Single Parent Involvement in Child Education – Why It’s Important For Your Child

Single parent involvement in child education may seem difficult to achieve, but it isn’t as difficult as you think, and the benefits make it all worth it.

Benefits of Parental Involvement in Child Education

A parent’s involvement in their children’s school and academic life has a positive impact on their child’s success, not only in school, but later in life. The more a parent becomes involved in their child’s education, the more likely the child is to score higher than average grades, and have a positive attitude towards school and homework. The children are also more likely to pursue higher education.

Given the benefits, for some parents, however, involvement in their child’s education may seem unworkable, and is true especially for working and single parents. Single parent involvement in child education is a challenge. Single parents feel they may not be able to contribute to their child’s learning or to their child’s school because of endless commitments to work, time constraints, and financial struggles.

It is possible to get involved in your child’s education!

Difficult as it seems, it is absolutely crucial for parents to find the time to participate in their child’s education. Single parent involvement in child education may currently seem unattainable, but take heart, there are simple things single or working parents can do to further their child’s education and ability to learn.

Single parent involvement in child education may be as simple as finding out what your child is being taught in school and asking them about their day. Single parents can try alternative ways to become involved in their child’s education, such as quiz your child as you make dinner, have a mock “at home spelling bee” on the weekends or make the most of the morning drive by popping an educational CD into the car stereo when bringing your child to school.

Single parents can set aside time during the evenings to read to or just spend time talking with their children. Single parents should also put together a schedule and set specific times for homework and tutoring to take place. Clearing a space for your child to study will help reinforce the importance of focus while engaging in school work.

If possible, single parent involvement in child education should extend to the classroom. Periodically, single parents can attend parent-teacher conferences, and other school events, or join the PTA.

Enrolling a child in team sports, music lessons or art classes can help boost a child’s capacity for learning. Though this may be a big commitment of time on the parent’s part, it will pay dividends down the road, as children learn valuable interaction skills and benefit from a more rounded education through active learning.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it is the parent’s responsibility to make sure their child gets the quality education they deserve. Single parent involvement in child education may seem so unattainable at times, but is crucial to the ongoing development and continuing success of your child in life.

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How to Have Successful Home Based Business Marketing

When you start a home based business, one of the things that you might probably want to take care of includes marketing and ensuring that your business is heard of in the competition. After all, a business is only successful if there are clients. In order to get a good number of clients, you need to make sure that your business is heard of and probably known at least in your local community. From here, you can probably pick up and then cover the other areas like getting some publicity and also ensuring that your business thrives in areas of interest for you.

One way of ensuring that your business is getting the marketing coverage that is needed is by requesting your clients to suggest your business to others as well. Word of mouth marketing is probably the most effective when you are talking about home based business as they can ensure that you don’t end up going bust by not paying adequate attention to marketing. Additionally, it won’t cost you much either and you don’t have to keep a separate amount aside for marketing purposes only. Since most businesses operate with narrow margins, this is not a feasible idea either.

Many home based businesses suffer from lack of work. This is due to poor marketing. In order to fix this, you need to ensure that you are getting the coverage you need without actually breaking your head about it. There are smart ways to market a home based business and it is advisable to adopt one of these to ensure that your business thrives and flourishes into something prosperous eventually.

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Work From Home – Start Your Own Home Based Business

People decide to home working for several different reasons. It might be a necessity to enable them to get out of debt problems. For some, there is a special event or occasion coming up, but not the funds. Home working will help to pay for this. For others, it is the prospect of gaining personal freedom, being with family and earning extra income.Few tips when looking for a home based business:1) Start Up Costs – Nothing is free so do expect it to cost you money to start a business. There are supplies, licenses and marketing you will have to invest in.2) Pick Your Passion – If you have a passion for fitness then pick something to do with the health industry. If you are not passionate about your home based business then it will fail.3) Do Not Listen To Your Friend and Relatives – Just because they tried it and failed does not mean you will. One of the main reasons people fail is they do not take action. These people will only bring you down so please use your own motivation. If you take ACTION anything is possible.4) Do it Part Time First – DO NOT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB! If you are not employed right now you do not have anything to lose and you need to start moving into high gear now with your home based business. The good thing about having a current job is there is less stress knowing you have something to fall back upon.5) Avoid Hype – This is one of the things that always got me when looking for a home based business. There are a lot of people out there that will tell you that you can make a lot of money with their work from home business plan.Picking the perfect opportunity will give you the drive to succeed in your new business. A business is not easy to run and there are going to be things you do not like doing but by choosing something you are interested in will make those task much easier.

7 Habits of Owners of Home Based Businesses

Having your own business is a dream for many individuals. Here are a few steps to succeed once you start off on your own!When you plan to start off your own business, its with dreams in your eyes and heart. But once it takes off, you realise that there is a lot more to running your own business than just looking fancy schmancy and earning buckets, no truck loads of money. At times, you may go through a lean phase and wonder what is it that went wrong? Fret not, for here, I have compiled a list of 7 habits (well there are more but these are the main seven) of successful home based business owners.Keep in mind that I am writing this with a general point of view. Tailor them according to your profession and see how it applies to your business. Habit 1: Set a dedicated space for your Office When you start working from home, many a times, you slack off. Your office might just be your laptop and phone and hence you are tempted to sit in front of the TV or on the back porch. Tempting as that might be, refrain from doing so. Set aside some space as your dedicated work space. Even if you’ve started a home based bakery or pottery business, set aside a desk where you keep all your papers, designs (if you design clothes or jewellery), files and your requirements. If you work at a computer, make sure it’s your ‘work’ computer. If you have the luxury of space, set aside an office; but if not, just a corner of your study or where ever it’s quiet and peaceful and you can concentrate. Habit 2: Dedicate time / Have a good Plan What makes the extremely successful people, extremely successful? Well, lame question. They have a set plan, a goal, a target. Yes many of us have a set goal too, but many a times the path isn’t too clear. What you need to do is give time. Sit down with a piece of paper and a pen in the quiet place we spoke about in the earlier point. Write down, where you stand, what your resources are, and what’s your goal. Make a mind map as visuals help you to understand things better. By the end of this exercise you should have a better view as to what your path should be to reach your goal. For e.g: You have a home-based baking business, write down the assets you have. These will be your ovens, bread making machines, your mixers etc. Now, if your final goal is to have your own bakery set up after a year, then first write down how much you need to spend to achieve this goal. Once you know the figure you need to have in hard cash with you, work backwards. Visualise how you can earn that kind of money, what should your marketing strategy be, how exactly to go about it. So this is just an example for a bakery business; you need to work it out for your own brand of business!Decide what kind of time you want to spend on developing your business. Just because you run a home-based business, doesn’t mean that you are freely available to baby sit other’s kids and run errands for them. Habit 3: Use Professional Tools I repeat, nothing is as important as this point! It’s very very necessary, just cannot stress enough on this point. Agreed that if you need to buy a program, you’ll have to invest in a little more, but trust my words, it’s going to be worth it. Instead of using some free tool off the internet, it’s far better to buy a small program to help you out. Many a times, free programs will have weird watermarks which ruin the professional looking effect. So if you hand over such a printout to your client, they’ll be immediately put off by it.If the tool is totally out of your budget, here’s a fantastic idea: catch a student who’s into programming. Or a fresher, they need that boost to get into the field, you need a cheaper version of the program. Explain what features you require, show them a trial version of the program (mostly on the internet you have a 10 day trial version for nearly everything) and tell them what you need. They’ll come up with a tailor made tool for you, plus it won’t be exorbitant too! This will turn out to be very beneficial because you won’t be paying for a fancy brand name, and for the parts you won’t ever use. It’ll be tailor made just for you. Obviously, please make sure you are not doing any kind of piracy. It’s just getting a program designed to suit your needs. Make the interface different and whatever you do NEVER encourage piracy.Habit 4: Monitor Finances Whoa! Do I even need to explain this one? This is the basic one. If you’ve never taken accounts or learned about finances, take a small course before you start your business. You need to know how to monitor your finances. In a business, it so happens that there might be a sudden influx of money in one particular month. You need to know how to invest it, how to save for a rainy day when maybe there isn’t too much cash coming in. As a business man or woman, you need to be an expert in your chosen field and in the field of managing money. Habit 5: File your Taxes; Keep your papers clear You knew this was coming, didn’t you? After the above habit, this was the blatant next one! But this is also a million dollar one. If you’ve registered your business, or own a license for it, keep it in a proper place. Don’t misplace it, or think that just because you’ve registered it, it’s okay to keep it anywhere. Scan it and keep a copy on your laptop. If you need a health license, or some sort of permissions, keep them handy.Keep your tax returns filed properly. Calculate and have your own statements created if you don’t want to take help of a professional. Keep your copyright certificates or any such important documents safe and sound.Remember, run a business according to the law in your state. Keep your papers clear and you’ll never ever have any trouble from anyone! Habit 6: Update and Adapt yourself with the new developments Think of any successful business person from your chosen field. Can you imagine what would happen if they refused to follow the newest trends? If they kept themselves rooted in some 1980s styles?Whatever your chosen field might be, updation and adaptation is really necessary. Subscribe to a few magazines in your field and keep up with the new trends. Learn about any new software programs or apps that might have come up. For all you know, they’ll make things simpler for you. Also, your clients will be impressed with your enthusiasm and obviously you gain from that. Habit 7: Maintain Communication / Create Networks Let’s face it, that’s the only way we can grow. Out of sight, out of mind is today’s mantra. So communicate, with everyone! Communicate with your current clients, your potential clients, your past clients, hold an exhibition or sale (if it applies to your kind of business), regularly send text messages or emails telling people about the newest developments etc. Wish them on holidays and occasions and network with them as much a possible. Create your own network which will spread the word when you launch a new thing.This is not the time to think: Oh if my work is good, it’ll speak enough for my business and me. No! Now a days, you need to be very forthcoming. Marketing your business well is as crucial as having a good product. So go ahead, communicate as much as you want.And last: this isn’t really a habit, but I wanted to include this – take pride in your business. Just because you have a home based business doen’t mean you’re available to babysit kids and run errands for others. Say a no to them and work on your business development. Good Luck!

Why Every Employee Needs a Home Based Business

First of all everything I learned about home-based business tax savings I learned through self-education & finding the right mentors. Our tax-preparer is a former auditor for a fortune 500 company, and owns a home-based business, in addition to her tax partnership. I don’t prepare taxes-I simply educate people about what I’ve learned, knowledge is the antidote for fear.What I found out was most accountants or tax-preparers make no distinction between small-business owners & home-based business owners. Why? Because there are no classes or CEU for home-based businesses, since they have no incentive to learn about the distinctions, they simply don’t. The danger is, they give you advice based on incomplete education and because, well, they are the professional, we follow that advice.Have you ever heard the expression, “I was misinformed by misinformed people?” The 7 most dangerous words you can ever say are, “my accountant/taxperson/spouse/etc. takes care of my taxes.” In fact, they only prepare taxes from information they are supplied, my taxes are my responsibility. And with new tax prep accountability rules in place, the new rule of thumb is going to be CTA (cover their assets).My purpose in life is to lead every single W-2 wage earning employee out of the darkness and into the light, without fear of reprisals or retribution. Fear is the number #1 enemy of over paying, over taxed citizens.Think not? Quick survey, hopefully no one’s watching you read this: Touch your right nostril with your right index finger if you worked 3 years ago and got a tax refund…2 years ago…expecting one from last year.What’s my point? You gave the government an interest free loan, of what ever the amount your refund was. How long have you been working? How many of those years did you receive a refund? How many years have you been coming up with more month then money? You’ve been conditioned by society that this is acceptable; so your fear is rational, even logical, but is it serving you?I mean if people don’t have what you want or they’re in the same or worse position then you, why are you listening to them? At some point you have to question the source of your information or suffer the same fate as the delusional.Take heart there is a solution, my mentor told me, “taxes are how we pay for the goose that lays the golden egg.” The “golden egg” is the free enterprise system. Simply put, anyone in this country can start a business of their own choosing, at anytime. Taxes are how we support the government that supports this system. We’ll delve deeper into this subject in another article.I believe in paying every single penny in taxes I owe, not one penny more. As far as I’m concerned this should be the mantra for every American tax payer, especially those who work and have those taxes deducted from their paychecks before they even get them home.You know why it’s called take home pay? You can’t go anywhere else with it.Make no mistakes: I don’t want to help anyone get out of paying taxes, I want to help you stop overpaying them.It’s common knowledge that, what you don’t know CAN hurt you. Taxes prove this axiom. Middle income Americans are so scared of the being audited they don’t do anything. Even though, a home-based business offers more tax breaks than the super-wealthy can get with their expensive tax lawyers.I have news for you, Approximately 4,000 IRS external hires were enforcement positions during 2009. With the ever-increasing growth of e-filing, why would IRS be hiring new enforcement officers? With less time spent manually going over returns IRS agents have more time to conduct audits. So we’re all going to be audited and with more frequency.But if you have nothing to fear, then the audit, however inconvenient, is nothing more then routine. It’s akin to driving through a DUI/DWI checkpoint. If you haven’t been drinking and your paperwork is in order, “have a nice night.”The Government’s broke (some would argue “broken,” but that’s not up for debate here) they need those tax dollars and they have two ways to collect. One way benefits you and them, the other, only them.Did you know Congress authorized the IRS to give Huge Refunds and Deductions to taxpayers who have a home-based business, OR anyone who operated one at any time in the past 3 years? It’s true! If you currently have a home-based business or had one in any of the past 3 years, you simply file an Amended Tax Return (Form 1040X), and possibly get a Refund Check for THOUSANDS of DOLLARS…PLUS interest for any previous years you filed!Congress passed these tax laws for home-based businesses because they’re good for the economy.We’ve all heard about the escalation of expenses. It seems everywhere everyday something is going up in cost and take-home pay isn’t keeping up with those ever increasing costs. Then we hear how we might be asked to pay more taxes for less services and it’s no wonder why everyday average working citizens are in full retreat. However, you don’t have to fear and you don’t have to get angry, you simply have to get educated. Once you do, like I did, you’ll discover that only a crazy person wouldn’t have some type of part-time home based business.If you run your home-based business on a regular & consistent basis; with the intent to make a profit you can qualify for tax advantages that could mean as much as $5000 a year in your pocket.Think of it like this, you start a p/t home-based business, you’re not even in profit mode with your venture yet, but you’ve already given yourself a $5000 raise from your job-without having to ask your boss for a raise. In other words, you were making $30,000 a year now you’re making $35,000.Now not everyone is going to get a $5000 bump, some maybe higher, some maybe lower. Still the fact that you can decrease your tax burden should be incentive enough to learn more, unless like I said before, you’re not all there, in which case you most likely haven’t read this far anyway.You didn’t know, what you didn’t know, but now you know; so what are you going to do with this new found information? If you’re like me, tell everybody you know who has a job… Start by getting my special report the details are below.”Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

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How to Generate More Home Based Business Leads

The ability to generate you own home based business leads could be the difference between massive home business, or complete failure.Yet, more and more home business entrepreneurs get frustrated and quit for one simple reason…They fail to generate enough leads to turn a profit.The truth is, lead generation is a very simple process, if you know what your doing.Here are top tips on how to generate or increase leads for your home business;1. Get Help from ExpertsAlthough you can find free lead generation services, you are not likely to get the same result as using the services of those who offer paid home based business leads generation. The fastest and most reliable way to get more leads is by going through lead brokers or by advertising with solo ads.In a nut shell, you pay the list owner to send an email to their list for a per-determined fee.2. Home Based Business Leads Using ContentOne of the best ways (if not the number one) to generate followers online is through quality content creation. Along with daily prospecting (an excellent way to develop a foundation team), content creation on the background would work on the long run to help you generate more home based business leads.If you want to build substantial lead-base without buying them, your number one strategy is content creation. Come up with exciting as well as educative contents on each of your sites that people can follow.Making content creation a daily practice would reward you with quality leads that your home business needs. If you are not skillful at creating compelling contents, you can outsource the task to a pro freelance writer. It doesn’t cost much to get quality content creation services.Contents include (but is not limited to) article, blog posts and video.3. Lead Generation threw Social MediaSocial media has evolved to become one of the most effective ways of generating massive leads for both home based business and regular businesses.Thousands of people stay on social media platforms (especially Facebook) for several hours each day. Right now, social media is among the most effective sources of traffic.You are likely to be losing out on tons of sign ups if you are not yet leveraging social media for home based business leads generation. Activities that can attract the right kind of people to you on social media platforms include posting relevant images and status updates that appeal to potential prospects.If you follow these time tested tips, there is no reason you shouldn’t expect a steady flow of home based business leads.

Virtual Are CFOs Taking Charge of Bookkeeping Services for Small Business

Every business entity requires professional guidance at some point of time or the other. There are various nitty gritties in a business for which professional advice becomes necessary. In fact, deciding the next move can also be done only after consulting with an accounting professional. This is particularly true with regard to cash flow. This is one of the key aspects of running a business and hence some amount of expertise is required to provide valuable insights for moving things at a consistent pace beneficial to the business. The Chief Financial Officer or the CFO actually looks after the cash flow in a small or medium business entity. According to Investopedia, the CFO receives more than $346,000 per annum to shoulder such responsibilities throughout the year including bonuses.However, not all small and medium business owners can afford such expenses. This does not mean that they have no hope. There are virtual CFOs helping the medium and small business organizations in this respect. This is a recent practice and is anticipated to be continued over years. This practice is quite beneficial for the medium and small-sized organizations because they will not have to pay a chunky amount to the in house CFO. Small businesses with the assistance of virtual CFO can scale heights and reap benefits quite prominent to the business and conspicuous for the world.Impressive Future ProspectThere are many ways in which a virtual CFO can aid in scaling a small business similar to that of an in-house CFO. In fact, sometimes it can be more beneficial to have an online CFO. The outsourced CFOs work with the help of cloud-based software remotely. This remoteness contributes in better performance delivered on-time. As the CFO does not have to travel, he/she can devote the entire time to improve the performance.Online CFOs can not only provide faster financial reports but also forecast and analyze the condition quickly. There is an overall improvement in the performance. The quick and concise delivery of flawless reports and analysis puts valuable financial data in the hands of leaders to make best possible decisions. Making the most effective strategic decision within a fraction of the time originally required by in-house CFOs is truly beneficial.Key Performance IndicatorsKPI measurement is key to the expansion and development of any business be it small, medium or big. In this respect, an online CFO is extremely helpful in managing the KPIs properly and providing helpful and meaningful insights for the company’s management. One of the most significant mistakes committed by small business houses is the overlapping of “actionable” data and data in general. They think that they are same. However, KPI must be calculated based on long-term goals; the strategies should impact in the long run. The KPIs should give you a clear idea of where your business stands- how close or how far from your long terms goals.For instance, if you are trying to reduce total number of unhappy customers by a certain percentage, the CFO could help you to track customer issues along with favoured reviews for a particular period. You can analyze the data provided by KPI and reduce a certain percentage of the negative points to find out where you stand in your business and how much you have progressed towards the goal. This is only a single instance on how a professional can help small businesses.Improved Cash FlowIncreasing the cash flow into business is another measure of how helpful small business bookkeeping is. Managing cash along with stressing on liquidity to tax planning and way beyond that is looked after by an online CFO. The professionals also bring strategies and provide insights to ensure proper expenditure so that you can end up at exactly the place you wanted to.These are some of the major benefits provided by small business bookkeeping and also by virtual CFOs. The work has become more precise due to the integrated online system which is beneficial for both the professional and for the client. Small and medium-sized business entities have reaped several benefits due to the online medium at low-cost.

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3 Reasons Why Your Small Home Business Needs Home Based Business Insurance

It’s estimated that more than half of all small businesses in the U.S. are home based businesses. The Census Bureau estimates that there are over 27 million home based businesses as of 2007. This has certainly risen since the down turn in the economy when many people lost their jobs. This shift has given way to the small, home based business of today and tomorrow.

As an Independent Insurance Agent I run my business out of my home. The benefits are tremendous and technology allows more efficiency and productivity. I’m able to spend more quality time with my family instead of dead time on a commute to an office. I’m able to react to customer requests more quickly. And, I found out that I’m not alone. I meet so many people who manage their small businesses from their home, it’s fantastic.

But, there is a problem. Most of these at-home small businesses don’t have home based business insurance. I find there are three common reasons these entrepreneurs don’t have business insurance. These are also the three reason’s you need a home based business insurance policy.

My Home Insurance Policy will cover me. It’s logical to think, since they own a home, somehow their home insurance company is going to cover any loss they may have. Unfortunately this is not the case. Most home insurance policies have a minimal amount of coverage for Business Property. So, if you have product, equipment, or supplies related to your business, at your home, there will be little or no coverage and, if the product, equipment, or supplies is away from your home then you’ll have even less coverage. Generally, you can increase this coverage through a special endorsement but most insurance companies won’t go higher than $10,000.

Besides limited Business Property coverage, there is minimal coverage for Business Liability under your home hazard insurance policy. Imagine a product you produce injures someone after purchase. Your home policy will not cover this type of liability claim. Or, say the UPS driver is delivering supplies and material and gets injured on your property due to a hazard. Will you have coverage for this loss? No. Are you a Realtor? You may have limited coverage if you’re out showing homes and your buyer is injured or you cause property damage. We live in a risk filled world, with people who are more inclined to sue than not. It’s in your best interest to protect yourself by having the right home based business insurance.

I’ve had my business at home for a long time and nothing has happened so I don’t think I need it. This is a common excuse I hear from many home based business owners. They don’t believe they face any risk. I once went to the home business of a seamstress. She had a room where she did alterations for her clients and she had cats. One of the cats was wearing a diaper because it was marking its territory in the house. What if the cats damaged a wedding dress or a stack of high end jeans waiting to be altered? Just because nothing has happened before doesn’t mean something won’t happen in the future. Give your clients assurance and confidence that you are a legitimate business by have the proper insurance.

Business insurance is expensive and I don’t think I can afford it. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Many home based businesses just need a basic home based business insurance policy. These can run as little as $159 annually depending on the type of business and the amount of coverage you may need. Also, you might be losing business because you don’t have any business insurance. To bid on contracts you usually need to show a Certificate of Insurance proving a minimum level of coverage. Having the right business policy can put significant dollars in your pocket, many times more than the cost of the policy.
There you have it. 3 reasons why you need business insurance for your home based business. If you’re in Arizona feel free to call my office to ask any questions. If you’re in any other state, call an Independent Agent in your area for the right advice for your particular situation.

Is Online Advertising Effective in Bringing Clients to a Business?

The main reason why a businessman will advertise is because they want to attract customers to their business. These customers will purchase from the business and increase the business’s output at the end of the financial year. Online advertisement is what many businesses are using these days because it is enabling them to target a wider market thereby they stand higher chances of getting many clients than when they do offline advertisements. But the main concern that these businessmen have is, “is online advertising effective?” This is the question they need answers to if they are to continue advertising their businesses and products or services online.

Online advertising is effective in the sense that it provides real-time access to the advert. Advertisements over the internet will always be there for as long as the advertiser is paying for the advertisement. This means that potential clients will have enough time to see the advertisement even if they will take a long time after the advertisement will be aired. This is quite effective in targeting the desired clients because even after sometime, the potential clients can always see the advertisement and if they are still interested, they will always come to purchase.

If ‘is online advertising effective’ is your kind of question before you start advertising, you need to note that there will be no other advertising method that will target many clients at the same time as online advertising. With so many people using the internet today, it is possible that so many people will be able to view your advertisement over the internet than if you did it offline. This may work to your advantage in bringing more new clients to your business at the same time. Remember, an advertisement will bring clients to you but the products you are dealing with, or the services will keep the clients coming back for more. That is why you need to work on the quality of your products as well. Concentrate on the feedback you are getting form the clients in order to adjust your products and services accordingly.

The good thing about online advertisements is that they will work even if they take a short period of time. So many people have an access to an internet and they access the internet every second of the day. Chances of these people seeing your advertisement are high especially a few days after the advertisement has been launched. Therefore, whether it will take a long or short time, the results will still be yielded. Again, online advertisements are cost friendly and the cost does not determine their effectiveness. This means that even a cheap advertisement may yield good results if at all the advertiser has used the correct strategy. Is online advertising effective now? You should be able to answer this by now.

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.

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