My Buy Essay

Archive for March, 2009

At TimeshareValues.com we recently communicated with a buyer based in the Midwest. We are in the San Francisco Bay area. We talked a lot at 9pm our time &ndash while he was still in his office. At his time, the clock was moving toward midnight.

He bought a timeshare because he feels he doesn’t have enough time to plan his vacation, but he knows he still has to take time off each year. He works long hours, but he hoped a timeshare purchase would achieve some balance between his work and personal lives.

This is an extreme case &ndash but it got us thinking about the reason for buying a timeshare. Most people want to achieve a balance between the Two E’s: Emotion and Economics.

We believe a successful timeshare purchase provides a balance between these two E’s.Here’s how:

The First E: Emotions

Certain people and places always stick with you. Great times, food, scenery, friends. Many of us have great memories of places we want to go back to every year. We hope to recapture feelings we first experienced at these places.

Such a place is Cozumel, Mexico. It provides not only a wonderful timeshare vacation for people, but it was also the honeymoon for a couple we know. The couple’s entire trip was amazing, from the great food (the newlyweds actually found a wonderful Italian seafood restaurant there), great diving (the groom remembers his bride’s eyes when she saw her first barracuda), and friendly people.

It probably will not come as a surprise that we keep our eyes open for Cozumel property.

Emotions help us focus on what really matters in life.

The Second E: Economics

When you say this ‘E Word’, people think of accountants with green eyeshades. But that’s far from the truth.

“Economics” in a timeshare purchase is a simple matter of looking at the yearly cost of a vacation. Economic factors to consider include:

• What is the best value for my vacation investment?

• What places offer me the best ”bang for my buck”?

• What can I afford each year &ndash and not have to worry about paying the credit card bill after the trip?

These may be boring questions, but the emotional value of this economic approach is anything but boring. Answers to these “money issues” can offer you great peace of mind.

Let’s look at a couple scenarios where the economics and emotions are out of balance.

More Emotion than Economics

Does that sound familiar? Have you ever noticed a great commercial in which the product is secondary to the emotions you feel? All you have to do is purchase the product and you will feel the emotions in the commercial.

Have you ever noticed travel web sites never show an unhappy flyer or a seasick cruise passenger? You don’t want negative emotions anywhere near the product being sold.

Remember this as you look at timeshare auctions. Like all companies marketing travel products, TimeshareValues want to show our timeshares in the best positive light. However, that’s very easy, since we believe so much in the product and how it improves the quality of a vacation.

Making a buying decision based more on emotion than economics has been the American “Way of Marketing” for decades. But the Internet is helping to change this, since you can find a wealth of invaluable information before you make a purchase. You can do extensive research before a making purchase, checking out the Timeshare Users Group (.tug2.net), viewing other timeshare auctions and classified sites, and even calling a the resort.

When a buyer makes a purchase based on emotion, he or she will usually pay more for a product than necessary. A few dollars isn’t’t a big deal, but injecting a little economics can be very helpful. We love people who ask enthusiastic questions. They get more information, which lends excitement and fun to the bidding process.

More Economics than Emotion

In his book ”Don’t Worry, Make Money,” Richard Carlson has taken a time-worn phrase and re-engineered it. He has a chapter titled:

“Consider the Possibility that if it Sounds too Good to Be True &ndash It Might NOT Be”

Read that again slowly. Carlson states that cynicism, doubt and suspicion cause people to miss out on excellent opportunities. We see this every day.

We get e-mails that say:

* “Why so cheap &ndash what is wrong with this property?”

* “What haven’t you told me in your auction?”

* “This is a rental &ndash right?”

These people are interested, but they’re also very wary. Some are wary to the point where they don’t participate. Their decision is based on economics and some negative emotions.

These wary people dismiss the prospect of a good deal, because they’ve heard about the prices others have paid. But if they were to ask us, we would tell them 500,000 timeshare owners want to sell their properties, and that creates a huge buyers market.

Our company buys properties at a low price and sells them for more than we paid for them. Of course, we make a profit, but we let the market tell us how much the profit will be. People who are more driven by dollars than emotion struggle with this. But this approach has worked for us more than 300 times, so there must be something it!

There is an added business benefit to our approach: Our timeshare products don’t sit around &ndash they always sell. This means we return our capital faster to purchase more timeshare properties. People who value economics like to hear that. It’s key to our business model.

Finding Your Balance

Rarely is a decision based on equal parts emotion and economics. These factors come in different strengths for different people.

We propose an exercise that is effective for everyone. If you are inclined towards one E Factor or the other, work on the weak side before you place a bid. When you find the right balance, your Emotional Side will be happy, and your Economical Side will let you sleep at night.

Our auction web site provides detailed articles help your Economical Side plan better, and pictures and personal stories will give your Emotional side a lift by showing you those places you just HAVE to visit!

Get your life in balance today!

According to the pros, don’t waste your time attempting to target anything else! After spending countless hours of learning from some of the best internet marketing mentors, it is clear that they all teach this as the key to your targeting efforts. Don’t re-invent this concept when it works so well. So let’s take a quick look into this.

First of all, what is a ‘niche’?

In terms of successful internet marketing, a niche is, in its simplest form, a group of people, typically known as ‘members’, with a common interest. For example, a group of people who have an interest in training show dogs.

Second of all, what constitutes a potentially good niche?

In order for a niche to be worthy of selecting it must have members with defined needs and wants that can be met by products or services that those members are willing to purchase. Let’s take a closer look at what that means relevant to our dog training example used above. Defined needs: they will all likely need to know what the basics of dog show training are and probably all want to know what the best trainers in the world do – what are the secrets to their great training techniques. To meet those needs an example of a great product would be an ebook that explains the basics of dog show training and to satisfy their wants, perhaps a video of an interview with one of the world’s best trainers. Finally, check to see if there is an indication that these members would pay for these products. If this combination of attributes exists, then you can proceed with a plan to target that market.

Next, how do you find such a niche on the internet?

There are several ways to find a niche market including studying magazines, general directory of websites, watching infomercials, reading direct mail etc. If you are truly interested in learning the details of each of these methods, I recommend you find a great internet marketing mentor. If you just want to do it on your own for now, use these ways to start your search by trying to see recurring or popular trends. For example, go to ‘training dogs for show’ websites and see if there are many sites, do these sites sell relevant products and services? Are there show dog training magazines? Using all of the resources mentioned above you should be able to determine whether your chosen area is a niche you can target market.

Finally, how do you pick a hot niche?

You need to learn how to check traffic inventory (how many members go to the show dog training websites, for example), survey what is known as the shotgun splatter effect, analyze the average sales price in that niche, search for competitors, avoid oversaturated markets and then, decide if that niche is likely to have other spin off niches that will be of interest to the niche you are considering.

Once you have made your selection you will be able to market to the members of this niche over and over again. Sound like fun? Get yourself a great mentor if you need to learn more. It is my passion and hobby to seek out internet mentors on a variety of topics that interest me, so I know there are great ones out there on this topic.

Good luck with targeting your niche market!

Doug Gray

If you want to learn more about niche target market tactics, you need to know that this is just one of the many powerful concepts taught at: .onlinemarketinginformation.com

More and more people are realizing that the Internet offers great potential to set up a healthy business for pennies on the dollar. This is good news for internet marketers – but it also means that they need to lift their game.

Why? Because the would-be “netpreneur” has access to way more training than ever before. It’s possible to get up to speed very quickly on what is needed to get started online. This, in turn, means that people quickly recognize what offers true value and what does not. They see so many sales letters that they become, to a certain degree, immune to the typical hype. They’re willing to spend – but they want value for money. They want to be treated like intelligent and discerning adults.

So here’s a message to all ‘gurus’ (and aspiring gurus) who are keen to get their share of the dollars waiting to be sent flying their way via cyberspace.

1) What does it take to make people want to buy “you” rather than some other internet marketer?

2) What might make people want to unsubscribe from your list?

3) And what pushes them into asking for a refund?

What Makes People Want to Buy?

- They buy if they can see that a product will give them new knowledge and understanding.

- They buy if the purchase will speed up business growth.

- They buy if a product will automate a task that eats into their time. (People quickly learn to spend their time on marketing and product creation, rather than repetitive tasks.)

Tip: Once newbies have been exposed to a few sales pages, it’s not long before they learn to look beyond the sales hype. They study a sales letter carefully to work out what the product will “really” offer them. (Do they need this? Or will it duplicate something else they own?)

They also learn to look for value for money. Some higher-priced products are worth every cent. Some cheaper products add very little to what they already know.

(Note: Savvy internet marketers already realize that if they put together online interviews offering truly valuable information, they are far more likely to attract and keep new customers. A quick example: Jane Smith listens to a one-hour audio interview on search engine optimization and traffic. She finds out some really useful information she has not so far heard anywhere else. She decides that this guy knows what he’s talking about and shells out a couple of hundred dollars for his products.)

What Makes People Want to Unsubscribe from a List?

- Getting four identical emails trying to sell them the same product, because the sender hasn’t figured out how to move them from one list to another after they buy.

- Getting a ‘canned’ email sounding full of excitement about a new product or service – which turns out to be a duplicate of the email they get from six other marketers who are affiliates for the same product.

- Getting email from a product creator about anything under the sun because you bought XXX product from them. If your customers sign up for a newsletter, they expect mailings.

What Makes People Want to Ask for a Refund?

In the past, buyers tended to shrug and write off a bad purchase. But increasingly, people are prepared to stand up for their rights. If they feel they have not received value for money, they will ask for a refund.

So what makes them decide to ask for their money back?

- Software that doesn’t work as it is supposed to.

- Physical products (CDs, DVDs) that don’t work on their systems.

- An e-book that is full of content easily found in an hour’s net-surfing.

- An e-book that has skimped on content or that has been poorly written.

- An e-book that not only skimps on content but is full of links to up-sells to get the ‘really valuable’ information, or is full of affiliate links.

The last case, an e-book full of affiliate links or links to an up-sell…is something you should be giving away free as part of your viral marketing campaign. Charge for it and you risk your reputation for being a source of quality information.

Other things that bite into your customer’s valuable time.

- MP3′s that are streamed from a website rather than being downloadable.

- e-books that are in “.exe” format only, so the customer can’t print them out in one ‘hit’ (and can’t access them on a Mac computer).

Give your clients anything that they can listen to or read away from the computer. Most of them spend enough hours a day at the keyboard already. They’d rather load an audio interview

into their MP3 players and listen while they go for a walk or relax in the sun. They’d prefer to print out an e-book and read it or mark it up while sitting in an easy chair.

Please, please don’t tether them to the computer!

And finally, about those “name squeeze” pages. People are very quickly getting tired of having to give up their email addresses just to get to a sales page. Do you want them to buy or not? These days, unless there’s a huge buzz around the Net and they want to see what it’s all about, prospective customers are just as likely to click the ‘back’ button on their browser, or close the window and leave.

After all, there’s always another internet marketer waiting to sell them a product. Probably one very similar to yours. Marketers who respect their client’s time and intelligence are the ones who will get their loyalty – and their cash.

When you’re disagreeable to intend ranks into the crowning 10 of the wager engines and more especially into the crowning spot, you’ll requirement as whatever germane instruction backwards to your place as you crapper mayhap get.

When the wager engines watch in what visit to surpass websites, they do this supported on the noesis of the place as substantially as instruction pointing backwards to the place and also the interior scheme of the instruction within the site. All of these factors become into endeavor when determining what visit the wager engines distribute to websites for keywords.

Of instruction this formula is such more complicated than I’ve described here, but effort your website submitted to directories is a enthusiastic artefact to verify whatever of those ever essential links.

I’ve seen costs attendant with a assist same this for as such as $1 per directory, so for a itemize of 300 directories, you haw clear as such as $300. If you countenance into whatever places online that substance this service, you haw wager this for as lowercase as $100 or so for 1000 directories.

I commonly dissect this as a outlay goodness status and also verify into kindness the instance continuance of money when I opt what makes significance as farther as expenses.

I’ve timed most how daylong it takes me to accede to 5 directories and it is correct around 4-5 transactions per directory, so in most 20 minutes, I’ll hit most 4-5 directories done.

If I’m feat for 300 directories, modify at a pace of 10 directories every 20 transactions or most 30 per hour, I’m ease hunting at most 10 hours of my instance for 300 directories.

Take this into consideration, but if you poverty to intend started sight most how daylong this would take, study a directory of directories that lists directories by tender rank. The website I’m conversation most is addurl.nu and crapper be accessed online.

There are individual instances where you’ll be healthy to only do wager on Google or character and become up with a aggregation of directories to itemize to and if or when possible, intend your website traded in directories that are limited to your niche.

If you are attempting to intend a website for “mountain biking” hierarchical in the wager engines, ideally you’ll wager for and encounter “biking” directories or modify elevation biking directories that module unification backwards to your site. This is essential as the wager engines, especially Google move relevancy. The more germane or attendant the pages are that unification to your content, the more continuance those instruction are appointed and the easier it module be to intend your website broad rankings for the wager cost you’re feat for. As such as it strength hit whatever value, I wouldn’t be nearly as convergent on effort my elevation biking website traded in a wood-working directory for example.

Directories are an superior artefact to intend instruction backwards to your place and wherever it makes significance from a time-value-of-money perspective, you should be outsourcing this work. Many honored sources module do this impact for you for inferior than $100. Good phenomenon and go intend those rankings!

Traveling by air has become an adventure and one can get the best out of it by being in the know. Fierce competition among airlines and an increased number or flights as well as options just means added benefits for passengers.

There are ways and means of making considerable savings on airfares. Here are a few thoughts:

• If you are flexible about travel dates often you can make a saving of over $100 or more. You just need to visit sites like Travelocity .travelocity.com which give flexible travel date airfares.

• If you are net savvy keep a watch on fare watcher on My Yahoo and you will learn how to monitor prices on a daily basis and how to snag a low price. In this case however, you will need to know your travel dates well in advance and be open to many options.

• Benefit by signing up for being intimated by e-mail of discounted fares for unsold flights and special promos being offered by airlines.

• If you have time and patience offer to be bumped off a full or over booked flight. If you are a good negotiator you can get huge discounts, vouchers, as well as a free flight. You need to know the intricacies of air travel.

• The largest savings are made when you book early at least three weeks to one month before the scheduled departure. Fares can range from $444 for booking 5 days before to $ 192 if booked 26 days before a flight.

• Find out which day of the week flights go empty and plan to travel then. Studies show that most people like traveling on week ends and Monday but the mid- week is comparatively rush free. Look up the fares and you may find that the difference can be as much as $ 100 or more.

• If you destination has more than one airport check what it costs to fly to either. Often the saving can be as much as $ 200 when you choose a less crowded airport and funnily enough the distance from the airport to your destination may be the same from the alternative airport. Check on sites like Orbitz, Kayak, or Travelocity to access list of alternative airports and a fare comparison.

• Choose round trip or multi-destination fares. This is a considerable saving of over US$ 500 and more. Most airlines have multi-city specials so if your work or holiday travel encompasses more than one destination consider such options.

Be travel smart and surf the web to make a comparison chart. Check out travel sites, agencies, as well as the airlines themselves. Whether you are traveling within the country or abroad there are wonderful deals to be availed. Read as many travel articles and tips given by travel gurus as you can and soon you will be master of “cheap travel.”

Have you ever bought an inexpensive car only to find that upkeep and dissatisfaction made it more expensive than if you had just bought a better one in the first place? The same is true in timeshares. The “satisfaction quotient” of a timeshare will actually be determined by your buying the right one in the first place. This is true whether buying a developer’s timeshare or a resale. The only difference is that you will buy the resale for one third to one half the price. Consider the following attributes when purchasing:

The Location. Is it in a demand area? Can you walk to shops, restaurants and other off-site amenities? Does it have major attractions close by? The property on the beach is better than the property a block back. Some resorts feature solitude and a “get away” location with great views of the wilderness. What will suit your lifestyle and desires?

The Design. Was the project a motel conversion or purpose built? Some motel conversions are excellent. Others result in turning a substandard motel into a substandard timeshare. Is the property a mix of Studio, One and Two Bedroom units? Is it attractive and well laid out or just a box? The more attractive the physical layout of the property and the unit floorplans, the better.

The Management. First and foremost: Are the units clean? Look for dust, non-working windows, squeaking doors, seedy landscaping, etc. The better maintained the property, the higher the value. Does the appearance please you?

The Fiscal Stability. This is harder to find because it is not visible. Ask for a copy of the Owner’s Association budget or financial statements. If this is out of your area of expertise, ask the Owners around the pool. Have there been a lot of special assessments? If there is a professional Property Manager (a CPM or RRP), ask them. Is the project “living beyond its means”? Look for the reserve study. When will the property need a new roof and will the money be in the bank to pay for it? Another non-technical way is to review the last few minutes of the Board of Directors meetings.

The Unit Size. As a general rule, the people who buy the larger units are the happiest. The ability to bring friends and family along on a vacation is not to be overlooked. Two bedroom units offer this possibility. In other cases you may not want this possibility to exist so a smaller unit will be the best selection. Think it over not only for the present, but also for the future. Young singles have bought studio units. They don’t work so well after the marriage and the third child.

The Season. Buy the high season if that is what you wish to consistently use. If the summertime is high season and you are a schoolteacher who can only vacation then, you should go ahead, bite the bullet and buy that season, even though it may be at a premium price. If you have school age children the same applies. Sometimes, the reverse is true. For example, we have many Owners of Southern California beachfront resorts who live in the east and Midwest and have specifically purchased the “off season” because it gets them out of the cold. It works perfectly for them.

The Price. This is last on purpose. You are looking at buying a lifetime possession. If you get the wrong one, the dissatisfaction will be present long after you have forgotten what you paid for it. At current resale prices, I don’t think there is any way to lose. Resale timeshares are like antique furniture. They will either hold their value or increase with time. Look at resales as though they will not really cost you money, they will save it. The worst that will happen is that you will have a lifetime of incredible vacations and at the end you will sell it and get all or most of your money back. The longer you own, the better it will be because alternate accommodations (hotels) will only cost more in time due to inflation. The best units in the best season in the best projects have held their value best. Currently, resale prices are generally half of the original developer sale price. In some cases it may be less and in some more. To assure yourself of not paying more than you have to, shop around. Call a title company in the area to find out what the resales in a specific resort are going for. Ask a resale Broker to show you some comparatives. In other words go about it as you would buying a house. Obviously it is not as major a purchase, but time spent getting the right product is absolutely worth it. Remember that you will own it for years. Another trap to avoid is that of buying a cheap timeshare for exchange. Make no mistake. Low quality exchanges for low quality with only rare exceptions.

Key Point – Since we are offering 80% financing for the purchase of timeshare resales, you can now afford to buy the best property; the one you really want. You will be much happier in the long run if you do. All this may be summed up by one phrase:

Buy Quality!!

In this communication era, to promote for any kinds of products efficiently, a businessperson must think about looking for help from the Internet. These are some tips to have a successful online promotion.

First, you have to build up a good website to introduce about your company, advertise for your products, bring up promotional programs and contact with your clients worldwide. With just one click, potential customers can be on your site and make any deals they wish. Therefore, you have to update your web pages frequently for both content and design that will attract viewers’ attention.

Tips for building a good website:

- Content: List out focused keywords and tailor your web pages with them.

- Design: Make some banners that CATCH viewers’ eyes. Animated banners tend to attract people better than static ones.

Secondly, you should think of direct marketing via emails. Every week, every month or every special occasion, send newsletters to your customers to inform your promotional program or just give them some gifts. This activity must be repeated to remind customers about your company products and encourage them to come back to your website.

Thirdly, you can use referral links to advertise on other sites. Posting an article or a press release, you should give out links to your company web pages directly or indirectly, which can improve your website traffic. I do not want to mention about the content of your articles or press releases, but the titles of them. Currently, there are millions of articles and press releases on PR websites. Thus, to catch readers’ eyes, your titles must be attractive, unique and interesting, for example, “Advertising – Friend, not Foe”, “Rock DJ”, “Writing Killer Sales Letter”, “Pro and Profitable website”, etc.

Finally yet importantly, that is advertising on online magazines. You might think that it is a costly way, or might you not? However, there are some ways, that do not influence money in your pocket much, and sometimes they promote your selling very well. If you are a software producer, you should contact with some editors of international IT magazines who find companies and request free softwares to include in their CD/ DVD cover mount. During the discussion, you can persuade editors to get one of your softwares and make the branding for the software you wish. For example, you offer free full version of Voice Changer Software and then advertise for Voice Changer Software Diamond 4.0. Moreover, you can improve your selling by providing some coupons for readers to buy latest version of your software. For instance, readers of XYZ magazine can use the coupon of $30 to buy Music Morpher Gold 3.0 at the price of $69.95 instead of $99.95. With these ways, you can encourage your website traffic as well as opportunities to get more orders from readers worldwide.

Well-prepared promotional projects can help you to advertise your products, popularize your brand name, and draw more potential customers. Remember that do make use of the Internet to perfect your online promotional plans.

Author:

Jenny Le who is interested in Marketing and Advertising categories is now working for Audio4fun Media. Contact her at mediaaudio4fun.com

You need to be careful browsing through online turnkey offers to avoid serious financial loss. Everyone has at least one horror story involving online scams, and some are more personal because they were a victim. Once I receive my check for $14,000,000 from Nairobi I can retire from writing advice for small business owners and designing web sites. Wish me luck!

Consider the line from the movie “Field of Dreams” saying “If you build it, they will come”. This does not apply to websites. Online, the P.T. Barnum adage “There’s a sucker born every minute” is too often the case when it comes to purchasing a turnkey online business. Think before you hand off your hard earned cash. You could become victim of an online scam.

In the real world, individuals with novice internet skills are becoming victims every day. An honest person is more apt to believe what they read online because it’s in their character to trust things in writing. Stories of instant wealth with turnkey websites help perpetuate the elusive dream, especially when the reader has little or no business experience. Let’s examine a true case involving one of my clients, and the extreme nature of what can happen.

Imagine this single Mom, struggling to make ends meet while living off the proceeds of a real estate sale, and she encounters a variety of online ads filled with exaggeration and promising the opportunity of a lifetime. Over time, and before meeting me, she purchased 7 prepackaged web sites for a variety of online products and services thinking that money would roll in automatically. To put her online marketing in perspective, only recently she grew more comfortable sending and receiving email.

Her total cost for 7 sites exceeded $10,000 two years ago with zero profit to date. Most of the sites were cookie cutter turnkey subdomains with insignificant search engine ranking. In general, the top level domains were poorly coded with grade school level graphics, so each of her sites had serious problems with credibility.

When questioned about the lack of sales, most of her sources replied blaming her for the poor performance because she wasn’t promoting and marketing the site. Any person with bare email skills, no previous online marketing, and ruthless predators taking advantage of novice online entrepreneurs, all adds up to disaster. The ones selling advice about how to make money are often the only ones making money. Read on about how truly outrageous this situation became.

To get started, one company required payment of $2500 by EFT to transfer funds immediately from her bank account to theirs. One year later, they renewed her site without any prior notice, and withdrew $2500 again. Believe it. I know because by this time I was contacted to create a super site as a portal page to introduce the other 7, and she asked for advice on how to handle the $2500 withdrawal.

Here are some tips to help you avoid online scams when considering an online turnkey website.

1. Look at the web site and reflect on your first impression objectively. Your visitors will decide within 5 seconds if your product or service is credible and worthwhile. If your reaction viewing the parent site is not favorable, move on.

2. If you decide to review their web site further, look for signs of exaggeration. Pages overloaded with adjectives claiming or exclaiming success may be overselling in an attempt to convince you that you’ll be the next millionaire.

3. Next, do the owners or managers of the online opportunity give their real names, physical address, and phone numbers? If all you find is a postal box address and nothing to identify who’s taking your money, don’t do it.

4. Never consider buying an online business unless you personally have the experience to market and grow the product or service. Very few people make it rich quickly without effort and a considerable commitment of time and energy.

5. Don’t believe ads that offer something too good to be true. Avoid the pressure to act now. There is no urgency handing over your life savings until you perform some basic research.

6. Check for comments from satisfied customers. Testimonials from unhappy buyers are never published, so save your energy and skip over those unless you’re in the mood for some entertainment, and enjoy reading fiction.

7. Join a forum to get advice and feedback from other honest people like you. Search Google for “online business marketing forums” and visit several to see reviews of online opportunities from other users.

8. If you are going to distribute a product, think twice if the site requires you to pay in advance for inventory, offers a bonus if you sign up more distributors, or has ANY advance fee requirements.

Keep an open mind as you review different concepts, and think twice before you believe what you read online. Another downside to a turnkey website is you own a site that is most likely a clone to 100′s or perhaps 1000′s of pages covering the same product or service. Making a positive first impression includes being unique. In most cases the turnkey site is a fixed design, so you probably have zero influence on the look, and no chance of revising the content.

In summary, caution and research will be the key to avoid being victimized. Shortcuts to wealth are rare. Real success in any online business requires long hours and hard work. The turnkey website for an online business may look too good to be true. It probably is. Your success depends on having a popular product or service that people need, presenting your offers on a credible and attractive site, and finally getting traffic to your web pages to make the sale. It is not easy. It can be done.

Here are some hot list-building tips for you to grow your list and your business.

1. Offer an outstanding gift or bonus for subscriptions. Not too long ago, any kind of a free gift or bonus was more than enough to get subscribers. In fact, in many cases, no “bribe” was needed at all! But, as more and more marketers began to send emails and ezines, and as spam increased, prospects began to be more discerning about whom they gave their email address to.

To really be successful in your list-building efforts, you must offer an irresistible deal for subscribers. Sometimes, if people are interested enough in your topic, they will sign up for your ezine or course. But most of the time you must prove to subscribers that you are serious about creating a relationship with them. This means you must provide them with solid content at the beginning, not advertisements. In some cases, this may mean you must offer a free course AND a free report (or some other combination). But do whatever it takes to get that subscriber on your list.

2. Add more opt-in boxes in your sales letter or home page. The best case scenario would be to have your home page be dedicated to your opt-in list as a lead-capture page. But if you won’t, or can’t, do that, put your opt-in subscription box on your page as many times as you can. Ideally, you want it at the top, in the middle, and at the bottom. As your prospect reads your sales page, he or she may become more interested in your topic. Thus, the more times he or she sees your opt-in box, the greater the chance they will leave their email for you to communicate with them.

3. Build your list virally. Write a free report on a useful topic (making sure to put your website in the report), visit the forums, and offer to give your report to anyone who wants it. Marketers will take you up on your offer because good marketers are always looking for good content to share with their lists; they don’t usually care where it comes from. When a marketer gives your report to their list, your website link will be viewed by many who read the report, and visited by many.

If you follow these tips, your list will grow and will become like gold for you.

The “hard” sales techniques, unexplainable price drops, and low-quality resorts are generally disappearing. That means many vacationers now view timesharing as a viable and economical option for future vacations. But they need to know much more to make an intelligent purchase.

With the entrance of companies like Disney, Marriott, and Hilton into the field, the timeshare market is exploding. In the past two years, almost 500,000 households have purchased a total of more than 700,000 week-long units at timeshare resorts. That means there are more than 2 million owners at more than 2,000 resorts worldwide. Contrary to popular belief, a recent study by leisure survey experts Ragatz Associates showed that more than 80% of these owners are happy with their purchase.

“It is clear that timesharing is gaining in popularity, not only here in the U.S., but also across Europe, Mexico, and in South America,” says Tom Franks, president of the American Resort Development Association, the timeshare industry body, based in Washington, D.C.

THE BASICS

In timesharing, consumers typically buy one or more weeks at a specific resort and can return to that resort every year or “trade” it for a week at another resort with an exchange company. Prices currently average about $9,000, with annual maintenance fees of around $300.

Vacation timesharing generally takes one of two forms: “Fee” timesharing gives the purchaser permanent rights–in the form of a deed–to the property. About 85% of timeshare resorts sell under fee-ownership agreements. “Right-to-use” timesharing grants the purchaser the rights to the use of the property for an established period of time, such as 30 years. Under this type of timesharing, the purchaser does not receive a deed.

Rather than return to their home resort every year, many owners opt to exchange their week for a week at one of thousands of other timeshare properties worldwide. For a fee (usually less than $100), companies like Resorts Condominiums International (317/876-1692) or Interval International (305/666-1861) perform these exchange services for member resorts and owners.

Many owners say this exchange privilege was a key reason for buying and have had much success with the exchanges. The keys to successful exchangers are: buying at a popular resort (this increases exchange power); “depositing” the week with an exchange company as early as possible (this gives the exchange company more time to find a user for the week being exchanged); and being flexible on the desired destination, resort, and dates of travel.

SOME SPECIFICS

The Orlando, Florida area serves as an ideal example of what’s available. It’s a huge market for vacationers from throughout the world in search of a piece of that Orlando “magic.” There are dozens of options available and the area is a great place to own one or more weeks, if you know where to go.

Well-established possibilities include: Island One (407/859-8900); Marriott (813/688-7700); Orange Lake (407/239-1082); and Vistana (407/239-3008). At these and other resorts, you’ll find a full host of amenities, often including kitchens, decks, pools, restaurants, golf courses, tennis courts, and much more. These timeshare resorts are more like fully-equipped apartments or suites, rather than standard hotel rooms.

Walt Disney World recently opened their first timeshare resort, the Disney Vacation Club (407/939-3100). As would be expected, they have developed some unique features for their timeshare concept.

Disney tackled two of the major issues in the timeshare industry today: flexibility and aggressive sales techniques. Along with many other timeshare properties, Disney has moved to improve these two areas and the early reviews give them high marks.

By purchasing a real estate interest in Disney Vacation Club Resort, guests automatically become members of Disney Vacation Club and are entitled to a variety of exclusive benefits and privileges. Members also receive an annual allotment of vacation points, which may be used on vacations at the resort or at more than 100 worldwide resorts currently offered through a “Member Getaways” program with RCI.

“The flexibility of choosing among several different vacation experiences is what sets the Disney Vacation Club apart from many similar plans,” says General Manager Mark Pacala. “The vacation point system allows members to select the type of vacation best suited to their needs, particularly as those needs change from year to year.”

Disney has also attacked the overly-aggressive sales techniques that used to plague the industry. They don’t provide any incentives or awards for prospects attending the sales presentation and their sales force mostly receives a fixed salary, rather than high commissions for high volume.

For a one-time purchase price, guests may purchase a real estate interest in the resort, which expires after 50 years. Prices currently run from $11,730 to around $16,000.

The points system, which is becoming much more popular in the timeshare industry, is much easier to understand than it first appears. Let’s say that with your Disney Vacation Club ownership interest you have 270 points to use each year. You could reserve a two-bedroom home for a week’s stay in June or enjoy a five-day family reunion in July in a three-bedroom Grand Villa. Other options would be to reserve a two-bedroom home for a nine-day stay in September or an incredible stay of several weeks in a studio unit.

Disney’s timeshare operation is typical of the exciting future for the industry and astute timeshare buyers. There are timesharing options throughout the U.S., with huge multi-site options like Hilton Grand Vacations (813/482-7766); Fairfield Communities (800/251-8736); and the Lawrence Welk Resort Group (619/485-5556); as well as small and intimate single-resort operations. You’ll find apartment-like accommodations in a resort-like atmosphere.

WORLDWIDE OPTIONS

Timesharing is not limited to the U.S. at all. This worldwide industry is very popular in Mexico, South America, Europe, and several other parts of the world.

More than 100,000 weeks were sold in Mexico last year at more than 100 different resorts. Prices tend to be lower than the average $9,000 purchase price in the U.S.

Potential buyers should consider Cancun and Cozumel; Puerto Vallarta; Acapulco; Ixtapa; and Manzanillo, a regional resort area for Mexico City, which is favored by Mexicans and generally features even lower prices (less than $5,000). To get started in Mexico, contact reputable multi-resort operator COSTAMEX at 305/267-7855.

South America is a relatively new hot-spot for timesharing, but the industry there is growing quickly. The Argentinian coast and mountains (skiing during the U.S. summer) are currently the most popular spots for development. Visitors to Argentina should explore the options in Buenas Aires, Mar del Plata, Miramar, and the Cerro Catedral ski area. The Uruguay coast resort area of Punta del Este is also becoming a timeshare hub.

Timesharing actually started in Europe, before blossoming in the U.S. There are hundreds of options throughout Western Europe, the Mediterranean, and Scandinavia. As can be expected, resorts are most prevalent along the coasts and in the Alps.

Southern Spain is probably the leader in sunny European timesharing. Dozens of timeshare resorts dot the Costa del Sol area. It’s easy to comparison shop along the coast, but definitely check out several of Club Riviera’s options (011-34-52-831252). Other timeshare hotspots include the Canary Islands, Portugal, the French Riviera, Greece, and Turkey.

The Alps appeal to many timeshare buyers and for good reason. A timeshare unit can save lots of money on ski trips or a summer vacations in the mountains. There are several options in the French Alps, Switzerland, and Germany’s Bavaria, but Austria seems to have the best overall bets. Timesharing Ferienclub Jausern in Sallbach-Hinterglemm (011-43-65-41-503) is typical of Austria’s club-like mountain resorts.

BUYERS BEWARE

Timesharing isn’t for everyone. It’s not a true real estate “investment” and the resale market is tight. Simply put, plan to buy it, keep it, and enjoy it.

The industry body ARDA (see below) has many excellent publications about timeshare purchase. Their office is a great starting point for interested buyers.