Add You - Internet and Businesses Online

The Quest for Financial Freedom
Ah, the bliss of waking up when you want, going to the gym and coming back home to realize while you were gone for an hour or so, your computer made you $75. There is something about making money while I am doing what I want that really makes me happy.I think back to when I was in high school (which was not all that long ago, as I am only 26 years old) and all the teachers taught us that we needed to go to college so we can get a good job. Don’t get me wrong, all kids should try to experience college. If not for the high paying job, simply for the light shedding experience it brings your life. Being from a small town, I never would have gotten to live with the types of people I lived with, go to the places I went, and frankly drinks as many beers as I did! If nothing more, college makes you a more rounded person. However, it is sad to see that there is a massive lack of entrepreneurial spirit. Perhaps maybe this was my particular University, but the many people I spoke with before writing this article tend to agree. The major lesson is the same as high school. Learn as much as you can about a particular field so you can get a good job and make somebody else rich. I can’t help but wonder how different this world would be if more people were taught to think outside the box and start there own businesses.Fortunately enough for me, I was always thinking just a little different from most of my friends. The id

nboxes by the day after. In the span of just two days, your one email with a link to your Cactus Page could reach 1,100 potential online shoppers. That’s not to mention the other nine emails you wrote that day. I personally send about 100 emails per day and have already begun to reap the benefits of Coupon Cactus membership. I’ve actually earned more than I’ve spent over the holidays! It was then that I was driven to seek out the owner of Coupon Cactus to find out more about how they came up with this idea and what was on the horizon.

I had the chance to interview David Fitterman, President & CEO of Coupon Cactus, LLC, which hosts the www.CouponCactus.com website, an online coupon, coupon code, and cash-back shopping website with a commission program for the average shopper.

John: David, first I’d like to thank you for giving me the tools to make some cash this holiday season on top of some very cool coupons I used to buy presents.

David: It’s our pleasure! You know, it’s not just a holiday thing though. Our members are pretty smart and they’ll be earning money year-round. I knew the idea made sense, but I’m surprised at how fast it’s taken off.

John: So how many members do you have, and what are the different ways the website is being used?

David: Sorry John, I can’t reveal any specific details about our membership since privacy is of the utmost importance. But I can say that we’re very pleased and

Get Paid With Consumer Products For Surveys Done
If you were searching for ‘consumer product, free paid surveys of america', you are likely looking for a list of companies that offer them. If so, read on before deciding on which paths to take. Online surveys typically pay between five and up to seventy-five dollars for each one you fill out.Not only that, but many people don’t know that you can even get paid to play games, and you can play them for an unlimited number of hours. On top of everything else, you are often sent five dollars for each person you refer to the website, and in turn, also receive money based on the work that they complete as well.You can turn your time into dollars when you are filling out online surveys, as well as get free movie tickets just to give your review of the movie that you watched. Isn’t it cool that you can go to the movie theatre for free to see the newest coming releases?The good thing is that there are free, high paid surveys for all ages, and is not limited to certain age groups. Everyone has a chance to make extra money from the comfort of their own home. This is easy to accomplish when you take online surveys and earn extra cash, not to mention help improve the quality of products companies are going to produce. So if you're still looking for 'consumer product, free paid surveys of america' – your best bet is to sou

In my twenties, I had dreams of becoming a millionaire by the time I was 30 years old. In my thirties, I had dreams of being a millionaire by the time I was 40. I’m sure I will have many more dreams as I grow older, but reality has set in and I’ve realized that my destiny lies in other pursuits. To compensate for this, I have found ways to make the money I do have last longer and travel further. One of those ways is through the use of “online coupons.”

Over the last 10 years, shoppers have figured out that they can avoid lines and traffic and get better prices on the internet than in the shopping malls. Since most online purchases are made across state lines, the cost for shipping is usually offset by not having to pay sales tax. When you drive to a brick and mortar store, park in the parking lot, and walk into the store, you are now trapped since there is no way you are leaving to visit other stores to comparison shop. On the other hand, the internet is located in your living room where thousands, if not millions, of stores compete against each other driving prices as low as possible. In addition, online stores pay much lower rent for warehousing their products compared to retail lease prices for brick and mortar stores. This allows them to lower their prices even further and keep much larger inventories on hand. Obtaining better prices online is quickly outweighing the impulsive need to have your purchase immediately upon checkout from a brick and mortar store. This is increasing the number of online shoppers every year as people across the country catch on to what others have already figured out.

Now I’m not saying that the great prices found on the internet are anything to sneeze at, but that wasn’t enough for me. Since my first online purchase in the late 90’s, I have become addicted to saving even more money by utilizing online coupons, coupon codes / promo codes, and cash back shopping.

Online coupons are just like normal coupons that you would use at the grocery store, but they are only for purchases made on the internet. Instead of cutting them out and providing them at the checkout counter, online coupons are redeemed during the online checkout process. There are two types of online coupons. The first is a “coupon code” which I’ve also seen called a promo code, promotion code, promotional code, and a discount code. The shopper just needs to enter the coupon code in the appropriate place during checkout and the discount is reflected immediately. The other online coupon I have encountered is usually provided by online coupon websites. Once you click on the coupon-embedded link displayed on the online coupon website, you’re directed to the retailer’s website in a new browser window to shop as you normally would. The coupon discount is automatically factored into the price at checkout. I find this method easier than tracking down coupon codes (but maybe not as much fun).

But when I discovered another method of saving money called Cash Back Shopping, online coupons alone weren’t enough for me. I’m going to share a secret with you that took me a number of years to uncover about how online shopping works. In order to generate sales, online stores use a method of marketing called Affiliate Network Marketing. The online store signs up with an affiliate network for a fee. The network then displays links to the retailer’s website for coupons, deals, promotions, and sales. Website owners copy these links and display them on their own websites in the hopes that their visitors will click on them and place an order. The website owner is paid a commission for each visitor who goes to an affiliate’s site and makes a purchase. Commissions on sales range from 3% to 10%. Hence, the birth of the online coupon website to earn commissions by bringing traffic to online retailers signed up with affiliate networks.

Soon after, cash-back shopping sites began to appear. These sites give back a percentage of the commission they earn, in the form of cash-back, to the actual online shopper making the purchase. So now online shoppers could redeem valuable coupons, such as 15% off your entire order from the retailer and then earn another 2- 5% cash-back from the online coupon website. On most cash-back shopping websites, money accumulates in an account and is then paid quarterly by check to the shopper. The fact that you can combine online coupons with cash-back shopping makes cash-back shopping websites that offer coupons a much better option than the plain old online coupon websites of the past.

Now that we have a brief history of online shopping under our belts, let’s move onto my latest discovery. I recently found a website that has taken online coupons and cash-back shopping to another level. Until now it was only possible for website owners to make commissions from affiliate networks by displaying coupon links on their websites. However, the site I found, www.CouponCactus.com, allows shoppers to earn money as well as save money.

Coupon Cactus developed a program so its members can automatically display a link to their own “Cactus Page” in the signature line at the bottom of all of their emails. If a person reading your email clicks the link in your signature line and makes a purchase through your Cactus Page, you will earn a commission. Nearly every area of the online arena has been utilized for major profit, except for the real estate in our own personal emails. To demonstrate the power of marketing in personal e-mails, here’s an example. Let’s assume the average person sends 10 emails per day, including both original emails and forwarded emails. If you send an email of interest to 10 friends, such as a funny joke or story, by tomorrow it will be in 100 inboxes and it will be in 1,000 inboxes by the day after. In the span of just two days, your one email with a link to your Cactus Page could reach 1,100 potential online shoppers. That’s not to mention the other nine emails you wrote that day. I personally send about 100 emails per day and have already begun to reap the benefits of Coupon Cactus membership. I’ve actually earned more than I’ve spent over the holidays! It was then that I was driven to seek out the owner of Coupon Cactus to find out more about how they came up with this idea and what was on the horizon.

John: David, first I’d like to thank you for giving me the tools to make some cash this holiday season on top of some very cool coupons I used to buy presents.

John: So how many members do you have, and what are the different ways the website is being used?

David: Sorry John, I can’t reveal any specific details about our membership since privacy is of the utmost importance. But I can say that we’re very pleased and m

Over 50 And Changing Careers? You'd Better Have a Plan
Like it or not, if you’re over 50 and changing careers, you’re going to face some challenges that younger workers aren’t accustomed to. There’s an unspoken bias out there against older workers – at least in many companies - and unless you plan ahead and are prepared to meet that bias head on, you could be in for a long and frustrating job search.For many employers, “older” workers mean trouble. The perception is that workers over 50 will have more health problems, will miss more work days, will be more forgetful and make more mistakes on the job, and will cost more to insure. There’s also the belief that an employer will have to pay an older worker more, and that they’ll get less for their investment when the worker retires or moves on.And perhaps the worst bias that older job seekers have to face is the idea that they’re “dinosaurs,” or some kind of museum relic that’s out of touch with the needs of modern business. And what’s surprising is that many of the employers who feel this way are over 50 themselves!Now an employer isn’t going to come out and tell you that you’re too old for the job – that kind of discrimination is illegal, after all. You’re more likely to hear something like “Your overqualified for the position,” or “We’re looking for an entry-level worker to fill this post.”And this comes at a time when people are living longer, more productive lives than ever before. A man or wom

heckout from a brick and mortar store. This is increasing the number of online shoppers every year as people across the country catch on to what others have already figured out.

John: David, first I’d like to thank you for giving me the tools to make some cash this holiday season on top of some very cool coupons I used to buy presents.

John: So how many members do you have, and what are the different ways the website is being used?

David: Sorry John, I can’t reveal any specific details about our membership since privacy is of the utmost importance. But I can say that we’re very pleased and

Schmoozing for Profit
Competition is a good thing provided you are at the top of your game in your given field or industry. If you are a mediocre service provider and have competition, you're in trouble unless you begin immediately correct the problems. I did not attend some Ivy League School of Business or even earn a bachelors degree in business but common sense is very common for me. I would not want to go up against one of Donald Trump's aspiring apprentices but I know a few sensible ways to market one's product or service without an MBA. On second thought (a very quick second at that), I'd welcome the competition from a Trump wannabe!Did you know that Schmoozing is an art form? If it is perceived as "kissing up" or "brown-nosing", you're not an expert and are ineffective. If you are known as a "smoooooth operator" because of your suave mannerisms or called a "silver-tongued devil", you should smile and say, "thank you very much!" You're an effective Schmoozer! I am only relating this to business not personal situations. An effective schmoozer has style, class and "know-how." Others recognise him/her as someone they want to know and enjoy being around. The common mistake by wannabe Schmoozers is that you can be insincere, deceptive and not faux-real. You will never make it out of the dugout with the object of your schmoozing if this is your style, or should I say, lack of style?Any compliment given, should be sinc

on codes (but maybe not as much fun).

John: David, first I’d like to thank you for giving me the tools to make some cash this holiday season on top of some very cool coupons I used to buy presents.

John: So how many members do you have, and what are the different ways the website is being used?

David: Sorry John, I can’t reveal any specific details about our membership since privacy is of the utmost importance. But I can say that we’re very pleased and

Your Marketing Message
Your message is first among your weapons in the battle of perceptions.Your message allows you to accomplish many things. Your message can educate the masses, convert the non-believers or separate the wheat from the chaff. But not all three.Your first clue to your message comes from where in the Awareness Scale™ your target sits. (See my article titled "Target Your Market" for further discussion on the Awareness Scale™)The Educational TargetThe Educational Target needs the benefits of your type of service/product fully and carefully explained. Don’t spend time differentiating your company from your competition, there isn’t any. Instead, your target must have their awareness raised until they care.The Doubter TargetThe Doubter Target needs to have their objections overcome. You still must present the general benefits, but concentrate on overcoming the fears revealed in your research. Show how you deliver these benefits better than your competition. Your materials have a greater fight for attention here.The Differentiation TargetThe Differentiation Target is the most obvious target. All your competition is there. This market is already buying your type of service/product and they know what the major benefits are. You must highlight how you deliver the major benefits better than the competition. How you have other, less obvious benefits, your

by check to the shopper. The fact that you can combine online coupons with cash-back shopping makes cash-back shopping websites that offer coupons a much better option than the plain old online coupon websites of the past.

John: David, first I’d like to thank you for giving me the tools to make some cash this holiday season on top of some very cool coupons I used to buy presents.

John: So how many members do you have, and what are the different ways the website is being used?

David: Sorry John, I can’t reveal any specific details about our membership since privacy is of the utmost importance. But I can say that we’re very pleased and

Transforming Individuals Into Teams
People working in teams such as quality circles, project groups, or autonomous production deals accomplish the majority of an organization's work. However, some groups work like a dream team, appearing to accomplish miracles, while others generate nightmares. What makes the difference? The answer lies in appropriate group membership, structures, processes and training. If group members with appropriate skills and attitudes are trained to understand their own along with other's role requirements, they can develop to collaborate without dysfunctional conflicts to achieve common objectives.One is that the cohesiveness that groups develop, when members value their association with one another and their common goals can promote enhanced satisfaction and extra synergy, but it can also reinforce resistance to change and underachievement if members need to relinquish behaviors that are accepted as group norms. Also, the very conformity that standardizes behavior and makes life comfortably predictable may also serve to stifle constructive conflict and creativity. In striving for group acceptance, many members show far less initiative and independent thought than they are capable of demonstrating as individuals. Deviates that intentionally violate group norms are often resented and forced back in line, but at times their behaviors can be breakthroughs for productive change.To transform groups into high-performing t

John: David, first I’d like to thank you for giving me the tools to make some cash this holiday season on top of some very cool coupons I used to buy presents.

John: So how many members do you have, and what are the different ways the website is being used?

David: Sorry John, I can’t reveal any specific details about our membership since privacy is of the utmost importance. But I can say that we’re very pleased and much further along than we’d imagined at this point. We already have some great success stories about the ingenious ways our members are using the website.

John: That works for me.

David: Well, you already know that each member gets their own Cactus Page but we are currently beta testing functionality where they can personalize the top banner with a welcome message and display a picture or a logo. We have one beta tester who placed a picture of his two-year old son on his banner. His son is suffering from an illness and he’s raising money in his son’s name by sending out links to his Cactus Page explaining that all commissions on purchases will be used for his son’s medical treatment.

John: Wow, that’s a great story.

David: Yeah, we’re pretty proud of that one. I’m just glad that we’re able to offer him the tools to earn money for such a good cause. We have another member who’s using her Cactus Page so she gets commissions on all of the gifts purchased for her baby shower next month. There’s actually one other member doing the same thing, but for her wedding. It’s a cool idea. If their friends and relatives are going to be buying them presents anyway, they might as well earn cash-back on all of the purchases to buy something extra for the baby or to use on their honeymoon.

John: Man, I wish you guys were around when I got married!

David: Sorry about that! At least you know about us now and can use Coupon Cactus for all the other events and ideas you come up with. We also have a few beta testing companies who are using corporate Cactus Pages as an employee benefit. It’s a win-win situation. The employees use the coupons on the website to save money, and the company earns commissions on all the sales. One of the companies is using the earned commissions to pay for the annual holiday party for their employees. It turns out that the company is ending up using the coupons, more than the employees, to lower their business expenses and get cash back on top of the discounts.

John: That sounds like a pretty smart company. Now I know you’re busy and I really appreciate the time you’re taking to talk with me, but can you tell me anything more about future plans for the website?

David: Well, you know I can’t be too specific, but we do have a number of plans in the works. I can tell you that we recently implemented a new feature where if you refer someone to Coupon Cactus and they become a member, you’ll receive 25% of whatever they earn for as long as both of you are members. There are a number of sites out there that only give you just $5 for telling a friend. We looked at that model and it just didn’t work for us. This is the age of Web 2.0 and we figured our members should share in all of the profits. For example, if you refer a friend to Coupon Cactus and he earns $100 this quarter, he’ll receive a check for $100 and you’ll receive a check for an additional $25. Let’s say that the next quarter you refer nine more friends who each earn $50 and your first friend makes another $100… Hang on, let me get out my calculator… You’ll get a check for $137.50 for that quarter, just on the commissions made on your referral members. Not a bad deal for just referring some friends, and we have absolutely no limit to the number of referrals you can make.

John: This feature was the reason I had to track you down and talk to you. It’s brilliant, and like I mentioned earlier, it paid for all the presents I bought this year and then some.

David: You know, when this article comes out you should include your membership number so you can get referral commissions on anyone who signs up after reading it.

John: In this case I am one step ahead of you. Thank you again for sitting down to talk with me, and I wish you great success with Coupon Cactus.

David: Thanks for having me.

Now that I have disclosed my secrets on how shopping can actually be profitable I will shamelessly ask that you return the favor by entering my Cactus membership number 100033 as the member who referred you to Coupon Cactus when you sign up for free membership at www.CouponCactus.com. Who knows, maybe my dreams will come true and I’ll get to be a millionaire one day.

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Calculating ROI, or return on investment, for medical billing software is a tricky process. What follows is a simplified, but fairly accurate assessment of what's involved in the process.

Author's box is a simple bur effective way to promote your blog or website. Don't waste this good chance by doing big mistakes.

One of the early steps to take when opening a dollar store is to create a footprint of your store. In fact start the process of documenting the footprint of your store as soon as you sign your lease. You will be using that footprint from the moment you sign the lease and for as long as you have an open and operating store.

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