Internet Product Ideas

More Product Ideas

One of the easiest ways of get a product is to find a problem, and then offer a product or service to solve it. I will say this again: Find a problem and then offer a product or service to solve it. It can be in the work you are involved in now, or you can do research and find a problem elsewhere. Remember this goes back to the Sales Process Lesson in my course “Secrets to Marketing a Business on the Internet”… the easiest way to sell a product is to offer a solution. People will buy solutions to problems… they won’t buy features.

The net is the perfect place for niche marketing. If you have a product that will make gardening tomatoes easier (whether it be tools or fertilizer, or whatever), chances are that it would never support a retail store because of insufficient demand. On the net, however, it is easy to find hundreds of thousands of people all over the world with a gardening hobby your product is perfect for.

There are newsgroups, forums, discussion groups, websites, and email lists that deal specifically with gardening… a great customer base.

You can make a lot of money targeting niche markets. As mentioned before, I have found that the easiest way to make money on the Internet is to diversify your interests. In other words, have a couple of non-related products marketed to a niche, with each making a little money every year. Each may only make $15,000 a year (like my Dr. Stewart’s Tape package), or may make only $40,000 a year (like my emblem business), or $175,000 a year (like Car Secrets Revealed).

Once you add up the incomes however, you can have an easy $100,000 income in short order. Since everything is automated, it is not much more work (beyond the initial set up and marketing) to run one online business as it is to run four or five.

I give a lot of good ideas in my course “Secrets to Marketing a Business on the Internet”, of products your can start. Some of them are products that I have wanted to pursue because I saw the huge potential, but have not been able to because of my extremely limited timetable (unfortunately, I have to sleep too, just like everyone else).

I will be very straight forward and tell you that I will not reveal those in my free newsletter because I don’t want the tens of thousands of people that read my newsletter to get a hold of them and cause competition for the clients that own my course. These product ideas are reserved for my Internet course owners (go to http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/915921 for more information on the course).

One of my favorite products that I reveal in the course is how I can show you how to produce a newsletter on a hot topic that can earn you in excess of $100,000 (a newsletter is a fantastic way of creating a gigantic income very quickly). You don’t have to be able to write (I will show you how to get others to write it for you). And the best part is that I can show you how to do it so that it is guaranteed to be successful as it will even make you a profit BEFORE you publish your first issue.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Internet marketing expert Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to successfully start, build, and grow their own profitable online businesses on small budgets. To get instant access to the step-by-step strategies, tools, and resources he’s used to grow just $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit: The Internet Marketing Center

Click Here to Send This Page to a Friend

Happy Investing,

Kendall E. Matthews, CRMC
Phoenix, Arizona Investment Real Estate

P.S. Get my new e-book “101 Legit Tips To Boost Your Credit Score” Click Here to learn more. P.S.S. You can click here to learn about our investment strategies.

The Investment Real Estate Corner: Northern Place development update

Attached below is last week’s audio file of our conference call for capital investors involved with our newest project tenatively called Northern Place.This new semi-custom gated community will be located in Glendale, Arizona.

Only four miles away from the new Arizona Cardinal football stadium and the largest retail center development in North America, called Westgate; Northern Place will start taking right after the 2008 NFL Superbowl.

On this conference call you will learn: 

1) Process with the City of Glendale for the Northern Place project.

2) The Northern Place project.

3) How we plan to communicate to our investor group during the development process.

4) New opportunity searches.

5) Future group organization.

Click here to listen in on Northern Place project update 1.

Happy Investing.

The Investment Real Estate Corner: Bridging The Gap!

Like the question of the chicken and the egg, homeowners planning to buy a new home must ask, “Which comes first?”  Do you sell first, and then look frantically for the new home, or buy first and risk maintaining and financing two properties?

There’s more risk than just two mortgages.  If you’re rushed to sell your home to purchase a new one, you might be forced to list at, or accept, a lower price than expected.  If you’re pressed to buy a new home after selling your existing home, you may be forced into paying an unexpectedly higher price.

What is one to do?  Build a bridge!  Yes, there is a financing option called a “bridge loan,” so named because it “spans the gap” between your sale and your purchase.

One type of “bridge” lets you simultaneously pay off your existing mortgage and make a downpayment on the new one.  You make payments only on the new loan, and pay off the bridge loan when your old home sells.

Another kind of “bridge” allows you to borrow against the equity in your old home to make the downpayment on the new home.  Both “bridges” still mean two loans, but the costs may be offset as a result of having more time to get top dollar for the sale of your existing home.  See you on the other side!

US Merchant Account

How do Foreign companies get US merchant accounts?

There are two ways for foreign companies to get US merchant accounts. The first is to use a third party billing company like http://www.ibill.com when was just mentioned above.

The second way is to get your own merchant accounts. Total Merchant Accounts can help you do this. However, you must realize that there are a few requirements:

1. If you are a US citizen (even though you may live outside the country) it will cost you about $40 a month to lease the software to charge the credit cards… that is it! The only other requirement is that your business is incorporated or registered in the US. If it isn’t, they can set up your business as a Nevada Corporation for about $500 (this can all be done within a couple of days).
2. If you are NOT a US citizen you will be required to buy the software, not lease it at $40 a month. This will cost you $995 to buy it (as compared to leasing it for $40 a month if you were a US citizen). Another requirement is that your business must be registered in the US. If it isn’t, they can get you set up as a Nevada Corporation for about $500 (this can be done within a couple of days). The last requirement is that because you are not a US citizen, you will have to put a “good-faith” deposit of 5% of your 6 months expected revenue in the account. This is fully refundable after 6 months (the money is still yours it is just held by them for a 6 month probationary period), but it is required so that you don’t just start off with nothing, charge a lot of credit cards, and then disappear. I am sure you can understand where they are coming from.

In either case, the broker we deal with is very, very good. Most brokers will not allow non-US people to have merchant accounts, but the broker we deal with will. They also have great discount rates (this is the percentage charge you for each credit card transaction). Their discount rate is 2.0 – 3.0 percent depending on the business you have. This is an incredible rate for mail-order/Internet businesses, as many brokers will charge as much as 5% because these are considered “high-risk”.

Go to the following page and fill out the application as best you can. The merchant account people will call you back within 48 hours to go over the details and figure out what fits your situation best. Don’t worry about filling out every area in the form as it is to only get an idea of how you are set up so they can go over what is the best way for you company to get merchant credit card accounts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Internet marketing expert Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to successfully start, build, and grow their own profitable online businesses on small budgets. To get instant access to the step-by-step strategies, tools, and resources he’s used to grow just $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit: The Internet Marketing Center

Click Here to Send This Page to a Friend

Happy Investing, Kendall E. Matthews, CRMC
Phoenix, Arizona Investment Real Estate

P.S. Get my new e-book “101 Legit Tips To Boost Your Credit Score” Click Here to learn more. P.S.S. You can click here to learn about our investment strategies.

The Investment Real Estate Corner: “First Time” Appeal!

Regardless of conditions in the real estate market, first-time buyers will always be a driving force for home sales. As a seller, there are a few steps you can take to make your home (especially an older one) more appealing to this demographic.

First understand that most young consumers have been turned off to carpeting. If you have wood floors beneath your existing carpet, give strong consideration to ripping up your floor covering to polish and expose the hardwood flooring beneath.

Another “fashion” consideration: furnishings from the sixties and seventies. Antiques are great, but sets of “look-alike” furniture could be another turn-off when showing your home. If possible, put such sets into storage, or at least a couple pieces, to create more space and a more contemporary feel in your rooms. Elaborate and heavy window treatments fall into this category as well.

Finally, the walls: First-time homebuyers hate wallpaper, and hate the idea of having to rip it down, so make your rooms more appealing by removing any wallpaper and painting the walls with neutral and natural colors.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it can all be done “in-house” for fairly low cost. If young buyers feel they have to invest too much work into making your home into their home, they may present a low offer, or no offer at all.

Merchant Account

How to get your own Merchant Accounts cheap! And some other alternatives for inexpensive ways to
start accepting credit cards online

As mentioned above, it is absolutely critical to have a merchant account so people can buy your product or service with their credit card. There are however, a couple of different ways to this as well:

1. You can get your own Visa/Mastercard/AmEx/Discover accounts with a local bank.
2. You get Visa/Mastercard/AmEx/Discover accounts through a broker (these brokers are all over the country).
3. You can hire a fulfillment house and use their credit card accounts.
4. You can use a payment type such as Cybercash or First Virtual.
5. You can use a third party billing company (in other words, use someone else’s merchant credit card accounts for a fee).

Details of #1: If you have a very good relationship with your bank, and they don’t require a security deposit, it is best to get the merchant credit card accounts through them. Because some banks only deal with two out of the four major credit card types, you may have to deal with two different banks to be able to process all four major credit card types (usually one bank will have Visa and Mastercard, and another will have AmEx and Discover).

The problem with local banks is they are set up to serve retail stores and not mail order or Internet based businesses so they either charge a very high “discount rate” or require a very large security deposit (between $5,000 – $10,000). For those that don’t know what a discount rate is, this is the percentage you pay on each transaction for the privilege of using their credit card services. In other words, if you have a discount rate of 2.5 % and you put through a sale of $100.00 you will only receive $97.50 and $2.50 goes directly to the credit card company.

Details of #2: Going through a broker is my personal preference. It is usually very easy to get approved, there are no security deposits required, and they can get you a great discount rate. I personally recommend a company called Total Merchant Accounts.

They are Internet based and you can apply directly online. They specialize in getting credit card accounts for online businesses (even adult oriented sites). They have a 98% approval rate. Even if you have been bankrupt, chances are that they can probably get you approved. We have had great success and I highly recommend them. They charge a $125 application fee (all brokers charge a fee to set you up this is how they make their money don’t worry, it is fully refundable if you are declined). Some others charge as much as $400.00.

The only other expense will be that you need a terminal, software product, or web-based software (whatever you decide) to process the credit cards (yes, this software will process the credit cards in real-time, all automatically, just like my order system does that I explained above). You can buy this outright for about $900.00, but you can also lease it from them for about $40 a month (this is what we do and this is what I recommend you do). You should be able to get a discount rate of 2% to 3%. So basically you get merchant accounts for $125 up-front and $40 a month. This is very cheap. If you plan to do business online, this is the best way to go. What is $40 a month if you plan to be generating thousands in sales each month?

If you don’t want to use Total Merchant Accounts, there are literally hundreds of different brokers out there. However, be careful as there are a few that will take your application fee and give you the run-around. We recommend Total Merchant Accounts, as they specialize in online and home based business and we have used them for years with great success (plus they will bend over backward to help you). Click here for their online application form.

This form is not a “formal” application. It goes to Ed Freeman at Total Merchant Accounts (which is the “broker”, not the “bank”). This is to help him understand what type of business you are in and a little about your company (so he knows the best way to fill out the formal application that goes to the bank for approval). Just fill out this “pre-application form” at the URL above as best you can (if you leave a few fields blank, don’t worry, the bank will never see this “pre-application form”). Once Total Merchant Account receives your pre-application by email, they will contact you within 48 hours to go over some specifics and get out a formal contract to you so that they can set up the details with the bank. It is super easy and takes almost no time at all. I highly recommend them.

Note: As mentioned above, you will be required to lease a processing terminal to “swipe” the credit cards. You have the option of a stationary terminal or a software program called Total Merchant Manager. Make sure you lease the software as this will allow you to render credit cards through a secure server as well as process them manually through your home computer. Don’t worry, this is simple software to operate.

Details of #3: A fulfillment house is a company that is designed to do all your “dirty work”. They will take your orders through an 800 number with live operators who will keep track of your customer data base, provide some customer service, process credit cards, and ship out orders. In other words, they make running your business completely hands free. These companies have their own merchant credit card accounts and will let you use them to process your orders for a fee. The fee is usually a 5%-6% discount rate instead of the normal 2% to 3% you would pay if you had your own accounts.

If you are only processing a few thousands dollars worth of orders every month, this is the way to go. But if you are doing more business than that, it is more cost effective to get your own, merchant credit card accounts. Also, please note that most fulfillment houses will only allow you to charge orders to their credit card account when the orders come in through the 800 number line (they will not let you use their credit card account for direct sales from the Internet), which can cause problems if you are doing any kind of volume.

As mentioned we deal with MWC at (1-800-642-9378). Ask for their sales department, they are great and will help you to the best of their ability.

Details of #4: As I mentioned above, I do not recommend using a “transaction company” as it is just to much hassle for the amount of sales you will lose (which will be almost nil).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Internet marketing expert Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to successfully start, build, and grow their own profitable online businesses on small budgets. To get instant access to the step-by-step strategies, tools, and resources he’s used to grow just $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit: The Internet Marketing Center

Click Here to Send This Page to a Friend

Happy Investing,

Kendall E. Matthews, CRMC
Phoenix, Arizona Investment Real Estate

P.S. Get my new e-book “101 Legit Tips To Boost Your Credit Score” Click Here to learn more. P.S.S. You can click here to learn about our investment strategies.

The Investment Real Estate Corner: Keep Your Credit Good

You might assume that the fewer credit cards you have, the higher your credit score could be.  Because of that assumption, some buyers preparing to apply for a home loan mistakenly cancel one or more credit cards.  Why would this be a bad idea? 

It has to do with the ratio of your debt to your available credit.  Here’s a simple example: Let’s say that you have four credit cards, each with a $10,000 limit, giving you $40,000 available credit.  If you have a total of $20,000 charged to those accounts, you are using 50% of your limit. 

By canceling one of those cards, you now have $30,000 available credit.  That $20,000 in charges now equates to over 66% of your total credit, which represents an adverse effect on the debt-to-credit ratio.  You have essentially reduced your credit without reducing your debt, possibly raising a red flag on your mortgage application. By canceling the credit account, you reduce your “wiggle room” and cut your credit score, which could result in the lender demanding a higher interest percentage or offering a smaller loan amount. 

Real estate agents are not all necessarily loan specialists, but most do work very closely with such individuals.  Ask the agent you work with for a recommendation, and get in touch with a lender well in advance of your first showing.

The Investment Real Estate Corner: Keep In Touch

You would expect that a successful real estate agent serves many clients, and offers a wide variety of listings to interest a wide variety of buyers.  However, when you list your home, you also expect that yours is the most important of all those listings.  After all, in your eyes, your home is the hottest property on the market! 

Let your agent know just how often you expect to hear reports about showings, but beyond that, consider some of the other hot topics of conversation to discuss while your home is on the market. 

Other homes for sale can have an impact on your listing, so expect your agent to let you know about recent sales, price changes, or expired listings in your neighborhood, as well as any new competition that hits the market.  The agent should be able to gauge the overall activity in your area, and let you know if there is anything you can do to improve your chances of a sale. 

You’ll also want to hear the comments of prospective buyers who have viewed your home, as well as other real estate agents who have visited.  Based on that feedback, your agent may have suggestions about improving the “showability” of your home. Even when there’s no news, there’s always something to discuss with the agent.  Never, ever be afraid to ask!

Starting An Online Business

What To Expect
(But More Importantly, How Much To Expect)

With an order system set-up as described in “The Perfect System” section of this newsletter, you can expect your orders to be broken down approximately as follows:

80% through the secure server
5% through the non-secured server
13% through the 800 number
2% through regular postal mail

I want to state again how crucial it is to have the ability to accept credit cards for your orders. As astonishing as it may sound, credit cards will increase your orders by a proven 400% (compared to just offering the option of sending in a check or money order). These simple things mean the difference between making a profit of $100.00 a day or $400.00 a day.

There is one more thing I want to say in the closing of this section it is to “ask for the order”. Create urgency. Ask for the order. Make it easy for the customer to buy. Ask for the order. Offer a strong guarantee. Ask for the order. Use testimonials. Ask for the order. Offer a bonus for a quick response. Ask for the order. Tell them how they are going to benefit by ordering now. Ask for the order. Tell them what they stand to loose by not ordering now. Ask for the order.

Speaking of asking for the order if you have not picked up a copy of our #1 best selling Internet marketing course called “The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet“, check out all the tips and tricks it offers at http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/915921  What you learn in the course will make you thousands of dollars…you will learn from the best! Between my four online businesses, I get over 2,000,000 to visit my websites every year, do over $2,600,000 of business online every year all from one small office. So I know what I am talking about when it comes to starting and promoting an online business. In the course, I guide you step by step on how I do it so you can copy my success. Don’t sit there thinking that your “opportunity of a lifetime” will come to you soon it is here now. The Internet has grown at unbelievable rates and made thousands of millionaires over the last 2 years. Now don’t take me wrong, it takes “work” on your part to make money online – you won’t become a millionaire overnight but the potential to make enormous amounts of money online is here right now! Don’t get left behind! Get on the fast track to starting an online business or if you already have one, learn how to skyrocket your profits, from what I teach in the course (before your competitors do!)! Click here to check out all the details and what is covered in the course.

Anyway, back to “asking for the order”. This notion may sound a little corny, however, it has been proven by top salespeople throughout this country (including names such as Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar). You will increase your closing ratio by at least 80% by simply asking for the order. It is one of the most commonly over-looked methods. Many people are so busy trying to show the benefits of the product or service and why it is so great, that they assume people will just ask them how to order, thus missing the boat entirely. YOU HAVE TO ASK FOR THE ORDER!

Net Fact: 70% of people say they shop on the net, while only 23% buy on the net. It is our job to get people to make that purchase on the net by offering something they cannot get anywhere else and by making it extremely easy and simple to order. This is the key to increasing your sales!

Side Note: Because many people have multiple products, they need what is called “shopping cart software”. This allows a customer to pick up certain items throughout your site and put them in a virtual shopping cart. Before they exit, they confirm what is in their shopping cart and pay for the merchandise. I have seen this software selling for ridiculous prices of $3,000 – $5,000. This software is included free of charge when you deal with Interlink Advertising Services and filling out the submission form). And if you are getting merchant accounts through Total Merchant Accounts, shopping cart software is also offered free of charge with their service.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Internet marketing expert Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to successfully start, build, and grow their own profitable online businesses on small budgets. To get instant access to the step-by-step strategies, tools, and resources he’s used to grow just $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit: The Internet Marketing Center

Click Here to Send This Page to a Friend

Happy Investing,

Kendall E. Matthews, CRMC
Phoenix, Arizona Investment Real Estate

P.S. Get my new e-book “101 Legit Tips To Boost Your Credit Score” Click Here to learn more. P.S.S. You can click here to learn about our investment strategies.