Given the stock market volatility that we’ve seen over the past decade, many savers are finding that their retirement account balances are not where they want or need them to be. Some individuals are looking to expand their investment horizons beyond the stocks and bonds and mutual funds that have declined in value, and would like to use the funds in their IRAs to do so.
Unfortunately, Individual Retirement Accounts that are opened with traditional custodians (such as investment brokers and local banks) generally limit the types of investments IRA holders can make. A widely held but mistaken belief is that the investment options these traditional custodians make available are the only ones that are permitted.
In fact, there is a much broader range of investments that are permitted by the IRS. It’s perfectly legal for an IRA holder to use their funds to invest in real estate, private debt instruments, and even certain types of precious metals. But because these other types of investments involve more of an administrative burden to manage, some IRA custodians have made the decision not to permit them in the accounts they safeguard.
The first step in using your IRA funds to invest in real estate is finding a custodian who’ll permit those investments. There are actually a number of different custodians who offer these accounts, which are generally referred to as “self-directed” IRAs. Again, it’s important to note that self-directed IRAs are no different from IRAs that are offered by traditional custodians – the difference is simply that a custodian for a self-directed IRA will allow the account holder to make the full range of investments that are permitted by the IRS, rather than confining them to a subset of permissible investments. You’ll also need to determine whether to set up your self-directed IRA in the traditional IRA or Roth IRA structure.
Different custodians are going to have different fee structures, so it’s important to compare them in light of the types of real estate you want to invest in. Some custodians may charge fees for each administrative activity they perform (which could become quite expensive if you plan to hold a number of different properties within your account), while others charge a large but flat fee for your entire account (which could be too expensive if you only hold a single property).
Once you’ve set up your new account you need to be aware of two significant issues that affect all IRAs; the legal prohibitions on self-dealing, and unrelated business taxable income (or “UBTI”). The prohibition on self-dealing means that you and your family cannot personally benefit from any assets within your IRA until you take those assets as a distribution. This means that if you hold a vacation property in your IRA, neither you nor any member of your family can use it – any personal use of the property could be construed as a de facto distribution, and subject you an immediate (and potentially quite sizable) tax hit.
UBTI considerations come into play if you borrow money to purchase real estate within your IRA. The IRA considers this type of leverage to be sufficiently unrelated to the tax exempt status of your IRA, so some of the income your IRA receives each year could impose an immediate tax liability on you personally.
Make sure you understand all the legal implications of using a self-directed IRA to invest in real estate, and only do business with a qualified and experienced custodian.
Both the Shotgun and Pinpoint approaches work, but with your limited budget and time, which is best for you?
In order to allow for easy duplication, network marketing companies promote the shotgun approach. Approach as many people as possible in a short and sweet fashion. Ask a few simple questions and get them to the party, presentation or video. Don’t pre-judge anyone. It is a relationship business with no education or experience required. Just keep pitching and the cream will rise to the top.
There is no question that this approach works, companies have made billions and people have made millions. Unfortunately, the vast majority of network marketers quit the business due to the emotional pain of the rejection that they face every day. So is there a better way for you?
The PINPOINT Network Marketing Approach
How many highway billboards have you seen, how many radio ads have you heard? How many of these did you respond to? Apparently, these forms of advertising work for these major companies because they keep spending the money. So many people see and hear them that enough respond and buy. OK, it works for them, but you don’t have pockets that deep!
So what is Pinpoint Network Marketing? It is getting your specific message directly in front of your specific audience and letting them decide to come to you. You are not pre-judging them, they are self-qualifying themselves. Is there any better audience to present your products and opportunity to than to a group of people who have approached you first with an open mind asking you for more information?!
How Does PINPOINT Network Marketing Work?
You need to apply the simple principles of effective Internet message creation and targeting. Your message must be instantly attention-grabbing. It must hold their interest and compel them to action. It must be placed directly in front of the audience that is online searching for those benefits that your message conveys and that your products deliver. Getting a compelling message about apples in front of an audience looking for oranges is a complete waste. However, getting a compelling message about your apples in front of people looking right now (with credit card in hand) for apples is a home run, period! You will have interested, open-minded customers and opportunity seekers coming into your inbox every day, asking you to call them.
A More Efficient and Cost-Effective Use of Your Limited Time and Money To Grow Your Network Marketing Team
Using this approach, you will be able to spend your time speaking with interested, open-minded network marketing prospects who have self-qualified themselves and have come to you first. While the theory is simple, the implementation process must be learned, but “Boy, is it worth it!” It is highly unlikely that you will master these skills through the many “do-it-yourself” programs available. I know I never would have. Look for a program with serious mentoring, not just a support department. Look for a program with significant guaranteed results.
If you are looking for a way to work from home, and the idea of owning a portion of a home based business sounds good to you, then you might be interested in a career of Network Marketing. If you have some basic social skills, or are willing to face a learning curve in order to learn how better to associate with people, then Network Marketing can be a way for you to make an income without needing to report to a nine-to-five job on a daily basis.
Network Marketing, or multi-level marketing, is a legitimate sales strategy with an important characteristic. In MLM, a sales person is responsible not only for selling, but also for recruiting to expand the sales force. Each sales person’s income stems not only from their own individual sales, but also from the sales created by their Downline, a tern referring to all the sales people recruited by a particular salesman.
Because of this unique quality of network marketing, an individual salesman’s marketing strategy needs to be evaluated differently from traditional marketing. While it is still important to maintain sales, there is even more of an emphasis on networking than in normal sales. While networking is usually important in sales in order to expand a salesman’s network for direct selling to consumers, network marketers also need to rely on networking to expand their Downline.
Direct selling is traditionally very self-centered. Not only is a salesman trying to out-sale his competition from other company’s but also from his own, so that he can be rewarded for high sales output. Network marketing is usually a bit different. While it is possible to make a profit from direct selling in a MLM strategy, the process is not as well supported because the focus is on networking. Instead of focusing on their own profits, a network marketer has to focus on teamwork, giving up sales to subsidiaries in the beginning in the hopes that they can develop into useful Downline members later, and providing their Downline with useful information on sales leads whenever they do not have the time to pursue them personally.
As network marketer, it is important to remember that you are more than an individual, and you should never be alone. Note that the network works more than one way. You have a Downline, but you are also a member of somebody else’s Downline. Do not be afraid to seek assistance from your sponsor when you first get started. If you have a good sponsor, they will want you to succeed because your success will lead to a steady profit for them.
If you are interested in starting a Home Based Business or a Network Marketing alike Business Model, you can get all necessary Information, Hints and Tips in my free E-Mail list.
Article marketing on the Internet is one of the easiest and least expensive marketing ploys to get your business in front of new prospects. By writing niche specific articles and submitting them to article directories is a sure fire way to get interested customers to shop at your website.
Marketing with Articles can help your business grow by leaps and bounds, and the best part is it’s free advertisement. Once you have an article submitted and approved in a directory your new prospect may visit your website by clicking on a link you have in your resource box, more about this part in just a moment.
This means more traffic, leads and sales from your virtual store.
What a resource box can do for your business
If you done a little bit of research before creating your article, then you already know that you’re creative would have an impact on your reader, and the bigger the impact the more traffic you will receive.
More traffic equals more leads and sales. This all happens when you have a solid resource box that has one purpose in mind, getting clicks.
The resource box is just at the conclusion of your article. A general resource box normally called the authors bio box has the business or writers name, email address and website address.
The kind of resource box we are discussing here is what I like to term as a direct response resource box. Instead of having information about whom written the article, it would have a purpose for the reader to click the link for more information.
A good example of a direct response resource box can be found at the end of this article.
Finding Keywords for your article
Most articles posted in directories usually are optimized for search engines. Also known as search engine optimization for articles. This is done by gathering keywords for your article by way of web based or even software driven keyword tool programs.
You gather keywords for an article usually during the research process. Keywords are the word terms inputted into a search engines search box by a searcher.
In order to optimize your article properly, you will need to use your main keyword in the title of your article, the sub headings, in the last sentence of your article and use the keyword at least once for every one hundred words in the body of your article.
Over optimizing an article with your keywords may give you a higher relevance on search engines but humans would not be able to understand the article. So begin, by writing for humans first and search engine second.
How to Profit from article marketing
The purpose of article marketing is to gain exposure for your business without breaking your bank account with paid advertising. There are 3 great sources that you can use to distribute your articles. Once you start seeing results from your article marketing efforts you will be hooked. People who are serious about article marketing have to
Article directories: Article directories are high traffic sites with many publishers scouring through literally millions of articles, looking for a unique quality article that they can publish on their website or newsletter. These article directories are usually free to post because they earn money from contextual advertising.
Ezine and newsletter publishers: You can submit your article directly to Ezine and newsletter publishers in your niche. You do this much like submitting an article to a magazine editor. First you need subscribe to their newsletter. Get the publishers email address and send them a letter with a brief excerpt of your article.
Blog publishers: find high traffic blogs in your niche that you would like to write for and check the terms of service on their blog. If you see that they regularly publish articles from other writers then there is a good chance that they will publish yours. Use the same criteria in step 2.
Conclusion
There you have it you have just learned the 3 basic laws of article marketing. Why article marketing is cheaper than advertising, how to optimize your article for the search engines and how to publish your articles to article directories and other publishers on the internet.