« Older Entries

The Finer Points of Internet Auctions

WHAT IS A PENNY AUCTION?

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

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

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

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

HOW PENNY AUCTIONS WORK!

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

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

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

HOW TO WIN!

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

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

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

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

HOW TO AVOID SCAM SITES!

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

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

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

CONCLUSION!

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

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

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

Tags:

Ideas for Home Based Businesses for Women

If you are a woman, and a wife and mother for that matter, have you ever wonder what would happen if you or your husband lost your job? Or if your kids start school or go to college? Have you asked yourself if your day job lets you and your family live comfortably? If you’ve got several questions to this tune, then perhaps it’s time that you try some home based business on the side that’s specifically tailored for women.Women, mothers especially, are always ready to take over when the need arises, especially now that the country is gripped by the recession, moms all over the country are exploring the infinite possibilities that many home based businesses for women are promising.Business ideas can sprout from anywhere and women entrepreneurs are quick on the uptake. Fields such as home and childcare, healthcare and nutrition, fashion, crafts of all sorts are some of the usual business opportunities that the ladies would be more likely to be great at running and managing.To give you a head start, you can choose from among the various suggestions below regarding home based businesses for women like you who are intent on achieving the best for herself and her family:* Utilizing social networks to sell products and servicesA lot of working women have been making use of sites such as Facebook and Twitter to sell various products ranging from health products such as multivitamins and diet pills, to clothes, sports gear, fashion accessories, purses and wallets, and even electronic gadgets and motor vehicles. One can create a page for free in these social networking sites, and for someone starting out, this is definitely a great home based business for women.* Keeping blogs / websitesAnother wonderful home based business for women would be keeping a blog or website. You can choose to blog for the noble and aesthetic reason of documenting your own exploits and adventures and making money out of them by running ads, or you can blog for the sole purpose of doing paid article-writing jobs for search engine optimization (SEO) companies.* Creating and hosting a social network siteStill another home based business trend for women is creating your own social network site. You can start small with a handful of friends and you can eventually increase your site’s membership through email invites or however you want to market it. Examples of these sites are bookieboo*com and socialmediamom*com. Once you get enough members or guests visiting the site, that’s when the profits come in-now you can charge advertisers in your site.* Creating mobile phone apps targeted for women and/or moms as audiencesYour neighbor whose right hand is stuck to her iPhone all the time may well be operating her new home based business for women who love baking cakes and pastry. For all you know, the app that you just purchased to help you with your baking measurements is the same app that she developed while nursing her youngest son. App developers are mostly men, but women are now joining them and coming up with ingenious apps like the “Baby Bump” which is a pregnancy tracker and a baby names database.These are some of the hot home based businesses for women and there are still a lot that no man, or woman, has ever thought of yet. Be the first then and join the hundreds of women who were dedicated to improve their lives with successful online businesses.

Home Based Business – 7 Reasons to Start One

Are you tired of working for someone else, always working more but never getting paid more? Are you tired of never being able to show up for your child’s school events, because you have a boss breathing down your neck?

Millions of Americans are starting their own Home Based Business. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, have a masters degree or a high school diploma. You could start your own home-based business tomorrow with very little start up cost. I’m going to give you a few reasons why you should do this.

1. More time with family – Isn’t this what we all really want. Think about this. You work 9-5. This is eight hours a day spent with your boss and coworkers, not counting the hour it took you to get to work and back home. You arrive home at 6pm. Your kids are so excited to see you. They want to tell you about their whole day at school, but you still need to cook dinner. After you have all eaten and maybe watched a television program together, it’s time to put the kids to bed. It’s now 8:30 pm. You read the kids a short bedtime story. They quietly drift off to sleep. You look at their precious little faces, and your heart aches that you don’t get to spend more quality time with your family. Why should you have to give your boss and coworkers the best part of you.

If you’re a parent with a traditional 9-5 job, this is probably something you deal with everyday. You go to work day in and day out, spending the best part of the day with your boss and coworkers. You are left with just a few short hours when you get home every evening to spend time with your kids and husband while in between you are trying to cook dinner. This isn’t how it should be, but you ask yourself what else can you do? You are stuck in the daily grind of your job. You still have bills to pay and groceries to buy. Why not think about starting your own home based business.

You don’t have to be worried about quitting your current job to do this. Get on the internet and start looking. You will be overwhelmed at first, but sort through and find what interests you the most and start from there first. A home-based business can offer you the quality time with your family you truly deserve.

2. Flexibility- How many people can honestly say they go to work in their PJ’s every morning, take a break whenever they feel like it, and run errands whenever they want to? A home-based business can offer you this kind of flexibility. Most people can’t afford to quit their day job to start a new business, but that’s ok. Here’s where the flexibility part begins to play in.

Most home-based businesses can be started on a part time basis. You may only work your business a few hours a week. It’s not the quantity of time, it’s the quality of time you put into it that matters. Work your business whenever it fits into your schedule. It may be late after the kids go to bed or it may be early before anyone gets up. You decide!

3. No Boss- Do you ever get tired of punching a time clock, someone constantly looking over your shoulder, telling you when and where to take break? With your own home-based business, your the captain of this ship. You are the boss. This means you are going to have to be disciplined. No one is going to do it for you. Just because you are at home doesn’t mean you can spend six hours a day watching your favorite soap opera.

Write down some goals in the beginning. This will help keep you focused as you grow your new business. Always know your “why”. You may stray from time to time but this will help keep you on the right path. You’re the boss now. You have to be responsible.

4. No Commuting- How would you like to save the money you spend every week on
gas and use it towards a vacation. The average american is spending anywhere between $2.15-$3.00 per gallon of gas. What if you are driving sixty to a hundred miles round trip to work. Look at the money you could be saving in gas alone if you do not have to commute.

Plug in the numbers and see for yourself what kind of savings you could have.
Not only are you going to be saving on gas, but the wear and tear on your car. You probably won’t need to replace your tires as often. This all adds up quickly.

5. Financial Stability- Do you avoid checking your mail because your afraid there
may be a bill inside? Does your phone ring off the hook because creditors are hounding you? If this sounds like your life, you may want to think about starting your own home based business. Starting your own business can give you that extra income you need to pay off some bills without quitting your current job. Once you get your feet on the ground, if you are willing to give your business 1-3 years for growth, you could surpass your current income while saving in other areas.

Most americans carry $8-$10,000 worth of credit card debt. Almost anyone can get a credit card these days. Most people should only have one credit card for emergencies. Think about getting one with only a small credit line. If you only have a $1,500 credit limit, you can probably handle this. If you have one with a $5-$10,000 credit limit, you can get in over your head before you know it.

Financial freedom is something we all dream about, but for most of us it’s not going to happen with our current jobs. The right home-based business has the ability to offer you and your family the financial freedom we all long for.

6. No Daycare- Wouldn’t it be a great feeling each morning to wake up and know
your children are going to be with you and not some stranger all day. This is one of the hardest decisions we as parents have to make after having children. Having a home-based business allows you to stay home with your children full time. You will be the one to hold them when they are sick, see their first steps, and hear their first words.

If you are one of the lucky parents who are fortunate enough to have friends or family who can watch your children when you are at work, great! But most parents aren’t that lucky. You have to rely on daycare to take care of your children when you’re at work. You try and tell yourself, ok, these are licensed staff members I am leaving my children with. But the thoughts of leaving them with strangers at all, makes you sick. Maybe your kids cry everyday when you leave them. That makes for a long, guilt-ridden day at work. I say this because I have been there and know what it feels like.

Your kids are going to get sick from time to time, but the odds of them getting sick as often if they are home full time with you are much less than if they are in daycare everyday. This means no calling into work, telling your boss you can’t come in because you have a sick child. You will be home with your child to comfort him or her when they are sick, play with them, and take care of them when they are hurt. This is priceless and no can do it better than you.

7. Tax Advantages- Many people don’t realize the tax advantages offered with a home-based business. I definitely do not claim to be a tax expert, but there are many common things which can be deducted depending on what your business is.

Just to mention a few, advertising, business miles, supplies, business building information, ex. audiocassettes, DVDs, just to name a few. If you decide to be one of the millions of Americans to start a home-based business, talk with your tax advisor. He or she will be able to give you more specific information about what deductions are available to you.

I hope by writing this, I have opened your eyes to the many possibilities a Home Based business can offer you. Good luck in your decision to start your own business!