Werry's in Middle Smithfield, Studebakers in Bartonsville change hands

Two Pocono icons changed hands within hours of each other Thursday.Studebakers Restaurant, the popular, throwback eatery on Route 611 in Bartonsville, sold to Tommy and Christy Lin. The restaurant’s new owners also own Ichiban Oriental Restaurant, near the East Stroudsburg Kmart, and Ichiban Hibachi Steakhouse in the Bartonsville Plaza.Studebakers may be best known to passing motorists for its vintage Studebaker on display in front of the building.For 16 years, [...]

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Annual report shows higher revenue in 2014-15

The Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau at its annual Report Luncheon for the 2014-15 fiscal year at Camelback Lodge on Oct. 22 reported total revenue of $7,108,534, an increase over the past fiscal year, generated by approximately 25.6 million visitors during the year.“This year had its ups and downs. As a region, we faced the unthinkable last fall. But, I saw the Pocono Mountains come together as a community in a way I have never have,” said PMVB President and CEO Carl [...]

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Businesses can pursue low-cost business loans

NEPA Alliance has several federal and state loan programs available for small businesses in Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Schuylkill and Wayne counties. These low cost loans offer lower down payments and standard loan term maturities for machinery and equipment, land and building acquisition, construction and renovation.To learn more about NEPA and its loan programs, contact Dave Nat or Paul Macknosky at 570-655-5581 or 866-758-1929. Eligible [...]

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Pet shop owner's customer care grows new business

Country Critters recently celebrated one year since opening with a grand birthday bash at the Dingmans Ferry pet store and a major expansion.Visitors to the store on Sept. 26 enjoyed balloon animals, free popcorn and cotton candy, and even free gold fish to every child whose parent said “okay.” “We expanded the store three months ago -- literally knocked down a wall and doubled our space,” said Jason Ganly, store owner, who also gave away free [...]

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Eight Romantic, Affordable Honeymoon Destinations

The average couple in the United States spends $3,400 on their honeymoon, according to Conde Nast Bridal InfoBank. This post-wedding getaway is supposed to be a time for the bride and groom to relax and enjoy each other’s company alone after all the hustle and bustle and stress of the wedding. However, if you pay more for your honeymoon than you can afford, it can cause some financial stress of its own after you get home — and no one wants to start off their brand-new marriage under financial duress!

So if you’re looking for some affordable honeymoon trips to begin your marriage on the right financial foot, check out the amazing destinations we’ve gathered for you below. Each is romantic in its own way and, best of all, you can enjoy most of them while spending only half as much as the average American newlyweds, depending on where you live and how far you have to travel.

Before we share these top locations though, here are some tips to help you get started with planning your honeymoon from a financial perspective:

Tips for Selecting an Affordable Honeymoon Destination

Set a budget: This is the most important step when planning your honeymoon. It’s amazing to dream about an amazing Mediterranean cruise through Italy and Greece, but if you want to keep your spending under $2,500, that type of honeymoon would definitely break your budget.

Itemize your budget: A budget shouldn’t just be a number. You should really sit down and itemize it. For example, calculate how much you want to spend on flights, the hotel, food, activities and excursions, and even souvenirs. All of this will give you a clearer idea of what kind of destination you can afford.

Even better, choose a place that is all-inclusive. That’s what I did for my honeymoon: Since I write about budgeting for a living, I didn’t want to be stressed with small purchasing decisions — like if I wanted an extra glass of wine at dinner. (Spoiler alert: I always got the extra glass!)

Go non-traditional: It sounds great to lay on a Caribbean beach with a little umbrella drink in your hand, but there are many places to see right here in the U.S. that might offer more adventure, culture, or sightseeing that’s off the beaten path. You can go hiking, camping, see the national parks, or couch-surf your way across the country. I know that doesn’t sound romantic — but for the right couple, it would be downright memorable and fun. This is your time as a newly married couple, and no one else’s — so don’t be afraid to spend it the way you want to.

It’s for relaxing: One thing to remember about honeymoons is that they are for relaxing! I find that many people try to cram as much as possible into their honeymoons, setting up tours and wine tastings and excursions all day long. This type of trip is absolutely awesome when you’re a couple or a family and you want to see the world — but trust me, after months of planning a wedding, it really is best to relax. Find a place where you and your new spouse can sleep in without feeling guilty that you’re missing out. You can always go on another vacation in the future, so use this one as a chance to enjoy the quiet after the wedding.

Affordable Honeymoon Destinations

Option No. 1: Charleston, S.C.

Travel & Leisure readers voted charming Charleston, S.C., the best city for a romantic getaway.  Photo: John Hoey

Price: From $220/night

This Southern Belle of a city is known for its romantic charm — Travel and Leisure readers ranked it the Best City for a Romantic Escape in 2015.

And the Vendue Hotel here is a great spot for a honeymoon. The small boutique hotel is within walking distance to much of what charming Charleston has to offer, and the concierge can help you book dinner reservations and offer you advice on what to see and do. Renowned for its incredible customer service, the staff puts a little extra Southern hospitality into all their interactions with guests, and it shows.

At $220/night, it’s far less than many of the top hotels in Charleston, leaving room in your budget to stay for a few nights, eat out, and travel for less than $1,700 total, depending on where you’re traveling from.

Option No. 2: Quebec City, Canada

Admit it: You thought it was Europe, didn’t you? Photo: Artur Staszewski

Price: From $133/night CAD

If your dreams of Paris or Prague have proven too pricey, Canada’s Quebec City might sate your international itch — after all, the locals speak French and you need a passport to get there. With stunning old-world architecture, fantastic restaurants, and a compact city center perfect for strolling, Quebec is a beautiful and romantic walled city to explore.

What’s more, you’ll get more for your dollar here — literally. With the U.S. currency as strong as it’s been in years, prices here are at a steep discount versus a year or two ago.

There are plenty of affordable hotels, B&Bs, and Airbnb options in Quebec, but if you want to splurge, try staying at the Chateau Frontenac – the city’s most iconic building and a fixture of the skyline.

Option No. 3: Treehouse ‘Glamping’ in the Santa Cruz Mountains

Price: From $138/night

“Glamping” — glamorous camping — is an emerging trend. Basically, it’s luxury camping — not nearly as rugged as pitching a tent in the great outdoors and sleeping on the ground. And while we love regular old camping around here, your once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon might be just the time to “glam” it up a bit.

Many areas offer glamping, from the Adirondacks to the Rockies, but I couldn’t help but fall in love with this treehouse that you can rent in the Santa Cruz Mountains outside Monterey Bay, Calif. It has everything you need for a cozy and romantic getaway — and I mean really away, like up in the trees. And at $138/night, you can afford to stay for a few days!

Option No. 4: New Orleans

Price: From $103/night

New Orleans hotels can be quite pricey, especially in or near the French Quarter. However, the city has plenty of cheap and unique Airbnb vacation rental options, and you can find some surprisingly affordable New Orleans guest houses.

One French Quarter guest house that would be perfect for a honeymoon is the Inn on St. Peter. If you’re into five-star luxury, this isn’t the accommodation for you. However, if you want to be just far enough from the hustle and bustle of Bourbon Street to sleep, but close enough to walk to everything each day (and maybe stumble home at night), this is a great choice for you.

New Orleans has untold amazing restaurants, jazz clubs, and tourist attractions, but there are also many bargains to be had when it comes to fun and food. Best of all, there’s always free entertainment to be had in the French Quarter: Music follows you wherever you go. A few days in the Crescent City, and your marriage will definitely be off to the right start.

Option No. 5: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Price: From $175/night

Most people get married in the summer, but plenty more tie the knot in the off-season. If you exchange vows in winter or spring, you might be longing for a relaxing beach vacation, complete with Caribbean sunshine, lapping waves, and tasty rum drinks.

The good news is, you don’t have to break the bank to enjoy a Caribbean getaway. Travel sites such as TravelZoo, Priceline, and Expedia routinely often offer discounted deals on vacation packages to plenty of popular destinations.

Right now, TravelZoo is advertising a rate of $175/night at the luxurious Candado Vanderbilt hotel in San Juan – the No. 1-rated hotel in Puerto Rico by TripAdvisor users. With flights to Puerto Rico both frequent and fairly affordable from most U.S. airports, this is one Caribbean dream honeymoon within reach, even on a budget. Just watch out for hurricane season in late summer and fall.

Option No. 6: Colonial Williamsburg

Price: From $225/night

Many people visit Virginia’s historic Colonial Williamsburg each year, but they probably don’t realize that you can actually stay in one of the historic homes inside of Colonial Williamsburg. This would give you an unparalleled location to access many different sights and restaurants by foot, saving you money on a car rental.

Either way, for anyone who finds beauty and romance in history, a stay in Williamsburg is perfect for a quiet weekend stay where you can cozy up with your new husband or wife in a historic home, stroll down the cobblestone streets hand in hand, and enjoy some award-winning food. It’s truly an experience unlike anything else.

Option No. 7: Cape May, N.J.

Photo: Alan Kotok

Price: From $109/night

Cape May, N.J., is a wonderful place to visit any time of year. In fact, visiting in non-summer months is the perfect way to cut down on your honeymoon costs. Cape May is known for its beachside location, its many historic homes, and its quiet charm.

The Carroll Villa Hotel has had many positive reviews over the past few months. It’s a lovely bed and breakfast with an in-house restaurant and it’s within walking distance to the beach. This is a great way to visit the northeast part of the country without spending the money it would take to visit New York City. New Jersey is often overlooked but, as a recent transplant here myself, I can assure you there is much more beauty here than you can imagine!

Option No. 8: Road Trip

 

Price: Varies

The whole point of a honeymoon is to spend some time away from it all with your new spouse — and nothing quite says “I love you” like riding shotgun with the one you love on a care-free joyride. If you can’t decide on a honeymoon destination, why not go on a road trip?

You can plan out your route ahead of time or just go where the road takes you. Block out a set number of days and hit the road. You should have a budget in mind for gas and lodging, but in general a road trip might be a great way to spend quality time together, explore the country, and save money in the process.

Other Ways to Save on Your Honeymoon

• Register for it: There’s a website called Honeyfund that operates as a registry for honeymoons. Essentially, you can create your dream honeymoon complete with dinners out and airfare, and your wedding guests can pay for different parts of your honeymoon for you. This is especially great for couples who already live together, who might already have traditional wedding gifts like a blender or silverware. Create your dream honeymoon here and have your family and friends chip in to make it happen.
• Take a weekend trip: People seem to think honeymoons have to be large, extensive affairs that span two weeks. However, a quick night or two in a beautiful hotel near you is also really special. If you can’t afford a big trip, know that it’s completely fine to do something quick and close by. No one says you have to regale your children with tales of your exotic beach vacation. As long as you’re with your spouse and enjoying time together away from everything and everyone else, then it should be a wonderful honeymoon.
• Postpone it: After a wedding, many people can’t immediately take more vacation days in addition to the ones they already used for their wedding, so they postpone their honeymoon. This is a great way to settle into married life and save for a future honeymoon. In fact, it can be a fun goal you work on together with your spouse. Try not to postpone it more than a year after your wedding, though, as life tends to intervene and you want to make sure it does actually happen!

A Final Note

Like many aspects of planning their lives together, people tend to really go overboard when it comes to paying for a honeymoon. However, the whole point of a honeymoon is to give a newly married couple some time together to enjoy the very beginning of their married life.

In order to do this, you don’t have to spend a lot of money. Sure, anyone would love a lavish trip around the world, but what’s really important is that you spend the time with the person you love most. If that’s your main goal (and it should be), then you definitely can travel to some amazing places, have a memorable time, and not break the bank in the process.

Where did you travel on your honeymoon? Was it memorable and affordable?

Related Articles:

• 20 Tips for a Frugal (Not Cheap) Wedding
• Where to Find Affordable Wedding Invitations
• Tips for Finding Affordable Engagement Rings
• Tips for Finding Affordable Wedding Rings
• Check Out These Beautiful, Affordable Wedding Venues

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When Financial Improvement Is Just a Phase

Sarah and I hit our financial bottom almost a decade ago. We made some hard choices, started turning things around, and those changes are still going strong in our lives.

We’re still saving a large portion of our income – around half of it each year since 2012. We’re still debt free. We have no interest in changing our direction, either. We’re happy with our day-to-day lives (at least in terms of our spending… sometimes simultaneously being a parent, a working professional, and an active person in the community adds up to some stresses).

At the same time, I’m not unaware that many life changes are just phases for people. Sometimes, people try on a life change for a while only to find that it’s not right for them, like a period when they exercise vigorously and then slowly stop doing it. Other people use it to achieve a much shorter-term goal, like someone who diets like crazy for two months to hit a certain weight.

Financial improvement can be much like that. Maybe your financial goal is a short term one. Maybe you’re wired to dive deep into something for a while and then move on to something else that excites you.

Do these things sound familiar? Perhaps you turned to financial improvement when you nearly lost your car or your apartment and you’re trying to push through some changes so that repossession is far away. Perhaps you’re trying to figure out a plan to make it possible to buy a house. Perhaps you’re just really excited about financial changes right now, but you’re self-aware enough to recognize that it could just be a phase.

Whatever the case, there’s a good chance that the financial improvement you believe in so strongly right now is just a phase, one that you will grow bored with in a year or two and move on to something else.

And that’s okay.

The fear that many people have of that change, however, is a sensible one. They’re afraid of just losing all of the progress they’ve made. It’s a fear not too different than someone who has seen great progress on a diet. They’re afraid that when the time comes and they stop being so strict, they’re going to lose their progress and revert back to their previous state, one that they were unhappy with.

The same thing is likely true for many people who hit financial bottom and work hard for a turnaround. Once you stop being so strict on yourself, there is undoubtedly the potential to find yourself right back in that situation again, and that’s a miserable place to be. Not only are you in that financial hole again, but now you’re older, with fewer years between then and retirement with which to dig out again.

What kinds of things can a person do now to ensure that at least some of the positive benefits of the path to financial independence remain when the fire goes away and the focus in your life moves onto something else? Here are six key things you can start implementing now that are going to be incredibly easy to maintain (or very hard to get rid of) once your passions move in a different direction.

Automation, Automation, Automation

Many of the best financial moves you can make are ones that are handled automatically. Once you set them up, money just transfers from account to account without you having to lift a finger. It just happens and the money is safely saved.

Having those kinds of automatic contributions in place is a great way to protect yourself against changing life interests. It requires effort to undo an automatic plan, and when you’re thinking about doing so, you’ll likely retain enough knowledge about smart financial choices and the positive life impact that they can have that you won’t bother undoing that automatic transfer.

Here are several potential ways you can do this.

Set up an automatic contribution to your 401(k) plan at work. Sign up for your 401(k) plan, then set up a healthy contribution right out of your paycheck. Make sure you’re contributing enough to grab your full employer match, then just forget about the whole thing for a long while.

Set up an automatic contribution to your own Roth IRA. If you’d rather control the plan yourself, set up a Roth IRA with an investment house (I use Vanguard). It’s really easy – quite similar to opening a savings account – and once the automatic contribution is in place, it just grows quietly and steadily, pushing you toward a secure retirement.

Set up an automatic savings plan to constantly refill your emergency fund. Ask your bank to transfer a small amount from your checking account to your savings account each week so that you have an emergency fund in place for unexpected events.

Set up automatic contributions to 529 plans for your children. If you have children, it’s not a bad idea to set up a college savings plan for them. Just automatically contribute a small amount each month to that plan and they’ll have some cash in hand when it comes time for college.

Set up automatic savings for any life goals that you may have. Are you saving for a down payment? A replacement car? A move across the country? Whatever your relatively short term goal is, you can automate the savings for that, too. You may find it easier to open an online savings account for this at a bank like Ally, but once you’ve done that, you can easily automate the savings.

Set up automatic investments into a taxable account for early retirement or career switching. Maybe you just want to invest using a taxable account for a goal ten or fifteen years down the road, like switching careers or opening a small business. In that case, open up a taxable investing account (I use Vanguard, again, and it’s not much harder than opening a savings account) and contribute automatically to it.

Focus on Better Daily Routines

Human beings are creatures of habit. I’ve found that time and time again, when I firmly establish a routine that doesn’t require a lot of extra time in my life and is just a better replacement for an older routine, I tend to stick with that new routine for good. If I start shopping at a new store and reach a point where I know where the items I regularly buy are at, for instance, I’ll just stick with that store unless there’s a good reason to switch again.

Use this period when your passion for financial improvement is high to find these kinds of patterns in your life and substitute more financially responsible ones. Do these new things over and over and over until they feel normal to you, in which case they are your new normal and it will take effort to change.

Here are a few such routines that you can implement.

Make the discount grocery store your default grocery store. Start shopping at the low-cost grocery store in your area where you can be sure the prices are pretty low. Shop there every time until you’re familiar with the store and where to find all of your usual items. Once you’ve done that, the store will be your default place to shop and you’ll save money each time you shop there.

Have a cheap morning routine. If you stop every morning for coffee, figure out how to make an approximation of that yourself and save $3 or $4. Once you have a good routine, it’ll actually be quicker just to make it yourself at home before you leave and you’ll save a few bucks a day.

Make taking a container of leftovers completely normal. Make it your goal to take a leftover container to work each and every day. Do it for a month or two. Most days, it’ll contain leftovers; some days, it might be a sandwich or something you made yourself. Soon, the routine of just eating at your desk or in the break room will be normal to you and going out to eat will feel like a big waste of time and money.

Invest in Things That Keep Costs Low

There are many, many things you can invest time and money in right now that will consistently save you money down the road without any additional investment of time. These things are one-shot improvements that reduce your ongoing energy costs, fuel costs, and other expenses.

The best time to take on these kinds of improvements is now, when you’re really excited about financial change. Later on, these moves might not seem as compelling, but if you do them now, you’ll simply be able to enjoy the savings both now and then.

Here are four of my favorite changes along those lines.

Install LED light bulbs everywhere. LED light bulbs are more expensive up front, but they last twenty times as long as normal incandescent bulbs (and about ten times as long as CFLs) and use about 20% as much energy. Over their lifespan, LEDs will save you at least $100 over incandescents in the form of reduced energy costs and the lack of a need for replacements. At our house, we have replaced almost every bulb with an LED, keeping the incandescents around only as emergency backups.

Caulk your windows. Applying caulk around the edges of your windows reduces the amount of air flow that can occur, keeping warm air inside in the winter and keeping it out in the summer. Both of those things can reduce the cost of your energy bill.

Install door sweeps. Similarly, door sweeps reduce the air flow along the bottom of doorways, keeping the warm air in during the winter and the warm air out during the summer which, again, will save on your energy bill.

Get a lower-cost cell phone. Look into low-cost providers like Ting and see if you can find a great plan that works for your needs at a lower cost than the cell provider that you currently use. There may be some costs involved in switching, but you’ll recoup those costs pretty quickly with the lower monthly bills.

Explore Low Cost and Zero Cost Interests

All of us have hobbies and interests, but many of those things come with real expenses. If you engage in an expensive hobby like shopping for clothes or golfing, you’re essentially signing up for a constant drain on your finances.

Instead, use this time to explore some new interests in your life, ones that don’t require a constant influx of money.

When I went through this period, I rediscovered my passion for reading rather than collecting books. I started hitting the library on a weekly basis, checking out books of all kinds and just devouring them in my spare time. That time came mostly from hobbies like video games and trading card games, both of which were quite expensive.

If you’d like to dabble in some low cost activities, here are some good places to start.

Your local library Not only is the library a treasure trove of books, movies, CDs, and audiobooks, it’s often the meeting point of a lot of special interest groups. Check out the bulletin boards and the pamphlet section of your local library for more information.

Meetup Meetup is a great place to find out about groups in your area that meet up to discuss, share ideas, and participate in all kinds of different things. Go there, browse everything within a 25 or 50 mile radius of your home, and check out some of the more interesting events.

State and national parks Not only do nearby state and national parks offer an infinite array of things to visit, they also usually offer a number of programs that can channel one’s interest in the outdoors. You can also check out your city’s local parks and recreation programs.

Build New Friendships

One of the best parts about getting involved in new interests is that you tend to meet new people and, inevitably, if you keep doing those things, some of those new people will develop into new friends. Involving yourself in an activity makes this process easy because you’re already committing together to something that you both have an interest in, so you already have something in common and something to talk about as a starting point.

For some people – and I’ll include myself in this – this kind of social interaction is easier said than done. Introverts like myself tend to build a handful of strong friendships and just stick with those relationships.

However, it’s often the friendships that you have that are causing you to spend more than you should. If you have friends that are into expensive hobbies or have expensive tastes, they’re often taking you along for the ride and causing you to spend, too.

As Jim Rohn puts it, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

If you can build some strong new friendships, you’ll find that their frugal perspectives will help keep you in a more frugal mindset as well, even after the newness of your financial journey wears off.

Here are some strategies for building new friendships that have a more frugal bent to them.

Engage in something related to your shared interest outside the group. I’m involved in a couple of board game clubs in the area, but I’ve started playing games with some of the members that I’ve clicked with in other contexts. We’ve met for lunch for quick card games and had events at people’s houses where we play games that would have less interest to a large group.

Host dinner parties. Invite a few people to your house and make a low-cost dinner for them. Sit around together, enjoy the meal, have some great conversation, and maybe do something simple like play a card or a board game. Not only does this make for a fun evening, it’s a great opportunity to get to know someone better and to really start building a friendship with them.

Suggest outdoor activities that don’t involve a fee. Anything that’s appropriate will do, whether it’s simply going on a hike in a park, getting your children together at a playground, playing a game of soccer or ultimate frisbee, or simply having a picnic. As long as there is no up-front fee for participation, it’s going to be a fun social way to spend time.

Keep One Question in Mind, Always

Train yourself to keep one question in mind whenever you’re even considering spending money. Whenever you’re about to open your wallet, ask yourself this:

What do I value out of this thing I’m about to buy/do, and is there a cheaper way of getting the same or a very similar value?

Quite often, the first part of that question will stump you. What exactly are you getting out of this purchase? Why are you even considering spending your money in this way?

There are many reasons why we buy and when we allow ourselves to stop and look at those reasons, many of those reasons seem utterly nonsensical and foolish. Are we really attracted by the packaging? Are we really buying this item because our friends are buying something? Are we doing this out of some sort of weird guilt that makes no sense?

The worst one is when you’re buying an item because you think it will trigger some change in who you are. There is no purchase on earth that will do that. Only you can change who you are.

The second part of the question often catches you in situations where you’re overspending on something. Is there a way to get what you want out of this item without spending as much? If so, why aren’t you tackling that avenue?

This second part often comes as an encouragement to shop around on all of your purchases. The truth is that very few purchases are both important enough and urgent enough that you must buy them right now. Almost all purchases can wait for a while, and when you wait for a while, you give yourself a chance to shop around for a better price.

Another advantage to waiting around for a while is that you get an opportunity to figure out if this is a purchase you really need to make. Is this an item that will actually provide a real benefit in your life? Or is it just something you wanted in the whim of that moment?

Ask that question constantly. Keep going at it until that question naturally pops into your heart every time you make a purchase, even every time you pick up an item in the grocery store. When it’s natural and you actually listen to that question naturally, you have a tool that will serve you no matter where your path goes.

Final Thoughts

The full path to financial independence isn’t a path that everyone will follow. For some people, those initial steps – the ones that fix the immediate problem – are going to be enough to fulfill their needs. For others, financial independence will seem like an exciting path at first, but the excitement will wane over time.

Regardless of where you are on your path, the tools described above will help you out. They’ll set you up for continued success even when the excitement of financial progress starts to wane and your life focus moves elsewhere.

After all, just because your passions move in a different direction doesn’t mean you can’t continue down a positive financial path. Just because other things are now in your heart and mind doesn’t mean you can’t spend less than you earn and save for the future.

Good luck!

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Your Rent’s Probably About to Go Up. Here Are 5 Ways to Pay Less

For many Americans, the first of the month means one thing: Rent is due.

If you already feel like you pay your landlord too much, we come bearing bad news: A recent report states it might get worse.

“The number of U.S. households that spend at least half their income on rent… could increase 25% to 14.8 million over the next decade,” Bloomberg reports.

Eek. Spending half your income on rent is a scary prospect because it leaves little room for other necessities — like saving for retirement, emergencies and college.

How to Combat Rising Rent Prices

If you’ve found yourself paying more and more for rent over the past few years, now’s the time to start making changes.

Here are five options to consider.

1. Make a Move

A guaranteed way to save money on rent? Moving to a cheaper city or state.

Try one of these affordable small towns, cities for working parents or cities for singles. And check out these cities that will actually pay you to live there.

2. Find Roommates

Want to stay in your neighborhood, but still cut costs? Get a roommate — or three.

Not only can you get more space for less money, you’ll also have people with whom you can share the cost of utilities, furniture and maybe even food.

3. Buy a House

You may think you can’t afford a house, but in some cases, owning can actually be cheaper than renting. (Here are the 10 hottest zip codes for first-time home buyers.)

To help mitigate the costs, you could become a landlord yourself by purchasing a duplex or renting out rooms in your new home.

4. Barter With Your Landlord

What skills do you have that your landlord might need? Maybe you could build a website that showcases all of her available properties or paint the exterior of the building.

Think about what you have to offer, then barter with your landlord for a lower monthly rent.

5. Rent Out Your Space on Airbnb

Using a site like Airbnb, you can rent anything from a couch to an entire house.

It’s important to tread carefully, though; many leases don’t allow for subleasing, and you could face eviction if your landlord finds out. We’d recommend discussing it upfront (and perhaps splitting the profits) rather than trying to go behind his back.

Don’t let rent ruin your budget. If you’re willing to make a few sacrifices or changes, you’ll discover ways you can pay your rent and still have a life.

Your Turn: Do you pay a boatload for rent? How does it affect your finances?

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

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Coles and Woolies’ great big wine con

YOU might feel hip bringing your bottle of tempranillo to quaff at dinner tonight. But there’s a good chance you’ve been fooled by Coles or Woolies.

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The new Aussie liquid goldmine

WHAT is it about Australians and juice? The craze for fruit-and-vegetable concoctions seems to know no end, and our entrepreneurial minds are cashing in.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1LHGTCq

Macca’s backlash over ‘ghetto’ store

BURGER-LOVERS are not lovin’ a McDonald’s that underwent a trashy makeover — that makes it look vandalised. The “ghetto” design leaves a bad taste in their mouths.

Source NEWS.com.au | Business http://ift.tt/1jY3IZF

Budgeting Software Showdown: Alternatives to Mint.com

Since its founding in 2006, Mint.com has grown from a small financial startup into a formidable personal finance tool with more than 15 million users. Acquired by Intuit in 2009, Mint has become the budgeting go-to for tech-savvy consumers who want a convenient place to manage their money on the go. You can use Mint via its website or apps made for iOS and Android devices.

Despite its massive following, however, Mint has some drawbacks. We’ll take a closer look at them in this article, and recommend a few alternatives in case your love affair with the site has cooled, or you simply want a service with a slightly different approach.

A Quick Overview of Mint.com

What can you do on Mint? If you’re unfamiliar with the site, here’s an overview of the main features:

• Stay on top of your budget: Mint lets you see where your money is going with a quick glance. Once you know your spending patterns, you can set up a budget to help you meet your goals, dialing back spending in one area to save in another.
• Free credit score: Your credit score can have a huge impact on your financial freedom, so it’s important to know where you stand. (Note, however, that the score you’ll get from Mint is not your FICO score, which is based on your credit reports from all three credit bureaus and is the one most lenders check. Mint’s score uses information from Equifax only.)
• Custom alerts: Mint can tip you off if you’re overspending, wasting too much money on ATM fees, or approaching an important bill due date. It can also let you know if there’s an unusual transaction that could be fraudulent.
• Pay bills: With Mint Bills, you can pay whomever you owe with a couple of clicks by hooking up a bank account or credit card.
• Track investments: Wherever you’ve stashed your money — 401(k)s, IRAs, mutual funds, brokerage accounts — you can see how it’s performing compared to market benchmarks. You can also keep an eye on fees and get advice on asset allocation.
• Track your net worth: Mint integrates all of your assets and debts to keep a running tally of your net worth — one of the best gauges of your overall financial progress. If you’re a homeowner, it will even factor in your home’s estimated value (via real estate website Zillow) and remaining mortgage debt.

How Mint.com Makes Money

It’s free to sign up for an account on Mint.com, and unlike many other competitors, there are no premium accounts that require a fee for you to unlock more features. Mainly, the site makes money when you sign up for some of the sponsored services it recommends, such as checking accounts, brokers, or credit cards. When you use these services, Mint.com gets a referral fee for being the middleman.

According to Investor Junkie, Mint.com has also recently started running banner ads, which are typically pay-per-click. The site also sells its deep pools of financial data to different providers, but it’s important to note that this information doesn’t contain users’ personal information — it is aggregate information about users’ financial habits on the whole.

Downsides of Mint.com

For a free service, Mint is fairly robust. But it’s aging — not gracefully, many say — and has some drawbacks that have sent some users searching for an alternative:

• Categorizing transactions can be clunky: Mint automatically funnels your transactions into categories such as entertainment, transportation, and food and dining. Unfortunately, the process is far from seamless and users say they often have to change where their transactions end up manually.
• Data synchronization hiccups: Many Mint users, including some here at The Simple Dollar, have had trouble keeping their various bank accounts synced with the service, sometimes experiencing lags of up to a week.
• Ads and suggested services: As we discussed above, this is how Mint keeps its services free. But some users complain that all the advice they receive on Mint is tied to a sponsored service.
• Weak investment feature: If you’ve invested any amount of money, you may be underwhelmed at Mint’s investments feature. Though you can see where your money is, you can’t do much with it since there is no way to manage asset allocation.
• Reporting isn’t that great: You can’t generate any reports or financial statements via Mint. The only functionality in this area is the ability to export transactions using a CSV file that you can open in Excel.
• Weak customer service: With a free product, customer service is typically one of the first areas to suffer, and several reviewers say Mint needs improvement here. If you need help, you can browse a community forum or fill out a Web form for a personalized response, which Mint says should come within 24 hours. There is also a chat feature. However, there is no phone support for immediate answers.
• Security fears: Mint.com touts its triple-layer security, which includes bank-grade 128-bit SSL data encryption and a mobile PIN. But the fact remains that when all of your financial data is laid bare and synched with the institutions themselves in one place, a cyber breach could be very damaging. You could also be liable for any losses, depending on whether your financial institutions prohibit you from sharing your account information with third-party sites.
• Lacks running register: Without a running register, you really don’t know exactly how much money you have at any given moment, since transactions take time to clear.

Alternatives to Mint.com

One of Mint’s longtime alternatives is Quicken, but its future is currently up in the air. Intuit announced in August that it would try to find a buyer for the well-known desktop-based personal finance software, once the bedrock of Intuit’s business. Mint, owned by Intuit, is well-positioned to snap up some of Quicken’s users, but it’s not as fully featured and (like most alternatives) doesn’t allow users to import Quicken data.

Fortunately, whether you’re jumping ship from Quicken or simply want a different feature set than Mint offers, there are a lot of alternatives. Here are three of the best:

CountAbout

CountAbout set out to specifically address some of the shortfalls of services such as Mint.com. For instance, it offers a running register balance, and it’s one of the few services that lets you import data from Quicken.

It uses a paid-subscription business model, so you won’t see any ads or be pitched any services. In addition, CountAbout pledges not to sell your data to anyone, and stores only your email address on its servers.

“CountAbout can import users’ historical Quicken data, so users can pick up with CountAbout where they left off with Quicken,” says Joseph M. Carpenter, CountAbout co-founder. “Additionally, since we are using Intuit (makers of Quicken and Mint) to connect our users to their financial institutions, any account that you can connect in Quicken or Mint can be connected in CountAbout.”

Here’s a sampling of CountAbout’s features:

• Track detailed budgeting and expenses
• Automatically download transactions
• Customize your spending and saving categories, searches, and reports
• Know exactly what you have with running register balances
• Easily import Quicken data
• No advertising, hidden fees, or forced upgrade charges

A basic CountAbout account will set you back $9.99 a year, while a premium version costs $29.99 a year. The difference between the two: With a basic account, you won’t get automatic downloading of banking, credit card, and other transaction information that you will with a premium account.

If you’re commitment-shy, you can try out a premium CountAbout account for free for 15 days. You can access CountAbout via its website or apps made for iOS and Android devices.

You Need a Budget

Like CountAbout, You Need a Budget (commonly known as YNAB) won’t pitch you products or show you ads. And because you don’t directly connect YNAB with your bank, security worries aren’t quite as apocalyptic.

However, the major difference between YNAB and Mint.com is YNAB’s more proactive focus on teaching users about how to better manage their money.

YNAB requires you to be a more active user than Mint, uploading transactions yourself. It uses a four-rule method to help you meet your financial goals, whether that’s digging yourself out of debt, living more within your means, or saving up for future expenses.

To that end, YNAB also offers up to three free webinars every day. Topics include a more detailed introduction to YNAB, budgeting, smart credit-card use, and adapting to your pay cycle.

Here’s a sampling of YNAB’s features:

• Automatically sync your account on all devices wherever there’s an Internet connection
• Reconciliation wizard lets you reconcile accounts so YNAB and bank balances match up
• Schedule repeating transactions such as paychecks and bills
• Easily split transactions into more than one category
• Generate reports on spending by category or payee; income versus expenses; and net worth

YNAB is a bit pricey at $60, but it’s a one-time purchase that gives you access on all of your mobile devices and household computers. If you want to try before you buy, you can use a fully featured demo for 34 days at no charge.

There is no cost to download YNAB’s mobile or tablet apps, but you’ll need to have either already purchased YNAB or have an active free trial to use them. You can access YNAB via its desktop program or apps made for iOS and Android devices.

Personal Capital

Mint.com might be robust enough for tracking day-to-day spending and saving, but it doesn’t offer much in the way of investment planning. If you’re looking for a tool that helps you step up your investment game, Personal Capital could be a good choice. It also has budgeting tools and bill reports to help you manage daily finances.

Here’s a sampling of Personal Capital’s features:

• Calculate your net worth based on your major assets and debts
• Analyze your investment account fees to see if you’re paying too much
• Run investment checkup to see improvements you can make to your portfolio to bump up returns without taking on too much risk
• See cash flow, account balances, spending, bills, and other crucial information on your personal dashboard

Personal Capital follows the common “freemium” business model — you get the base level service for free, but have to pay to upgrade for additional services. In this case, the basic budgeting tools are free, and it’s Personal Capital’s investment advisory services you’d need to pay for.

The price depends on how much is in your portfolio — most brokers, whether online or not, charge this way. For an account of up to $1 million, you’ll pay 0.89% of your account balance per year. If you invest more, fees drop to 0.79% for the first $3 million, 0.69% for the next $2 million, and 0.59% for the next $5 million. Got more than $10 million? You’ll pay 0.49%. You can access Personal Capital via its website or apps made for iOS and Android devices.

For a more complete picture, see our Personal Capital Review.

Find a Budgeting Tool You’ll Stick With

In the end, any of the budgeting services we’ve mentioned here are worthy competitors to Mint.com. Mint is certainly the juggernaut in this category, and though it’s showing its age, it still has a lot to offer — especially since it’s free.

If you need more help deciding on the best financial planning programs and apps, check out some of our past articles on the topic:

• Choosing a Budgeting System That’s Right for You
• 3 Apps for America’s Money Management Woes
• Best Debt Repayment Tools and Apps
• Startups to Help You save Money and Manage Your Finances
• How to Use Technology to Start Saving More

The post Budgeting Software Showdown: Alternatives to Mint.com appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Think You Can’t Afford to Buy a House? Bet You Didn’t Think of This Program

Are you having trouble trying to buy a house? Would you like to save up to $90,000 and get a brand-new home?

If you answered yes to these questions, Habitat for Humanity might be able to help you out.

You may think Habitat for Humanity is only for people living in poverty, or that they give away houses. Neither statement is true.

In fact, you have to have a steady income that’s high enough (but not too high) to qualify for a Habitat house, along with decent credit. And you have to make mortgage payments just as with any other home purchase.

I held a few of these common misconceptions about Habitat for Humanity before I started volunteering with them. Here’s what I learned about this nonprofit organization from my experience and further research.

How Habitat for Humanity Works

Habitat for Humanity states “Every person should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live,” and I saw firsthand how smart they are about working toward that goal.

For example, they build small homes so homeowners have lower costs for future maintenance and utilities. That’s very different from lenders and real estate agents I’ve met who seem to think we should all buy the biggest house possible.

They also won’t build homes for those who can’t afford them. This isn’t a giveaway: Habitat homeowners buy their homes and have monthly mortgage payments.

In the U.S. this is all arranged through one of their 1,400 affiliates. Each affiliate has its own rules, but in general you have to:

• Be a legal resident

• Have steady income

• Have decent credit

• Prove you can save some money

• Make a small down payment

• Complete homeowner classes

• Help build your home or others’

• Make payments on time

• Have an income between specific minimum and maximum limits

How Much Do You Need to Make?

In general, your income has to be significantly below the median income for the area where you live, but not too low. The exact limits also depend on your family size.

For example, to buy a Habitat home around Los Angeles, California, your annual income has to be between $17,450 and $46,500 if you’re single. If you have a family of four you have to make at least $24,900 and up to $66,400.

On the other hand, the upper limit for a family of four in Antigua County, Alabama is just $35,800.

To find out the minimum and maximum income limits where you live, contact one or more of the nearest Habitat for Humanity affiliates.

The Cost of a Habitat Home

What you pay varies by your home’s size and location.

For example, the current average cost for a Habitat home through the Lafayette, Louisiana Habitat for Humanity is $85,000. The North Central Massachusetts affiliate states their homes cost between $100,000 and $120,000.

But you’ll actually save much more than these prices suggest.

These are usually new homes (Habitat also rehabilitates properties), and the Lafayette affiliate website points out that — because Habitat doesn’t make a profit — you’ll typically pay $20,000 less than if you hired a traditional builder. The savings can be much higher in other areas.

In addition, Habitat mortgages are interest-free. The Lafayette Habitat affiliate states “Our homeowners are saving an additional $50,000-$70,000 they would otherwise spend on interest charges over the life of the mortgage.”

Between the savings on construction and interest, you could save up to $90,000, and probably much more in areas where the prices are higher. Of course, you do have to put in some time and effort, which brings us to…

What You Need to Know About Habitat for Humanity Homes

Habitat for Humanity operates around the world. Programs are similar in the U.S. and Canada, with mortgage loans being the norm. In other countries, they operate in various ways. Check Habitat’s international website for a list of Habitat affiliates around the world.

While Habitat for Humanity is a non-denominational Christian organization, they state, “Habitat homeowners are chosen without regard to race, religion or ethnic group, in keeping with U.S. law and with Habitat’s abiding belief that God’s love extends to everyone.”

However, there is quite a bit of variation in how each Habitat for Humanity affiliate operates. Here are some examples.

Required Sweat Equity

You must help build your home or others’ (no experience required), or, if you’re unable to do that, work in a Habitat thrift store or office.

In Los Angeles, you have to contribute at least 200 “sweat equity” hours. In Bozeman, Montana, you’ll have to put in 500 hours.

Your Move-In Date

It can take up to 18 months from the time you apply to the time you move into your new home. In areas where Habitat fixes up homes rather than building new ones, you might move in within a month or two.

The Down Payment

In Glenwood Springs, Colorado, you need to save up $2,000 for your down payment. In Champaign, Illinois, you only need $500.

Mortgage Payments

Habitat of Durham, North Carolina states, “The average monthly mortgage payment for new homebuyers is between $475 and $525.” Because the loans are at zero-interest, most programs have very affordable payments.

Your Credit Score

While the general guidelines say you need decent credit, affiliates make their own rules.

So, for example, if you get a Habitat home in Chilton County, Louisiana, your credit score can be as low as 550. Having a previous bankruptcy is often OK if it’s at least two years old and you’ve paid your bills on time since then.

Debt/Income Ratios

Habitat for Humanity does not want to “help” people get into financial trouble, so affiliates have rules about how much debt you can have to qualify for a home.

For example, in Broward County, Florida, you cannot exceed 40% debt-to-income ratio for all debts, including your house payment.

Income Source

Again, affiliates are free to apply their own guidelines. In general, you just need steady income.

For example, the Twin Cities Habitat affiliate states, “Income sources can include: employment, public assistance of cash, social security, disability, etc.”

Income from a business, child support or a retirement plan is also OK by the Seminole/Apopka, Florida affiliate.

Home Size

Most Habitat affiliates keep their homes to 1,050 square feet or less. In Williamsburg, Virginia, they build homes up to 1,500 square feet.

Cashing in on Your Equity

A Habitat home can really help you get ahead financially.

For example, Habitat’s Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg, Virginia, affiliate states their homes cost about $95,000 total but are worth about $200,000 when completed. Gaining over $100,000 in equity when you move into your home is significant, to say the least.

But can you cash in that equity at some point? Different affiliates have different rules.

For example, the Wake County North Carolina affiliate lets you sell your home anytime, but they have the right to buy it at whatever price you are offered. They lift this and other restrictions once you pay off the mortgage loan.

The Huron County, Ontario, Habitat affiliate puts two mortgage loans on your home. You make payments on the first, which covers the cost of construction.

The second, which is equal to the difference between the cost and the market value when you move in, you pay off only when you sell the home. So you don’t get any “instant equity,” but you can still gain equity from paying down your first mortgage loan and from any rise in home value.

Other affiliates have their own arrangements, so be sure to ask. In any case, you may be able to own a home for less than your current rent, and any equity gains you get over the years are a nice bonus.

The bottom line? If you’re willing to take a few classes on homeownership, do a few hundred hours of work and you meet a few other qualifications, you might be able to get a Habitat for Humanity house with very affordable payments.

Your Turn: Have you ever had a home through Habitat for Humanity? If so, please tell us about your experience.

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).

The post Think You Can’t Afford to Buy a House? Bet You Didn’t Think of This Program appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Clipped: How to Make $100/Hour as a Consultant, Handle Work-at-Home Overwhelm and More

Happy Friday! Welcome to the first installment of Clipped, our new weekly roundup of great posts from money bloggers, side hustlers and other penny hoarders.

Each Friday, we’ll share some of our favorite posts that will help you make money — whether you work at home, want to get ahead in business or just want to make some extra dough on the side.

Here’s what we clipped this week:

1. Freelance Blogger Survival Skills: How to Beat the Sophomore Slump

Art Anthony (@artcopywriter) at Be a Freelance Blogger

You’ve taken the initial leap into the freelance blogging business, nailed a few assignments and schmoozed a couple clients. Now the work should just roll in, right?

Wrong. You’re probably still going to have to work hard to land every new gig, Art Anthony explains. Follow his six tips to overcome this challenge and move on to the next step — getting the freelance work to come to you. Read more…

2. Clarity.fm: Start a $100-per-Hour Consulting Business in 5 Minutes

Nick Loper (@nloper) at Side Hustle Nation

Side hustler Nick Loper has made over $1,300 this year coaching brand-new clients through Clarity.fm.

Loper explains the benefits of putting your “buy buttons” on existing marketplaces like this, plus takes you step-by-step through creating your Clarity profile and setting your coaching rates. Read more…

Love these posts? Let the authors know! Click here to tweet about it.

3. 35 High-Paying Jobs You Can Get Without a Bachelor’s Degree

Jacquelyn Smith (@JacquelynVSmith) and Rachel Gillett (@rgillett23) at Business Insider

No time or money to invest in a bachelor’s degree? No problem!

Business Insider shares a list of jobs with a median income of at least $55,000 you can get with a high school diploma or associate’s degree. Read more…

4. Four Simple Tips to Help With Work-at-Home Mom Overwhelm

Caroline Pigott (@FlourishTweets) at The Work at Home Woman

How can you maintain work-life balance when you work from home and have kids? Entrepreneur and mother Caroline Pigott has a smart answer to the common conundrum.

She explains how to batch your work, when (and how) to blend work and home life, what to delegate to someone else and when you simply need to suck it up and power through it. Read more…

5. Man Cashes in Pennies He’s Saved for 45 Years

Frededreia Willis at The News-Star (Monroe, LA)

We love this story about Otha Anders, a Louisiana man who hoarded pennies for 45 years!

Anders has been finding and picking up pennies for nearly 50 years and has stashed them in 15 five-gallon plastic water jugs. He cashed them in this week at a very forgiving local bank — and you won’t believe how much he saved! Read more…

Enjoy your weekend, Penny Hoarders!

Your Turn: Did you read any great posts on how to make money this week? Share them in the comments!

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a Staff Writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more.

The post Clipped: How to Make $100/Hour as a Consultant, Handle Work-at-Home Overwhelm and More appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a High Converting Webinar

I know that you understand the power of blogging and building an email list.

But the next step is often harder to grasp.

How do you turn those readers and subscribers into customers?

I’ve seen many online business owners work hard for several years to build a solid audience and not know how to profit from it.

And without any profit, how will you be able to keep producing free valuable content for your audience?

You can’t.

So, how do you convert those audience members into customers?

You can employ many effective tactics.

But there is one tactic with which I’ve had an incredible amount of success, and I know that many other businesses have as well.

That tactic is using webinars.

Webinars are essentially one- or two-hour live video streams, usually like mini-courses.

Anyone viewing the webinar can type in questions and comments throughout the presentation.

Webinars can be incredibly effective, on average converting around 20% of viewers into customers buying products. And these aren’t just cheap products—they are premium products.

Although I won’t go into the technical details of creating a webinar here (e.g., creating a slideshow, using webinar software), I’ll teach you a step-by-step procedure you can use to create webinars that convert.

Some businesses use only webinars in order to sell their products, and they do very well…I am talking about webinars just like this one I created. 

Why webinars might be the best form of content for any business

At their core, webinars are just another type of content.

However, webinars are a type of content that is optimized for selling. Why?

First, viewers typically place a higher value on webinars than other forms of free content, which means that they pay closer attention to what you’re showing them.

In addition, since the webinar is done live, they are forced to pay attention so they don’t miss anything.

Put those two things together, and you will have a captive audience when you deliver webinars the right way.

With webinars, you get to deliver your full message to your audience, whereas with blog posts, you never know how much of the content your website visitors read.

Finally, webinars allow you to connect with audience members in a real way. Other than creating a conference and trying to convince your audience to attend it, webinars are the best way to talk to hundreds, even thousands, of people at once.

And unlike with a blog post, you can actually answer the questions your audience has in real time during a webinar.

The conversion rate of webinars is insane: Say, you create a fantastic email sequence for a product you’re selling.

If you did a great job, you’ll get a conversion rate that is somewhere between 1-5%, depending on the price and a few other factors.

I would say that 5% is the low end of even a mediocre webinar.

Back at KISSmetrics, we used webinars a lot and had great results.

Our first 77 webinars had a total of 155,386 people who signed up to attend a webinar. Of those, about half (74,381) actually attended, and a solid 16,394 turned into high quality leads.

That’s a conversion rate of 22% (of the people attending).

A few other businesses have published results of their webinars.

Adobe claims a solid 19% conversion rate, while Buzzsumo says that 20% of webinar attendees turn into paid customers.

Depending on what you sell, a single lead can be worth upwards of $50. It doesn’t take much math to figure out how incredibly lucrative webinars can be (even with small audiences).

But a difference in conversion rate of just a few percent can be the difference between thousands of dollars in profit.

If you’re going to incorporate webinars into your content strategy, you want to make sure that you’re at the upper end of conversion rate (20%) rather than the low end (5%).

If you want to make a high converting webinar, follow these six steps.

Step #1: Learn how to warm up the crowd

Despite being a great sales tool, a good webinar isn’t a sales pitch at all.

A good webinar is a lot like a blog post. It actually provides value to the audience without asking for anything in return.

And just like with a blog post, you shouldn’t start off by digging right into the meat of your topic.

Instead, you want to build a bit of anticipation and excitement as well as take advantage of the opportunity to engage with your audience members.

The point of engaging here is two-fold: first, you start to loosen up, which will make your presentation better, and second, you get your audience into an engagement mode.

Since you’re interacting with them now, they are more likely to interact throughout the webinar.

There are a few different options at your disposal, and I recommend trying different combinations of them.

Option #1 – Have a quick chat: You should always arrive 10-15 minutes early to make sure that you don’t have any technical difficulties, which do happen from time to time.

Assuming everything goes smoothly, you will likely have a few minutes before you can start the webinar.

There are always a few people that come to the webinar early.

This is a great time to start talking with them about anything in the chat box.

 

Simply getting to know them a bit and learning about why they’re at the webinar (and why they’re so eager to get started) will improve your conversion rate down the line.

At the same time, you might learn some interesting things about your audience.

Option #2 – Ask a few questions: It’s always good to ask questions during the webinar, but it’s especially good to do at the start.

Basically, when you get your viewers responding in the chat box, they get used to it. And that makes them more likely to respond to you and ask more questions in the future.

Ideally, you want to get them in this habit early.

That’s because once they realize they can actually talk to you, they are more likely to pay attention throughout the webinar so they can ask questions about something they didn’t understand.

Option #3 – Ask attendees to fill out poll or survey: Instead of asking questions and getting responses in the chat box, you can have your viewers fill out a poll or survey.

These have to be prepared in advance, so it’s best to use them for questions that reveal something useful about your audience.

Here are a few sample questions you could use:

• “How many webinars have you attended?” - So you know if you need to explain webinars at the beginning.
• “How familiar are you with [your brand]?” - The less your audience knows you, the more important personal details and an introduction become.
• “How important is [webinar topic] to you?” - Over time, you will see that your customers care more about certain topics than others. Do more webinars about those important topics.
• “How much experience do you have with [topic]? - If your audience is more advanced than you thought, you don’t want to spend too much time on the basics. The opposite is also true.

Just about every leading webinar software (e.g., GoToWebinar) comes with built-in survey and polling tools. You can see the results as people answer your questions.

Or start the webinar with an introduction: It’s a good practice to introduce yourself near the start of a webinar.

Yes, you’ll have some long-time readers in the audience, but you’ll also have some brand new readers watching. Introducing yourself will allow you to start building trust with your new viewers, which will lead to them becoming customers (if not today, in the future).

A good introduction should be fairly brief, but don’t be afraid to show some personality and put in a joke or two.

Step #2: Without intrigue, you will fail

Webinars can provide a ton of value for your visitors.

But you are also asking for a lot.

They basically have to agree to spend 45 minutes (minimum) focused only on your presentation.

That’s a lot of time for many people.

You also need to consider that if at any point a viewer doesn’t like how the webinar is going, they can just click the “exit” button.

This is why your number one priority should be to keep them interested in your material.

There are a few things that go into this.

Without an intriguing topic, no one will show up: Interest starts with your topic. If you have a seemingly boring topic, no one will want to attend the webinar, no matter how good your actual presentation is.

The most important part of drawing attention is the title of the webinar. It functions exactly like a blog post headline.

Most of the same rules of writing a powerful headline apply here too.

You want to include specific results that your reader is looking for while not giving away the answer.

Here’s a bad headline:

Social media marketing efficiency

It’s boring, vague, and not provoking curiosity.

But how about:

How to plan your weekly social media marketing schedule in 60 minutes or less

That takes care of a specific problem (wasting time on social media) that a visitor might have. But it also makes the reader want to watch the webinar to find out the answer.

On top of the headline, you can also write a few high-impact bullet points on the landing page.

 

Those bullet points should contain the most important benefits from your viewer’s perspective.

In addition to putting them on the landing page, it’s always a good idea to put them on one of your beginning slides:

It’s easy for viewers to forget the specific reason why they signed up for the webinar, and this can jog their memory and get them to stick around.

Here’s one important aspect of picking a topic: The most intriguing topics for a webinar are the ones that act as mini-courses.

They take one specific important problem and solve it in those 45-120 minutes.

If you look at past KISSmetrics webinars, you’ll see that most of them involve the word “How”. Many headlines are “How to…” headlines.

Not only are these topics the most intriguing, but they are also the easiest ones to create a great presentation around.

Your presentation becomes a walk-through of the solution.

How do you get people to stay on the webinar? After you get your audience to register and attend the webinar, you still need to keep them intrigued by your material.

While some attendees will be entranced by the presentation, you’ll always have a large chunk on the edge of leaving.

They’re either not sure if this topic is really important to them, or they already know a lot of the things you’re covering but just want to see what you say about a few key aspects.

There are two things you should do.

First, don’t reveal everything about your solution at the start of the webinar.

It’s fine to give some details, like “our solution is to use batching along with a social media calendar.” Just don’t give out too much, like how you’re going to accomplish it.

If you pick your topic right (a how-to topic), your valuable content will be automatically spread out through the steps you present, so you don’t need to worry about this much.

But if your webinar is something like “7 secrets of…”, start with a really good one, and then mention that your last one will be the best one.

Another option is to provide an incentive to viewers who watch the entire webinar.

The bonus might be:

• a recording of the webinar
• a related bonus e-book
• a transcript of the webinar (or a PDF of it)
• free coaching
• or a special offer

For example, when guest presenters help out on KISSmetric webinars, they often include a related bonus book that a huge percentage of viewers will stick around to get:

Step #3: Every part you teach needs to accomplish one thing

A webinar is all about giving value, but it’s about giving the right kind of value.

It should educate your audience about their problems as well as potential solutions to those problems. This is valuable to any viewer.

At the same time, one of the solutions you show them will likely be a product or service you sell.

Assuming it’s legitimately a great product that solves the problem or makes the solution as easy as possible, all you have to do is present the product honestly when the time comes.

Until that time, everything in your presentation should have two purposes.

Phase #1 – Make the pain worse or the benefit better: Viewers sign up for webinars for two main reasons.

Either they have a problem that is causing them or their business pain and they want to solve it, or you’ve made a great promise that they’d like to get.

Here’s some examples:

• Pain: “I’m not getting any organic search traffic.”
  • Webinar: “7 steps to ranking #1 for long tail search terms”
• Benefit: “I wouldn’t mind making more money even if I’m doing okay now”
  • Webinar: “6 ways you can make an extra $1,000 per month”

Whatever the reason, you need to mention it early on. Remind them why they are there and what they will get out of the webinar if they stay for the whole thing.

When you do this, your viewers will pay closer attention to your presentation, and that’s when you jump into phase #2…

Phase #2 – Educate viewers about a solution: Don’t just educate them in general—educate them about specific solutions.

This will be the meat of your presentation, where you break down solutions, step by step:

Most viewers don’t care about the technical stuff going on in the background. They just want solutions that they can apply.

Among the solutions, you can include your product.

Or you might pitch your services at the end, offering to solve this problem for them.

Step #4: A buying audience is an engaged one

I’ve mentioned a few times so far how important an engaged audience is.

Let me clarify what I mean by that. Engagement is a measure of how much focus your audience is giving your webinar.

If you have low engagement, it means that people aren’t paying attention, despite watching the webinar.

It could mean that they’re zoning out maybe because the presentation is boring, or it could mean they’re distracted by email or social media.

A small percentage will just keep the webinar on to see if you offer a free bonus at the end, but don’t worry about those viewers.

A highly engaged audience will watch everything, and a decent portion of those viewers will jump at the chance to interact with you.

The more involved viewers are with you, the more invested they will be in the solutions you’re presenting.

The people who are talking to you the most during the webinar are your best leads for sales.

It’s obvious that getting your audience engaged is a good thing.

Here are a few different ways you can encourage engagement.

Idea #1 – Launch a poll: Every once in awhile, it makes sense to see if viewers are actually understanding what you’re saying and getting value from it.

If you’d like to do it informally, just ask a question and get responses in the chat box.

But if you also want to know if you’re presenting effectively, a poll is a good idea because you’ll get concrete feedback.

It’s a good idea to launch a poll or quiz immediately following a particular section. Ask the viewers about the main takeaway, for example.

Not only will it give you good information, but it will also make your viewers solidify their learning.

Idea #2 – Don’t read from your slides: One way to bore your viewers quickly is to create slides with a ton of words on them and just read them out loud.

If you’re going to do that, why do they need you?

Instead, put a few words on a slide, which attract attention, but fill in the blanks yourself.

Idea #3 – Mention viewers by name: This tactic is great at making your viewers feel more involved.

Instead of just being a screen name typing into a chat box, your viewers can feel like they are part of the webinar if you address them by their names along with saying something positive:

That’s a really good question, Neil! …

If you, as a viewer, get a personal compliment from an expert teaching a large audience, you’ll feel good about it. And chances are, you’re going to look for more opportunities to contribute and stand out from the passive viewers.

Idea #4 – Small webinars can be better than large ones: The default tactic is to try to get as many people to register for your webinar as possible. It’s not a bad one.

However, if you have a particularly complex product, you’ll need to be able to explain whether your product works for all specific situations that your viewers might have.

This is impossible if you have hundreds of viewers on the webinar.

But if you only had 25-50, you could cover quite a few scenarios and make a few big sales.

First, you should make it clear on the landing page that only 50-100 seats are open for the webinar (about half to two-thirds will show up).

Then, note the audience size right away at the start of the webinar. Say something like this:

I’ve kept the webinar really small on purpose; there are only 50 people here. I did that so I could talk with more of you one-on-one to find a solution that works for you. In order to do that, I need you to type in any questions or comments you might have along the way in the chat box.

Step #5: It’s closing time

If you’ve done everything up until this point right, making your pitch is actually really easy.

You’ve given away most of the value you promised, so at this point, it’s just a matter of giving away your bonuses (if you have any) and tying in your product or service with the solutions you just provided.

First, transition into your offer smoothly: The only way to really mess up at this point is to say, “Well, that’s all I have for you today. Now I want to show you a product to buy.”

As soon as you say something like that, the viewers will feel like they are being sold to, and no one likes that.

With a webinar, there’s an understanding that at the end you might make an offer, but it should flow naturally from the topic of the webinar.

The offer should have two qualities: it should be unique and valuable.

For example, if the webinar is about conversion optimization, I could offer a discount on Crazy Egg software.

First, that’s unique because they wouldn’t be able to get that discount anywhere else.

Secondly, it’s valuable because people who are learning about conversion optimization will need heatmap software, and Crazy Egg is among the best options.

It’s crucial that you tie your offer into how it will benefit the viewer in the context of the webinar topic.

Hold a Q&A session after the pitch: Before you even mention your product, tell the viewers that you will answer any questions they have in just a minute.

Although a large percentage of viewers will drop off here, the ones that stay are the ones that are really interested in your solutions.

By doing the Q&A after the pitch, you are forcing your viewers to at least listen to the pitch if they don’t want to miss the Q&A session.

Plus, making the pitch before your Q&A will allow you to answer questions about both the webinar material and your offer.

Once you’re done with the questions, you can finish the webinar with one last mention of your offer.

Step #6: You’ll miss out on a large amount of sales if you don’t do this

If you’re selling a particularly expensive product, you can’t expect all your viewers to be ready to buy right away even if you give them a great offer that they are interested in.

Some people will want to think about it a bit more, while others will need to get an approval of a boss or their significant other.

That doesn’t mean that they won’t take you up on your offer; it just might not be the second you give it to them.

Additionally, depending on the time of your webinar, some attendees may just want to go to sleep or have to go somewhere.

Neither of these scenarios allow time to carefully consider a major purchase.

So, what should you do to maximize your conversion rate? Follow up with them within 24-48 hours.

Assuming you’re using software like GoToWebinar, you will have access to all of your registrants’ email addresses.

This is your chance to provide even more value (which will help get a high email open rate) while also getting your offer in front of viewers one last time.

Here’s what a good follow up might look like:

Subject: Recording of last night’s webinar on [topic]

Hi [name],

I know that we covered a lot in the webinar yesterday, and it’s easy to miss things. That’s why I’ve put up a recording of the webinar that you can stream or download. Here’s the URL:

[URL of the webinar]

If you still have any questions about what we covered, just reply to this email, and let me know what they are.

Additionally, you still have 48 hours to take advantage of the 20% discount.

This is a pretty special offer that doesn’t come around very often, and I feel you could really benefit from [product] in 3 ways:

• (benefit #1)

• (benefit #2)

• (benefit #3)

If you want to take advantage of the offer or want more information, click here:

[URL of the landing page]

Best regards,

[your name]

No hard sell—just the last chance to get your offer in front of your viewers. If they are ready to become customers, they will do so now.

If not, don’t worry about it. If they enjoyed this webinar, they’ll likely sign up for a future one and might buy from you later.

That’s the beauty of webinars. They’re still part of your content marketing plan, and even if they don’t directly lead to a sale, they will help build your brand in the eyes of your attendees.

Finally, make your past webinars publicly available. This is something that KISSmetrics does.

At this point, there are over 100 webinars that anyone can access if they provide some basic contact information.

In my time at KISSmetrics, the old webinars provided about 20% of our overall webinar leads, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Conclusion

Webinars might be the single best tactic to not only attract visitors but also convert those visitors into leads or customers.

They offer a unique opportunity to engage with your potential customers, which no other form of content can match.

They also have a high perceived value, which means that attendees typically focus on the webinar the entire time, assuming that it’s interesting.

When you’re creating your next webinar, whether it’s your first or hundredth, make sure that you follow all six steps of this post.

If you do, you will have a webinar that can convert viewers at about 20% as long as your offer is enticing.

If you have any questions about the six steps in this post, let me know below, and I’ll see if I can’t clear things up.

Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/1PZrFeX