Increase Technology Funding, Implementation – Find Money for Education Technology in General Budget

Policymakers throughout all educational levels are wrestling with the cold, hard truth that the original funding of new equipment and software is the tip of the funding iceberg. In the ’80s we called this the “hidden costs.” In the ’90s we were so excited about all the new gadgets that we forgot to worry about anything else. Now, in the new century, we are wondering how we can afford to keep the tools our administrators, teachers, parents and students are finally putting to good use.

As the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) states in their Total Cost of Ownership white paper, “While many government and private programs provide the means of obtaining the much-needed technology for schools, there are few provisions for the necessary ongoing support of these technologies. School districts, having installed much of the technologies needed for classroom, administrative and community communications functions, are fast becoming aware of the support problems and need to budget for the ongoing support costs.” These monies are often the last priority of any school entity.

With the revolving threat of federal funds elimination for E-Rate and EETT (Enhancing Education Through Technology) funds, districts must find their own reliable and ongoing funding sources, and state and federal leadership would do well to help calculate and take into consideration total cost of ownership. Seeing the big picture is a necessity.

General Budget Technology Funding

To compound the funding dilemma, many education leaders have yet to realize that technology is no longer a separate entity. Technology use is an everyday occurrence in every school in every district, at one level or another. Unfortunately, many education policy leaders have not revised their general budgets to support the proven ways technology improves the work and goals of the local education agencies (LEAs). Leaders who consider technology a “black hole” (as one administrator once told me) are burying their heads in the sand and should be made aware or trained.

Those who set the general fund budget should be informed of the successes from districts that have recreated education budgeting and work practices. These districts take advantage of technology to increase business efficiency and advance student learning, thus saving money and truly educating students while helping meet No Child Left Behind mandates:

One of the strongest organizations of high performing school districts west of the Mississippi River is the Western States Benchmarking Consortium. These districts constantly score above the norm on tests, have high graduation rates, and have lower dropout rates when compared with similar and dissimilar demographics. All of these school districts were early adopters of technology and have used it to support teachers, students and their business teams.
Assistant Superintendent John Q. Porter of Montgomery County Public Schools, an outstanding school district on the East Coast, stated in the June issue of District Administration magazine, “Our enemy is time, and technology is the only way [to combat that]. Still, there are people who don’t understand the importance of technology because they fear it. One of the first things you realize in technology is that technology is change; those who fail in developing systems don’t understand the dynamic of change.”
Two years ago, Poway Unified School District was going to hire 32 new teachers. The technology department used their data warehousing tool to show district leaders they needed only 25 teachers. The leadership followed their advice instead of following old trends, and their estimation proved correct. The district saved approximately $350,000 in salaries — more than the cost of the data warehouse installation.
Student assessments have changed. Trish Williams and Michael Kirst, in their article “School Practices that Matter” (Leadership Magazine, March/April 2006), state high performing districts must have assessments that align with state standards and have the ability to quickly inform teachers of results. Online assessments give policymakers a choice of how to properly assess students to support learning, with 24 hours or quicker result reporting. This should be a common practice to support the students and meet NCLB mandates.

RELATED STORY: Find More Money for Budget and Technology [http://www.convergemag.com/summary.php?catid=418]

All budgets, despite project or department, must be completely reviewed to see how technology can support and make the end product more successful. Additionally, policy leaders must continue to research what new innovations will be appearing in the near future and analyze how these new tools will impact education programs in their local education agencies. All must be in a continual learning mode and work together to envision how we can help put students on a path to continual intellectual growth. Following are some steps to start down the path toward properly utilizing general funds for the support of technology.

Funding Where There was None

Step 1: Evaluate and Prioritize

Data-driven decision-making is a fundamental part of this first step. Generally, there are three areas from which data should be gathered: instructional and business demands, the infrastructure to support those demands, and the equipment and software needed to meet those demands.

Instructional and business demands: these demands are driven by district objectives, community expectations, state and federal mandates, funding constraints and labor union guidelines. Expectations are increasingly high for districts to produce students who perform well on standardized tests and exhibit good citizenship. The business side of education exists to support the learning activities that will meet these expectations.
The infrastructure to support those demands: LEAs’ infrastructure consists of multiple components. Every two to three years, structural components should be reviewed. Telephones, data, alarm, networks and general physical condition of buildings must be assessed to understand what repairs and upgrades are needed. Funding is available in many states under deferred maintenance, or in operational and maintenance restricted funds. If a comprehensive plan is developed and followed, districts can ensure this major building block for support of education will be set in place.
Equipment and software to meet those demands: with the first two areas in place, an intelligent decision can be made regarding the purchase of software, computers and other related equipment that will work with the existing infrastructure and meet the district’s instructional and business demands.

Attaining these goals may require more than one year. It is also highly probable that goals will change over time. It is wise, therefore, to create a multi-year plan that is agile and modifiable.

Part of supporting technology is providing a maintenance, replacement or obsolescence fund, typically fed from districts’ general funds. Too often a majority of technology dollars are spent simply maintaining the status quo. The challenge is to meet the continual need for growth in the areas of technology for online assessments, home-to-school communication, 24/7 access to learning resources and virtual or distance learning.

Step 2: Partnerships

LEAs can benefit from partnerships with local and national businesses in two major ways. First, businesses use general funds to support technology, and business leaders can share funding and maintenance best practices with educational policymakers. Second, business partners can donate equipment or money to support technology innovations in education.

True partnerships support all parties involved. Such partnerships can be large or small, because any amount of funding will help. Large corporations often have several different funding sources. IBM, for instance, has the Academic Initiative and an alliance with the Computer Science Teachers Association to provide free software and curriculum planning. Intel offers multiple grant programs, as does Microsoft. Smaller companies, even the mom and pop donut shop, can and will support their neighborhood school.

Step 3: Form Foundations

If a community understands its local districts’ funding constraints, they are often willing to extend financial assistance by creating a foundation. While foundations are helpful overall, they should be avoided for individual school sites, as they generally increase inequities that already exist. Schools in more affluent neighborhoods may have foundations that raise $100,000 or more annually, while schools in less affluent areas may only raise $5,000 or have no foundation, and will obviously be unable to support their student learning projects.

Step 4: New Uses for Old Technologies

Thin client (a network computer without a hard disk drive, which is designed to be especially small so that the bulk of the data processing occurs on the server) is one way to use old equipment to run new software, where old computers can become “dumb terminals” and run new applications from the server. This solution requires a sound network foundation and server structure, but can reduce replacement costs and decrease technology support staff needs.

Step 5: Give Grants a Chance

Where are the grants? Too many education decision-makers and leaders, especially at the high school level, do not realize that state and federal grants are much easier to obtain if their free and reduced lunch count is 40 percent or more. It is important for educators to have accurate data and a high percentage in this area for funding sources such as E-Rate, EETT, or other related sources. In addition, ferreting out grant money can augment general funds to support student learning with technology.

The Road to Affording Ed Tech

General budget funding must be realigned to match the needs of local education agencies. This will help both the learning and business aspects of a school. These funds may initially need supplemental support, but educators must be aware of the benefits of technology. We must intelligently commit funding for the educational growth of all our children.

Leasing Equipment

Last year, the Poway Unified School District had to replace approximately 3,000 Windows 95 computers. These computers would not run the Web browser needed for their data reporting tool or the majority of teacher Web pages. The memory and speed of the computers were insufficient to run most of the enterprise-wide educational software available over their wide area network (WAN) and local area networks (LANs).

The district had less than $1 million per year available for this project. Leasing was discussed. The amount the district had for support was ongoing, so the question was, could a lease agreement that guaranteed a vendor an ongoing fixed dollar amount for several years also guarantee the district a continuing flow of up-to-date technology equipment?

The district obtained a four-year lease with three vendors, with an agreement at the end of four years to rotate the machines out with a new lease agreement. Additional cost savings included the maintenance agreement — vendor responsibility for all repairs during the lease period.

Thin Client

Districts throughout New York and New Jersey have discovered how to use thin client technology to make old computers new again. During the late 1990s, thin client was dismissed as too slow and too expensive to be useful in most school districts. This perception has changed in business, as in education, with greater network speed via WAN and LAN technologies, and tremendous server cost reductions.

In a thin client environment, workstations do not store programs but rather receive everything from a system of servers (one server for about 20 workstations). When servers were $20,000 each, this was cost prohibitive. Today, servers that can support thin client cost about $3,500, allowing quick communication with workstations and a cost-saving solution.

Total Cost of Ownership

How can policy leaders find the true cost of supporting equipment? The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and the Gartner Group have an online tool that will assist in the estimation of this cost for various levels of technology.

Published in the Fall 2006 issue of Converge [http://www.convergemag.com/story.php?catid=418&storyid=106722]

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Games Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society Sports

How Prospecting Will Lead To Your Home Base Business Success

Prospecting is one of the most important parts of being in network marketing. It is actually the only money making activity in network marketing.

There is an art to prospecting. Many people do not know how to properly prospect and end up spamming by pitching their business opportunity or compensation plan to people.

That is not cool my friend.

It is largely because of not knowing how to prospect like a professional due to a lack of adequate marketing training.

It is really not their fault. As time go by, more and more people enter upon the home base business industry in an attempt to supplement their income.

Maybe it is an individual’s last hope to earn a living because he or she has been laid off due to the global economic crisis or their retirement investment is not enough to sustain a life style that he or she are accustomed to leading.

Whatever the reason is for getting started in the home base business industry, people need training in how to build a profitable home base business and prospecting is the only way to do this.

Some of the stumbling blocks that people may come across are related to lacking in people to talk too as well as what to say to people.

The home base business industry is an industry that is based on relationship building. That is why the majority of people struggle because they are taught to make lists of people whom they know and then pitch their business to them.

If these warm market people do not join them in their opportunity, they are faced with a dilemma of speaking to people that they do not know.

This is where the problem becomes a huge factor and when people need to know how one actually become a master prospector in a professional manor by not spamming people or pitching their business but to rather provide people with value that will attract them to them.

There is not really one single course that you can buy to acquire the knowledge in how to do this. One need ongoing training in a variety of marketing methods to truly become a master prospector.

Prospecting can be done using offline and online marketing strategies.

An example of an offline marketing strategy could be to create a sign that you would place at a busy intersection where it is allowed to do so with the proper permission from the authorities in that area.

The text on the sign is what will determine your success using this strategy.

Write something like: “Need Solution To Extra Income Today? Call ******

There are various call services that you can make use of as an answering service. I would not recommend that you make use of your home number or cell number. Let people call, leave a message and then get back to the people that you feel would be an asset to your business.

You could also have a couple business cards made so that when you speak to a friend in person, you can give them your business card with your contact details and link to your website.

Follow up is the next step.

The recipe for prospecting is to place your business in front of new people on a daily basis. The top producers do this not just on a small scale but in fact use the Internet as a tool to do so by prospecting to thousands of people on a daily basis.

This is largely done using online marketing strategies that include: blogging, social media marketing, article marketing, pay per click, forum marketing etc.

Doing your prospecting this way does entail a bit of research on your part but the end result is very well rewarded with being able to prospect to thousands of people at once.

There is a right and a wrong way to prospect using the Internet and that is why I recommend that you have a mentor that can guide you along the way.

You might also want to become part of an online marketing training platform that will provide you with proper training in how to build your business like the top producers do.

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Games Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society Sports

The Benefits of Home-Based Business

In the past jobs provided people with monthly salary and long-range security but not anymore. Along with the recession, job security has become uncertain and it is getting hard to find one. An alternative is to go into home business, yet most people are skeptical about starting one, being fearful of failure and losses. Many do not have the confidence because of lack of business training and experience. But the challenges to success are not as difficult when you start a home-based business.A lot of people have built very successful home businesses. Most people start out part time and stay part time to supplement their income while others have built their business full time. If you are already working in your own home-based business or just entertaining the idea, be sure to evaluate your options and consider the value of the benefits you will receive.The benefits of home business include:Financial freedom:Your earning potential is directly proportional to your performance, so you do not have to wait for a raise or a promotion. You work harder, and you produce more. You can increase your budget since you know how to make more money to off-set the expenses. Unemployed workers can earn money working from home to defray living expenses while they search for work.Personal freedom:You are your own boss. You can set your own schedule, re-channel the time spent in traffic to and from work every day, work the hours that are most convenient for you, and have time available for family obligations and leisure activities. You have flexible hours to schedule your time according to the needs of your family. Parents can easily attend their children’s school activities and be available for them when they are at home.Minimum investment and risk:Operating from home, a business can be run with minimum investment and exited with minimum obligations and risks. And once your business is up and running, it is cheaper and easier to maintain than a separate business location.Tax benefits:There are a number of tax benefits having your home and office under one roof. Running your own home business can substantially lower your tax burden by allowing various deductions such as, business travel, office expenses, and internet and phone costs.Stress Reduction:Certain stress factors can be avoided when you work at home. You will have no daily commute, and being your own boss can reduce the stress you feel due to constant demands from a boss and co-worker interruptions. You will be able to relax and spend time with your family early in the morning and evening instead of spending it to and from work.No age barrier:A home-based business is open to all ages and walks of life, including students and retirees. Anybody with the required training can start a home business and be successful in it.If you do decide to start your own home business, all you need is training, personal drive, discipline, and time-management skills. And treat your business as business.

Home Based Business Leads – Do You Know Your Target Market?

Knowing where to find home based business leads can be challenging enough, but do you really know your target market?When most people join a network marketing company they are told to write a list of 100 family and friends and go and get them to a business presentation. Speaking from experience most of your family and friends will want nothing to do with such an opportunity.They have heard horror stories about the industry and have been miss informed about the whole network marketing thing. However you go and do as your upline asks and after 100 no’s you begin to feel as though your family were right.The big problem here is that your friends and family are not home based business leads, they are what it says on the tin. Friends and family.You may find one or two within the ranks that are really interested and want to know more. They may even join and make a ton of money. But for the most part you need to find out who your target market really is.Your target market should be other home business owners and here’s why.
They are already sold on the idea.
They don’t need much training. (well hopefully)
They don’t need much motivation from you, they already have that.
They will have a network of other home business owners.
They will have some experience in the industry.
They may even have a training system to plug into.
I’m sure that there are many more reasons but just from the list above you can see why it is much better to work with people who already know what they are doing.I mean why waste your valuable time trying to train and recruit people that in reality don’t want to be trained or recruited. You are much better off looking for people who are trained and have some level of knowledge about the industry.Start mixing with other home business owners, learn from them and apply the successful techniques they are using to build their business. If you surround yourself with success you will find that it will be a little easier to have success yourself.The reason is that you will start to think and act in the same way and manner as these people. They say we are influenced by the people we surround ourselves with, so if you want success then you know what you must do.

Find a Home Based Business For Sale – 5 Top Options to Consider

When seeking to find a home based business for sale there are five major possibilities in the legitimate business category. The challenge is to find the right option for you, your family, your income needs, and your available business capital to invest. Trying to filter through all of the options on the Internet can be overwhelming. First start by narrowing down the category of business you would like to consider.1. Starting a Business on Your OwnIf you have a great idea that you believe will be popular, you can use this idea to find a home based business for sale. However you do want to think through all of the duties required of you when you establish a business from the ground up. You will want to research your city’s ordinances on home business. Also, you will need to consider how you will market your product or service. With the growth of influence that the Internet has acquired, it is necessary that you know a lot about Internet marketing or can hire someone who can handle this for you. There are a myriad of details in setting up a successful business out of your home that will be a wonderful challenge to some and a nightmare to others.2. ConsultingIf you have an expertise in a particular area that is desired in your geographic and professional area, you can consider working from your home as a consultant and find a home based business for sale with a consulting theme. Many consultants will have a home office but most of the actual consulting will be done at the client’s location. This option is a bit less complicated than some of the start-up business options but it will still require a good deal of savvy about business and marketing plans, Internet tools for marketing and a strong ability to network with people you do not know.3. FranchisesThere are some home based franchise options that allow an individual to take advantage of the name recognition and business planning provided by the franchise. Knowledge of both Internet marketing and traditional marketing strategies is required to reach full success. If you have a good amount of capital to invest, then a franchise may be nice option for you. FranNet is an organization that will help individuals identify home based business for sale that go beyond the fast food restaurants we normally think of when we hear “franchise.”4. Multi-level Marketing Companies If you are someone who would enjoy going to multiple weekly company meetings, selling the product to your friends and family, conducting home presentations in the evening, then this may be a good option for you, especially if you do not have a lot of money to invest as you can find a home based business for sale for a small initial investment. Be prepared to think in terms of volume of sales or developing a large team in order to make a decent income.5. Internet Marketing This is one of the truly home based business options because you can do everything with your home computer and phone. Many people pursue Internet marketing without getting an adequate education and end up spending a great deal of money with little return on their investment. You can find a home based business for sale with an Internet twist but make sure the company provides extensive on-going education.When you find a home based business for sale, get a good education on how to build your business using the social media sites and Internet..

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Games Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society Sports

Women’s Home Based Business Training – A Single Mom Solution

Women’s home based business training has never been more needed in the industry. For the work at home crowd, work has never been more fun. With the roller coaster ups and downs of this economy, more and more women are turning to the home based business industry to supplement or even replace their incomes. For many, this is not a choice. Single moms, and other women often search for ways to generate more income from home. The problem comes in having enough time to learn the ropes of working from home with all of the other daily responsibilities of motherhood.Working at home appeals to just about everyone. Who doesn’t fantasize about calling their own shots and setting their own schedule? Who wouldn’t want to tell their boss to go jump in the lake? What could be better than doing all of these from the comfort of your own home? For those who are looking to work part-time, there is no better solution than getting started with online email marketing. Supposedly, all you need is a computer with internet access to get started. While this might be part of the truth, this is not all of the truth. Did you stop to ask more questions? Who will you email? What will you send? How often will you send it? How will you make money? How long will it be before I see a positive return on my investment? All of these questions are answered with the right women’s home based business training.Even though many online email marketing jobs are everywhere, you will still need some basic marketing training to get started. All of the technological advances in online communications and automation have made running a business from home easier than ever. It is the best single mom solution to start earning from home for a number of reasons. First, it can be done in just a few hours a day. Next, there is little to no equipment to buy since you most likely already have a PC. Also, there are many opportunities that you can fit into your schedule. In addition, there are many marketing techniques that you can even get your kids to help out with in their spare time. Finally, all you need is a little basic training to get your women’s home based business off the ground.The next question is on how and where to get the best marketing training. A quick search engine query will give you thousands if not millions of internet training results. Many internet gurus try to lure enthusiastic entrepreneurs into their training programs. However, so many of these so-called leaders don’t even use the methods they teach. Their business model is simply to build a list and market the latest and greatest product, business opportunity or service to their unsuspecting subscribers. It is important to get the right training from a credible source. A good way to know if a leader or mentor is credible is to ask these questions:

Are you willing to show me what you do?
Do you have any results directly related to the technique you are teaching?
How many businesses, programs or products have you promoted in the last year?
How many marketing methods do you use in your business?
Do you provide Question and Answer sessions for your mentees?
Are you willing to back up your training with a money back guarantee?The sincere and honest home based business training experts will be able to answer all of these questions without flinching. Another way to find the home based business training that you need is to ask for referrals. Anyone who is successfully working from home would be a good candidate for a referral or maybe even a mentor. There are opportunities for everyone. Whether you are looking for a home based business opportunity or training to start your own venture, be sure to maximize your skills by fine tuning them with a good home based business training program.

All About Small Business Loans

Besides the myriad of problems that a small business owner faces, the most severe issue is lack of capital and limited avenues to raise capital from external sources. Being a small business owner, it is never easy to get a business loan, as most lenders would consider them as borrowers with unstable income and poor credit. Justifiably, as most small business often do not have a steady flow of income in the initial period and runs on low profit, it actually becomes a challenge for the owners to pay off their business loans. Most financial institutions and banks are therefore not very enthusiastic about lending to these small business owners and are concerned about their ability to repay.However, the good news is that there is a group of lenders who would not like to let go this increasing market segment of small business borrowers and they have devised a lending scheme that fits the requirements of the small business owners. They can use these small business loans for expansion of their business, purchasing new tools and technology or even to meet revenue expenses like paying wages or buying raw materials.Apprehensive about the increased risk involved in lending to small business owners, these lenders would always take sufficient measures to cover against any probably loss. In most cases the small business owners would be required to keep an asset as the security for his borrowed amount. Also, the interest for small business loans is always charged at a higher rate than other loans. Unlike normal business loans there is often a cap to the amount that any financial company would lend to a small business owner. Depending on the stability of the business, the credit history and several other factors the maximum amount of loan offered is decided.Small business loans [http://1rstfunds.com/Small-Business-Loans.php] can be either for short term (ranging from few months to an year) or long term, which can be repaid over a longer period that might stretch even to 20-25 years. The small business entrepreneurs needs to decide on this repayment period and other terms and conditions depending on their specific requirements.The most important factors that most small business owners should consider while deciding on a loan is the flexibility of repayment. As most small business would experience irregular income for some period in its life cycle, a flexible repayment schedule can be immensely helpful. There are lenders that offer extremely flexibility in terms of amount paid towards repayment as well as any pre specified period of repayment. This helps the small business owners to make repayments for any particular period based on their income during that period. As there is no specific pre determined amount to be paid, there is no question of underpayment or further interests being applicable. However, it is very difficult to find such a lender who will be so sensitive to your financial condition and offer you the highest degree of flexibility.Alternative to small business loans there are many other companies that are offering business cash advance to small business owners, where they are not liable to repay. Business cash advance is not a loan and the organization offering this cash advance gets their money from the credit card sales that the business does in a specific period, there by reducing the burden of paying back the loan and the terms and conditions to qualify for such cash advance are also relatively simple.With this increasing number of sources available for small business funding it is high time that you unleash the entrepreneur in you and give shape to that dream project you have in your mind.

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Games Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society Sports

A Home Based Business is Perfect For Financial Growth

The goal in a given state should be to have as many home business opportunities available for people who were previously unemployed as possible. A home based business can really spur economic growth. It can also spur some badly needed creativity in a given area. A lot of given states need a lot of economic development right now. There are a lot of states who need a lot of dollars and economic development in order to get back on their feet.

You can start a business at home in any number of states. All of the states in the union are looking for a way to spark commerce. The best state in the union to start a business in very well may be the state of Virginia. Former Governor and current United States Senator Mark Warner left the business climate in very good shape during his one term as Governor. Warner was very proud of the job he did with economic development during his one term as Governor. A Governor is only allowed to serve one term at a given time as Governor of Virginia.

You want to start your home based business in a state with a very good tax situation. You do not want to start your company in a state that has too high of a tax rate. You do not want to see the profits from your business taxed into oblivion. If you lived in Virginia under Governor Mark Warner, this certainly would not have happened. The state of North Dakota has a very low unemployment rate, certainly in comparison to the rest of the nation. This could partially be because of the very low and reasonable business and corporate tax rates that the state has.

Governor John Hoeven would want you to start your business at home in the state of North Dakota. You can even take the time to start a home business that sells replacement windows in the state of North Dakota. Hoeven tries to make his state as business friendly as he possibly can.

Jennifer Granholm is willing to listen to ideas on how to create more home based businesses in the state of Michigan. Is she willing to give the tax incentives necessary to spur the necessary economic development and creativity it takes to create a business from home? She simply may not be willing to do so

The people of Ohio see the huge amount of unemployment they are suffering through on a statewide basis and the hope is that home based businesses will play a role in alleviating some of this problem. People will have to band together in order to form successful companies.

The public sector employees such as Congressman do not have all of the answers. The private sector is truly the people who have the majority of the answers. This is certainly true when it comes to home based businesses. Dingell and Stupak want to support small businesses.

A home based business can be a great tool for economic development. You need a lot of office supplies in order to properly run a home based business. This means that the retailers can make a lot of money off of the fact that you run a business. It can be good for business to business commerce.

Aerial Advertising Is the Most Innovative and Mass Targeted Method

Aerial Advertising is that particular form of advertising which initializes and incorporates the usage of airships, air crafts or balloons for the purpose of creation, displaying and transportation of advertising media. This media may be of two forms, static and dynamic. Static media deals with the sponsorship branding such as banners, lighted signs or logos. Where as dynamic media deals with audio, sky writing or lighted signage.

This sort of Advertising is most effective if a huge number of audience gathers near the particular source of advertising. Balloons, banners and sky writing are mostly located in a strategically positioned manner; where as, the long-reached vehicles such as the blimps reach the huge audience alongside their particular flight routes. Now the second form of distribution, which includes the communication means, such as the media coverage, photos of advertising and word of mouth have their reach to the extended audience. For safety and privacy reasons, aerial advertising is monitored internationally by both local and federal corporations throughout the world. Some of the common aerial advertising forms are listed below.

Advertisements by blimps employment:

Blimps are mostly the most effective and suitable carriers of the mobile billboards. It is because of their slow and steady speed, their attractive loiter time (which is extremely long) and their fuel costs which are inexpensive, makes them the first choice. Blimps are mostly used in such areas where the air-space is restricted and is limited for fixed-wing air crafts. The current models of blimps in use have sophisticated and sober LED billboards for the enhancement of accurate visibility and exposure.

Advertisement of employing Skywriting:

It is a process in which a small air craft is used; it expels smoke during the flight which makes different patterns or writings on the sky which is readable and easily viewed for those standing at ground. This form of advertising is usually popular amongst insurance companies, movies and television. It is also effective in brand advertisement, certain short messages or greetings such as birthday wishes, marriage proposals etc. It is considered to be the safest form of flying because it is practiced in controlled airspace with smooth air and sky.

Advertisement of employing fixed-wing air crafts:

This form is not commonly used in aerial advertising due to its speed which is very high and its loiter capability also is limited. Thus the security and safety level is not that good. How ever fixed wing air crafts are commonly used in mobile billboards and crop dusters etc. Today some people hold this opinion that aerial advertising is costly and expensive though effective. These advertising services, give their companies the opportunity to target particular customers relying on their geographical location. One of the advantages the proponents of this form of advertisement gives is that they are highly visible and large amount of audience can view it at once. Also when customers see this advertisement, it is very easy for them to recall it time and again. Because the message is displayed in an unusual manner, so the witness tends to remember it easily.

Another factor of using this form is that, it is unique and innovative and it becomes so affective for the business men to market their advertisement in an impressive way so that they stand out amongst others. Publicity and media coverage is very amazing for such unconventional way of advertising. It also helps the brand to become more popular and attractive within days due to the appealing method used. So aerial advertising takes a lot of pride to introduce an attractive and innovative method to advertising.

The Finer Points of Internet Auctions

WHAT IS A PENNY AUCTION?

Penny auctions have exploded in popularity with the massive growth of the internet. However, few people know the true origins of penny auctions.Beginnings actually stretch back to the Great Depression. Those were hard times for everyone, but even harder for farmers. Farmers struggled to bring in steady income because of droughts and crops not selling as well as they had previously. As a result, the banks would foreclose on the farmers who couldn’t keep up with their mortgage payments.

The banks weren’t satisfied with just repossessing the house, they wanted to raise as much capital as possible, so they resorted to selling off the possessions of the owners of the repossessed houses. There was not much the farmers could do about it so they began bidding ridiculously low prices, pennies, on the items while threatening others who dared to bid higher than a few pennies.

The auctions of today hardly resemble their tremulous beginnings. Being part of a penny auction today is exhilarating, fun, and addictive. It combines the selling format of auctioning with a little bit of chance factored in.Auctions are a game of strategy but also a game of luck.

The premise behind penny auctions is giving people the chance to win an item at a drastically reduced price.Auctions make that possible by spreading out the cost of the product among multiple bidders. In order for a person to take part in an auction, they must pay a set price for each bid. For example, if a person wanted to bid on a fifty dollar Amazon gift card then he would spend a dollar for each time a bid placed. If he ended up winning the gift card, then he would only have spent a few dollars for a fifty dollar gift card. Usually penny auctions sell bids in packages.

HOW PENNY AUCTIONS WORK!

The main foundation of penny auctions is the pay-per-bid format. It is the key that allows bidders to win items at the fraction of their retail value and allows the auction owners to keep their site profitable. Most y auction sites run on the same premise: people pay a set amount for each bid, whenever a person places a bid within the closing seconds of the auction time will be added, the last person left with a unique bid after the clocks runs out will win the item. There are a large variety of items that can be won, but they tend to be popular electronics or gift cards to popular stores.

There are two types of auctions: lowest unique bid auction and highest unique bid auction. Lowest unique auction sounds confusing but it is actually quite simple. A unique bid is when only one person has a bid at a certain price. Bids usually start at one penny, a bidder can then place a bid at two pennies. Until another bidder places a higher bid, the most recent bidder will be the lowest unique bid because that was the only bid at two cents and nobody bid higher. However, penny auctions generally don’t stop at one penny. It is not uncommon to find auctions that end up at a couple hundred dollars based on the popularity of the item being auctioned. However, the same principles apply for those auctions. Highest unique bid auctions follow the more traditional auction format such as eBay. The person with the highest bid at the end of the auction wins the item.

Auction site owners turn a profit by selling bids. Say twenty people are bidding on a ten dollar gift card at one dollar per bid, at the end of the auction if there were twenty bids placed in total then the site owner would have made twenty dollars with a ten dollar profit.Auctions do seem like a win-win situation:The site owner makes money while the bidder gets an item for dirt cheap. However, not everyone wins in penny auctions. The people who paid one dollar each bid but left with nothing to show for their investments will not be so happy.

HOW TO WIN!

Penny auction has a lot of chance mixed into it, but one can incorporate strategy that will help raise the chances of winning. Playing smart can make all the difference between gambling and auctioning.

The first crucial tip to winning penny auctions is to know how to manage your bids. Your goal should be to win as much as possible without spending a ton of money buying bids. Managing your bids means that you should already know how much you are willing to risk in order to win an item. The amount of capital you are willing to risk will determine how many bids you can use. Once you know how many bids you have to spend on an item, then you will be better able to manage how and when you place a bid. That will keep you from blowing away all of your bids in the first few seconds of the auction.

The next tip is to practice time management. When fighting in the trenches of penny auctions, you have two enemies: other bidders and time. Knowing when to bid is a must if you want to have success. Placing a bid when there is a lot of time left on the clock is never a good idea. You have to remember that the key to winning a penny auction is being the last one standing when the clock runs out and that each bid increases the amount of time left. It would be a good practice to wait until the last few minutes of the auction before you begin to bid.

The final tip for successful auctioning is to keep your emotions under control.Auctions have a lot of similarities to gambling, and just like gambling, your spending can get out of control. If you keep your emotions level, it will keep you from making rash decisions and blowing loads of cash. Keep your mind clear so that you can gage the behavior of the other bidders and outsmart them.

HOW TO AVOID SCAM SITES!

Penny auctions are a great addition to the web whether you want to win an item that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford or if you simply enjoy the thrill that comes with bidding in auctions. Unfortunately, scam sites have tarnished the reputation of the legitimate penny auction sites. However, there are ways that you can protect yourself from scamers and enjoy your auctioning without having to worry about losing your money due to dishonesty.

Checking the reputation of the auction site before you start spending your hard earned money is always a good idea. Chances are other people have tried the site before you and some of them have left reviews. The reviews are your way to gage whether a auction site is trustworthy or not. If a site is getting overwhelmingly negative reviews, then that is a clear indication that you should steer your business elsewhere.

Another tool you can use to protect yourself is checking the Alexia ranks of the auction sites. Alexia rank will give a solid view of how much traffic the auction is getting. If you see a huge difference in the amount of traffic Alexia is projecting and the amount of active bidders on the site, then warning signals should be ringing in your head. Some auction sites have been known to set up robots that automatically bid on projects in order to keep the auction going and inflate the price. That is known as shill bidding. You can sniff out those sites by comparing the traffic the site should be getting to the amount of users using this site.

CONCLUSION!

New legislation may come out later down the road that will officially make penny auctions gambling, but until then, it is a fun, exciting auction that allows one to win the item they’ve always wanted but couldn’t afford.Auctions are also quite lucrative for the site owners because of the pay-per-bid strategy they’ve incorporated. Penny auctions had humble beginnings with farmers who just wanted to get back at the banks who kicked them out of their house. More recently, auctions have enjoyed an explosion in popularity with the rise of the internet.

There are two main formats fora auctions, lowest and highest unique auction, however they both run on the same premise where the last unique bid wins the item. Winning a penny auction will require a certain amount of mental tactic and a bit of luck. However, you can increase your odds of winning by practicing certain techniques such as managing your bids wisely, learning how to work with the time, and keeping a level head and your emotions under control. When you combine those three strategies to your bidding plan, you will find that you win a lot more often.

It is important that you do your due diligence to protect yourself when participating in auctions. Not every auction is run by honest and trustworthy people. There are people out there who just want to take your money. You can protect yourself by ensuring that you only bid on sites that already have a very positive reputation from real users.

Tags: Animals Arts Business Computers Education Finance Health Home Internet Marketing & Advertising Online Recreation & Entertainment Shopping Society

« Older Entries