Review of GSM/UMTS-smartphone Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (Tube)

Positioning

In our reports from the 5800 Tube's launch event we touched upon its positioning, but now we are willing to go more in-depth and give you the big picture.

Nokia Remix – Nokia 5800 exposed

We've all been waiting for this - a touch-sensitive phone from Nokia. And the more they hyped the fabulous Apple iPhone, the more anxious everyone had been growing. Having launched a PR campaign of immense power Apple did not hesitate to take on Nokia on its very own turf. But Nokia have got some trumps up their sleeves as well, and among them are several solutions that will leave the whole Cupertino sleepless. That is, Nokia Music Store may not seem like much and doesn't look any better than Sony Ericsson's PlayNow service, but Nokia has in fact added a whole new dimension to it by bringing about Nokia Comes with Music campaign that allows the users of select phones to enjoy free subscription to a vast music database. Furthermore, you can store all tracks you've downloaded on PC and listen to them as long as you want. So, this is "strike one" that puts the business model of iTunes in question and makes it less of a monopoly on today's market. But such a powerful service calls for some capable hardware - specifically, music-minded mobile phones. As you probably have guessed, Nokia has tackled this issue with its latest and greatest 5800 Xpress Music.

We already posted an in-depth story about Nokia Comes with Music a while ago, so in case you missed it for some reason, I strongly recommend that you read it.

Nokia Comes with Music

Moreover, we will put up a review of Nokia Comes with Music the day after it kicks off on October 16th, so we invite you to visit Mobile-Review.com for more info and hands-on impressions with this service.

Although it may seem Nokia have designed the 5800 exclusively for their online music service, it's not quite true. This phone targets all other touchscreen offerings around, including Windows Mobile, Apple iPhone and some dedicated audio players delivered by smaller companies. Basically, Nokia have dropped the price of the 5800 Tube to the point where no one will even want to compete on price or won't have the means to offer a similarly geared solution for this money. But Nokia's real intention behind this sensationally low price tag (by the way, they are still going to make good money off it) is to clean up the whole industry a little bit. Apparently, half-dead manufacturers focusing on touch-sensitive solutions and marketing them at higher price points due to lack of competition won't be able to survive the arrival of the 5800 XpressMusic. However, those who will find a way to adjust without altering their pricing policies will be knocked out early in 2009 by another announcement - without going into much detail, I can say that those 279 Euros for the Nokia 5800 aren't exactly the bottom line for this type of phones; effectively they can go much lower than that.

 

These days Nokia hardly faces any competition on the mobile phone market - Samsung are capitalizing on the weakness of the rest of the field, and although they've been trying to back it up with pretty decent offerings too, they don't interact with local carriers just as much. So, Nokia's real challenges lie in services and music; obviously, it's impossible not to mention iTues in this regard. Basically, every Apple-branded phone or players comes bundled with iTunes and there is no other way around. Nokia, however, has learned a lesson from Apple's experience and is now looking to take on Apple's offerings on their own turf. How? By now probably everyone knows that the stellar sales generated by the original iPhone in the US were more due to the demand they had to meet in other regions. Apple closed their eyes to all leaks and in an effort to encourage these activities, they supplied "right" people with their firmware encryption codes that essentially made the whole jailbreak hysteria possible (although these days it's nearly impossible to break the iPhone 3G's software). Previously Apple needed to put up great numbers and turn the market in their favor, but that was stage one. The second part of the plan, which is unfolding these days, is supposed to bring the iPhone brand back to the top price bracket. And that's exactly the moment when Nokia chimes in with its underpriced finger-friendly devices, leaving Apple very few ways to retaliate - one of them would be to send the iPhone's pricing through the floor (thankfully, it's not all that popular in Europe). Without a price cut their whole campaign in Europe will come to a halt in a year or two. On the other hand, with unlimited music subscription and a more able device (in terms of core functionality), Nokia won't allow an alternative to come along any time soon.

 

Now, several words about the phone itself. They call it "feminine", "teenager-ish" and a whole bunch of other ways. But nobody is trying to conceal the fact that it's aimed primarily at the younger audience, although even people past their thirties should be pretty content with the 5800 XpressMusic as well (we'll see some more imposing offerings of this breed down the road, though). Those who are into innovations and cutting-edge gadgets won't be put off by the Nokia 5800's simplistic design. And on the other hand, people who shun touch-sensitive screens won't even think of the 5800 as a possible way to go. This way, Nokia will never face the risk of letting the sales of their conventional smartphones plummet in favor of the 5800 XpressMusic. It's quite another matter, though, that with the arrival of this phone they will have to give up on several music-minded offerings given the price tag of the 5800 Tube.

That said, the Nokia 5800's positioning shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out - it's simply the most feature-rich and affordable touchscreen device with a focus on music. Furthermore, you won't find any other phone that can come close to it in terms of price/quality ratio. Windows Mobile devices are by no means "multimedia-ready", so the only other way to go is the Apple iPhone - however, retailing for twice as much, it's not much of a mobile phone per se. And the Nokia 5800 makes it clear that the real price of the Apple iPhone 3G should revolve around 300-350 USD before subsidies. All in all, I suggest we wait until December and see how Apple will alter their pricing policy in view of Nokia's latest efforts on the touchscreen playground.

 

Again, I never tire to emphasize the following - the 5800 Xpress Music is nothing but Nokia's first step in this segment, and we'll see more of them down the road. What Nokia is really up to is defeat the myth that touch-friendly phones are always on the expensive side - they know it's all nonsense and they are building up a mass market for this type of solutions. And they seem to be doing pretty well, considering how much arguments and feedback their latest release has sparked up.

Back to the table of contents >>>

Design, Size, Controls

The 5800 XpressMusic is a pretty much standard plasticky candy-bar without any metallic or chromed accents in it. The build quality, however, was pretty good - we didn't find any parts on it that would creak when pressed or feel wobbly (just as you'd expect from this design, though). Also, there is nothing wrong with the 5800 Tube utilizing only plastic parts - some more expensive offerings don't have any metallic accents either and somehow this fact doesn't turn many off. Apparently, since the Nokia 5800 doesn't have any other newsworthy drawbacks, its haters will be looking for any opportunity to blame it for not having metallic parts in its design. I especially like some "qualified" opinions of people who haven't even touched the 5800 yet, but for some reason feel competent enough to share their point of view. Here are some gems:

• It's a plasticky made-in-China toy;
• All other touchscreen phones are made of metal, the 5800 is not - why?;
• It looks and feels so cheap!;

 

Thankfully, though, these mumblings have absolutely nothing to do with how things really stand. As far as materials are concerned, the Nokia 5800 has nothing to shout about, but at the same time it doesn't expose any crucial letdowns.

 

The phone measures in at 111x51.7x15.5 mm and tips our scales at 109 grams. Let's put it up against some other today's offerings to see how it is "too small" or "way too bulky", "feminine" or whatever:

Nokia 5800
Motorola ZN5
Sony Ericsson W902
Apple iPhone 3G
Samsung PIXON M8800

111x51.7x15.5 mm, 109 g
118x50.5x16 mm, 114 g
110x49x11.7 mm, 100g
115.5x62.1x12.3 mm, 133 g
107.9x54.6x13.8 mm, 124 g

Nokia 5800 vs Nokia N85:

 

 

 

 

 

Nokia 5800 vs Nokia N96:

Nokia 5800 vs Nokia 5310:

I suppose the numbers above are more informative than any words - the 5800 is reasonably wide and not overly fat (which some tend to groundlessly blame it for). All in all, in terms of size it's a typical candybar of 2008. It also features a lanyard eyelet that can be used to attach what Nokia calls "stylus plectrum" (comes with a strap on it). I'm pretty positive that some girls will use it as a wrist strap.

Full Review

HOW TO MANAGE HOME-BUSINESS CASH FLOW EFFECTIVELY

There's something you can never afford to forget when you are running a business out of your home -- cash is king!

Whether it is a multi-billion dollar empire, such as Bill Gates' Microsoft, or the tiny mom-and-pop convenience store on the street corner, cash is the lifeblood of the business.

In today's uncertain economy with ever rising interest rates, many small businesses with limited financial training are having problems staying alive, let alone prospering. In fact, 63% of new businesses don't survive six years -- and most work-at-home people fail within 6 months!

The primary reason is bad cash management. To many self-employed people neglect their cash flow until it is too late to recover. Suddenly, presto! it 's back to your office job! We don't want that to happen.

So the big question is: will you be able to manage your cash flow effectively? If you are not sure, then you are on shaky ground.

Les Masonson, author of Cash, Cash, Cash: The Three Principles of Business Survival and Success, says cash flow is all about, "getting the money from customers sooner, paying bills at the last possible moment, concentrating money to a single bank account, managing accounts payable, accounts receivable and inventory more effectively, and squeezing every penny out of your daily business."

Let's break down Masonson's tips one at a time.

FAST COLLECTION

In your business, you should collect money as fast as you can. To do so, try these four things:

(1) Try to speed up customer orders by having them fax their orders to you.

(2) Send out your invoices the same day goods are shipped, not a week or two later.

(3) Indicate on your invoice when payment is due, and specify the penalty interest for late payment.

(4)Consider using a bank lock box (post office box strategically located near customers to reduce mail time) to collect your mailed checks from customers across the country. You lockbox bank picks up mail around the clock including weekends, processes the checks and credits your account. (Note: this last step is probably more appropriate for businesses grossing more than $25 million annually. You may not be there yet, but keep it in mind for when you get there)!

DEPOSIT CHECKS FAST!

This seems only obvious, but it's extremely important. In fact, here are Masonson's six sure-fire suggestions for getting the fastest availability on deposited checks.

(1) Always deposit checks the same day they are received. Don;t hold checks until the next day because you lose one day's float. Key point: you can lose three days of float by not depositing Friday's checks until Monday.

(2) Obtain availability of 0 to 2 days on deposited checks. Don't let your bank give you the customer availability of 1 to 5 days. Be persistent. Ask the bank for its "availability schedule" and scan it to be sure you're receiving fast availability of two days or less.

Each bank has its own availability schedule. This is used to assign check availability to consumers, business (commercial accounts), and large corporate accounts. Availability is the number of days until you can use the money deposited by check as cash. For example, a $1,000 check deposited today and assigned a one-day availability can be withdrawn as cash tomorrow.

(3) Don't deposit checks in a bank's Automated Teller Machine or use the Night Depository since you have no evidence that you actually deposited the checks you said you did. Remember, you only receive a receipt that shows the time and dollar amount on the deposit at the ATM, and you get no receipt at the Night Depositor.

(4) MICR encode your customer's checks (using a machine that prints magnetic ink on the bottom of the check) with the dollar amount before depositing them in the bank if you deposit more than 500 checks per month. Banks charge 3 to 5 cents less for each encoded check. Used encoded machines cost about $1,500. (Check your Yellow Pages under bank equipment for dealers). Besides saving money, you may get another benefit: faster check availability.

(5) Ask you bank about its deadline for receiving availability on deposited checks. Some banks may require a deposit of an encoded check by 2 p.m., even though the bank is open to 5 p.m. Make sure you make this deadline, otherwise you lose one day's float.

(6) Before using a bank's ATM for check deposits, find out the bank's availability deadline. Some banks have a 12 noon cut-off time which means that any checks deposited later are considered to be deposited the next day! In that case, you lose an entire day's float, even though you did your bit to get the checks cashed.

HAVE A SUPER TIGHT ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE POLICY

Many people think it is no big deal to neglect accounts receivable until bills are collectible. This is bad cash flow policy. Here are seven excellent tips for handling accounts receivable:

(1) Check the financial health of a new customer before offering them credit. One way of doing this is by using a rating service, such as Dun & Bradstreet (1-800-234-3867).

(2) Ask a new customer for five business references and don't neglect to call them.

(3) Don't offer too generous discounts, such as 3% for payment in 10 days. A better rate is 1.5% cash discount. It costs you less.

(4) Charge a "late fee" of 2% per month to customers who pay late and charge back customers who take discounts after the discount periods.

(5) Follow up on late payers with phone calls and letters. These may seem a bit extreme, but the first letter should go out the very day the amount is one day late! After 30 days late, start this sequence:

-- send out a letter from your attorney --turn over the account to a collection agency --use a collection attorney

(6) Don't send out new merchandise if bills remain unpaid. Remember that bad debts hurt your bottom line! Be vigilant and try to get at least periodic payments from slow payers.

(7) Instruct your bank to automatically deposit "returned checks." Ask your bank if they offer Return Item box service. If they do, then use it to redeposit your check and charge back the bank return item free to your customer.

These seven steps are tough and unrelenting, but they may make the difference between a positive cash flow month and a sluggish month for your business. It may seem a bit hypocritical to demand swift and exacting payment, and then do what we suggest next. But just remind yourself, all (almost) is fair in love and war and business.

DISBURSE YOUR MONEY SLOWLY

Just the opposite of collecting at the earliest possible moment, you should never pay a day sooner than you have to, unless you get a discount for doing so. A lot of people believe in staying ahead of bills and paying them as early as possible, but that's just poor cash management. You want to keep your money in your hands as long as you can. Here are five suggestions to slow down your disbursements:

(1) Pay your invoices on the last day they're due, not before.

(2) try to mail your payment on Thursday or Friday to pick up a few extra days mail float over the weekend.

(3) Use business credit cards for travel, lodging, meals, and small expenses for yourself and your employees. With credit cards you typically don;t have to make payment until 25 days after receiving the statement. Use this float by investing the money. In total, you can typically keep your money invested for 45 days from date of purchase.

(4) Don't issue advances to employees. Have them use their personal credit cards or business cards, if you provide them

(5) Consider setting up a remote disbursement checking account in another state to extend the check clearing float by at least a day. This practice is used very successfully by 17% of large companies. The downside of this practice is that some vendors may complain about their delayed availability on their bank deposit. But this can be overcome by mailing them their checks one day earlier.

Now, many small businesses neglect to reconcile their monthly bank statements or assume that the bank never makes a mistake. Banks do make mistakes, and you must stay on top of your disbursement to control your cash flow. If you are one of those people who simply can't stand to balance you check book, you can use a bank's standard account reconcilement services for a low monthly price -- $30 to $70 base charge and 5 to 7 cents a check. When is it best to use a bank's reconcilement service? Here are six suggestions:

(1) When you have a monthly check volume of at least 500 checks.

(2) When you need specialized reports.

(3) When you are currently performing your own reconcilement.

(4) You can find software at a reasonable price that meets your needs. Companies offering accounting software include DacEasy, Inc. (800-877-8088); Real world corp (800-678-6336) and Peachtree (800-247-3224).

(5) When you don't have your own PC or any other kind of computer system. (We already warned you about that).

(6) When you have no staff to do it, or time to do it yourself.

NO EXTRA MONEY IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT

Many businesses make the mistake of keeping too much money in their bank accounts to pay for bank services. This money could be used more effectively elsewhere -- such as to pay off a loan or to invest at a more competitive rate. Many businesses have no idea how much money to leave in the bank or what alternatives they have to compensate the bank. Take some time to find out what your minimum balance needs to be.

GET AN ACCOUNT ANALYSIS STATEMENT

How do you know how much money (bankers refer to this as "balances") to leave in your checking account to pay for bank's services? That's a question that more business owners should be asking themselves.

(1) First, get a price list which shows how much your bank charges for services like account maintenance, checks deposited, checks paid, stop payments and wire transfers.

(2) Ask the bank to send you a monthly "Account Analysis Statement." The analysis statement contains the average balance levels for the month -- both the ledger and the available balance -- as well as a listing of services used, their transaction volumes and cost. This statement should be obtained in addition to the regular monthly bank statement.

(3) Look at the account analysis to see whether you are overcompensating the bank. Then pull out any excess funds and invest them in a high-yielding money market mutual fund, for example.

A word of advice: Smaller banks may not know what you are talking about when you ask for an account analysis. Larger banks often offer such a statement, but you have to ask for it. And don't let them charge you for this kind of statement since it is only an invoice.

INVENTORY IS NOT CASH

Every item you have sitting on your shelf should eventually be transformed into cash in your bank account, and the sooner the better. As long as it's inventory, it's basically dead weight. If it is not moving, you're not having cash flow.

Here are six recommendations to minimize the cost of your inventory:

(1) Attempt to forecast as accurately as you can the day, week and month what you expect to sell.

(2) If you are dealing in more than one item, determine which item accounts for 80% of your sales. Then minimize ordering other items that are selling poorly or infrequently.

(3) Determine how fast you can get inventory, once you order it. Try to order as late as you can. Some firms can use "just-in-time" inventory which enables them to receive their order the day they need it.

(4) Determine your economic order quantity and don't order too much inventory just to save a few pennies.

(5) Shop around and make sure you are getting competitive prices.

(6) Develop a policy for determining what is obsolete inventory, and how you can get rid of it. The best way to get rid of dead inventory is to sell it whatever you can get for it, even if that's only 10 percent of what you paid for it. At least it will generate cash flow.

DON'T FORGET CONTINUITY SALES

Once of the most exceptional ways of controlling and improving cash flow well into the future is by employing something called continuity of sales or services.

Continuity sales are simply a contract to purchase products or services on an installment basis for a fixed period of time.

That may sound complicated, but in practice, it actually is not. The best example of a continuity sale is a magazine subscription. 12, 24, or 36 issues delivered each month for X amount of dollars. The bigger the subscription, they better deal you get. The publisher gets more money up front, and the customer gets a better deal in the long run.

Continuity can apply to anything.

Let's say you own a dry cleaning business. How about an annual deal to clean 5 shirts or blouses per week for set amount of money? Get people to pay your for the entire week up front for a lot of fast cash flow. You'll trade a discount for getting business, but you'll ensure a steady cash flow for months to come.

Continuity works with just about any kind of product or service you are offering, from dry cleaning to to your personal consulting service.

You can structure payments for continuity sales on almost any basis, but it's best by far to go for complete payment up front. After all, the discount is based on a customer's commitment, and they'll be a lot more committed with their money on the line.

LICENSING AGREEMENTS

After all is said and done, if you were to list the assets of the company you have created, you'd probably include your inventory, equipment, accounts receivable, equity, and so on.

But by this time, especially if you have been reading carefully, you have something more -- something that is not necessarily a physical "thing" such as cash or inventory.

If you've been a clever business person, you have come up with certain ads that have outpulled your competitors. You have developed policies and procedures that have kept your returns and refunds the lowest of any around. Or you may have come up with a money-making technique that is completely unique. If so, you are potentially sitting on fast source of cash.

You can license the rights to use any of your specialized techniques or assets to other non-competitive businesses. You can do it for a flat fee, a percentage of profits, on a royalty basis, or any other way that makes sense to you. You can also conduct seminars to teach your techniques to other would-be work-at-home entrepreneurs and charge whatever the market will bear. It's easy to generate an extra $5,000 a month and much more on the lecture circuit. While you are getting paid to spread your knowledge, you will be drumming up more business.

The knowledge you have in your head right now could very well be worth a lot of money. It's only a matter of you looking within yourself and at your successes to see how you can transform it all into real, hard cash

Getting Rich with Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs (also called Referral Programs or Associate or
Partnership Programs) are essentially commission-based sales schemes.
They are used for selling of both physical and digital products. The mother
of digital products affiliate program is Clickbank.
You recommend a site to your users and pick up a percentage of any
sales those users generate. You benefit from the commission and the site
benefits from sales it wouldn’t otherwise have made. If you’ve ever
gone to a website and seen links to Amazon, those were affiliate links.
You can run an affiliate program from a site you’ve already set up, or
create a site specially to promote a product or service. As long as it
brings in more cash than you spend on building it and buying traffic,
you’re laughing. Affiliate ads work two ways: you can join them to
make money, or you can run one to attract users.
You can see an example here.
How to join an affiliate program
As with any marketing venture, you need to be careful in the selection
of an affiliate program. The benefit of an affiliate program is that it gives
you another way to make money from your users. Instead of  selling
them a product yourself, you send them to a partner and take a cut.
On the downside though, your affiliate ads will take the place of a
different ad that you could have put in that same spot. You have to
make sure that each advertising position on your site is bringing in
the maximum revenue possible. If you’re not getting the most from your
site, you’re tossing money away. The key to success is to choose the
right program, right from the beginning.
Now, a lot of commercial sites run affiliate programs. That’s because
they know that they only have to pay a commission if a sale is
actually made; it’s a proven way to generate revenue without risk.
What that means for you is that when it comes to choosing an affiliate
program, you’re going to have a huge range to choose from. What it all
boils down to though is product and price.
While it might be tempting to go for the program that pays the highest
commissions, the program won’t pay you a penny if your users won’t go
there or won’t buy once they get there. You have to be certain that
the service you’re promoting is of genuine interest to the kind of
users you buy, whether you’re buying them from search engines or
anywhere else. Sure, you can work backwards: You find a high-paying
affiliate program and create a small site to send users to it, but do you k
now where to buy users for a program like that?
You’re going to have to research the field, check out the most popular sites,
and negotiate banner campaigns and link exchanges.
That’s fine if you want to invest the time and the effort. But it’s
much easier to find an affiliate program operating in a field you’re
familiar with, and use that program to earn extra cash.
For example, suppose you had set up a dating site. You might make bit
of money selling subscriptions, but you might make even more by
joining Match.com’s affiliate program and selling them your users.
Unless you’re planning to be the Internet’s biggest dating site,
you’re not going to be able to compete directly and beat them, but you
can join them—and earn money.
Or rather than sell your users directly to a ‘competitor’, you can
look for services that complement your own. Visitors to your dating
site, for example, might be interested in buying flowers, books on
relationships or tickets on singles cruises. Instead of selling just
one product—membership subscriptions—you’d be selling a whole range of
different goods to the same people, and increasing the sources of your
income.
Here are some concrete tips to selecting an affiliate program that is
lucrative and right for you:
* Don’t accept less than 25% commission. You can find affiliate
  programs with great payment structures and high percentages of the
  purchase price in just about every field.
* Look for comprehensive statistics pages that list the number of
   click-throughs, sales and earnings so you can see how you’re doing.
* Look for programs that offer a wide variety of promotional tools to
   put on your Web page, including text links, banners and graphics.
* Find out how often you will be paid and make sure that the payment
   schedule meets your expectations. Some programs pay monthly, others
   quarterly; which is best for you?
* Look for examples of marketing methods that successful affiliates
   are using to get the best results.
*  Make sure that top level support is given. If they can’t answer your
    questions promptly and intelligently, you don’t want to work with them.

How To Make Money With A Simple Debt Help Website

Just switch on CNN and it's patently obvious that world economies are being thumped to

their knees. However, some smart niche marketers are using these uncertain market

times to set-up an online presence that actually takes advantage of the credit crunch

and debt crisis that seems to be dominating newspaper headlines every other day. Today, I want to merge the topic of identifying potent niches with something that has

sent shockwaves through global economies – I want to show you how abundant good niches

are, why they’re all around us, and how to use current events to identify them (as

opposed to the moronic ramblings of many “guru’s” out there). So, what’s so special about today? As this article was written, something almost

unprecedented has happened - The banking giant Lehmans has gone bankrupt. Yes, it’s

gone bust – kaput – bye bye. Within financial circles, this was not a complete

surprise (nor the fact that there are more banking disasters out there which may well

come out of the cupboard sooner than you think). Many of you know I used to work for a

famous U.S. investment bank. I know exactly how they work from the inside, which is

why I’ve known for a long time that something like today’s debacle was inevitable.

Trust me, asking the bank to look after your money is like asking McDonalds to look

after your cow. But that’s another story for another day – lets get back to how this

story fits in with picking a solid niche.

First, we need to understand what drives a potential niche before getting involved. Do

you know why Lehmans has gone bust? It’s almost a spitting image of the recent

Northern Rock fiasco – whereby banks have approved mortgages to people who simply

cannot afford to repay their debt. The result? So many people have been unable to

repay their debts on their housing loans that it has caused a “credit crunch” –

leading to serious problems in the financial sector, and today, the insolvency of

Lehman Brothers. And, if you think we’re over the worst, we’re not.

1. How This Event Can Help You Identify The Basics Of A Potent Niche To Set-Up

Your Websites & Blogs In..

One of the hardest things for budding internet entrepreneurs is to identify quality

niches to be involved with. Visit any forum, and you’ll see cries for help –

energetic, bright eyed folk who are ready to start something - anything - but have no

idea what. Typically, a big name guru then steps in and sells them some piffle PLR

package on “how to weave your own wicker basket” or whatever, and it all ends in

disaster (look out for forum posts like “help – wicker basket site not making

anything!).

Today’s article is really all about using your own intelligence (of which you have in

abundance given that you’re still reading this) to identify the good stuff for

yourself.

Sometimes, you only have to open your eyes and it’s right in front of you.

For example, can you imagine the scale of debt problems within the U.K. and U.S. to be

able to murder a top tier bank in the mould of Lehmans? To give you a clue, Lehman’s

third quarter loss (that’s just 3 months of trading) amounted to over three billion

dollars. You may be wondering, how anyone can actually make money from all this – I’ll

get to that in a bit, but I want to make a crucial point first:

“Potent Niches Are All Around Us – Keep Your Ears And Eyes Peeled To See What’s Making

Major Headlines In The News…And Then Find Out If There’s A Way Of Monetising It (There

Almost Always Is)”

Let’s get back to the niche we’re analysing today – the credit crunch, and debt. Pour

over some research reports (or Google it if you have the patience) and you’ll discover

some alarming facts about debt in the Western economy. For example:

- U.K. and U.S. consumers have a combined debt of over 5 trillion USD, and

that’s BEFORE taking into account mortgage debt. Sooner or later, someone is going to

want that back – and when people cannot pay, it’s going to cause further devastation

in the economy (I hate this article I’m writing, I must be coming over like a right

doomsayer).

- Over 5 million credit card owners have recently (within a six month period)

been unable to make repayments on their card.

- According to a research report by Myvesta, over half of Americans are now

struggling moderately to critically with their debt repayments. That should tell you

about the potency of the debt market.

- The amount of home repossessions has increased by 30% since the same period

last year.

I could hit you with more facts, but I think you get the general idea right? The

question you should have at this point is…”well that’s all well and good, but how can

all this carnage create a thriving business for me?”. Read on…

2. Turning Potential Into Dollars – How To See If There Really Is A Way To Make

Big Returns From A Niche.

The above is all promising – it’s by no way definitive. Once we identify a potentially

good niche we need to carry out a number of checks to make sure it’s the real deal. I

have a long spreadsheet of stuff I go through that I wont bore you with, but in

essence you need to make sure:

- There is a high level of financial activity within the niche and..

- There is a generous payout for affiliates (I don’t know about you, but when

I send people my traffic, I want to get paid very well)

- You have the technical skills to develop a good site within the niche (or

the resources to get it done for you)

- You can effectively and economically drive targeted traffic to your site.

To do this, you have to research the niche inside out. Understand who the major

players are and what they offer for commissions – that sort of thing. Let’s keep our

example of the debt niche.

What you must remember is that over the next few years, tens of millions of people

will seek debt help - the companies that are perfectly placed to do well from this

credit crunch are debt help/restructure firms, credit repair companies and similar

service companies.

Take a look at some of the returns that these companies offer:

- Some debt relief and credit repair companies offer upto sixty dollars per

lead. That means, if you send them a qualified lead who (for instance) fills out a

debt help form you get paid that amount every time.

- As debt companies are clambering over each other to get business, it’s

sparked a bidding war on Adwords – great news for publishers as top bids get to $20

per click on Adsense for some keywords. In short, this is a very potent niche to be

involved in.

This is the green signal. You’ve just identified a startling growth niche that’s got

millions of people and where there is a powerful structure in place for you, the

website owner, to get paid handsomely.

Succeed Online and Run a Lucrative Online Business

If you want to succeed online and run a money-making home business you will have to learn a few skills. You will have to constantly work on these skills each day and not look to quit in your first 6 months online.

Which ever business opportunity you decide to start you will have to learn something pretty quick; you will have to make the business opportunity work and not anyone else. Too often people fail to make money online because they aren’t willing to work at there online business each day. The ones who succeed online are those who are willing to constantly.

Having your own website is no guarantee that you will become successful but it will give you more options to succeed online. Having a website allows you to customize the look and feel of your home business. It will also allow you to build backlinks which is good for being found in search engines.

One thing in familiar with those that have succeeded online is they all have a great list. There is a saying in internet marketing that “the money is in the list” Set up an auto responder and then create capture pages which you will use to build your own list with. One email to this list can have you brining in thousands.

You have to make yourself stand out from the crowd, become different. There are thousands of business opportunity websites online and they can all look the same. It’s your job to make your home business website the only one of it’s kind. This is the same for your promotional strategies and advertising copy. Does a purple cow stand out from the pack?

When you look to begin an online business opportunity you will find you are not alone. There are a lot of great forums around with a vast amount of people who are willing to help and teach you everything there is to know about internet marketing.

To succeed online you will have to use this information and then put it into practice. It will then be up to you to keep working at your online business and before you know it you can stand up and say “I have succeeded online”

Jason Fulton is a successful internet marketer and home business mentor. He will teach you how to succeed online. Just visit his genuine home based business website for more information.

Easy $150/Month You Can Make yourself

in this post I am going to show you how you can make $150+ per month, the very easy way. They pay with paypal.

If you have some websites (irrespective of their age, quality and PR, all are accepted), you can make $30 (£15) per month from it by just adding their banners on 5 of its pages. And, you are allowed to do that on 5 of your sites. All the sites and pages are auto accepted. Here is how it works.

Matched.co.uk is a UK based advertising network which is accepting publishers and affiliates from around the world (any country as far as you can accept paypal) for their network.

Follow these simple steps to make $150+ (£75+) every month:

1. Register with matched.co.uk as a publisher and get you $10 (£5) bonus.
2. Add a website and its 5 different pages (5 pages can be any pages on your site (not much visited pages)) to your account.
3. Similarly you can add 5 more sites. Everything is auto accepted.
4. You will see “We are trying to match an ad to your page” message. Don’t worry, these will get matched soon. Then you can add the code into those 5 pages on each site.
5. This will make you £3 * 5 * 5 = £75 = $150/month for you.
6. Now for the same account, just click on the “Affiliate tab” and become affiliate as well. Affiliates are paid $10 (£5) for every person they refer to them.

So, I think this is the easiest way to make $150/month ($160 for first month). If you can refer more affiliates to them, there is no limit how much you can earn with them. Payment is through paypal.