Lance Wills' Blog – "Internet Lifestyle Trends" (subscribe)!

Recently, I have been asked by numerous enterprising individuals about the definition of terms that they commonly encounter while beginning to build their business through Internet Marketing tactics.

I have taken this opportunity to compile a BRIEF list of commonly encountered Internet Marketing terms and their definitions. The list is brief so as not to overwhelm you and to get you to concentrate on only the terms that are critical to the early phase of your business venture. Enjoy and I hope that this helps you build your business faster!!!

Affiliate Marketing – Having other people sell your product and they earn a commission for each sale. The leads and sales that they generate are tracked through a link that contains a tracking code and usually embeds a cookie that identifies them as the referrer for a certain period of time. Or, you act as the affiliate and market products on behalf of others and receive a commission for each sale that you are responsible for; it can work both ways.

Autoresponder (Auto-responder) – A series of sequential email messages sent by your website to the visitor, separated by any number of days, that is triggered when a user provides some requested information via an “opt-in” or “squeeze” page form. For example, a visitor visits your site submits their name and email via a webform, they are then immediately (Day 0) emailed some useful information (eBook, etc..), on Day 3 they are emailed more info, then again on Day 10 some new information, etc. The traditional favorite and most economical has been aWeber, Joomla has an Autoresponder feature called Acajoom, and the premiere (i.e. most expensive and feature rich) autoresponder that customer’s are raving about is called Infusionsoft. The autoresponder is, without a doubt, the heart of your Internet marketing machine.

Blog (short for Weblog) – an online diary of articles, usually listed in chronological order. Blogs are great ways to market your product or service and should provide useful information. Get a free one at Wordpress.com

Capture Rate (Conversions) – The percentage of leads, sales or any other desired action that occurs on your website, compared to the total number of visitors.

CMS (Content Management System) – a web application that allows you to easily manage your website, usually through a graphical interface. This is a great tool for beginners and could eliminate much of the cost to have a programmer maintain the site for you. See Joomla for the future of CMS’s which allows even beginners to add complex features to their site via free and low-cost modules.

CTR (Click Through Rate) – The percentage of users who “click through” or take a desired action in comparison to the total visitors who visited that page (impressions).

Impressions - The number of times your page is presented in front of unique users.

Joomla – A growing CMS, supported by Google, that allows even the most technically challenged person to operate their own website, add new content and change the look of the entire site via a template. Joomla is open source, FREE, and allows you to expand the features of your website through easy to install free and low-cost “extensions.” It will only grow so if you are starting a new site, give some serious consideration to Joomla.

Landing Page (Lead Capture Page) – The page that appears or that a visitor “lands” on after they click on an advertisement or search engine result link. This can be any page including your “squeeze” page, hence it can also be referred to as a “Lead Capture Page.”

Opt-in Page (Squeeze page) – See “Squeeze page”

PPC (Pay Per Click) – A form of advertising where you pay to have your ad listed on the SERP and only pay when someone clicks on your ad, most commonly associated with Google’s Adwords.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) – a technology for delivering your (blog) article headlines to other peoples websites and is great for generating more traffic to your site. Also, a great way to get more content on your site early on through other people’s RSS feeds when you don’t have a lot of your own content.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – Fine tuning your site to ensure that you get the highest “organic” (unpaid) ranking in the SERP, by using keywords in the meta tags, semantic description sentances, semantic URL (versus dynamic)

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) – Everything that you do to maximize your marketing exposure by increasing your visibility via the SERP. This can include both upaid “organic” and paid “PPC” initiatives.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page) – The search engine page that lists the results of a web user’s search results. Usually includes paid results at the top and side columns of the page and unpaid “organic” results in the body of the page.

Social Media Marketing – Any way that you leverage social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn,..), microblogs (Twitter,..), photo sharing sites (Flickr,..), video sharing sites (YouTube, Blip.tv,..), blogs (Wordpress,…), and revenue sharing blogging sites (HubPage, Squidoo,..) to spread awareness and sell your product. You should employ a multiple pronged approach when it comes to social media marketing.

Squeeze Page (Opt-in page) - The page where you collect user information, generally only the First Name, Last Name and Email address, but could include more. The more info that you request, the less likely your prospects will submit their info.

Twitter – The most popular “microblog” where users can stay updated of each other’s updates, called “tweets.” Simply follow those who you want, and watch your number of followers increase as well. Comparable to the update feature on Facebook. The more you use Twitter, the more you will understand why it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Sign-up now to get your name before someone else takes it and then follow “garyvee” for a crash course on how a leading Internet Marketer uses Twitter (you won’t be sorry).

Video Marketing – Utilizing videos and your own broadcast “channel” to market and drive traffic to your site. The best videos are instructional, short and create a real connection between you and the viewer. Sites include Youtube, Blip.tv and ustream.tv

Web 2.0 – A catch-all phrase for sites that may employ a newer, glossier design aesthetic, dynamic content (versus static content), and involve “social” components.

Web 3.0 – Another catch-all term for the future of the web, where content knows “what it is” so that it can make it easier to be found and can even find you. This term is still ambiguous, obviously, so feel free to do your own research and post a comment below.

Want to see a term added to the dictionary, add a comment below!

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Thousands of people are losing their homes every day to foreclosure. Unfortunately, this is the reality of our current economic crisis. With the glut of foreclosed homes entering the Real Estate market, prices are dipping to decade lows. In every crisis lays opportunity, and investors everywhere are taking advantage of the dip in prices and abundance of inventory to build their real estate portfolio.

Is buying a foreclosure morally wrong?

The answer is an emphatic No! The current crisis is simply a normal phenomena in the cyclical behavior of the real estate market. Buyer’s, in cooperation with overzealous lenders, got into unsustainable situations and the economy is reconciling this imbalance, which is nothing new. Anomalies in the real estate market have occurred in 1975, 1982, and 1992, although these exact dates are debatable as no one can really pinpoint when the real estate market makes the turn to recovery.

Everything in life is cyclical, real estate is no different. It is unfortunate that the pendulum has swung this far and people are being forced from their homes. But this is just a normal part in the “cycle of life” in real estate. Interest rates, prices, inventory, days on market (DOM) and occupancy, all oscillate in a harmonic motion; up and down. What we must do is take action that supports a recovery and does not contribute to the downward trend.

So how do we reverse the cycle?

If you don’t like the current situation, do something about it. We are no doubt in a downswing. So what will damper the fall and reverse this trend? Activity and commerce in real estate is the greatest shot in the arm for the greater economy.

In other words BUY A FORECLOSURE!

Buying a foreclosure is the best way to do your part to return our economy to a healthy state. Unfortunately, availability of credit is seeping back into the economy at a snails pace (I guess we have too many executives to give bonuses to). So we must look at other funding options for purchasing foreclosures.

Private Money

Who doesn’t have a rich uncle who is flush with cash and eager to loan you money for your impending real estate empire? Well, me for one. But, there are people out there with more time than money. Perhaps you know of a doctor, dentist or relative who just has their money sitting in a bank savings account earning a meager 2.5%. There are plenty of people out there, strangers mind you, who would be open to investing in the purchase of foreclosures if they were presented a valid plan with a sufficient system supported by factual data. If this sounds too complicated, and you would prefer to maintain your relationships, then you might want to consider Hard Money.

Hard Money

Hard money is money given by a private financier that looks more at the financial viability of the deal than at the credit of the lender. So if your credit is less than stellar, but reasonable, then hard money might be the best choice for you. They are not under the same restrictions that cover traditional lenders, so money is a bit more fast and loose. They will even give you money for the purchase and rehab of the property. Okay, so what’s the catch? Well, your cynicism will do you well in real estate; Hard Money Lenders (HML) charge anywhere from 3 to 5 points for the loan and an interest rate of 10-15%. “Extortion!,” some claim. However, if you were to receive a profit of say $10,000, without using any or little of your own money, would you be willing to give me $2,000 back? This is essentially the brunt of using HMLs. It is a bit more involved than this, but that is the quick and short of it.

Government Programs

There are several programs available to help you to purchase foreclosure properties or give you down payment assistance, although most of these mandate that it must be your primary residence. Examples of this include, “The Nehemiah Program,” and “The Genesis Program.” A great program to look into for financing the rehab of a foreclosure is the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) HUD’s 203(k) program, which can provide you funding for rehabbing a qualified property.

No excuses. Now is the time!

Regardless of your situation, I have provided you several options for getting into the foreclosure game, and the understanding that it is not morally wrong to buy a foreclosure, but will help the greater economy recover. So what are you waiting for?

A fool and their money are soon parted.

There is a right way and a wrong way to buy a foreclosure. You could charge out into the market and buy a foreclosure blindly, but there are many pitfalls to be avoided. To learn “the right way,” you can join a local real estate investor’s club and learn from other investors or take an investment course from an established brick and mortar real estate school. Although these options can take some time, you have options and you will NEVER see the opportunity in real estate that exists today.

If you understand that time is of the essence and would like the comfort of a proven system to learn how to buy foreclosure homes the right way, right away, then use the link above to get started NOW!

Regardless of what you choose, please take action now to improve your life through real estate, you would not believe the deals that are available!

Take action NOW!

I hope that this article has been helpful in educating you on the reality of why buying foreclosures is good for the greater economy. As you can see, there are several options for obtaining funding, so you really do have no excuses. Educate yourself and get in on the foreclosure feeding frenzy, but do it the right way. Please get proper education, rely on the council of licensed professionals and exercise your due diligence.

Happy Investing!