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

So that great idea for a book has been bouncing around in your head for a while now, hasn’t it? But between the job, your fledgling love life, financial troubles, exercise, intention to save the world, (insert your own crass excuse here), there just isn’t any time to get it done. Well, you are wrong. You have time, you just do not know how to get started, and that’s why I’m here to help.

Eat an elephant

First, eat an elephant. That’s right, before you can write a book, you have to eat an elephant. Okay, I’m kidding, but, that’s probably how you are feeling when you think about the lengthy path ahead of you to put your great idea down in ink over the span of several hundred pages. So instead of grabbing your silverware, tabasco and napkin to get started, you do nothing. You just dream….and watch Opera, and then dream that you are the “it” guest of the day who ACTUALLY wrote their book and are now catapulted to stardom because one of Opera’s producer’s came across their book while chatting with another soccer mom at their child’s game. Why can’t it be you? Well it can, and here’s how you are going to do it.

Are you even hungry?

Most people would say that you need to start with adjusting your attitudes toward success and failure. Well, we are just going to skip past that because we learned long ago that you can’t lead anyone if they aren’t taking the daily actions to “git er done.” So you are on your own there. But, if you get over that first hurdle, you will see our arm outreached, to help you to succeed. We try and make it easy for you, so just look down to the next paragraph, you are about to see it…

Set the “Table”

Sounds like we are getting ready to eat that elephant again. Well, sort of. The most crucial part of beginning your book is to write the “Table Of Contents.” Take an afternoon, get a sitter for the kids, and escape to the local coffehouse with a notepad and your favorite utensils (the writing ones). Now just start writing the chapters for your book. Don’t worry about the order, that will come organically. Just start brainstorming in “stream of consciousness” and put all of your ideas down on paper; good, bad, ugly, naughty (we like those ones best because they sell books), nice (we like those because they make us feel better about writing the naughty ones). Under no circumstances will you start writing any individual chapter until you have the TOC complete. After you have all of your chapters, then you might want to also consider putting them in sections, where all similar topics are under one section. You can have any number of sections if it’s appropriate for the format of your book, but three to five is great.

Create the menu

As you are arranging your chapter’s and sections, you should be thinking of the greater “arc” of the story. What does this mean? Well, it’s the flow of the story and it’s the journey that you take your reader on. For example, it is common to begin a story with a flashback, then build the story to the present day and end with a reference to that flashback and present the tender moment and payoff. Comedians also do this if you pay attention. Build the arc, decide what the moral is, and what feeling or wisdom the reader should come away with.

Start cooking

Now, start writing the individual chapters to fill it all in, making sure to hit the key points that support the arc. If you build it correct, they will come; reader’s publisher’s et all. If not, we can help with that.

There are numerous books and articles on the subject of getting your book published, so we are not going to cover that. But, if perhaps you aren’t getting publisher’s knocking down your doors, we have a solution for you; Self publishing.

Dessert for the ego – Do It Yourself (DIY)

The traditional way to get a book published is a difficult path full of rejection. Well, we would like to help you avoid rejection altogether by self-publishing your book. Now, first you’ll need a warehouse to house the ten-thousand copies of your book that you’ll need to purchase to get the printing costs down to a reasonable amount where you can make a profit. Oh, you don’t want to deal with all of that? Okay, then “Print On Demand” (POD) is the right option for you.

With POD, you only print the amount of books that you need, thus avoiding the need to warehouse unnecessary stock and saving on overall printing costs. Of course, the cost per book will be more, but this is a trade off that makes it worthwhile until you are selling tens of thousands of books; in due time my friend, Oprah will wait for you.

There are two types of POD companies that you will find on the Internet; those that sell your book directly to the public and those that print and sell through online retailers. Companies that sell directly to the public through their website include Lulu.com, CreateSpace, AuthorHouse, Trafford Publishing, iUniverse, and others. Companies that print and ship books exclusively through third-party online retailers include Lightning Source Inc. (LSI). As readers order books through these online retailers, the retailer places an order with the POD outlet, books are printed and shipped directly to the consumer (AKA “Drop Shipped”). It is completely transparent to the purchaser that a third-party, in this case the POD company, is involved.

Due to the involvement of POD companies and retailers, authors earn less for each book sold. However, it benefits the author because they do not have to hold inventory, expend a large amount of capital to purchase books in bulk, and the ordering process is easy, especially for subsequent orders. Upfront costs are higher and vary by POD company, but are generally upwards of $1,500. Lulu.com is worth investigating if you would like to avoid upfront costs altogether.

Microwave the leftovers – electronic delivery for the rest of us

Now that you have a hard copy of your book to “shop” around in meatspace (that’s what techies call the real world; not the Internet), you should also try to market your book on the Internet as an electronic product. Most authors shudder at placing their blood, sweat and tears in an easy emailable, piratable .PDF formatted product to begin with, but eventually you will want to add electronic delivery to your revenue stream and attract those customers that you would otherwise be ignoring. When you are ready for that you have a couple of options that we’ll mention here.

First, there is ClickBank, which allows other enterprising individuals to market and sell your electronic product and earn a commission. This is tantamount to hiring a sales force who works solely on commission, whose only intention is to market and sell your “Masterpiece.” Lulu.com also offers a similar service, so make sure to use them as well to broaden your exposure.

For example, I have created an electronic eCourse that teaches you how to buy foreclosure homes that I will eventually be selling as an electronic download. If you would like to get a head start on learning how to market your book via the Internet once you get it finished, visit this site and sign-up via the form to experience the proven system for successful marketing on the Internet. I have also created several other highly acclaimed FREE articles and blog posts that teach this advanced Internet Marketing system, so search this site for other articles that I have authored.

Sample? – Give some elephant away

We never said that you had to eat all of the elephant yourself, so why not share some with friends. What we mean by that is, now that you have your book in an electronic form, take the first few chapters and give it away. The Internet Marketing system that I mentioned above is a great way to distribute a morsel of your book to prospects to lure them into purchasing the full copy. Of course, you shouldn’t wait until you are comfortable selling the electronic copy; the electronic “teaser” could also be used to entice your readers into purchasing the POD hard copy of your book before you are selling it electronically. Why not autograph the first few hundred copies while you are at it? Wow, you really are nice! You deserve all of the success that you have coming, now wake-up and start writing.

Just write it!

In closing, I hope that I have given you the methodology to finish your book, the confidence to put the words to paper, and a way to get your book published into a tangible copy that you can shop to buyers, publishers and impress colleagues and family alike. You have the talent, content and drive, all you are lacking is the action. So stop reading right now, set aside some time for yourself and commit to some “literary therapy;” you and your brain will thank me for it.

Happy Writing!

With all of the morose news about the collapse of the housing market, financial institutions and increase in unemployment, how could anyone think that now is a good time to buy a Foreclosure?

The answers are many, but they are not hard and fast.

First, the US government is not going to pull us out of this financial crisis; we are. That’s right, you and me, and the investors, and small business owners are going to be the gears and cogs that pull us out of this recession. The US government can throw billions at this problem, and as we have already seen, it will not provide a speedy exit from this challenging economic climate. If anything, the amount of money injected into the economy will most likely lead to inflation, but that’s a topic for another post.

So how do we do our part?

As anyone who has taken even an elementary course in economics knows, the economy is a complex system with no simple algorithm to obtain a desired result. However, one thing is clear, when everyone stops spending money and there is no “motion” or commerce, the economy grinds to a halt. Just look at the status of the economy post 9-11 for proof of this. Worse, a miserly outlook is a self fulfilling prophesy; in other words, as we see people spending less, we spend less. Companies anticipate sharp drops in revenue and they layoff employees and the dominoes continue to tumble. But there is a light of hope, and a very bright light at that.

Real Estate properties are at their lowest prices in recent years, which gives you an opportunity for a twofold win. 1) You get to buy Real Estate at a great value, and 2) by doing so, you will do your part in helping to return our economy to a healthy condition.

Are we at the bottom?

No one can say for sure, but it’s commonly accepted that we are not. Regardless, most of the hyper-inflated appreciation gained over the last few years has been returned to the ether, and property values are in parity with accepted norms. Even if you buy now and values decrease, it will only be marginal.

Anyone with a pulse on the Real Estate market can feel the surge of anticipation as Buyer’s attitudes are starting to move towards optimism and DOM in some markets are starting to see a decline. Do your own research and you will notice that graphs of key indicators in the Real Estate market are starting to approach inflection points, signs that change is on the way.

Caveat Emptor – Buyer Beware!

Investing in Foreclosures is indeed the best way for you to maximize value and get the most “bang” for your buck. However, there are many potential pitfalls, which amateur investors and homebuyers looking at purchasing a foreclosure should be aware of. As these properties return to banks en masse, the banks are eager to unload these properties so that they can free up capital and invest it (wisely this time, we hope). Therefore, these transactions are more akin to purchases from trench coat wearing back alley dwellers on a vacation to Mexico, because they are offered “as is” with no guarantees whatsoever. As homeowner’s and tenants vacate their properties at the direction of their banks, they are less than hospitable to the properties on their way out of the door; water has been left on to flood the property, holes are punched in walls and rotten milk left on the counter. We won’t even go into the atrocities of the bathrooms.

What does this mean to you?

Have a strong stomach, exercise your due diligence beyond a reasonable doubt and have plenty of safety margin in your offer price to take into consideration visible and unanticipated rehab costs.

You will probably see some mold. However, ask any veteran investor and they will tell you that mold is a non-issue, under most cases, and was just a fabricated phenom over the last 15 years to feed some unscrupulous Real Estate professionals (smells like the lawyers were bored). You may also encounter vandalism. As copper prices reach higher values, desperate souls are gutting abandoned foreclosures of their copper to put food on their tables, or worse, rims on their wheels. It is not uncommon for foreclosures to experience multiple incidences of vandalism both prior to rehab and during rehab, as well as being inhabited by vagrants.

Good news? I haven’t heard that for a while!

If this hasn’t scared you yet, then you may have what it takes to come out of this economic recession on top. I have just demonstrated the worst possible scenarios, now for the good news. In areas where YOU might purchase and live, you will probably not run into any of these situations. Instead you will only encounter mostly cosmetic repairs, holes in walls and general disarray. Sorry to bore you, but I had to fleece out the wannabe investors. You know, the ones who did their part to get us in this challenging economic crisis by buying multiple properties that they couldn’t afford with ARM’s.

Now if you have cash, then you can go gung ho, but you will most likely overpay. And heaven help you if you go to one of those foreclosure auctions, which is only good if you want to practice your up-bidding hollar. Foreclosure auctions and paid listing sites are a “Fools Paradise.” You need to find your foreclosure listing through the MLS and the banks websites directly. There is a right way to buy foreclosures and there is a wrong way. I recommend that you consult a real estate investor or invest a fraction of your hard earned cash into some real estate education, particular to foreclosures, like a foreclosure tutorial.

I have put all of my own expertise into an online course if you want to learn how to buy foreclosure homes using little to none of your own money and not spend the years of your life learning how to do this through costly mistakes and bad decisions. This course includes direct links to FREE foreclosure listing sources and bank REO listing pages (NEVER pay sites for listings), step-by-step directions on how to buy foreclosures without using your own money for acquisition and rehab, and even includes a spreadsheet to validate the soundness of your numbers. I tell you about a lot of the pitfalls and potential trouble spots that other programs don’t cover. You can try to learn a some of this on your own over the span of several years, but today’s opportunities won’t be there, and you may make costly mistakes that could have been avoided. As with most things in life, the bottom line with time and money is pay now or pay later.

Spend But Spend Wisely

I hope that you have enjoyed this primer on “why now is the best time to buy a foreclosure.” There are tremendous values out there right now, if you know what you are doing. Buying a foreclosure is a great investment, whether it is for your own primary residence, or as a perpetual cash flowing investment property. You will be doing the economy, and your country, a great service in helping to restore this great country to all that it can be. Make sure that you obtain the proper education, exercise your due diligence and account for any unknowns or major repairs in your calculations.

Now go out there and create your own economic stimulus package through foreclosures!

Happy Investing!