ZERO for advertising. Yet...
 

I need to produce some national exposure and SALES quickly.

Is it going to be worth my effort to find free classified sites and post the following ad in their business opportunity sections>

$18 Million in Commissions Lost Daily - Grab Your Share Now!

Pahrump, NV - 52% of ALL homebuyers REFUSED to use realtors in 2001. That shocked me when I read it. It also sparked an idea.

But before I tell you what the idea is, let me tell you what is is NOT.

• It is NOT MLM
• It is NOT Illegal
• It is NOT a FRANCHISE
• It is NOT a Get Rich Quick Scheme

• It IS easy to do.
• It IS your own business.
• It IS a REAL Internet business integrated into the REAL WORLD.
• It gives you EVERYTHING you to succeed EXCEPT your customers.

Help people save thousands in commissions when they sell their home AND you get paid for it?
But, more importantly, you can do this and NOT have to leave your home?
If you know a keyboard from a mouse and like people, this could be the dream business for you.
SoftNuggets has just introduced a new turnkey internet/real world business called NuggetHomes designed to help you get started in your own business at a very low cost. AND with a very high rate of return on your money.
To learn more, go to http://www.softnuggets.com/nuggethomes/ and try it out.

Second question, what other FREE options are available?

I sure don't want to clutter up 10,000 forums asking the same questions.

An effective way for free promotion appears in your daily email (NO, I don't mean spam!)
 

Hi Steven,

Where do people find out things?

As I go through my email daily, I read through the genuine emails I receive, I delete the spam, and I read some ezines....

Some ezines get their articles from other authors, who write articles specifically for this purpose. They allow anyone to reprint their articles, as long as they include their "resource box" at the end, which of course includes a link back to their web site.

That's one free way you can promote yourself - write articles for ezines!

I've only done this to a small extent, but I know some people have built up big followings this way. As well as putting their articles on web sites, sometimes their articles appear on various web sites and in ebooks too....

You can find a good list of places to send your articles to here....

http://www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=7232

Thanks to Shelley for posting that useful collection of links!

(Read through the whole thread too - you'll see links to other articles in the thread at the end of that post.)

It takes time to write articles, but it is free!

- Dien

Here's a way to think about this....
 

You've probably seen various movie stars appearing every night on the different talk shows, such as on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, or the Late Show with David Letterman....

These movie stars usually only go on these shows when they have a new movie coming out. Of course, once they're on the show, they talk about their lives, and naturally they also talk about their new movie. They show a clip, then it's an ad break, and over to the next guest!

What these movie stars are doing is similar to writing free articles for ezines. These movie stars give the talk show something - an interesting and famous guest to talk to, which the audience is interested in. In return, the movie stars get to promote their upcoming new movie, and boost the movie attendances!

When you write an article, it is as if your article is "guest-starring" in someone's ezine. You provide them with something - a great article full of your wit and wisdom. In return, you get to promote your web site to the ezine's readers, and boost your sales!

It's really the same thing, in principle. So if you look down on writing free articles - just think, you're doing essentially same thing the movie stars do. :)

- Dien Rice

Re: ZERO for advertising. Yet...
 

Yes, write articles for ezines, participate in online forums like this one and if you can set up a website with lots free articles all pointing to the main page where info about your biz opp will be placed. The search engines will find these articles and they'll soon be a source of free traffic to your website.

Good Luck

clive


Do you need Cash URGENTLY? - Click Here Now

I should add that....
 

I tried free classified sites a LONG time ago, with pretty dismal results....

In addition to that, if you leave an email address, expect to be blasted with a lot of spam. The only people who go to free classified sites, in most cases, are other people who want to leave free ads. I don't think anyone actually reads them....

Some people have claimed to have success doing this, but I didn't have any luck. Free articles - while it's more effort and takes more time - is in my experience a much more effective approach.

- Dien

I'm not sure if this is quick enough for you, but...
 

... if you had a subscription to Jim Straw's Worldwide Business Exchange (real-world) newsletter, you could place a free ad or two in it. (Probably every month, too.) I'm not an affiliate/reseller, but you can read about it at Jim's site (link below).

I just got the January issue in the mail today. Based on the ad submission guidelines, if you signed up right away and got your ad info to Jim by Jan. 1st, it would appear in the February issue (mailed out Jan. 20th).




WorldWide Business Exchange

Good Idea ... Weak Product
 

Steven,

I know you didn't ask for a product review but I couldn't resist taking a deeper look. I like the idea but the product did not impress me.

The first problem I see is trying to selling it using the pitch of client does all the work and owner just spends 5 minutes each making $25 per minute. I don't think the market is big enough to only cater to the computer savvy users with no support ... the owner will need to do most of the computer work.

Next, I question the suggested value of the service. $125 to $250 for a 6 month on your own listing? I doubt it and your buyers who give you $1500 will be disappointed. However, I challenge you to prove it. Setup your system in a test city, follow your business plan and use the real numbers and results to pitch this opportunity. That would be meaningful.

What I like is:
1) Doing this as a regional business where the owner takes out classifed ads to give value not provided by listings on yahoo.
2) Providing signs and other marketing materials.
3) Selling this as a business opportunity.

What I would like to see in the product is a more powerful toolset with ad tracking. Realistic expectations and training and support for the owner. The entry fee would be higher (say $2995) and a hosting fee (say $100 month when established).

A real life example site can be found at:
http://littlepicketfence.com

I don't like some parts of the design of their site (ex. the text chasing cursor) but they have proven the market. Right now I had a problem pulling up the listed homes and also it looks like the listings are down. When I researched this before it looked like it would be good for about $10,000-25,000 per year to the owner ... nice part time opportunity to the right stay at home person with the right expectations.

Regards,
Rob

Rob, you make some good points...
 

> The first problem I see is trying to selling
> it using the pitch of client does all the
> work and owner just spends 5 minutes each
> making $25 per minute. I don't think the
> market is big enough to only cater to the
> computer savvy users with no support ... the
> owner will need to do most of the computer
> work.

This may be true to some degree. The seller is NOT going to walk in with complete information on his property. He is going to have to go home and collect things like his Tax ID/APN and/or legal description and his last annual tax bill. Other than that, everything is a fill in the blank... How many bedrooms, how many bathrooms, etc.

By providing the seller with a form he has to fill out with the appropriate information, he is going to be able to do the data entry with no effort.

Not shown in the sales material is the business building guide that illustrates secondary sources of income - including input of the record for the seller (only 1 of 8 different sources).

Granted, we recommend $25 per record, but it only takes 5 minutes or less to do this. But, it cannot be done without complete information from the seller, such as legal description, asking price, property tax information, etc.

> Next, I question the suggested value of the
> service. $125 to $250 for a 6 month on your
> own listing? I doubt it and your buyers who
> give you $1500 will be disappointed.

Currently in Pahrump, NV (a town of 30,000) there is a FSBO site (pahrumpforsalebyowner.com - last updated 02Jan02) that is charging $379 for a basic listing and...

"$379.00 paid to PahrumpForSaleByOwner.com when initiating the listing and the balance of $621.00 paid to All-Star Realty at closing. The maximum sales commission can never be more than 4% of the sale price"

...for an MLS listing and a "reduced" commission if the house is sold EXCLUSIVELY through All-Star Realty.

Even though I don't think these people are marketing it right (no newspaper and not radio/tv ads) they are listing more and more houses around the valley. Currently there are 20 listed on their site with some sold and some pending sales in that list. They are doing something right.

> However, I challenge you to prove it. Setup
> your system in a test city, follow your
> business plan and use the real numbers and
> results to pitch this opportunity. That
> would be meaningful.

It is in the works and should be opertional next month.

> What I like is:
> 1) Doing this as a regional business where
> the owner takes out classifed ads to give
> value not provided by listings on yahoo.
> 2) Providing signs and other marketing
> materials.
> 3) Selling this as a business opportunity.

These, I believe, are the most important selling points. If SoftNuggets cannot provide value in these areas, the idea is useless to our buyers.

I am still working on the Business Builder's Guide but it is already 48 loose leaf pages. I should have it finished by Monday.

It covers things like "How to Jump Start Your Business", "Secondary Income Streams", "Presentation Slides", "Classified Ads" (for both drawing sellers into the store and drawing buyers to the website to get the seller contact information.), all the forms needed to run the business, recommended legal and financial resources, etc.

> What I would like to see in the product is a
> more powerful toolset with ad tracking.
> Realistic expectations and training and
> support for the owner. The entry fee would
> be higher (say $2995) and a hosting fee (say
> $100 month when established).

These are in the works. Everyone buying will get 1 year free software upgrades. Training will be handled by phone and 24 hour email support will be available. The $1597 price is a special introductory price valid only through January 31, 2003 and will jump to $2497 February 1st. As more of the tracking tools come on line, the price is eventually projected to be $3497 or higher.

Viktor and I realize that we need to generate some money to keep this project on track. We also realize that we still have a long way to go to complete the project as originally conceived.

And that is one of the reasons we are offering the software upgrades at no charge... We will need continued input from real world sites to keep improving the product.

> A real life example site can be found at:
> http://littlepicketfence.com I don't like
> some parts of the design of their site (ex.
> the text chasing cursor) but they have
> proven the market. Right now I had a problem
> pulling up the listed homes and also it
> looks like the listings are down. When I
> researched this before it looked like it
> would be good for about $10,000-25,000 per
> year to the owner ... nice part time
> opportunity to the right stay at home person
> with the right expectations.

I also had problems with the listings at LPF. I think that $10K-$25K is a EXTREMELY conservative estimate as to the money someone can make with this service, especially in a large metro area like L.A. Guess we will have to wait and see.

Thanks for your input, Rob. Look forward to continuing this discussion as NuggetHomes becomes more robust.

Steve