Her most recent publications are "Everything is Food Journal" & "Your Genes Do Not Determine The Size of Your Jeans". Gregory now specializes in Online copy assessment, Done-For-You and Speaker and Engagement Services.

http://bemoremarketable.com

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How High Achievers Harvest Time and Accomplish Their Dreams - Part 1

Have you ever wondered why some people achieve so much more than others?

Our research of high achievers (HAs as we call them), regardless of their chosen field of endeavor, show shared characteristics. Here are 6 of the most important; all of which speak directly to the issue of harvesting time to achieve their dreams.

1. They know what they want.

2. They know why they want it.

3. They have set goals to achieve it.

4. They have a clearly defined plan to get them there.

5. They take action.

6. They commit their time and resources to its accomplishment.

While only a part of the total formula for Time Harvesting these 6 factors are important, contributing elements. In Part 1 we will look at the first element: they know what they want.

Envisioning the outcome.

HAs know exactly what they want. There is no ambiguity about their dream. They are totally focused on the outcome. They can describe it in vivid detail. They're convinced it can and will happen. It's not about "if," it's about "when."

The "what" defines the priorities.

Because the outcome is both crystal clear and expected, there is singleness of purpose. Thus, dedicating time to accomplish the goal becomes top priority understanding that the sooner the plan is executed, the sooner the dream is realized.

Competing priorities.

Unfortunately, like everyone else, HAs don't have the luxury of only dealing with the dream. Life gets in the way and HAs must deal with other issues, as well. But, just like the consistency of the compass needle, after the fires are put out; HAs return to accomplishing the dream.

The lesson.

The lesson is clear. To get the absolute benefit out of every moment of your time you must have a compelling, desired outcome. Otherwise, your time is just dissipated as you wander about aimlessly. Unfortunately, too many people do not have a clearly defined, realistic, defined outcome for their life. That is why they waste so much time and feel unfulfilled.

Remember, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.

Going forward, the compelling question is, "Where will you be, and is that where you really want to be?" What a terrible shame to live an unfulfilling life because you aren't doing what you really want.

The critical issue.

The critical issue is the necessity to define your dream. Take the time to figure that out. You simply must. Then, each day you can devote your time to getting there.

In Part 2, we will look at your "why;" what drives you to accomplish the "what."

Would you, too, as so many other have, like to effectively have a 13th month or more every year to achieve your dreams? Author Jan Schrader shares the secrets of Time Harvesting in the book, The Secret of the Thirteenth Month - Harvesting the Time to Achieve Your Life's Dreams. To learn more, just go to http://www.JanSchrader.com, and discover the power of Time Harvesting.

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Entrepreneurs Need ONE Thing To Succeed - Survivability

The idea of being an "entrepreneur" is the new "rock star" - millions of young people going off the beaten track in order to try and secure a better future for themselves or their families.

Fuelled partly by the Internet and partly by a changing economic landscape, the young of today are more focused on themselves than ever, unwilling to take "menial" jobs at the likes of McDonald's; instead taking on large amounts of student debt in order to secure as lucrative career as possible.

It's in the midst of this tectonic shift (where barriers-to-entry have been eroded massively, and the world opened up for business) that many have placed "entrepreneurship"... the idea of "working for yourself". Unfortunately, it's most a lie.

If you're interested in this type of thing, the first thing you need to realize is that entrepreneurship is a lifestyle, not a vocation. Most people are not "entrepreneurs", they're merchants (buy and sell products).

REAL entrepreneurship is about doing / building something that's NEVER been done before. This might be something simple (a new flavour of soft drink), or something as difficult as getting humanity to Mars. It is NOT about "selling" products for the sake of it.

What many see as a "choice" between a Dystopic future of student debt, mortgages, auto loans and 40+ years of 9-5, is in fact fraught with the utmost danger and risk. The biggest problem is that no one will help you. You're 100% on your own.

In other words, don't become an "entrepreneur"... you have to either be "born" one (which isn't strictly true), or be so utterly determined to see your ideas come to fruition that you're willing to risk your life on making it work.

This is what most people don't see. They see the accolades, cars, success - they don't see what goes on behind the scenes. It's because of this that I wanted to write this article.

Angela Lee Duckworth called it "grit", Elon Musk called it "chewing glass and looking into the abyss of death"... the one thing that anyone looking to bring their ideas to life is survivability - the ability to persist even when everyone else has either quit or been killed.

Every time you look back through history, at the *true* entrepreneurs... the Galileo's of the world; Magellan's; Sir Francis Drakes... we see the same pattern every time. A world-defining event that THEY survived. This was then brought to the market in some form or another, transforming the way that people live and are able to operate.

What most people think of as "entrepreneurship"... starting a "blog", running a "social media" account or some other menial achievement... is nothing worthy of note.

It doesn't *do* anything. It's paper pushing.

To "become" an entrepreneur is very simple.

Shut up and get to work. Most make the error of telling everybody what they're doing. Not only is this a mistake, but kills and chances of actually completing the task you set out to perform. Move in silence.

In terms of what you "do", this is also simple - focus on completing a task that pays you money. Don't worry about changing the world or anything up front, that comes later. Just get your head down and focus on making more money than the other guy, by producing the *best quality work* you can.

Imbue EVERYTHING you do with excellence - reaching to your highest possible potential to pull it off. This is what it takes to become successful.

What's interesting is if you do this, you end up finding opportunities that come out of the blue. They just appear without actually being forced in any way, allowing you to then develop "systems" which can be used to elevate your work to a new level.

It's these systems which end up being the hallmark of an entrepreneur - having the insight to create *new* systems gives you the ability to continue on your upwards spiral. It's also where the "best" entrepreneurs begin to shine - they typically are dogged enough to understand that putting a "system" out into the world is - by far - the most important aspect to achieving growth in life. This is where the "grit" element comes from.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Richard_Peck/2344303
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Avoid The Next Financial Storm That Will Affect Most American People Very Soon

My greatest fear along with most Americans would be if we will outlive our money during retirement or if we will have enough money to retire on at all. As long as our government lives on separate terms than the people they govern I foresee millions of Americans suffering from financial strife later on down the road. Most Americans truly think that Social Security is going to be enough to get them through their twilight years. I personally think that Social Security will not be around from most of us and if you are depending on Social Security to support you during your twilight years, you will find out that it will not be enough. Social Security was only created to subsidize your investments, retirement plans, and/or savings. It was not created to act as a retirement plan.

Since I have had the luxury of being affiliated with the banking industry for over 30 years now I have seen thousands of saving accounts of senior citizens that had less than $10,000 in them. I spoke in Northern California back in 2004 where I mentioned that the many jobs that kids and young teenagers use to occupy would no longer exist due to senior citizens not having the money to retire. I was laughed off the stage by 6000 people. Who's laughing now!. There are no longer paperboy jobs for kids due to the senior citizens now occupying those jobs. I also stated that most of the fast food jobs along with Walgreens and CVS jobs would no longer be occupied by high school teens and they would be replaced by senior citizens, just take a look around and tell me it is not happening right in front of your eyes. People are no longer laughing. I also told people at that seminar that I foresee tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people homeless in the next 10 to 20 years.

You might want to take notice of thousands of people taking up residence under freeway ramps all over the nation. They are living in tents and bathing in fast food restaurants bathrooms. This is happening in the greatest nation on earth. You can keep looking the other way but very soon you will not have any other place to look. If the government does not do something very soon, all that you know will come to an abrupt end.

I wrote "The Essential Keys To Financial Freedom" book to educate the American people of their many financial options that still exist today. If the American people sit around and do nothing they will end up in financial distress in the next 10 to 20 years. You must sit down with a financial advisor as soon as possible before it is too late. For More information; visit me at: http://www.drmarkhuddleston.com

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Great Lessons About Money

Money is very important in life. Therefore, there is a need to be properly educated on the issue of finances in order to handle them in a better way. Let us briefly look at the following three lessons:

1) Money is an Idea

The ordinary pursues money in life. But the great ones pursue great ideas. Good ideas normally solve people's challenges or problems in life. Once there is a great idea that is changed into reality, it automatically brings money. Think of great Edison and the light bulb? Today the electric industry is just great. It is hard to live without it. Think of Henry Ford and the invention of the car? It is just mind-blowing. We can't finish the list. You, therefore, need to generate ideas that will benefit mankind. Once you have done that, you will have the money you require in your life. There will be mutual benefit. People will benefit from your idea that has been turned into a solution for their problems. On the other hand, you will get the money you need.

Money is an idea.

2) Money does not make you rich

There are people who have money. Some earn big money but they are not rich. What does that tell you? Money does not make you rich. But what makes you rich? It is what you do with it. It is how you use money that makes you rich. If you follow those who are rich, you find that they use their money to buy assets. Then those assets work for them to build their wealth. But others, they use the money to buy liabilities. Some have been destroyed by failure to properly handle money.

How do you use your money?

3) Deal with two Money problems

Basically, there are two kinds of money problems. Those are; lack of money i.e. too little and too much money. You, therefore, need to learn how to deal with either of these two problems. Which of the two problems do you have? How are you dealing with it?

You have now learned three lessons about money. I pray that you may put these lessons into practice. Each lesson is very important. You need to deal with challenges you have that are associated with any of them. God wants you to enjoy life. Great things in life do not just come. You need to take action. Take responsibility for your life including finances. Get yourself a Life Coach.

Visit https://lifecoachchanginglives.wordpress.com// for more information. Hire Me as Your Life Coach. I will assist you achieve the goals of your life in any area- Finances, Career, Marriage, Relationships, etc.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Elphas_Sipho_Mdluli/580836
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Some Nuggets on How To Be Rich

Everyone no matter their age, they all want to know how to be rich, how to hack life and make it financially. The significant driving force has been the perception that wealth or money means everything or can buy you all and make you happy. Millions of books have been written since the ancient times and yet you will find yourself looking for more and hopefully direct and easy ways around how to just make it. Well, you did great reading this article since you will see that most of what you need to make it you already have it.

Most young people just want to hack life and make it all at once without that effort nor patience of learning. This has created severe habits such gambling and fraud as a means to get rich quick. The other vice that has risen due to the elusive fact that all can make it is a generation of desperate and drug-addicted youths who believe that their fate is already sealed. This article is a wakeup call and a call to action to drop page thumping and expecting to find that one magical trick. You are all that you need.

How to start.

To begin with, by reading this means that you are ready and willing to make something out of yourself, get your head straight now and acknowledge that you have a working brain and a desire to make it.

The second move is to dream and make sure that you do not just imagine. The moment you can visualize anything in your head means that you can be able to make it happen for real.

Go ahead and write down your plan and evaluate how you are planning to achieve that. This, therefore, has to begin with small ideas and seeing them through. You cannot start planning for a Ferrari, and you do not own an account even. Start small and be patient to look at the fruits of your hard work.

Patience as a value comes in hand even when managing your wealth later in life. You have to carry out planned and well-calculated risk and wait patiently and trust in yourself that it will work.

The other thing is growing some balls because the moment you start investing you will have to be ready for risks and failures. Do not dwell on the failures instead move on and have better plans, do not lose focus but keep the desires, and all will work eventually.

Lastly, when you start making something, reinvest and work to grow bigger. Instead of celebrating and blowing up everything take it back and let it grow. Always have the mentality of safeguarding the capital you input at any time and then re-invest the profits for growth.

Conclusion.

The smart ones only win the money game and wealth creation. By accessing such information, you have been made smart, and that means you can go forth and grow yourself to whatever level you want.

You can always find more interesting articles here or hire my writing services. Reach me via mikiepirate12@gmail.com

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Focus Is What Creates Wealth

A few months ago, I wrote about the two driving forces in every decision we make. Each decision you make is based on your attempt to avoid pain or pursue pleasure. In many areas of our lives, pain seems more intense and therefore, most of us base our decisions trying to avoid pain. Take someone who is out of shape for example.

Are they out of shape because they do not possess the knowledge to get in shape? No, we know what it takes to be in shape, but we also know it's hard, it takes work and commitment. For some, the idea of not eating what they want and working out is more painful than the pleasure of being in shape. Being in financial shape is not different.

We know that we need to budget our personal finances and we need to earn more than we spend to be in good financial health, but some people associate too much pain with not spending, so they spend. Each person has their own associations with pain and pleasure. In the article I wrote a few months ago, I focused on the benefits of pain and how it is necessary to reach your goals and how we should not avoid it. Success does not come easy and pain is part of that journey.

Knowing that pain is positive helps us when we are going to make a decision that could cause pain, but that knowledge alone might not be enough. What can make a big difference is our ability to focus on the pursuit of pleasure over the avoidance of pain. The idea is to make the thought of the pleasure more powerful than the thought of the pain. This is done in two ways:

GOALS

Obviously, we know goals are important in business. In fact, some will argue you will not be successful without them. What is not so easy to understand is why goals are so important. By having and focusing on goals, you are focusing on what you want, which is the pleasure we get from the decisions we make. When you are newer to business I would suggest focusing on a SMART goal, but my SMART goal might be a little different than what you have been taught.

Specific: The more specific your goal is the better. Your picture of what you want should be very clear.

Measurable: A goal like getting into shape is not only not specific but it cannot be measured. How will you know when you reach it? Great goals are easy to measure and know when they are accomplished.

Action Focused: This is the one that changes a little from what others are teaching. When you are getting started, created goals that are based on actions will help you. This is because they are easy to accomplish, and you can create some momentum. Small success leads to great things. For example, you might want to make a goal that you will make 5 offers each day or each week instead of doing one deal a month. Although you might want to do a deal a month, the focus should be on the actionable items that will get you there.

Reasonable: This is one that is challenging for a lot of us. We hear that if you shoot for the stars and miss, at least you will land on the moon. Although I do believe that we need to think big, I also understand that we need to believe our goals are attainable or we will not hit them. Our mind is so incredibly powerful that if it does not believe you can hit the goal... you can't. My advice is to make short term goals that stretch you, but that you believe are possible. As you start hitting your goals you will be expanding your mind and can create bigger and bigger goals. There is also nothing wrong with dreaming or setting lofty longer-term goals. That too can be very positive in your development.

Time Based: As mentioned above I like the idea of short term goals. My preference is a year or less on the actual goals that you are going to focus on. Monthly goals work well. There should also be rewards for hitting these short terms goals. In no case should your goal not come with a definitive date to accomplish.

BIG WHY

I have written several articles and posts about this, so I will not spend too much time here, but it is important to mention that it is my strong opinion that your why is the one fail safe way to have success in anything you do. As long as your why is big enough, you cannot fail. Period.

The second way to shift your focus to the pleasure is your big why. Your why is very different than a goal, as it might not meet any of the SMART criteria. It is huge, much bigger than you, and is often something that is hard for you to even realize you are capable of accomplishing. Your goals will be based on this, but it is not something that you are tracking in most cases. It is often times much bigger than you, like leaving a legacy or helping or starting a charity. It is my why that keeps me going when things get hard and it is my why that helps me make decisions that I know will cause some temporary pain. It helps you bust through fear.

By focusing on your dreams and your goals you will be able to look past temporary pain, so you can create lifelong pleasure. Combine this strategy with the knowledge that pain is positive and you will be unstoppable!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kevin_Amolsch/725898
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Work From Home Guide: Choosing Freelancing As a Career

Have you already tried risking your time, money, and effort just to reach your own goal? Probably some of us have done it but still didn't get the result we desired. We all dream that we can travel and enjoy the gift of life that God has given. Isn't it beautiful if we can share more time and have enjoyable moments with our loved ones? Yes, I know what you're thinking right now. The eagerness and determination that someday your dreams will come true at last.

As of now, poverty is still visible in our country. Many families experience hunger because of unemployment. There are graduates who unable to achieve their profession due to a high level of competitiveness. Every day, we suffer in traffic just to get to our offices. These are the situations that we cannot afford to set aside. But we Filipinos are born with a brave heart and wise instincts. So, many strategies were performed just for survival.

Maybe some have tried to search "how to make money fast" or "how to make money online" to the internet. And guess what? That leads you to what they so-called "freelancing." It is also known as work from home job. According to BusinessDictionary, freelance means working on a contract basis for a variety of companies. There are some benefits that you can enjoy as a freelancer.

Benefits of Freelancing

Free from Office Slavery

You can finally go out from the traditional working from the office job. You can work in the comfort of your home. Free from the rules that choke us as an employee.

Self-management

You can manage your time more if you are working from home. You can maintain a balanced life between work and for the family.

Health Control

You're less likely to get sick since you deal with the clients remotely. You don't have to deal with the traffic every day or face the fast-changing weather in our country.

Higher Salary Rate

Most of us consider the work based on salary. With freelancing, you can earn dollars which can benefit you as a person with desired needs as well to your family.

Aren't you infatuated? You can start freelancing as part-time for additional income or make it as a full-time opportunity. But you must consider first is how you prepare yourself for the new chosen career.


Preparation for Freelancing Job

Make an Investment

As what mentioned earlier, you have to risk your money and effort for this job. Computer and reliable internet is a must. It will benefit you in the end, just remember what your goals are.

Enhance English Language Skills

Clients need a person with a good verbal and written English skills. You can buy a dictionary for bigger vocabulary. Try to read books and watch Hollywood movies. Being aware of your grammar is also important, so don't leave it behind.

Make Yourself Ready

Here, you can encounter new things or new knowledge. You must be open-minded and try to explore. Learning is eternal so make yourself ready at all times.

Skills to Must Have

For example, those who work in BPO companies already have the skill for providing customer service. So skills or expertise is essential since you will be working with the clients. Remember, confidence in doing the job build trust and good relationship.

Interested in learning new skills at the lowest cost? Experience the course which can develop you as a professional. Added a Coach who was a top-rated freelancer in Upwork. I was one of the products of the academy. "Don't wait for an opportunity. Create it."

Open the link below for more info.
https://francisabejero6121.wixsite.com/vafrancisabejero

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Developing New Leads and Prospects With Twitter Ads

Twitter rolled out a lead-generation advertising service in 2013. When they did, Internet marketers and brick-and-mortar businesses with a social media presence were ecstatic. They finally had a vehicle on the second-largest social network that gave them a wealth of information about Twitter users who responded to these lead-gen ads.

Then, in December of 2016, Twitter began phasing out the lead-generation ad format. The previous system allowed you to request people's names, email addresses and Twitter handles if your advertisement showed up in their news feeds. Twitter launched this type of transparent demographic advertising system as a way to compete with Facebook ads.

However, due to pressure from users about privacy concerns, Twitter did the right thing. They gave their constituents what they wanted, less access to sensitive information such as ZIP codes, country of residence, job title and phone numbers. Does this mean that using the current Twitter ad platform to generate leads is now a waste of time? Nothing could be further from the truth.

How to Use the New Twitter Ads to Generate Leads

With the new ad platform, you have 3 different types of ads you can use in one way or another to find new prospects.

Promoted tweets - You pay for your tweets to be displayed to people that are not already following you.
Promoted accounts - Your account is promoted to targeted Twitter users.
Promoted trends - You pay to promote a hashtag.
You can form a Twitter ad campaign that uses any, some, or all of the 3 ad types. The different types of campaigns are as follows.

Tweet engagements - your campaign focuses on building conversations and engagement about your business.
Followers - If you want to build your list of followers, this is the campaign to use.
Awareness - You pay for impressions here, rather than actions.
Video views - This campaign is pretty self-explanatory. It works to improve the number of views your videos get.
Website clicks or conversions - If you have a great landing page to build your email list or prospect pool, this is the campaign you want to focus on. This campaign type includes a Website Card, which lets viewers see a preview of your site inside your tweet, without having to leave Twitter.
App installs or re-engagements - This gets people to download your application, and also reaches out to those who have already downloaded your app, but haven't used it in a while.

As you can see, the many aspects of the new Twitter ad system can be used a number of ways to generate leads. While the lead-generation ad campaign has been removed from Twitter, constructing a campaign focusing on website clicks or conversions can be used instead, to generate leads by sending Twitter users to your opt-in page.

If you focus on increasing the number of views a video gets, use that video to offer a free opt-in bribe or gift in exchange for joining your newsletter. An app install campaign can likewise build your prospect pool, as long as your app provides some value for the end user. Likewise, using a Twitter ad campaign to boost the number of followers you have expands your reach, and the more people you interact with, the more leads you can generate.

Author: Syed Mubashir
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5 Advanced Twitter Lead Generation Tips

If you tweet regularly, use image and videos often, and socialize more than you sell, you can generate a lot of leads on Twitter. You should also use plenty of keywords and hashtags you want to be found for in your Twitter bio. You need to generate an engaging cover photo that includes a call to action, and you should be tweeting, retweeting and interacting with your followers and prospects daily.

Those tried-and-true but simple tactics work well to build an email list or prospect pool. When you want to harness the full lead-capture ability of Twitter, you need to use some proven advanced tactics. The following Twitter lead-generation tips and strategies are the ones the pros use every day to maximize their efforts on the world's second-largest social media site.

1 - Approach Lead-Generation Tweets Differently

If you are just tweeting for engagement, you can create some catchy text, a hashtag or two, an image, and you are ready to go. When you attempt to use tweets to create leads, you have to take a little different approach if you want your efforts to succeed.

Lead-gen tweets deliver the best results when they are simple and straightforward. Make them as short as possible, and don't worry about using all your allotted characters. The attention span of web surfers is short and is getting shorter all the time. When your message is to the point, and you have a clear call to action (CTA), like a link to your email opt-in page, you will get better performance than a long update that is ambiguous and unclear.

Use the link-shortening website bit.ly to make your actionable link as short as possible. If your clickable link is awkward and ugly, this can actually lower your click through rate. Don't include multiple mentions or links. Just 1 CTA, clear direction about what to do, a catchy image and a short message combine to make a high-performance lead-gen tweet.

2 - Try Twitter Cards

Twitter has a feature that is custom-made for generating leads. Twitter Lead Generation Cards work so well because they allow you to add people to your email list or prospect pool without them having to leave Twitter. People on social media sites are there to hang out and socialize. They don't always like the idea of being removed from their favorite social media hangout.

Twitter Cards, among other excellent features, have the ability to generate leads without your prospects feeling as if they are being routed through some sales funnel. As Twitter states:

- "With Twitter Cards, you can attach rich photos, videos, and media experience to Tweets that drive traffic to your website. Simply add a few lines of HTML to your web page, and users who Tweet links to your content will have a 'Card' added to the Tweet that's visible to all their followers."
This means a Twitter user, whether they are a follower of yours or not, can join your email newsletter, buy a product or service, download an application or perform some other actions without moving off their Twitter feed. This makes them feel comfortable, not like they are being sold to or manipulated.

The fewer steps a prospect must take for you to get them to take the required action, the higher your odds of making the conversion you seek. There are 8 different Twitter Cards, and each of them offers different lead-gen properties. Buffer has created a Twitter Card primer to help get you started.

3 - Twitter's Search Box Can Be Used To Generate Content Ideas

Twitter moves a mile a minute, especially when you have a large group of followers. The average tweet stays on-screen approximately 30 seconds, and if your followers are active, it may not even last that long. This means it is crucial to link your tweets to topics and subjects that are driving engagement right now.

You can use Twitter's search feature to discover what topics are currently red-hot. Then you simply come up with a clever way to attach your call to action, tweet topic or lead-generating link to subjects that are getting a lot of action. Take the following steps to come up with fresh ideas about what to tweet about, while also using trending topics to improve your click through rate and lead-gen success.

Go to Twitter Search

Across the bottom of the way, you will see several hashtags, words, and phrases listed under a section titled "Trends for You."

These are the trending topics which are lighting up the Twitterverse. Find one that relates to your industry or niche, or one of the red-hot topics that you can somehow relate to your message.

You can also search for an industry keyword, hashtag or phrase you are trying to be found for, and see what people are saying about it right now. You need to heed a word of warning here. Blindly attaching your tweet to an irrelevant topic, even though it is popular right now, can do more than good.

4 - Use Twitter Advanced Search

You just learned an advanced tactic for using Twitter's basic search feature to generate leads. Now you are going to step up your game, using a veteran tactic that harnesses even more power from Twitter search.

This an excellent targeting feature which allows you to see anyone that is currently on Twitter who matches a set of selection data you enter. A London-based company could immediately target other Twitter users in London, and you can also look for people who made specific statements or asked particular questions.

Head over to https://goo.gl/rblFK.

Enter your search term. For example, you can look for people who have searched for "I need a London, SEO specialist." You can then add date ranges to keep your data relevant and updated, and filter according to specific Twitter accounts. You can also limit your results to negative or positive input, retweets, questions and other information. Use this feature to find any and every tweet mentioning your username or the username of industry leaders in your field.

5 - Schedule and Automate Your Tweets

As a business owner, you have a lot to do. If you are a one man or one woman operation, like so many Internet entrepreneurs and coffee-table business owners, you may find it harder than most to create the free time needed for your Twitter lead-gen tasks. Unlike some other social media networks, Twitter requires that you continually post content, if your marketing efforts are going to pay off. You will find that 5 to 10 tweets each day, spread out over an 8 to 12-hour time-frame, will provide the biggest bang for your lead-gen buck.

Beginners to Twitter often find this daunting.

One way to ensure you are regularly and consistently posting content is to do so on your smart phone. It only takes a few seconds to retweet the content of others, mention a particular user, or create and publish a brand-new tweet. However, even if you are pretty quick at tweeting and interacting with others on Twitter, your time investment can still add up.

That's why you should consider using the following Twitter automation tools to schedule your tweeting and lead-generation efforts for you. They allow you to schedule new updates and republish your most popular content for dates and times in the future. This means a once a week you could spend an hour or so creating and scheduling your Twitter content delivery, and then the following software suites and applications take care of the process for you on autopilot.

CoSchedule - This marketing calendar does more than just allow you to schedule your updates on Twitter and other social media sites. Their editorial calendar gives you the ability to plan your social updates for immediate delivery or schedule them for later. Also, you can publish at those times which have proven to provide maximum interaction, and you can upload large amounts of updates and previous tweets to be republished on a regular schedule.

Buffer - This is one of the most popular social media management applications. You can handle your Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts from one dashboard. With this app, it is easy to plan the delivery of your updates for a later time, including videos and images.

Social Oomph - Put simply, this is an effective social media scheduling tool. It works with Twitter and other popular social media networks, allowing you to monitor and track mentions, retweets, keywords, hashtags and other data. It has a built-in linkshortener, so you have more room in your tweet for your message, rather than a link.

PostPlanner - You can tell from the name exactly what this application does. Instead of just planning and scheduling your content for you, which is evident from the name, you can additionally use this app to find out what keywords and hashtags are generating the most interest. One of many nice features is that PostPlanner knows the best time to post, and it will automatically share and retweet great content.

Author: Syed Mubashir
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Getting Started With Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a form of marketing in which the focus is on influencers rather than on the target market as a whole. The concept is simply to identify the people who impact potential buyers and direct marketing activities around these influences.

Influencer content may be framed as some form of advertising evidence in which they themselves play the role of potential buyers or may be third parties. These third parties exist in a supply chain (traders, manufacturers, etc.) or can be called value-added influencers.

The world has slipped into social networks. Many consumers watch their co-consumers about their purchasing decisions. It's not like before, consumers trust each other, and one of those consumers is these personalities on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms that enjoy a lot of followership. This concept of social networking has exceptionally revitalized online industry; this surprisingly effective marketing technique is helping different international brands achieve their marketing goals.

It is an open secret that a celebrity that can run your brand regularly and help promote it is a brilliant idea, more companies are beginning to exercise the authority of social networks which is more efficient than the conventional advertising. For this reason, Influencer Marketing could be the next big success in advertising. Here's why:

THE CONCEPT OF INFLUENCER MARKETING IS A VERY POWERFUL ONE 

There are many methods that can help increase sales in your business. But for now, nothing can contest the record that Influencer Marketing has played in recent years. Research has shown that consumer-to-consumer marketing leads the consumer to generate more sales than paid advertising can do. This only shows that influential marketing can provide an exceptional opportunity for brands to capture the power of word of mouth thanks to the influential people who follow and admire.

IT'S GROWING FAST WITH THE HELP OF SOCIAL MEDIA 

Since the world has embraced the social media, this may be the right time for your business. Social media is more than just a replacement for conventional media. Previously, consumers Would buy an item based on what they see or hear. Today, social media is the main thing; consumers can easily connect with other consumers and can make a better buying decision by discussing their product or service experience. The use of social networks is growing rapidly across age groups and gender. Influencers communicate with consumers using these platforms and gives influencer marketing a key addition to any successful marketing strategy.

FAR BETTER THAN PAID ADS 

There are over 200 million people worldwide who are using ad-blocking apps already, what happens to the money you have spent on those pop-up advertisements if the most of the internet users don't even view them. It's time for the internet marketers to up their game and change to something internet users have less issue with. Consumer trusts influencers and their recommendations; more of your marketing and business strategy should go into working with influencers

HELPS YOU WITH THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE 

Influencer marketing has the ability to change the overall outlook of your business for the better along with email marketing; it is actually very cost-effective. The fact that your competitors are already investing in it, is an indicator that it's the next big and shouldn't be overlooked, as influencers can truly affect consumers' choice on buying a product.

Overall, the digital world is completely different. A lot of marketers are already using Influencer Marketing, because of its effectiveness and high return on investment. Social media likes and shares can be gathered turned into valuable insights to your advertising sojourn. There is no better time for you to start reaping the benefits of influencer marketing than now.

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