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Give
Yourself a Nice Pay Raise - And A Three Day Weekend, Every
Weekend
By
the end of this week, you can give yourself a pay raise. How
does an extra $20/hr sound... and schedule a few days vacation
while you're at it!
After
a month or two, how about another raise... to $2,000 a week.
It's
happening everywhere. Ordinary people --- including folks who
never finished school --- starting their own businesses...
and making side incomes in the neighborhood of $40,000... $60,000...
even $100,000 or more a year.
They're
living the American Dream. Now it's time for you to start living
it too.
Read
on...
-
Charlie Byrne
"Entrepreneurs
are simply those who understand that there is little difference
between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both
to their advantage."
-Niccolo
Machiavelli
Tap
Into the $4 Trillion Import/Export Market
By
Marc Charles
I've
always enjoyed the TV program Seinfeld. In one on
my favorite episodes, George Costanza lies to his girlfriend
about a friend who was an "Importer/Exporter." George
was caught red-handed, because he confused some of the details
regarding what his so-called friend "imported" and
what he "exported."
That
episode still makes me laugh.
But
the "real" import/export business is no joke. In
fact, there's major money to be made ... if you know how to "connect
the dots."
How
major? Josh Hanson, president of Small Vineyards LLC, imports
Italian wines from about 20 independent estates in Tuscany.
With the help of a website I'm going to tell you about, his
2003 sales exceeded $4 million.
Entrepreneurs
sometimes shy away from the import/export business, because
the thought of establishing and building overseas contacts
is daunting. And they perceive that it has a high cost of entry.
But this website makes it easy ... and dramatically lowers
the cost of entry.
The
website I'm talking about is Alibaba - the No. 1 import/export
website in the world, according to several sources, including Forbes,
the Economist, and Web Digest for Marketers.
With more than 2 million registered users, Alibaba is the largest
directory of suppliers and buyers in the world. And, unlike
eBay and hundreds of other websites on the Internet that list
buyers, sellers, and suppliers, Alibaba is run by a professional
management team that appears to be committed to its members'
success.
Alibaba
differs from eBay in many other ways. The most obvious is that
the focus of the site is import and export. Secondly, eBay's
member base is almost entirely North American, whereas Alibaba
is truly an international phenomenon.
You're
probably sick of hearing "global this" and "global
that" - but the word "global" really does apply
to Alibaba.
Here's
a snapshot of some of the tools Alibaba provides that can help
you excel in the import/export business:
Trade
Leads
Alibaba
enables businesspeople to post "trade leads" of
buy and sell offers in various industry categories. Members
can not only post, view, and respond to buy/sell offers, but
also browse offers to cooperate with potential partners around
the world.
Product
Catalog
Members can post descriptions (with photos) of whatever products
they want to sell.
Company
List
This
is the official buyer/seller company directory, with complete
profiles and product/service overviews. It is unlike any other
list or directory on the Internet, because it's constantly
updated and changing.
Hot
Product Channels
This
is where you find the hottest products and services from Alibaba's
Qualified Suppliers.
The
Alibaba Search Engine
This
is perhaps the most powerful feature of Alibaba for busy entrepreneurs.
You can quickly search out items that people or companies "Want
to Buy" or "Want to Sell." There are more than
30 major product categories with more than 54 sub-categories
under each one.
To
use the Alibaba search engine, you simply register as a member.
(Basic membership is free, and you can upgrade your membership
for around $350.) What could be easier?
How
to Put It All Together and Start Making Money
One way to approach the import/export business without a fleet
of 747s, supertankers, and mountains of cash is by becoming a
middleman.
The
idea is to find products that people want, and facilitate the
payment and delivery of those products. With the help of Alibaba,
you can be on your way to making money by doing this in just
a few hours.
As
a buyer, a seller, or a middleman, you can specialize in any
product or category you wish. (But before making your decision,
it's probably a good idea to search Alibaba for products that
are hot sellers.)
You
can browse through Alibaba's buying leads to find contacts.
And the website has a new service that enables buyers to find
you, too.
Once
you've registered, you can select a "buying lead" and
start the process.
There
are thousands of new buying leads posted to Alibaba each day.
Let's say you find one under "Agriculture" from a
company in Europe that wants to buy soya beans. If you're a
farmer who grows soya beans, you can contact the buying lead
and give them a price quote. If you're not a soya bean farmer
but you know someone who is, you could put a deal together.
You would then profit from the difference between the farmer's
price and the wholesale price that the European company pays.
But
that's only one example of what can be done with Alibaba. You
can also identify a buying lead and a selling lead at the same
time. You would then contact both of them and put a deal together.
Your profit would be made on the "spread" - the difference
between the selling and buying quotes.
That's
exactly how some of the greatest import/export fortunes have
been made.
Do you remember Aristotle Onassis? He was a multimillionaire
import/export entrepreneur who made a fortune by identifying
buying leads and matching them with selling leads. He eventually
built a massive shipping empire and founded Olympic Airways.
Davy
Lam, president of Tai Foong USA Inc., is registering more than
$80 million in annual sales. Tai Foong USA imports a variety
of prepackaged seafood products from around the world, including
scallops, shrimp, lobster, specialty sauces, and entrees such
as seafood lasagna and lobster ravioli. The company's customers
include restaurants and grocery stores, where its products
are sold under brand names including Northern Chef and Royal
Asia.
Derek
McDonnell imports coffee beans from Brazil and Ethiopia into
Ireland. His company produced more than $1 million in sales
in 2003.
And
New Zealand Wool Services International, which exports wool
around the world, achieved sales of more than $150 million
in 2003.
There
is practically no limit to how you can make money as an importer/exporter.
Explore Alibaba today and start building your fortune.
[Ed.
Note: Marc Charles is the editor of ETR's Profit
Center Dispatch service. Every week, he reports on
a business opportunity like the one you just read. He tells
you how to get started, where to find your products, and who
to market to. He also includes insider tips to accelerate your
success.
And
if you're interested in starting your own Internet import business,
you'll want to check out our brand-new program: The
China Wholesale Secrets System, and we'll give you
the opportunity to order this business-building system the
day before it's officially released.]
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The
Dark Side of Statin Drugs
By
Al Sears, MD
Millions
of men and women around the world take statin drugs to help
control their cholesterol. But these medications have a dark
side. And new evidence shows their benefits are questionable.
A
recent study followed 10,000 people with high LDL ("bad")
cholesterol for four years, and compared those who took statin
drugs to those who exercised regularly. Both groups experienced
the same rates of death, heart attack, and heart disease.
Even
if statin drugs were harmless, it would be hard to justify
their expense, since the study found no health benefit in taking
them instead of following a simple, relatively untutored program
of any kind of exercise. But that's not the case. Statins have
serious and common side effects, including muscle pain and
weakness, congestive heart failure, depression, and memory
problems. Worst of all, statins deplete your body's supply
of CoQ10, the high-energy power source inside your cells that's
critical for heart and brain health.
If
you're currently taking statins, consider supplementing with
at least 200 mg of CoQ10 per day. And find a sympathetic doctor
to measure your CoQ10 levels and help you get off the drug.
[Ed.
Note: You'll find many strategies for getting off statin drugs
while building a healthy heart in Dr. Sears' book, The
Doctor's Heart Cure
Don't
Tell Me You Can't Start an Internet Business!
By
Michael Masterson
Get
this: An 18-year old high school dropout in Florida is making
$45 an hour giving gaming lessons to people who want to acquire
professional-level skills. Better yet: He has turned it into
a web-based business. And he's giving other young videogame
aficionados a chance to teach his growing customer base, at
rates ranging from $20 to $65 an hour.
And
if all that isn't impressive enough, consider this: This kid,
Tom Taylor, was recently profiled on the front page of The
Wall Street Journal.
Let
me ask you a question: Would you say his financial future is
looking good?
At
ETR, we love this sort of story. It demonstrates two fundamental
truths about making money that most people (including most
of the mainstream media) can't seem to understand:
1.
Anybody who has modest intelligence can start a successful
business. You don't need wealthy parents, a college degree,
or influential friends. What you need is a financially valuable
skill.
2. The Internet is the fastest, cheapest, and easiest place to
start a business.
I
wouldn't have thought of making gaming lessons into a business
in a hundred years. But now that Mr. Taylor has provided the
seed idea, I can see dozens of possible outgrowths.
The
first, and most obvious, is that he should locate experts in
other videogames, and expand his business horizontally. (Right
now, the lessons center around Microsoft's Halo 2 and Nintendo's
Super Smash Bros. Melee.)
Next,
he should promote one or two of his very best experts in each
game to "elite" status, and sell their services for
$100 an hour. (If you don't think he can get $100 an hour for
that, you don't understand much about marketing.)
And
then, he should develop packaged offers, combining multiple
game lessons or even multiple instructors, and begin to offer
longer-term, higher-priced contracts.
He
should learn everything he can about marketing, and become
an expert in finding new customers and upgrading (i.e., upselling)
his existing clientele. And he should hire someone to make
sure the quality of his services improves as his business expands.
This
kid could easily have a $2 million to $10 million business
in three years. The hardest part is already done. If he doesn't
succeed on a massive level, it will be a shame.
By
the way, one of Mr. Taylor's instructors is an eight-year-old
New Yorker who goes by the online name of Lil Poison. He teaches
classes after he finishes his homework, and has used some of
his income to buy a hamster that he named Cantana after a character
in one of the games.
Today's
Action Plan: Think about a skill that you have and
can teach. Would you like to create an Internet-based teaching/consulting
business based on that? If so, come to ETR's Info Marketing
Bootcamp: "Making
a Fast Fortune on the Internet Revolution." All
you need to bring is an idea for a business or a passion
for something you love to do (sailing? basket weaving? tennis?)
... and we'll give you the tools to transform it into a powerhouse
online business.
Quick
Tip: The Real Meaning of "Good Writing"
By
John Forde
Michael
Masterson once said, "If any wish to write in a clear
style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would
write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul."
No,
wait. Goethe said that.
But
I assure you, Masterson meant the same thing when he said to
me the other day, "You know what makes good writing? A
good thought, tightly expressed. Clear thinking. If you haven't
got that, it doesn't matter how pretty you make your prose."
How
true ... how humbling.
How
many times have you tried to climb into a book dripping with
delicious adjectives and adverbs ... only to find it bores
you silly?
How
many tight, plot-powered novels have to sell out before the
literary glitterati 'fess up and pay due homage?
Good
copy sticks to the same principle. "One idea, tightly
expressed," says Masterson, "is much stronger than
a heap of notions tangled in a mess."
[Ed
Note: For more of master copywriter John Forde's sharp insights,
sign up for his free weekly e-zine Copywriter's
Roundtable. And earn how to be a copywriter
yourself with AWAI's copywriting program.]
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