If you read your guidebook and check the Internet you can get the impression that everyone gets robbed or conned. This is not true, but if you take some basic precautions you can drastically decrease the chances of getting into trouble. Money exchangers have many ways to rip you off. ATMs really are the way to go, but if you want to use money changers here is some advice on what to look out for:

1. They can fold the bills over and count them twice

2. They can give you lots of smaller bills and drop some behind the counter. Count the money yourself in front of them. Take your time and do not feel stressed because there are other people waiting to change their money.

3. Some countries have a big problem with counterfeit money. Learn how to check that the bills are ok.

4. The money changers can charge you a huge commission which was displayed on a small screen in fine print in the back. Ask them how much you get in local currency after commission and fees for the amount you want to change before handing over any money. Changing money in a bank is usually a lot safer and the rates are normally competitive as well. Changing money at your hotel usually gives you the worst rate.

5. The cashier claims that your bills are fake and have to be confiscated. They can also switch your bills for bills which actually are counterfeit.

6. Short changing also happens (have you ever seen David Copperfield the magician? Well these guys are not far behind in their sleight-of-hand). Count the bills yourself.

7. Do not change your money in the street, it is a sure way to get ripped off.

8. I find that ATMs are usually to be the best way of getting local money. When you arrive in the airport you can normally find ATMs in the arrival hall. They are everywhere these days, the exchange rates are usually competitive and you do not risk getting short changed. Make sure that you know how much you will be charged for making withdrawals abroad first; if there is a fixed fee (and not a percentage of the amount withdrawn) it may be better to withdraw higher amounts of cash each time. You may sometimes be charged a fee from the local ATM in addition to the fee your home bank charges you. It may we worthwhile getting a special credit card with a low fee or no fee at all for withdrawing money from ATMs just to use on your travels.

9. ATMs are very convenient, but unfortunately there has been a rise in scams involving ATMs. The scam is called skimming and involves a card reader being attached on top of the normal ATM card reader. As you insert your card the information on the magnetic stripe is read and stored. When you punch your pin code it is also recorded. A duplicate card is then manufactured and with that your account can be emptied. Check that the ATM looks authentic and pull the keypad and the card reader to see if they are legit (the fake ones are sometimes attached with double adhesive tape).

10. Getting change for large bills can be quite a nuisance. Often you only get large bills when you withdraw money from ATMs but if you change money at a bank or money changer you can insist on getting change (do this before you hand over your money). Try to break large bills when possible, it is easiest in supermarkets, large stores, restaurants and hotels.

By following the above advice I hope you have a great and safe trip. I leave you with a personal experience:

Personal Experience – The Rio Rip-off

When I was in Rio de Janeiro I ran into a couple who had just gone to the beach. While one of them went swimming the other stayed on the beach watching their backpacks. A person approached from one side and asked a question. After she had answered she turned around and the bags were gone. It was a classical “one person distracts while the other one steals”. They had their money, passports and credit cards in the backpacks so it created quite some problems for them. Oh well, you live and learn :)

Happy travels!

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If you aren’t in immediate need of cash but have been contemplating getting rid of some unwanted jewelry pieces, right now is the best times to sell gold jewelry. The price of gold is higher than it has been in the last thirty years so think about whether right now is the right time to sell gold jewelry. The obvious reason you would sell gold jewelry is to earn extra money, but there are many other reasons to sell.

There are convenient reasons to sell gold jewelry but you can also have sentimental reasons. No one reason to sell gold jewelry is any better than another, but if any more than one of the following reaons sound like your situation, it is a good sign that right now is the time to sell.

1. Broken or damanged Jewelry – If you have earrings without mates, a necklace with a broken clasp or a chain that is unwearable, you think you will get them fixed, “one day.”. If you have not done it by now, will it ever happen?

You may be shocked with the huge cost of jewelry repair in this day and age. The careful dexterity required as well as the malleability of gold jewelry both means a large bill for damage repair. When you sell gold jewelry that is damaged and broken, you can use the cash you made to buy sparkling new pieces that are in pristine condition.

2. Your jewelry has gone out of style – Most folks have very distinct taste in jewelry so coming across a buyer for older, dated jewelry can be almost impossible. It can be a time-consuming, costly task to advertise for a prospect for older jewelry and there is no guarantee you will every find one.

The companies who buy scrap gold, however, are always seeking to buy , and they don’t bother about the condition or style of the jewelry. You won’t be penalized on the price just because the jewelry is out of style and old!

3. It takes time to sell gold jewelry individually. Everyone thinks that their grandfather’s antique watch or grandmother’s collection of gold pins can be sold to a antique collector or anyone else willing to pay for them. The bitter truth is that it’s very difficult to find buyers for antique jewelry pieces, and even if you have found someone willing to buy they likely will not be attracted to everything you have. By dividing up your jewelry into high-end and scrap and selling only a couple of pieces to collectors, you are lowering the amount of work you have to do. The undesirable jewelry can be sold to scrap gold buyers.

When you sell gold jewelry to a scrap gold who wants just the gold, you can get it sold all at one time for a lot of cash. All said and done, you will have cash in hand and no more antique jewelry to have to worry about.

4. The jewelry has no emotional value. Do you still have that engagement ring from an old fiance who left you at the alter or gold jewelry from an ex-spouse? To sell gold jewelry that’s associated with unhappy memories from your past can be a lot of fun. You are getting something of value from the jewelry you would rather forget. Don’t hold on to a lingering memory. Get started with a new life with some cash in your pocket.

There are as many reasons to sell gold jewelry for scrap as there are styles of jewelry. If one of the reasons above seems like a reflection of your situation, now is the time to sell gold jewelry so you can move on with your life.

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MYTH#1 – Selling pre-loved and broken jewelry for the gold value is a scam.

Busted!

In and of itself this is not true at all. Pawn brokers, refiners and antique gold sellers have been doing this trade for decades, even centuries! It is true, of course that no pawn shop or refiner is going to give you the price you paid for your jewelry when you originally bought it, but that’s not a scam, that’s business!

TRUTH#1 – Where there is truth in this statement is largely due to opportunistic companies trying to take advantage of the rush to sell precious metals at all time high prices. One way you can avoid this problem – at least with the internet business models – is see if the company has a gold price calculator on their site – many do because they want to demonstrate clearly that their offer is an honest one.

MYTH#2 – Old jewelry is worth more intact than as scrap

Busted!

No one is going to pay you anything but scrap value for broken items, single ear-rings, outmoded or out of date trinkets  and general bric-a-brac. Silver too, is at all time high prices and everything from cutlery to trophies can have silver in them – but these items are not going to have intrinsic value – it’s the metal that is worth something!

TRUTH#2 – Sentimental value and antique value are two huge exceptions to this rule. Of course out of date can actually be “antique” and therefore have a lot of value -for these items you want to visit a fine jewellers store – they will be well placed to give you an indication of the item’s value and may even make you a good offer for the item in question. Sentimental value? Well this can only be measured by you – but if something was important to you once then the memory probably always will be – do you really want to let that go? Just be sure before you sell.

MYTH#3 – All prices paid by pawn shops, internet buyers and refiners for precious metals are the same.

Busted!

Not at all! We did our research and found the differences are enormous. Yes, of course you would think that if the metal itself is worth a fixed amount that, give or take the margin, the prices would be the same. This is somewhat true where you are dealing with the refiner direct – but a lot of the new entrants to the market seem to be trying to take advantage of a lack of knowledge on the part of the consumer. There are countless stories of people being paid very little – much less than the scrap value – for their jewelry. Again we recommend using the sites with calculators that will show you just how much you can expect – then compare them!

TRUTH#3

The most established players in this market are the refiners and pawn brokers and fine jewelry retailers.

When it comes to the precious metal contents value, refiners are the best for pricing. Refiners have been buying jewellers filings, scrap, dust and processing excess from manufacturers for many years. They have established rates and pay surprisingly high percentages for the metal they buy – typically the higher the quantity the higher the percentage they pay.

However, the quantities any individual might offer them are generally too small to get these rates. Pawn shops pay a variable rate as they will estimate the value based on the metal but hope to sell the item whole – if they don’t they package the item with others and send them off to a refiner.

The best solution for the individual seller is to find a refiner who has a retail website designed to cater for the small seller over the internet. Understand this is not the majority of the cash for gold type web site retailers. There are some however that are windows to a refiner and the very best rates can be as high as 90% for gold, 80% for silver and 80% for platinum. There are some good ones out there, but you have to tread carefully. Good luck!

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Multi-level marketing, though a brilliant marketing technique, has unfortunately been tainted today. The following are the reasons why MLM has created a negative name for itself:

o Easy money

MLM is toted to be an ‘easy money’ kind of scheme, which it is not. Money does not come easy to anyone, especially not in MLM. One has to work hard to form one’s networks and downlines and to keep the downlines motivated, so that there is a regular stream of profit pouring in.

o Guarantees of success

Many MLM businesses, of course, have succeeded. But like any other business venture, many have failed too. Even some of those offering great products tend to be a failure sometimes. So it is no guarantee that it is bound to succeed each and every time.

o Over-saturation of markets

MLM’s have this tendency to induct in too many people and creating what might be termed as an ‘over-saturated’ market. There is this huge hype in the beginning, where thousands of people join in most enthusiastically. But many of these businesses fail in time, as the downlines on the lower rungs do not really have much to gain at all. This demotivates even the most enthusiastic person and creates in him a sense of loss and doom.

Any business has to have a good balance of demand and supply to succeed. That is probably where MLM’s fail to deliver, as there is far too much supply in the market and not enough demand for it.

o Unrealistic claims

Many MLM businesses claim that everyone will automatically want to buy their products – something which goes against reality. People have their preferences, so not all people might want to purchase what that particular business has to offer.

If the products are so popular, then why does it have to be marketed by just about anyone? This task can be assigned to and managed by thorough professionals, just like in any other business. So why there elaborate pyramid schemes and the resultant exploitation of people!

o Ethical issues

Then there is also the ethical issue of greed being the major motivating cause for chasing success in MLM businesses. The higher the uplines, the higher are their earnings. Hence, they goad on their downlines with empty sales talk and pseudo-motivating philosophies, thereby bleeding them for their own purpose.

These negatives notwithstanding, MLM still manages to survive and pull in hordes of people. So how does one succeed in an MLM business? Here are a few tips to help you out:

• Motivate yourself

The main ingredient to succeed in any business, especially MLM, is to be motivated towards it. You simply cannot succeed in MLM without having the drive for it.

• Motivate others

There is no point yapping away about how great this business is for you and how it will help build others’ lives too. Each person has different goals and ambitions. People could not care less by your drive. So it is up to you to find out how they can be motivated.

• Interact with people

If you are not very friendly by nature and do not particularly relish the idea of communicating with people, you probably will never succeed at all in the MLM business, which mainly involves tremendous interaction with people.

• Get real!

Do not make tall claims about your MLM business. Not all people can succeed with MLM, so present the business clearly and realistically to them.

• The best approach

The best way to succeed in an MLM business is not by trying to ‘force’ the other person into your business. Try to adopt a more caring approach. Talk to him as a friend and try to relate to him how this business could probably help him, like it did you.

MLM is not only about money – it is also about helping someone else achieve what you did. Of course, it will be beneficial for you if someone joins you as your downline, but that shouldn’t be the ultimate aim in any MLM business.

Conclusion

 

MLM is one of the best businesses if conducted the right way. All that you need in this business is passion, vision and a mission to succeed! The right attitude and the right approach to MLM is what really gives you immense success in this kind of business!

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In the world of affiliate marketing the most important key to success is discovering a profitable niche that you are capable of competing in. The last part of that statement is probably the most important part of all. In the internet market there are many niches for affiliate marketers. Unfortunately, we don’t all have the same financial means that some do, so choosing a niche where there is both demand and a favorable level of market saturation is critically important in your success as an internet affiliate marketer. Basically, you don’t want to be involved in highly saturated markets with millions of competitors all trying to win market share, if you don’t have a huge budget.

So for those of you who are just starting out, or you don’t want to invest a lot of capital upfront then discovering a specialized niche, that is in demand, will be the key to your success. That sounds great in theory, right? But, how is it actually done. Well here is how I do it, there are many methods, but this is the method that I have found to work the best for me. And if you follow it I can assure you that finding a niche that is right for you will become easier and easier.

The first thing you need to find out is what markets are in demand. The markets in affiliate marketing are just searches for specific keywords and keyword phrases. So the keywords or keyword phrases that are searched for the most would obviously be the markets that are in demand because they are the ones receiving the most activity. This can be done two different ways. The first way is with a paid tool like worktracker. These work and can give you a lot of good ideas, but the price can be expensive. In fact, I rarely use paid tools. If you just use a little due diligence, you will find that there are many free resources out there. The one that I use almost exclusively is the keyword suggestion tool that is available from google. Google receives an overwhelming majority of the search engine traffic out there so there numbers are pretty representative of the overall state of the market at that time. Another reason that I like the google tool is that not only do they give the search volumes for keywords and keyword phrases they also display levels of advertiser competition.

Alright, so you have a keyword analyzing tool, let’s use it. Go out and sign up for as many affiliate programs as you can find. Just search google you’ll find a lot. Some offer instant sign up, some take a few days to activate. Search through the affiliate marketing offers, and pick out a few that you think look interesting.

Open the google keyword tools and start searching for keywords that relate to the product offers that you picked. What you are looking for is keywords and keyword phrases that have at least 500 searches per month and with a low competing advertiser level. Once you’ve picked out a few of these combinations, save the list to a notepad page or something (basically just make sure you have them for later) and open up the google web site. Start searching for the keywords on your list. Look up on the type right hand side of the results screen where it lists the number of resulting pages. Here you’re looking for pages with results limited to around 2 million pages or less. If you come up with at least five combinations of words related to each product, and each of these keyword combinations meets this criteria, you’ve most likely found a niche that you could market to. So go out there and make some money.

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The information surrounding the real estate market in Atlanta might be getting a little hyperbolic.

We’ve been hearing it for months: A saturated market. Thousands of foreclosures. A stalled economy.

The root of the issue, according to realtors and economic experts, points toward property that was sold to people who couldn’t afford it. Banks issued large loans. Builders developed property at a record pace. And the real estate market boomed.

But when new homeowners started missing their payments, when new houses sat on the market for months, and when foreclosures piled up, the real estate market plummeted into a downward spiral out of which it has yet to climb.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution ran an article about the current state of the city’s market. Journalist Kevin Duffy interviewed Jim Crawford, a real estate agent with ReMAx Greater Atlanta.

Crawford got into real estate 16 years ago. The market was struggling then, too. He says that today’s unfortunate situation is due to a lack of common sense.

Crawford said builders, lenders, agents and buyers all created a fantasy world where anyone could get a loan to buy a house, and now the reckoning has arrived.

“What we have to acknowledge as a society is we got really stupid in the last couple years,” he said.

On top of that, rising joblessness and more foreclosures threaten to worsen the problem before the market makes a turnaround.

Crawford champions Internet marketing, blogs on the real estate network ActiveRain (which led to the quick sale of his own home last year) and speaks at seminars and retreats.

The problem now is that the Atlanta marketplace is saturated. People are hesitant to buy; they are worried about their jobs and their savings. Realtors, sellers and buyers must employ a certain amount of risk taking, as well as common sense.

Duffy asked Crawford what the key was to selling in today’s environment.

I started listing houses here [in 1992] that sat for 2 1/2 years. Pricing has to be dead on in this market. We are shooting a moving target. Maybe some granite. Maybe it needs a whole new paint job, starting with the ceilings. Sellers resist. My answer to them is, the same way you’re resisting is the same way buyers will resist.

Until the market makes a significant upswing, people in the Atlanta area are advised to rent. Rental properties remain available. The city’s numerous neighborhoods and cultural diversity lend the area an attractive cosmopolitan attitude. The news may be a little hyperbolic, but the facts don’t lie. The market is still shaky. But soon it will settle down.

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