Archive for May, 2008

Time to Nibble on Bank Stocks?

By now, most of the dirty laundry within the banking industry has been aired. The federal government has also signaled its intention to “bail out” or rescue troubled lenders in order to ward of an economic calamity. These factors lead me to believe that the time is right to start slowly accumulating shares of the stronger banks that were the most insulated from sub-prime, yet were punished hard with the whole industry.

Some of the names that catch my eye are Wells Fargo (WFC) and  TCF Bank (TCB).  Both banks have steered clear of the worst of the subprime loans and appear poised to rebound at the first sign of strength in the industry. Both banks are also writing down very few loans, unlike some of the bigger banks such as Citigroup that are writing down billions of dollars in subprime loans.

TCF Bank also comes packed with a 6%+ dividend, while Wells Fargo sports a 4.5% dividend yield. With the potential for rising rates in the lending marketplace, many banks should begin realizing larger gains as the marketplace settles and the federal reserve begins raising rates to bolster the dollar.

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3 Questions To Ask When Setting up a Marketing Plan

By: Dan Moses

There must be some reason why some marketing plans outperform
others.

Said another way, if two equally skilled marketers create a
marketing plan… why does one produce 5 x as many members and
sales as the other marketer?

Is this due to who they know, or the size of their list? Or
maybe it’s the price of their product or service. Sure there
are a lot of aspects that make up a good marketing plan, but
what can make one better then the other?

The key here is *plan*.

Yes, most marketers who come online don’t plan, or know how to
plan the right way and launch a program or product with much
less success then they would have received.

There has been some fantastic information provided for people
online to create a profit producing marketing plan, but can
everyone afford to spend hundreds or thousands on this
information before they launch?

Well before we jump into the fundamentals of creating a
marketing plan we have to answer this question…

1. What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is simply a plan designed to generate your
most wanted response for your business when you launch it and
years after. In other words, if you want to make a lot of sales
fast, then you’d create a plan that was geared to sell a lot of
products in the shortest amount of time possible.

If your plan was to get as many new members into your list or
program in the shortest amount of time then that would be the
focus of your plan. You really want to consider your end first.
What you want to accomplish 3 months, 6 months, or even a year
from now.

Your marketing plan is pretty much your business plan and how
you’re going to accomplish what your business was designed to
do.

Now there are quite a few components to creating a good
marketing plan like…

Your tactics… this would consist of things like your offer,
mental triggers, sequences of events and so on. These are
important and can make your plan successful, but it’s your
strategy and how you use the tactics overall that will really
pay off for you most.

Your strategy would consist of things like list building,
Relationship building, responding to your market, and
positing your business. Now these are all very important
and I would love to cover them all in great detail, but
there’s not nearly enough battery juice in my key board
to cover them all. :o )

So lets answer this question..

2. Can you show me an example of a good marketing plan?

I have two I’m going to share with you. First one I put
together years ago and has generated hundreds of
thousands of dollars in sales for one of my programs
I’ve been running now for 6 years and the other plan is
one I just recently put together for a program that has
just launched.

First off, the PageSwirl.com marketing plan. Here’s the
situation… I took over ownership of PageSwirl in April of
2002 and wanted to come up with the best way to re-launch
it and gain a lot of new members that would upgrade to Pro
and be able to generate some residual income from.

When I took over PageSwirl it had 90 Pro members and only a
couple thousand free members. After this plan was implemented
and followed through with, we generated over 200,000 new
visitors, brought in 2,000 new free members, 329 new customers,
and at the end of the year created a profit of close to
$15,000. That was years ago and today PageSwirl has over
45,000 thousand members.

Now this was before I had really established myself online and
didn’t have all the resources and contacts I have today. So I
tapped into my current resources available to me at the time
and asked some of my closest business associates if they would
help me re-launch PageSwirl.com

So what was this plan and how did we make it all happen?

My plan consisted of an individual investment of $40 per
JV partner. In this plan I set up a schedule for each of my
partners to mail their lists at a different time of the month.

I split up the JV partners into four separate mailings on
different days of the week. Five people would mail their list
on one day (then follow-up a week later) and then five days
later another five would mail their list, and so on.

What I was trying to achieve was an Internet buzz that would
last the entire month. You see, I know that a lot of
subscribers are on the same lists and when my JV partners
spread out their mailings it gave the impression to the
subscribers that this was a program they wanted to be apart of.
It worked great!

The other part of the marketing plan consisted of an Ezine
co-op and traffic from banners and traffic exchanges.

It went great! I kept them updated and informed through email.
What was in it for them? New members, commissions, and the
feeling of being part of a special team.

I was excited and they saw that, and wanted to be a part of it.
They caught the vision and were more than willing to help make
history. And that we did, we ended up increasing the PageSwirl
membership base by 2,000 and increased the Pro memberships
by 329 within 30 days!

Now that was a great plan…

And before I give you some tips on how to set one up yourself
let me share with you a new plan that’s being implemented today.

This plan was created to launch a new Traffic Exchange called…

http://www.GladiatorHits.com/?rid=2342

If you’ve never joined a Traffic Exchange or used one to
advertise online you’re truly missing out on a fantastic
resource for advertising your business online.

Traffic exchanges have been online for a decade and have
quickly become the number one resource online for generating
large amounts of free traffic. We’re not talking crappy traffic
either.. this traffic has been responsible for producing
millions of dollars online for business owners all over the
world.

So back to this new marketing plan. This plans goal is to
generate 10,000 members within 6 months. Now in case
you didn’t know most traffic exchanges never reach 10,000
members in 5 years, let along 6 months. So this is a pretty
high goal.

It is reachable though and with a good marketing plan it can
be done.

First part of our plan is to build a JV team consisting of 50
partners.

Each of these partners will commit to spending only $50 dollars
to advertise GladiatorHits within 10 traffic exchanges. Our
plan is to Saturate 10 traffic exchanges with traffic, banner
and text link advertising. Each partner will spend $5 for each
traffic exchange purchasing 1000 credits for $5.

They will use 800 credits for the main page view section,
100 credits to be exchanged for banner impressions and
100 credits used for text link advertising.

They will also send out an email to their lists on the launch
day and follow up with their lists when we hit 1,000
members.

This will create a lot of social proof and Buzz about the
program. We will be offering this JV team 50% commissions
for all upgrades and sales from the members they refer.

On top of that we’re doing something that’s never been done
before. We’re paying members to join. That’s right… we’re
offering $5 for the first 500 members who join GladiatorHits.
Wow! Yes, this will grow the membership base super fast.

Then once we hit 500 members we’re going to be paying the
members and JV team $.50 – $1 for each new member they
refer. Which will make each JV team member and GladiatorHits
member promote even harder. This will stay active until we
reach 1000 total members.

Once we reach 1000 members we plan to implement a few
more promotional tactics that we’ll announce at that time.
Also included in this plan is for the owner to position his
program into downline builders within as many traffic
exchanges online.

His goal is to build relationships with TE owners and buy,
trade, or sell advertising within his program and theirs.
It’s called networking.

Again I would love to go into every step of this marketing
plan with you, but there’s not nearly enough time to cover
it all. Just know that GladiatorHits is a program that will
become successful and a resource you’re going to want to
join and take advantage of.

3. How can I get started with setting up my marketing plan?

Once you have your product or program ready for launch you
need to create your marketing plan. Sometimes it can be best
to start your marketing plan before your product is completely
ready.

When creating your plan you need to look at is what resources
you have available to you.

Do you know top marketers within your niche you’ve chosen to
be in?

Do you know the best places to advertise within your market?

Do you know any forums within your market you can find JV
team members?

If you know the answer to these 3 questions you’re well on your
way. Include in your a plan JV partners sending out promotional
materials to their list. This usually includes emails,
articles, blog posts, and maybe even phone calls to their
customers.

Schedule your launch date and create a web page that includes
your marketing plan in detail. On this page have a opt-in box
or a way for potential JV partners to email you if they’re
interested.

The web page should describe the steps for the plan and how it
will be implemented. It should also explain what you require
from each JV member and set a level of commitment for them.

The better the plan the more impressed and excited the JV
member will be to take part in the plan. Make sure you also
thoroughly fill them in on “What’s in it for them”. If you
don’t have enough incentives for someone to promote your
product chances are they won’t.

One of your goals is to coordinate places you plan to advertise
and saturate your program or product. If members or viewers
see your site being advertised thoroughly in the places they
visit regularly, chances are they will want to join or buy that
product. Naturally, if everyone’s promoting it, it must be a
good product. :o )

You want to concentrate on the places your product would sell
best and have all the JV team advertise in those places. That’s
a win win for you and the JV team. That’s also why it’s
important to know where your potential buyers are hanging out.

Now last but not least how to find JV partners. Well the best
JV partners are your potential customers. You want to find
the people who want your product. Then if need be, give them
a free membership or a free copy of your product. If they love
it they will be happy to promote it to their lists.

You can find these members on forums or from referrals of
the top marketers within your niche. Sometimes it just
takes one top marketer to review your product and like it
to get the ball rolling.

Well there you have it.. that’s about as detailed as I can get
in this article. It’s not as hard as you might think to create
a successful marketing plan.

Just take your time, contact the right people and make sure
you follow-up and follow through with the plan. Most of the
work is following through with your JV team after the money
starts rolling in and you want to take it easy.

—————————————————————-
Dan Moses is the creator and Launch Manager of GladitaorHits.
Join today and watch this exclusive marketing plan unfold.
Join Free here… http://www.gladiatorhits.com/?rid=2342

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Credit Cards Club – Credit Card Ratings and Reviews

I’ve come across a really great credit card comparison website recently called CreditCardsClub.com. The website makes it easy for you to shop for a new credit card on your own terms rather than settling for the unsolicited offers that come to you through the mail.

The cards are divided into multiple categories such as, 0% intro apr card, cash back credit card, balance transfer cards, low interest rate, student cards, business cards and no annual fees.

Credit Cards Club also holds a wealth of information in the form of articles about how to choose a credit card, FICO scores, credit repair and using credit cards in your business.

According to their website, Credit Cards Club has been around since 2004 and currently has a very nice, clean design that is easy to navigate and explore no matter whether you are a first time credit seeker or a seasoned veteran.

Despite the struggling US economy and tightening credit standards, there appears to be a significant number of cards available that are offering 12 months of 0% financing for balance transfers and new purchases. This could prove to be a big money saver for those of you out there carrying high-interest credit card debt. Moving those balances to a card with no interest charges can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars and get your debt paid off very quickly.

Check out the cards available at CreditCardsClub.com

Free $100 Speedway Gas Card

The other day I redeemed my Speedy Rewards points for a $100 gift card that I can use to buy gas or merchandise at Speedway. It took 66,000 points to earn the $100 gift card and the points have added up very quickly since I signed up for the Speedway MasterCard which earns me 40 points for every dollar I spend at Speedway and even 5 cents off per gallon of gas.

The best part about getting the $100 card was that I earned 2,000 bonus points for getting the card – even though it was free in the first place!

I am not one of the people that complains about “high” gas prices because I think gasoline is a bargain at $4 per gallon. But I do know how to make the best of a situation and save money along the way. Speedway seems to have one of the best deals around when you combine the power of their Speedy Rewards program with the Speedway Mastercard.

It sure feels great to be paying $0.00/gallon for gas over the next month!

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Microsoft – Yahoo Trade a Bust

The Microsoft – Yahoo options strangle I entered into didn’t pan out the way I was expecting. Several factors led to the losses, including the continued rumor and conjecture surrounding the deal and the fact that there is still no closure from either side. The trade appeared to be moving toward profitability just before Carl Icahn decided to step up to the microphone and throw the whole thing into a tailspin.

I’m still holding out hope for Microsoft to rebound through the next several weeks and have strengthened my call option positions at different strike prices to capitalize on either a short-term tech rally or the final realization to traders that Microsoft is not going to go through with a Yahoo! deal and bring the shares back to a fair market value.

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Oil Executives Testify Before the Senate

Five executives representing BP America, Shell Oil, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, and Exxon Mobil were questioned (grilled) by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

I think the politicians are so off-base on this issue it’s not even funny anymore. But in an election year, the only thing on the minds of politicians (Republicans and Democrats alike) is to appease the wants of the working public, many of whom are very uneducated on the ways of economics and world issues.

The idea that these corporations are deliberately “gouging” the working poor is ludicrous. The profit margins of the leading oil companies are as follows:

Exxon Mobil – 10.85%

BP – 7.66%

Conoco Phillips – 6.75%

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Now to provide a little comparison, the profit margins of a few other large corporations not in the oil industry:

Google – 24.89%

Coca-Cola – 20.64%

GE – 12.68%

Altria – 24.86%

Source: Yahoo! Finance

The reason for the comparison is to dissuade individuals from criticizing the oil industry as a bunch of profit hungry pirates and realize they are not charging markups anywhere close to the likes of Altria, Coca-Cola and General Electric. If Exxon Mobil had a profit margin similar to that of Google, their annual net income would be nearly double its current level.

So, my advice to all of those people who complain about oil profits and gas prices is to stop whining and invest in those companies! That way, you share in the profits and earn every time a driver fills up at the pump.

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Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Bid

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wrote a letter to Yahoo Co-Founder Jerry Yang formally withdrawing his offer to acquire the search engine for $33 per share, a 70% premium to it’s price before the offer was announced.

Ballmer cited Yahoo’s unwillingness to accept an offer below $37 per share and attempts to cannibalize their own search engine by partnering with Google.

I think Microsoft is wise to back away from this deal and re-double their efforts against Google on their own. This also plays out well for the Yahoo May 25 Puts and MSFT June 32. Yahoo will surely plummet in early trading Monday morning and I think Microsoft will recover nicely into the mid to upper 30′s over the next several weeks.

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Microsoft and Yahoo Continue to Dance

Despite Microsoft’s threats of walking away from their $31 per share offer for Yahoo after last weekend, unconfirmed reports from inside the two companies point to a higher offer to come from Microsoft in the near future.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced a few days ago that his company would be willing to pay $32-33 per share for the search engine, but newer reports put that number around $35. It appears that Microsoft is now willing to play nice and seek a cooperative deal rather than a hostile takeover as suggessted by Ballmer.

The Option Strangle trade I have on Yahoo is up about 50% right now, but with the announcement of a firm offer over $31 per share should mean a 300+% gain. On the other hand, an announcement that Microsoft is walking away would also prove very profitable.

Hopefully this deal will be settled over the next few days and I can lock in profits on Monday or Tuesday.

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