Are you interested in an online home based business opportunity? I have some home based business ideas you may want to look into.Did you know that a recent Harris Poll indicated that 72% of the households in this country are thinking about starting a home based business? Why do you think people feel this way?I think there are many reasons for this.1. Some people want out of the “rat race”2. Many of us are forced out of good jobs due to downsizing and the economy3. Some may want to be at home to take care of a family member4. You might need to work from home due to health issues5. Some people want to be home with the kids6. A spouse may be interested in a second incomeThere are probably many other reasons someone would want to start a home business, but you get the idea.I was unable to work for a period of time, due to health issues, and I looked hard for something that would interest me and allow me to work from home.However, I found that most opportunities were home based business scams or get rich quick schemes. Who would pay you a lot of money for no or low effort! Why would they need you?The classic work from home business opportunity is stuffing envelopes or telemarketing which is a dead end for most people, and I found most of those opportunities were also scams.Well, I have good news for you if you are serious about starting a home based business!First of all, you must be internet based. The internet is growing so fast, and so many people use the internet for information about the goods and services they buy. You just can’t afford to not be on the internet these days.However, it is just not good enough to just be on the internet by slapping up a website or blog and expect to make an income. With more than one billion world wide users of the internet you must have a content rich website that educates and pre-sells your customers. You also have to have the training and support of a team to help you optimize your internet presence so the search engines and your customers can find you!You may be asking what kind of a business I should start! Sit down and think about what you are interested in, passionate about or willing to research and write about. You would be surprised to find that you could start an online home based business on almost any subject.I have found a great way to get educated on what I need to do to be able to start a legitimate home based business and educate my potential customers on what I have to offer. Another thing that is great about what I am doing is I don’t have to have a “widget” to sell. Information is also a valuable commodity that you can make income from.In fact, the primary purpose of the internet today is providing information to those that seek it.Affiliate marketing, referrals, and advertising with pay-per-click ads are just some of the many ways to generate income on the internet.The best thing is the cost. You can work at home and make a good income for less money than you think. Using the internet is very inexpensive and the tools and training associated with an internet based business are very affordable.Please check out my website for free information on a step by step approach to starting your own money making online home based business.

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.

Types Of Bankruptcy

There are two different types of bankruptcy that can be used in most cases. Each one has a different set of rules and guidelines that you must follow in order to qualify for and get the bankruptcy. If you are considering bankruptcy, it is important to understand the differences in these types of bankruptcy and to choose the one that best fits your needs and the one that you qualify for.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

This is the type of bankruptcy that is most often used by individual debtors. It allows for an individual or married couple to wipe out their debt by taking property and liquidating it. The money from the property is then used to pay off the debt that the individual has incurred. In some states, certain property can be retained. Only property that is exempt under the bankruptcy laws is eligible. In most cases, it will be cars and homes that are in good standing with their creditors. In some states, you will lose your home. This is the fastest way to get out of debt but one that is going to wipe you clean of assets.

Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

In this type of bankruptcy, the debtor and creditor work out a plan that allows the debtor to pay off their debt in a payment plan. Most of the time, this process will happen through the paycheck of the individual. As long as the payment plan is in effect, the creditor will not take your home or possessions and you will not lose them. It is a good thing for those creditors that would have lost more if a Chapter 7 were filled and a good thing for the debtor because they can work on improving their overall credit.

Determining which type of bankruptcy is the right choice for you is difficult. If you can afford to pay off the debt through a Chapter 13, it is likely to do the least amount of damage to your credit. A Chapter 7 will remain on your credit report for up to ten years. Nonetheless, it is wise to talk to your attorney about which type of bankruptcy is the right choice for your needs.