Money Ideas Blog

To sort through the myriad of choices available, you need to ask many important questions. Here are ten to get you started:

1. What is the product or service being sold?

2. Does it represent value to the consumer?

3. How much does it cost to join the company?

4. How much is the monthly requirement?

5. What type of compensation plan is used?

6. What marketing tools are provided?

7. What training and support are provided?

8. Does the company have a track record or is it a new start-up?

9. What is it about the company or its product that sets it apart from the competition?

10. Can the average person make money?

Especially in today’s economy, everyone needs a Plan B. Network Marketing can provide the extra income you need, but you must choose carefully.. Request the special MLM Report before you make any decision as to which company to join. Receive a free report of specific niche markets and solid products to capitalize on those niches. Know which companies to currently avoid.

Technorati Tags: extra income, home business, Make Money, mlm, network marketing

  If you are among those who currently do not have a group health plan through their employer or an individual major medical policy, you still have options. Even though there is NO substitute for a major medical plan, something is definitely better than nothing. Whether you can’t afford a major medical plan, have been denied coverage, or are just seeking gap coverage, you need to read this.

The least expensive option is a discount plan. Like many things in life, what you pay is reflective of what you will receive. Discount plans including access to doctors and hospitals generally cost from $20 to $80 per month. You need to understand that a discount plan is NOT insurance. You pay a monthly fee to access health providers and other related services and are charged at discounted rate. These providers are not being reimbursed in any way. They join these networks as a way to gain more clients. The providers may include doctors, hospitals, dentists, chiropractors, eye care, hearing care, prescriptions, nurse lines, and a variety of other services. Remember, you are expected to pay the discounted fee at the time of service. Since there a discount plan is not insurance, you can not file any claims. Some plans do include a repricing service which allows you to submit a hospital bill for negotiation and a possible reduction in charges.

A minimed plan is a more expensive option ($90 to $350 cost per month for an individual). A mini-med is a limited benefit hospital indemnity insurance policy which is sometimes bundled with a discount plan. Because this is an insurance policy, the plan allows you to submit a claim for reimbursement of charges up to the limits of the policy. These are not major medical plans, but do provide a range of benefits and are guaranteed issue. If you are age 18 to 64, you will not be turned down for medical reasons. Some mini-med policies contain pre-existing condition clauses which preclude payment for 6 to 12 months on those conditions that you have when the policy is issued. Maternity may be included in some policies as a pre-existing condition. It’s always an excellent idea to read all the terms and conditions of any prospective plan or policy.

A Minimed will reimburse for of a variety of expenses to include hospital stays, doctor visits, surgery, anesthesia, xrays, and others. The primary pricing factor of a mini-med plan is the amount to be paid to you per day for inpatient hospital stays. Depending on the company, this may range anywhere from $100 to $1000 per day.

Many mini-med plans come with a discount network. You do not need to use a doctor or hospital that is in the network to submit an insurance claim, however, if you do use a network provider to receive a discounted rate, you may still file a claim for reimbursement on the reduced amount. This will save you money. To see examples of how this works go to Mini-Med Chart or for specific plans and pricing information go to Freedom Financial Solutions. 

Technorati Tags: afforable health, discount dental, discount medical, health insurance, medical coverage, mini med, mini-meds, Minimed, Save Money

Let’s discuss marketing. One of the first lessons everyone teaches is to do your research and find a good niche product. This certainly makes a lot of sense. If you concentrate your efforts in specific areas as opposed to trying to be everything to everybody, you will always do better. When looking for your niche markets, don’t automatically go for the flashy, exciting ones. The competiton in those could be fierce. Sometimes the boring ones can really surprise you and make money.

Case in point. I have been in the financial service business for many years. My speciality was mutual funds and life insurance. As I became involved in marketing to associations a need arose to provide discount dental and health plans. To satisfy this need I created a website called Best Discount Benefits. Almost as an afterthought, I included some pages on the site for Oxyfresh dental products. The main reason was that I had been personally using the products for almost 20 years, knew them to be of excellent quality, and they seemed a logical extension to the promotion of discount dental plans. I didn’t think much more about them.

Fast forward to this year. I’ve always been fascinated by internet marketing and recently ran across an online course that looked interesting. As typical, the first step told me to do market research and find a good niche product. I spent days exploring every category I could think of, looking for that super sizzle product. Every time I thought I had something, I would do the keyword and SEO research and discover enormous competition. Then it suddenly hit me, for a couple years this really boring product, toothpaste, had been sitting on my website. I had not really promoted it, talked about it, or even thought about it. Yet, it had been quietly bringing in in sales every single month.

I was forced to take a deeper look. Yes, on the surface this was a boring product, but almost everyone uses toothpaste. Of course, toothpaste wasn’t their only product. There was also the mouthrinse, and better yet a whole line of pet products. People love their pets, and these products are used by veterinarians and pet groomers. As I read further, I realized these products have been getting a slew of media attention. Magazines, newspapers, television, and even an inclusion in the gift bags at the Oscars and the Emmy’s. A great niche product was sitting under my nose the whole time!

As a part of the internet marketing course, I created a blog, wrote a squidoo lens, a hub page, and an Ezine article. That has all been during the past month, and my orders for Oxyfresh products have doubled. Internet marketing does work and you can make money, but start off simple. Fishing for the little boring fish can many times bring you cash flow faster than hunting for the whale.

PS. For those who know a dentist, veterinarian, pet groomer, or are just intrigued by the Oxyfresh line of products, here is the link for information on their agent program.

Technorati Tags: dental products, discount dental, ezine, hub page, internet marketing, Make Money, mouthwash, oxyfresh, pet products, squidoo, toothpaste

A few words today on being cautious and using common sense. A caution flag always comes attached to the word FREE. There is always an angle. A little logic goes a long way in determining if FREE is worth it. A few examples:

1. The guy singing in the TV commercials about his bad credit and offering you a free credit report. Yes, you can get a free credit report at their site, but this is not the official free credit report site mandated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. That is annualcreditreport.com. This site will sign you up for a credit monitoring service and start charging your credit card after 30 days if you forget to tell them you really don’t want that service. There is nothing wrong with the monitoring service, bit did you really want or need a credit monitoring service?

2. A very similar technique is used by the friendly video professor. He will send you that free advertised program and even some extra software gifts, but if you really didn’t want more software programs and are the forgetful type and don’t call in your cancellation request, you will find a monthly charge appearing on your credit card. Again, there is nothing wrong with the product, but many people will neglect to take the required action and end up paying for things that they really didn’t intend to buy.

3. Another marketing approach is charging a small amount for something of perceived value to capture your name and phone number. There are both internet and television versions of this. The real product is a mentoring package which is sold for thousands of dollars. The phone sales people are very good and will use an interview technique to “see if you qualify”. A couple offers that use this approach are a TV infomercial to make your fortune on eBay and an internet pitch called Project PayDay. The latter combines the follow-on sales pitch with the “if you don’t forget to cancel, we will start billing your credit card every month”.

4. Last but not least are the hundreds a websites offering a free gift in return for your name and email. The gift may or may not contain anything worthwhile, but be certain you are about to be offered an expensive upgrade and be added to a mailing list. Nothing wrong with this method, but you just need to understand that there is always a hook.

5. Most FREE offers make sense once you figure them out. There’s the one offering you free phone conversations anywhere in the world. When you read the details, you discover that you must listen to a short ad before each phone call. If you don’t mind the commercial, there’s nothing wrong with the offer. You know where they will make their money.

My point is always do your homework. You can find out the real story on almost anything today if you google it the right way. You must be creative in your searches. Just attaching the word scam to the search will typically lead you to more promotions of the same product or service. The marketers are getting more clever. Don’t spend your money, if the offer doesn’t make sense!

Technorati Tags: free credit report, free offers, infomercials, project payday, scams 

If you really do need something, we all know about shopping around to get the best price. The internet has vastly simplified this task. If you haven’t already discovered them, the internet has also brought us additional ways to save in the form of discount, rebate, coupon, and free sample programs. Most of these are free programs that provide you with additional savings. Some even allow you to refer others and make a bit from their purchases also.  With a little research, you will find hundreds of services out there.

For those who have the time and motivation, the next step beyond saving money is earning extra income. There are thousands of offers swirling around the internet. Most are full of teasers and bait and switch offers trying to sell you books on how to make money. As you probably know, the people making the most money on get rich quick books are the ones selling you the books. We will examine some of these in later posts. In the meantime, a site that can give you some initial money ideas is Best Extra Income. This site features several free and low cost ideas to consider and doesn’t force you to divulge any personal information in order to get the facts. Give it a look.

The discussion yesterday was about making a plan. The first question is where do you find the money to put towards your goals and to put that plan into ACTION. Later posts will deal with different ways to earn extra income, but let’s focus for now on how to save money. If you don’t know where you are it’s hard to set off on your journey. The best way to answer this question is to run a quick inventory of what’s coming in and what’s going out. Yes, I’m talking budget and no, it doesn’t have to be torture!

I won’t bore you with budget basics. We will just hope your income is adding up to more than your expenses. One technique that is used as a part of the debt roll-up strategy can be very helpful at this point. It is called finding accelerator dollars. This is simply examining your cash flow and spending habits to find any areas where funds can be repositioned to reduce debt. There are hundreds of great ways to create accelerator dollars. Several are listed in the link above. Specific ideas, such as how to reduce healthcare costs, can be found on sites such as Best Discount Benefits. I know many people have come up with some very creative ideas on how to find accelerator dollars. This would be a great post to add comments with your ideas.

Technorati Tags: budget, earn extra income, money ideas, reduce debt, Save Money, save on healthcare

Step one is setting your goals. You now have your destinations. You, however, are still at the departure line. How do you get from here to those various points? Any good traveler knows that you need a map. In this case your map is your financial plan.

You actually will need a map with several stops along the way, since you should have short (1-4 years), medium (5-10 years), and long term (11+ years) goals set for yourself. The route you take will differ for each. For instance, if one of your short term goals is education money needed in 3-4 years, you certainly wouldn’t want to start putting money for that goal into a long term account which charges stiff penalties for early withdrawal. Make sure the strategy fits the goal. Like goals, your plan needs to be reviewed and updated at least annually.

If you need help with initial budgeting steps and dealing with debt, there are many helpful hints at Smart Consumer Group.