What’s behind these silly discounts?

WOOLWORTHS was a laughing stock this week, with its cheap, cheap 1 cent discount. But there’s actually a reason behind it. Here’s how not to get ripped off.

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How to Protect Your Family’s Financial Future: Life Insurance!

Today I’d like to share how you can protect your family’s financial future as part of a sponsored post for USAA’s life insurance campaign.

I’m heartbroken every time I hear of someone who suddenly lost a loved one – especially when it was a spouse, child, or parent. My wife and boys are my world, and I don’t know what I’d do without them.

But I don’t only ask myself what I’d do without them, I ask myself what they’d do without me.  That’s why life insurance is so important. I want to protect my family and their future.

Do You Need Life Insurance?

One critical way to protect one’s family is to protect their financial future. There are a number of ways to do this. One excellent way is to purchase a lot of (cheap) life insurance.

Life insurance provides a sum of money to beneficiaries upon the death of the insured. It’s an amazing product, and I purchased quite a bit of it. I think you should too.

Here’s why . . . .

The Story of Two Widows

Back when I started the Life Insurance Movement, I shared a story about two widows. Both of them had lost their life partners early in life. Heartbreaking.

One of the widows, unfortunately, didn’t have life insurance and needed it. So not only did she have to deal with the pain of losing her life partner, she had to deal with figuring out how she was going to pay her bills.

Now imagine for a moment that you’re in her shoes. You lose your loved one, your brain is messed up because you lost someone so close to you, and now you have to make rational decisions about the finances. Not only that, you now have to work harder than you did before to ensure you bring in the same amount of income your spouse did to cover your expenses. That’s an absolute nightmare, friends.

Life insurance can’t raise the dead, but it can make it easier to get through the difficult times and grieve the loss of your loved one. It’s difficult to find time to grieve when you have to think about money or else the lights will click off.

How Do You Already Protect Your Family?

Still not convinced you need life insurance? Think about all the things you already do to protect your family . . . .

When you bought your last car, were you thinking about the safety of the vehicle? Of course you were! You might have even looked up the safety ratings for the vehicle you had in mind.

If you’ve ever had a baby, you did some things to protect your child, right? Perhaps you installed electrical outlet covers throughout the house, put up some baby gates, or made sure you correctly installed the car seat. You probably did all of these things and more!

How about washing your hands after you use the bathroom, do you do that? Of course you do!

Here’s my point: You do all kinds of things already to protect your family. Imagine a burglar breaking into your house and stealing all your stuff. The result of that horrible situation is pretty much the same result as leaving your family to have to sell all their valuables because they don’t have enough money to eat.

Don’t let that happen!

Shopping for Life Insurance

Okay, let’s say you’re convinced that you need life insurance. How do you get an appropriate amount of insurance while landing a great deal?

Term Life Insurance

You’ll get the most bang for your buck by going with term life insurance. Term life insurance provides coverage using fixed payments for a certain term. This is typically a much better deal than universal or whole life insurance.

This is a fantastic option for the military community. You can also visit my life insurance page to compare quotes from several companies to get great deals.

How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?

I could give you a rule of thumb for how much life insurance you need, but you’d be better off taking the time to answer these questions as a starting point:

• Do you have student loan debt? How much?
• Do you have consumer debt? How much?
• If you have children, what kind of education savings do they need to attend college?
• Do you have a mortgage? How much do you owe?
• What other financial obligations will your family have in the future?
• How much money will you need in investments to replace your income should you pass away?

As you start answering these questions, you can start to get a feel for how much life insurance you might need. The last question is especially important if you’re currently making enough money to fund your expenses now and in the future.

Imagine the relief your family will feel when, in the event of your death, they realize that you protected them by having enough life insurance to pay off all their debt and fund their future. Talk about leaving a powerful gift and legacy!

Bonus Tips for Protecting Your Family’s Financial Future

Life insurance is a great way to protect your family’s financial future, but it isn’t the only way. Here are some bonus tips that can help you round out your financial protection.

Build an Emergency Fund

This is actually one of the first things you should do on your path to financial security. An emergency fund will help you pay for all those unexpected expenses that pop up.

I recommend you have at least eight months worth of expenses in your emergency fund. I know, I know, that might seem a little bit on the heavy side, but with so many families being in a financial mess, I think it’s sound advice.

Secure Some Disability Insurance

You know what can drain your bank account faster than you can blink? A disability. Disabilities can linger for months or years. And boy, are they expensive.

According to the Council for Disability Awareness, just over one in four of today’s 20-year-olds will become disabled before they reach retirement. Yikes.

Get some disability insurance today.

Lower Your Expenses – Duh!

If you’re spending like you’re Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, stop that! Well, unless you have a legal money tree firmly planted in your backyard, of course.

Check out some ways to save money on food, transportation, housing, and more by reading 70 Super Easy and Practical Ways to Save Money.

Protect Your Family Now

Protecting your family isn’t something you should put off. We never know when our last breath will be, so why not get some life insurance now?

Having been a member of the National Guard, it’s ingrained in me to protect others – especially my family. That’s why life insurance is so important to have. Protect your loved ones today.

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How to Find a Lost Pension Plan

Try these strategies to locate forgotten retirement benefits you are eligible for.

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Clearing the Smog Surrounding Annuities

Photo: BriYYZ

I’m convinced that annuities are the most misunderstood financial and insurance product in the financial services universe today.

I think there are several reasons for that, which I will get into in a minute. In this article I will try to provide an “Annuities 101” course covering what they are, what they aren’t, and a brief overview of the basic types of annuities.

How Many Thousands?

But first, why do annuities so often get misunderstood and branded with a negative image? I don’t doubt there are many subpar annuities being sold around the country.

But let’s be clear: There are only about 3,700 publicly traded companies on the major stock exchanges today, yet there are thousands and thousands more mutual funds and ETFs offering different plays on the market and different baskets of stocks or bonds. Forbes recently pegged the number at 16,700. But the majority of these thousands of mutual funds and ETFs are garbage.

So why don’t you also hear investors and financial advisors disparaging mutual funds and ETFs at the same level as annuities? The reason is that virtually every investor is involved with and every advisor peddles in mutual funds or ETFs, but the financial universe of individuals who are also involved in annuities is much smaller.

For example, if an advisor only has one tool (i.e., funds) to apply to every investing situation, do you think he or she is going to speak favorably of annuities if a client inquires about them?

And unfortunately, many advisors who are also licensed agents of annuities don’t understand them very well, but still sell them to their clients. This leads to bad communication, misunderstandings about what the annuity is or isn’t supposed to do, and a bad reputation for both the agent and the annuity.

The Regulatory Scheme Is Messy

In addition, annuities are regulated in a messy manner. For starters, they are separated into fixed annuities and variable annuities. Fixed annuities are classified as insurance products, and state insurance departments regulate them. Variable annuities can lose value and are treated as securities (similar to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs). Both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and state insurance departments regulate variable annuities.

Having multiple regulatory bodies at both the state and federal levels involved at the same time never simplifies an outcome or a product.

Many Different Types of Annuities Lead to Confusion

And finally, there are many types of annuities and variations on them, having completely different characteristics, which I will describe below. So if all you tell me is that you have an annuity, or you’re selling an annuity, that means absolutely nothing to me.

For example, some annuities are guaranteed not to lose principal value. Others have the risk of going to zero. That’s a big difference.

Putting aside their complexities and misconceptions, annuities can play an important role in financial planning. For one, they can provide a guaranteed stream of income during your retirement all the way to your death.

I have met several investors who thought they were stock market experts who were going to trade their own way through retirement, only to lose a huge chunk of their portfolio. Having an annuity as a portion of your retirement plan can help protect you from yourself. (There are also several studies that show investors routinely underperform the very investments they hold because of ill-timed purchases and sales in and out of the market.)

Basic Structure of an Annuity

In any discussion about annuities, you must first understand the type of annuity that’s being discussed, so let’s go over their basic structure.

There are two phases to an annuity: the accumulation phase and the annuitization phase. The accumulation phase is the period of time when the annuity grows in value. The annuitization phase is the period of time when the annuity pays out its benefits to you (i.e., pays you the money).

Not all annuities have both phases, however. For example, an annuity can have just an accumulation phase, or just an annuitization phase — I will explain with illustrations in a minute.

Suppose I paid $100,000 for an annuity. Suppose further it is contractually guaranteed to grow at a 3% rate for 10 years to approximately $134,000, at which time it begins paying me $8,000 per year for the rest of my life. The 10-year growth period from $100,000 to $134,000 is the accumulation phase. The phase where the annuity pays me $8,000 per year for the remainder of my life is the annuitization phase.

Because the annuitization, or payment phase, occurs at a later time after I purchased the annuity, this annuity is considered a “deferred” annuity. In this particular illustration, the annuity is also considered a “fixed” annuity, since the growth amount is contractually guaranteed to be 3%. Furthermore, since I created this annuity with a single up-front payment (as opposed to funding it with multiple periodic payments) it would also be considered a single premium annuity. Therefore, in the annuity industry this annuity would be referred to as a single premium fixed deferred annuity.

As I mentioned, an annuity does not always have an accumulation phase. For example, suppose I change my example above to instead pay $100,000 for the annuity to have it immediately begin paying me benefits of $5,000 per year for the remainder of my life. In this example, there is no accumulation phase. It is still considered a fixed annuity because of the guaranteed benefits of $5,000 per year. This annuity would therefore be referred to as a single premium fixed immediate annuity.

Fixed vs. Variable Annuities

Probably the most important distinction to understand about any annuity is whether it is a fixed or variable annuity. In a fixed annuity, the insurance company guarantees the annuity will have a certain minimum level of accumulation or payout. A variable annuity does not.

A variable annuity is subject to market losses just as an investment in the stock or bond market is subject to losses. In fact, the reason a variable annuity is subject to losses is precisely because your money inside the variable annuity is invested in an underlying investment account consisting of stock and/or bond funds. That is why the SEC gets involved in regulating variable annuities and they are not strictly an insurance product.

Riders

Another layer of complexity is that annuities can come with many different types of riders. A rider is an addendum or supplement that can be added onto the annuity. The rider may add a completely new or different characteristic to the annuity. As we previously discussed, annuities are regulated as insurance contracts (except for variable annuities), so that’s why the term “rider” is used for addendums or supplements.

So, for example, a variable annuity could have an income rider attached to it that will guarantee you a certain level of lifetime income even if the cash value of your variable annuity goes to zero due to market losses.

Equity-Indexed Annuities

And finally, I would be doing a disservice to you if I did not explain one of the fastest-growing categories of annuities, the equity-indexed annuity.

These are a type of fixed deferred annuity. During the accumulation phase, the equity-indexed annuity is tied to one or more stock market indices, such as the S&P 500, a European index, and/or an Asian market index. If the market index goes down, your account does not go down with it. (Protection against losses is why it is considered a fixed annuity rather than a variable one.) If the market goes up, you get credited with a portion of the market gains.

So, for example, suppose I put my $100,000 into an equity-indexed annuity tied to the S&P 500 in which I receive a 50% participation rate. During the first period of time, the index drops 20% in a bear market. The value of my annuity would stay at $100,000 (less any annual fees or expenses charged by the particular insurance company). During the second period of time, the index goes up 10%. I would get credited with half of that gain, or 5%, and my annuity value would increase to $105,000 (less any fees or expenses).

Many equity-indexed annuities have required minimum accumulation periods, six to 12 years for example, at which time you can withdraw the accumulated value and do something else with it, or annuitize it into a lifetime stream of payments. This is an example where you may just have an accumulation phase and no annuitization phase.

Of course, there are many more details to all of these annuities, but that is beyond the scope of this article. The main goal here is to acquaint you with a basic overview of the lay of the land.

What Are Some Benefits of Annuities?

Fixed annuities offer protection against downside risk. This can be especially useful to someone who is in retirement or nearing retirement to protect a portion of their portfolio from a potential crash in the stock market.

Annuitizing an annuity into a guaranteed stream of payments for the remainder of life also gives many people peace of mind to know they will at least have certain income sources guaranteed to their death.

Annuities can be used to diversify sources of retirement income streams beyond Social Security payments, interest payments, and dividends, the latter of which can fluctuate greatly from year to year if companies hit rough times and cut back their dividends.

Annuities also grow on a tax-deferred basis, which can be helpful if someone has a significant amount of taxable money that they would like to grow on a tax-deferred basis and may not have the ability to contribute any more to an IRA account.

What Are Some Limitations and Drawbacks?

Annuities typically have limited liquidity, especially during the accumulation phase. You should have other sources of immediately available funds in your portfolio to handle unexpected expenses during the accumulation phase.

If the stock market enters a strong period of growth, then a fixed annuity may have significant opportunity cost compared to what your money could have made in other places. You must remember that in a fixed annuity you are giving up some upside in order to have certainty and protection on the downside. However, this is hard for many investors to remember or be OK with if the market hits a period of huge growth. That is also why an annuity should not be more than a portion of an overall portfolio plan.

And, probably the biggest source of misunderstanding and ill will toward annuities for many folks is that annuities are long-term commitments, often six to 12 years, before you can do something else with your money without penalties or surrender charges.

Many people have difficulty staying married for six to 12 years to someone they once loved, let alone staying committed to a financial strategy for six to 12 years — especially in a media environment where our attention span is usually measured in weeks. If you change your mind after just a couple of years and want to put that money somewhere else, then you could face fees of 15%, for example, deducted from the balance of your annuity value.

Even if someone is informed about these penalties and surrender charges at the time of purchasing the annuity, they’re not likely to remember them a couple of years down the road when they desperately want to use the money for something else. (If you don’t believe me, try to recall all the details of just a couple of conversations you had last week.)

There is actually a good reason for at least some of the surrender fees and penalties. Take, for example, an equity-indexed annuity. As I described above, an equity-indexed annuity protects the owner from market losses but allows the owner to participate in a portion of market gains. The insurance company typically implements this strategy by purchasing bonds with the premium money paid and using the interest from the bonds to purchase call options in the futures market.

To implement this strategy for your annuity, the insurance company is required to take multiyear positions in both the bond and options markets. If I call up the insurance company a year later and tell them I immediately want my money back, they aren’t exactly sitting on the cash in a money market account, and the value of those bonds and options could have changed significantly. On top of that, there are also administrative and trading expenses just in unwinding those market positions.

The Bottom Line

Annuities can serve a useful purpose in a financial plan. Unfortunately, their purposes are often misunderstood because of poor communication and education between the agents selling them and the people who could benefit from them.

Tim Van Pelt is a financial planner and registered investment advisor representative of Steele Capital Management Inc. The views expressed in this article are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Steele Capital or its management. You can reach him at tjvanpelt@gmail.com or (608) 577-9877. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, investing, tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult your own investment, tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

The post Clearing the Smog Surrounding Annuities appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Which Major Cell Phone Company Offers the Best Deal on the New iPhone?

Apple recently announced that devotees like me are now able to get a new iPhone every year — without being tied to a mobile carrier.

Their iPhone Upgrade Program allows you to purchase an iPhone with monthly installments. The phones are unlocked, so you can use them with any carrier.

The timing couldn’t be better for me: I’m currently with Verizon, and my two-year contract is up this fall. I’m ready for a new iPhone.

The program competes with the new program Verizon launched this summer. Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile each launched competing plans in reaction to the announcement.

With all these new options, what is the best way to buy a new iPhone 6S?

A number of sites have put together hasty comparisons with glancing overviews of the new offers. But what none of these explains is… which is the best plan for me?

So I did the research myself. And hopefully, my analysis will help you decide whether any of these options is right for you.

What I Need in a Cell Phone Plan

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of these competing deals, but there’s a lot more to consider than what’s on the sales page. Few people use the basic, out-of-the-box plan advertised, because everyone’s cell phone needs are different.

When you get to the store and actually start to build a plan to fit your life, you may suddenly find you’re not getting the deal you expected.

For example, my partner and I share a cell phone plan, so I have to consider the cost of two new phones and a family plan that meets our mobile phone and data needs. I want to be prepared before heading to the store, because sales reps are awfully convincing when you’re not well-informed.

To choose the phone and service plan that works best for us, we’re considering these questions:

• How many lines will be on our plan? We need two, and we’d like a family plan.

• What kind of phone do we want? Between music, apps and photos, we’re looking for more storage than the standard 16GB iPhone. We each want the new iPhone 6S with 64GB storage.

• Will we purchase hardware insurance? Yes, for both phones.

• Will we need software/tech support? No. (But for the purposes of comparison with Apple’s offer, I’ll include this in my research.)

• How many minutes/texts do we use per month? About 900 texts and 200 minutes together.

• How much data do we use per month? Between 8 and 12GB.

• What special needs do we have (mobile hotspot, family safeguards, international use, etc.)? We travel frequently in the U.S. and often end up with unreliable Internet access. Having LTE access and a mobile hotspot are musts for us to work on the road, as is at least 10GB of data.

Which Cell Phone Provider Is Best for Us?

First, let’s look at what the iPhone Upgrade Program offers:

• Lease an iPhone for 24 months
• No down payment
• Turn in your phone after 12 months for an upgrade
• AppleCare+ (a $129 insurance package that offers software support, two years of hardware repairs and two incidents of accidental damage coverage)

To get my new 64GB iPhone 6S with this program, I’ll pay $36.58 per month — that’s $73.16 per month for the two of us — just for the phones. We’ll have to purchase a service plan on top of that.

Would it be cheaper to buy the phone through a carrier? Let’s look at some options.

T-Mobile

In response to Apple’s announcement, T-Mobile launched JUMP! on Demand. This limited-time deal offers the iPhone 6S for $20 per month for 18 months, with an upgrade up to three times per year.

(That sounds exciting until you realize new iPhones simply don’t come out that often. This could, however, come in handy if you want to jump ship to Android after giving Apple a shot.)

The monthly payments are the same, regardless of the iPhone’s capacity, but for the 64GB, I’d pay $99 upfront (a 16GB phone has no upfront payment).

To match the AppleCare+ support Apple’s offering, I’d also purchase hardware insurance and software support. Premium Handset Protection is $8 per month, and Lookout Mobile Security Premium insurance is $4 per month, so that’s an extra $12 per month per device.

• $40 for two iPhone 6S 64GB
• $16 for two Premium Handset Protection
• $8 for two Mobile Security Premium

= $64 per month, plus $198 upfront, to buy our phones through T-Mobile

To get the service we need from T-Mobile, we’ll sign up for the Simple Choice Plan, with two lines. T-Mobile is unique in letting you build your family plan based on the amount of data each line will use, so you can get just what you need.

For 5GB of 4G LTE data each, the first line will cost us $70. The second will cost $50, but after 1GB, data speeds are reduced.

Unlimited Talk & Text and WiFi tethering are included, and there’s no additional line access fee. There’s also no activation fee, regardless of the source of the phone.

All told, service from T-Mobile will cost $120 per month. Add that to the payments for our phones and insurance, and buying phones and service through T-Mobile will cost us $184 per month, plus $198 upfront.

If we purchase our iPhones through Apple and sign up for T-Mobile service, we’ll pay $193.16 per month, and nothing upfront.

Sprint

Sprint’s offer, iPhone Forever, is available through December 31. Through this program, you trade in your old smartphone and get a new iPhone 6S for $15 per month for 22 months. (Without the trade-in, the monthly price is $22.)

You can upgrade whenever a new iPhone comes out, regardless of how long you’ve been paying for the plan. Plus, it sounds like you can trade in any smartphone — so my shall-remain-nameless colleague who’s still rocking a 3GS is in luck.

To get a 64GB iPhone 6S, trading in my 5C, I’ll pay $19.77 per month, with no upfront payment. (That’s with “good credit.” When I selected “building credit” on Sprint’s Pre-order tool, it told me I’d pay $225 down and only $9.32 monthly.) Through Sprint, I can also purchase AppleCare+ for $129.

• $39.54 for two 64GB iPhone 6S
• $129 upfront for AppleCare+

= $39.54 per month, plus $129 upfront, to buy our phones through Sprint

Now let’s add service.

For 10GB shared data, unlimited talk and text and mobile hotspot on Sprint’s Family Share Pack plan, we’ll pay $100 per month. That’s with $0 in line access fees, plus a $36 activation fee per line.

Add service costs to the payments for our phones, and we’ll pay $139.54 per month getting both from Sprint.

If we purchase our iPhones through Apple and sign up for Sprint service, we’ll pay $173.16 per month.

It’s No $200 iPhone, But $330 Isn’t Bad

Note that both Sprint and T-Mobile’s installment plans offer the iPhone at a reduced price.

Through T-Mobile, you can pay $24 per month for 18 months, then pay $164 if you want to keep the phone. That brings the price of the iPhone 6S to $524, $125 less than Apple’s retail price.

Through Sprint’s limited-time-offer, the iPhone 6S will only run you $330, plus the trade-in of your current iPhone.

AT&T

To stay in the game, AT&T rolled out AT&T Next this month, an installment plan that allows you to pay full retail price for a phone over a period of 20, 24 or 30 months, with early upgrade options.

AT&T Next 24 would let me purchase a 64GB iPhone 6S for $25 per month over 30 months, with an option to upgrade after 24 months. Mobile insurance would cost $6.99 per month per device.

• $50 for two 64GB iPhone 6S
• $13.98 for mobile insurance on two phones

= $63.98 per month to buy our phones through AT&T

With AT&T’s No Annual Service Contract plan option (a service plan for phones purchased through AT&T Next, full upfront payment or a third party), we’ll get Unlimited Talk & Text and 15GB data (with rollover) for $100. They also charge a $15 access fee for each line.

• $100 15GB family plan
• $30 for two lines

= $130 per month for AT&T service

• $63.98 per month for our phones and insurance

= $193.98 per month to buy our phones and service through AT&T

If we purchase our phones through Apple and sign up for AT&T service, we’ll pay $203.16 per month.

Verizon

I’m sort of biased going in, because I’m already with Verizon. I like their network and customer service, and I’m less impressed by what I’ve seen and heard from other carriers.

But the $201.60 I pay each month? Not as great. If these other plans can compete, I’m open to change.

First, I could simply renew my current MORE Everything Plan and pay the subsidized price for a new iPhone. While contract plans are no longer available to new customers, Verizon wants to make sure existing customers know they can stick with their current plans if they want.

Switching to the new plan, simply called The Verizon Plan, will be cheaper. But does Verizon’s monthly installment plan make more sense than buying my iPhone from Apple?

My 64GB iPhone 6S from Verizon will run $31.24 per month over 24 months. Comprehensive insurance is $11 per month, per device.

• $62.48 for two 64GB iPhone 6S
• $22 for insurance for two phones

= $84.48 per month to buy for our phones from Verizon

On its new plans, Verizon has actually boosted the value for service. I currently pay $80 per month for 10GB of data; on the new Verizon Plan, I’d pay the same amount for 12GB.

Plus, we’ll pay a line access fee of $20 per phone.

• $80 for 12GB Verizon Plan
• $40 access fee for two lines

= $120 per month for Verizon service

• $84.48 per month for our phones and insurance

= $204.48 per month to buy our phones and service through Verizon

In the end, Verizon is the only carrier Apple actually beats when it comes to the price of buying our phones.

If we buy our iPhones through Apple and sign up for Verizon service, we’ll pay $193.16.

On top of that, Verizon’s monthly installment plan offers no option for an early upgrade like its competitors do. Even without a service contract, I would likely wait two years for my next iPhone.

Where to Get the iPhone 6S

So, what will I do?

The numbers definitely show Sprint to be our best option. Using their limited-time iPhone Forever offer, we can both upgrade to the iPhone 6S 64G with no upfront payment and save more than $60 on our monthly cell phone bill.

Armed with this information, I think we’re ready to make the switch!

Your Turn: Are you planning to buy a new iPhone or other smartphone this year? Will you take advantage of one of these new installment plans?

Dana Sitar is a Staff Writer at The Penny Hoarder. She also writes about writing, work, life and love for blogs and books, and sometimes things people care about, like Huffington Post and that one time she had an article published in The Onion. Follow along on Twitter: @danasitar.

The post Which Major Cell Phone Company Offers the Best Deal on the New iPhone? appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Your Credit Card Is Changing: What You Need to Know

Oct. 1 is a big day in the credit card world. Find out what’s happening and whether you’ll be affected.

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10 Tips for Selling Products Online

Making a well-designed website is part of building a successful online business. Learn 10 tips for selling products online at HowStuffWorks.

Source Business & Money - HowStuffWorks http://ift.tt/1KHjuhI

10 Tips for Selling Products Online

Making a well-designed website is part of building a successful online business. Learn 10 tips for selling products online at HowStuffWorks.

Source Business & Money - HowStuffWorks http://ift.tt/1KHjuhI

Today Only: Get Amazon Prime for Just $67

If you’ve been eyeing an Amazon Prime subscription, grab it now!

Today only, you can buy Amazon Prime for $67, a 33% savings off its usual $99 price tag.

Amazon’s original series, Transparent, won five awards at the Emmys last Sunday. To celebrate, they’re offering this amazing deal — but not for long! To get the discount, you have to buy your Amazon Prime membership before 11:59pm PT today.

Why Buy Amazon Prime?

You don’t just get fast, free shipping — although that awesome perk can pay for itself quickly, especially with Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up.

You also get instant streaming access to over a million songs and thousands of TV shows and movies, as well as unlimited cloud photo storage and free Kindle ebooks.

Once you buy your subscription, use these tips to save even more on your purchases.

I, for one, can’t wait to jump on this deal. My student subscription will end soon, and this one only costs $18 more!

Your Turn: Will you buy an Amazon Prime membership today?

Jamie Cattanach (@jamiecattanach) is junior writer at The Penny Hoarder and a native Floridian. She’s passionate about learning, literature, chocolate and finding ways to live the good life as cost-effectively as possible.

The post Today Only: Get Amazon Prime for Just $67 appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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How to Make an Extra $300 a Year Searching the Internet

Google may have become synonymous with “search,” but it’s not the only name in this game.

If you’re feeling reluctant to look elsewhere, alternative search engines have a pretty convincing argument for branching out: They’ll pay you to search.

I’m all about making money for something I’m already doing for free. Earn up to $300 per year in gift cards to your favorite retailers — or even cold, hard cash — by making the switch to one of these three search tools.

Swagbucks

Earn: 25-50 SBs (about $0.25-$0.50) per day

Use Swagbucks as your default search engine (powered by Yahoo!), and earn SBs you can cash in for gift cards from top retailers. Amazon is the most popular option, but my personal favorite is PayPal, since you can use it anywhere.

One SB is equal to about $0.01 USD, so every 100 SBs is about $1. Also keep an eye out for bonuses that earn you extra SBs and their Rewards page, which sometimes lets you get larger gift cards for fewer SBs.

Once you’re signed up, you can also earn Swag Bucks for online shopping, watching videos and using coupons.

Bing Rewards

Earn: up to 25 credits (about $0.25) per day

Maximize your SB rewards by signing up for Bing Rewards. Bing requires you have a Live or Hotmail account, and you’ll use the Bing search engine.

With Bing Rewards, you’ll start out at Member status and work your way up to Silver and Gold. Earning SIlver status is pretty easy: Complete a couple of intro tasks and earn 200 search credits. For achieving Silver status, you’ll earn 50 bonus credits.

At Gold status, you get a 10% discount when you cash in credits for rewards. That means you’ll get a larger gift card for fewer credits. To achieve Gold status, you have to redeem credits for rewards, complete 150 qualifying searches per month and earn 750 lifetime credits.

SendEarnings

Earn: up to $0.15 per day

SendEarnings is different from the other two options because they pay out in cash. Instead of earnings points you redeem for gift cards, you get real money.

Like Swagbucks, SendEarnings offers cash rewards for a variety of tasks, including online searches through their proprietary search engine.

Earn $0.01 for each of your first five qualified searches and $0.01 for every two after that. You can earn up to $0.15 per day through the SendEarnings search engine.

You’re already searching online — why not start getting paid for it? It might not make you a millionaire, but hey, it’s free money!

Your Turn: Have you used any of these services to earn rewards for searching? Will you make the switch from your current search engine?

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. We would have shared them with you anyway, but a true “penny hoarder” would be a fool not to take the company’s money.

The post How to Make an Extra $300 a Year Searching the Internet appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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10 Ways to Market an Online Business

Marketing an online business is time-consuming but necessary. Learn 10 ways to market an online business at HowStuffWorks.

Source Business & Money - HowStuffWorks http://ift.tt/1Wnbmu1

10 Ways to Market an Online Business

Marketing an online business is time-consuming but necessary. Learn 10 ways to market an online business at HowStuffWorks.

Source Business & Money - HowStuffWorks http://ift.tt/1Wnbmu1

A Step-by-Step Guide to Generating Clients by Writing Case Studies

You can use many methods to improve your conversion rate.

But very few can improve your conversion rate as much as case studies can.

Case studies have a few big benefits:

• they resonate with prospects
• they show that your product or service can work
• the transparency increases the trust a reader has in you

All of these benefits are important, but the last one—in particular. 

Trust is one of the most important factors in conversion rate optimization:

Why is trust important? The reasons might seem obvious, but data explains these reasons to eliminate all doubt.

A study by Edelman showed that gaining a customer’s trust has many rewards:

Obviously, most will buy your products if they trust you and need what you’re selling.

On top of that, they will recommend you to friends. And because they trust you, they would rather pay you more for a product than go to a competitor, all because they know what they’re getting when they buy from you.

But trust is getting harder to earn.

The same study showed that 62% of people (worldwide) trusted corporations (businesses) less than the year before.

I don’t blame them.

You read story after story about shocking business practices (even from brands such as Amazon).

Without trust, there can be no loyalty. And loyalty is another key factor behind purchasing and recommending you to others.

There’s a reason I’m telling you all this.

Trust is something you can earn before or after a sale.

Both of these time periods are important, but one is harder than the other: gaining trust before a sale.

It’s tough to convince people to give you a chance when they don’t really know you.

And that’s where case studies come in: case studies are one of the best ways to not only attract the attention of prospects but to also gain their trust and get them to convert.

It’s for this reason almost all your favorite email marketers include case studies in their sales funnels.

3 reasons why case studies blow away all standard “trust” tactics (i.e., testimonials)

The case study is the perfect combination of content that can attract traffic and increase trust in your brand.

According to a survey of content marketers, 70% believe case studies are very effective as a marketing tactic.

The only tactic that’s rated higher is in-person events (tied with webinars).

Essentially, a case study is social proof on steroids, and I’ll explain why.

Reason #1 – They’re more detailed: A typical case study is at least 400-500 words. It describes the customer, their problem, and how the product helped them.

Compare that to a typical testimonial:

A testimonial is usually between 50-100 words.

Put simply, there’s no possible way to go into any serious detail in just a few words.

But when most people are trying to learn about a product or a brand, the number one thing they’re looking for is detail. You have to convince them that you’re the real deal, and providing detailed information is the best way to do that.

Reason #2 – They’re data-driven, and not just a bit: Part of being able to include more detail means being able to include data (and lots of it).

In a testimonial, you might be able to say that “[someone’s] traffic increased by 20%.”

But with a case study, you can provide graphs or snapshots of reports showing the traffic increase over time.

Furthermore, you could compare this to the year before, project future growth, and show how the increased traffic led to more traffic.

Reason #3 – They feel more “real”: Anyone can fake a testimonial pretty easily. I don’t recommend it, but obviously it happens.

You’ve probably seen testimonials that just seem made up:

They’re too perfect and sound like some intern from a marketing department wrote them.

Not surprisingly, people don’t put the same stock in testimonials as they used to.

But a case study is different.

You’re featuring actual customers who can be looked up. You’re including not just one quote, but several.

You’re also including real proof of your product or service being used.

For 99% of prospects, this is enough to ward off any suspicion of your case study being fake.

And because case studies include real details about your customer (or their company), they often resonate with readers. It helps them picture your product or service bringing them exactly the same success as your past customers had.

I probably don’t have to tell you that if you can get a prospect to picture your product helping them, a sale won’t be too difficult.

Where case studies fit in with your business

Here’s the bad news:

Case studies aren’t for everyone.

For some types of businesses, case studies are amazing. For others, they can actually be detrimental.

The basic guiding principle behind case studies is this:

The more uncertainty there is behind your product or service, the more case studies will help you.

The key word here is “uncertainty,” which is always defined from a prospect’s point of view.

You may need to survey your prospects in order to see what they are uncertain about. In general, potential buyers wonder:

• Will the product work for me?
• Will it work as well as I want it to?
• Does it justify its cost?
• How long will it take to get a result?
• Should I trust this company?

Take a complex product or service such as marketing consulting as an example.

An average client knows they need help with marketing, but not much more beyond that.

So when they come across a sales page of a marketing consultant, they are interested but feel a lot of uncertainty. They don’t know what “marketing consulting” really is or whether they need it.

One option for you would be to describe your process in great detail on your page. Many have tried that…and failed. People don’t care about the process—they care about the result.

The better option would be to create case studies that focus on the results, allowing you to clear up those questions that cause uncertainty.

Case studies are not for everyone: Wait a second, but what if you sell a really simple product? There’s not a lot of uncertainty for a customer.

If I am buying a five-dollar spatula, I’m not very worried whether or not my purchase pans out.

Can you imagine how ridiculous it would be if you created case studies for a simple product like a spatula?

Visitors might start to wonder if it’s a joke or why you’re trying so hard to sell a simple product. A case study for a simple product like this would have very little effect on your conversion rate.

So, what kind of companies should create case studies?

The answer is simple: any business that sells a complex product. Notice that I didn’t say expensive. Although price is often a source of some uncertainty, it’s only one part.

The most common products and services that benefit from case studies are:

• Software
• Consulting
• Web developer services
• Copywriting services  

Step 1: If you mess this up, no one will read your case study

By now, you should know if case studies are a good fit for your business. If not, go back and read the last section.

When you’re ready, let’s get started.

Now picture what a visitor to your website sees when they are checking out your products or services.

If you have case studies, you’ll either want to incorporate them into your existing sales page (like Ramit Sethi does), or you can make a separate page for just your case studies.

Either way, you can’t just shove your case study in front of your prospects.

Even though you’ll likely find that visitors who read your case studies convert at a much higher rate, you need to get them to read the case study first.

And it all starts with one thing: a descriptive headline.

A great case study headline is different from a great headline for a blog post.

Think about it: the context is completely different.

If you’re trying to get someone to visit your website and read a blog post, you need to stand out from all the competing content on social media, forums, or in search results.

You do this by crafting a headline that provokes curiosity and interest.

But when someone is already on your website and has shown interest in your product, you don’t need to create the curiosity (it’s already there).

Instead, when creating a case study headline, you need to be descriptive and results-oriented.

Include percentages, sales numbers, or any other relevant metrics that show that your product or service produces the results that your prospect is interested in.

Numbers are huge for case studies. Quantifying your results makes everything more tangible for your readers.

Sometimes, however, numbers are not an option because that wasn’t the desired result.

A good headline, in those cases, describes the result.

The two highlighted examples in the picture above both emphasize a unique type of result.

On the right, the headline tells you that HubSpot software was used to grow TechShepherd’s client base. But not just any type of client—enterprise clients.

HubSpot knows that some visitors looking at case studies are wondering if the software can help them get more enterprise clients (a very specific type of client). This headline will immediately draw clicks from those prospects.

In the second example, the headline tells us that the software can be used to improve lead nurturing and sales productivity of chat services. This is a result that HubSpot knows other chat services would be interested in.

A great case study headline consists of 3 things:

1. The customer – You need to either name the customer if well known or specify the type of company if relevant (e.g., live chat service provider). Optional: do both.
2. The benefit or result – The main focus of the headline is to tell your prospects how your past customer benefited from your product or service. Use numbers when possible, but a description is better than nothing.
3. The service or product - Prospects want to know if there is a specific product or service that you offer that they should be interested in. If you sell multiple products, specify which one.

If you ever need some good examples of case study headlines, take a look at HubSpot’s continuously growing collection of case studies.

The reason why it’s so important to be descriptive is that you want to have headlines that appeal directly to different parts of your audience.

The more relevant a case study is to a prospect (in terms of niche and use), the higher your conversion rate will be.

Step 2: How to put the case study in terms your visitors will understand

After you get your prospects hooked on the headline, your next goal is to focus on the customer in your case study.

You want to describe not only the company but also the big problem they faced before using your product.

The reason behind this kind of description is to help your reader relate to your case study customer as much as possible.

You want your prospect to think: “They’re basically describing my company.”

That’s what resonance is.

If you can get them to think that, what do you think will happen when you reveal that you tripled your customer’s profit (or some other benefit)? They’ll have no choice but to try your service.

Now, you’re not likely to perfectly describe your every prospect, but the more aspects of your customer they can relate to, the better. That’s why it’s important to describe your case study customer in detail.

The situation matters just as much as the company: Start by describing the company and their main product(s).

After that, you want to describe the problem your past customer faced.

But don’t just describe it, agitate it.

Chances are if your prospect works for a similar type of company, they’re facing the same problem themselves. Take this chance to spell out the problem so that your prospects are able to relate to the difficulties your customer faced:

Many potential HubSpot customers (for whom the case study in the above picture was created) are trying to compete with big, “deep-pocketed competitors.”

Highlighting problems like these ensures that your case study resonates with your readers as much as possible.

Step 3: Leave out the bias, focus on the customer

The next main part of writing a great case study is to explain your customer’s thought process and research.

There are two main reasons why you would want to do this.

First, it makes the case study seem less biased. You don’t want it to read as a typical “sales page.” You want it to be a real account of your customer’s experience. Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as possible.

Secondly, it also prevents your prospects from spending time on your competitors’ websites.

Imagine if your prospect lands on your site first to begin their research. Although they may also be planning to research your main competitors, if your case study can make them feel as if they are reading about themselves, chances are they will stay on your website instead of going to the competitors’.

You’ll notice that in most great case studies, the reason why the customer chose your product is usually given as a quote.

It’s kind of weird to write something like: “Customer X chose Quick Sprout for marketing help because we’re obviously amazing.”

It doesn’t sound real or convincing compared to a quote from an actual customer.

Step 4: You’ve earned a chance to explain

Up until this point, you’ve focused solely on your customer.

You’ve captured your prospect’s attention and made your past customer’s story resonate with them.

Because the reader already knows the end result (from the headline), they are insanely curious at this point, wondering what exactly did you do?

Now, they are more than willing to hear more about your products and learn about their main uses.

Mention all of the key aspects of your product that the customer used and explain how they used them:

If you were selling a consulting service, you’d want to talk about how you helped conduct an audit, develop a strategy, and then implement it.

You can expand this section from a single paragraph to two or three if there are a lot of important parts to your product or service that led to the end result.

Step 5: Show that you’re not all talk

You made bold claims of great results in the headline, and now it’s time to back those up.

Just like when writing a data-driven blog post, you never want to just claim that your product produced a result.

You need to support it by either the data that your customer supplied you with or by a quote from your customer.

Numbers will stand out automatically. On top of that, you can also use bold or italics to make the most important results stand out further.

This is the point where you want your reader to say, “I want that too!”

Step 6: Make your case study more compelling by including these

If you implement the first 5 steps, you’ll have a very solid 400-500 word case study.

But there are a few more things you need to include if you want to maximize your conversion rate.

Considering that case studies take a lot of time and effort to put together, you need to make them as effective as possible in order to achieve a good return on your investment.

One of the main ways you can maximize the effectiveness of a case study is with images.

First of all, images help break up the text and make the case study more readable as a whole. Even though your prospect is highly interested in the subject, it’s hard to just read text (think of reading a textbook with no pictures—boring).

But the most important reason to use images is that they convey complex results in a way that is obvious and easy to understand and that they add yet another degree of realism to your case study (I’ll explain more soon).

Image type #1 – images of results: One of the best types of images to include are charts.

Charts allow you to show the most important result (profit, leads, conversions, etc.) over time. This makes any impact of your product obvious:

HubSpot usually includes at least one chart per case study, partly because the graph is generated by their software:

But you can incorporate other types of images as well.

Ramit Sethi includes screenshots of his students’ successes, e.g., being featured on big sites such as Lifehacker:

Any image that shows the results that a customer has gotten is worth including.

Image type #2 – images of customers: Part of having content resonate with your readers is finding as many ways to connect with them as possible.

You started making a connection with your prospects when you described their company, products, and problems.

But there’s one other way that people love to connect through: other people.

It’s nice to see a face behind an article. Or, in this situation, a case study.

In addition to typical case studies, HubSpot also features their partners, complete with relatively large pictures of them:

On top of that, you’ll also see at least one picture of the customer (or their team) in the actual case study itself:

I would recommend going a bit bigger with the picture

In the case studies on I Will Teach You To Be Rich, the customer is usually featured right away under the headline in a large picture:

The sooner you introduce the “face” of your customer, the sooner a reader can tie all the information in your case study to an actual person.

On top of just including a picture of a person, it’s always great to include a picture of the customer’s result.

For this particular product, the result was creating a highly successful book:

Including a picture of the end result is also a viable strategy for some companies. It helps the reader picture what the product will look like in their own life:

Step 7: Don’t let the fire burn out

You’ve led your prospect through quite a story.

First, they empathized with your customer, and now, after learning of all the results, they envy your customer.

Your prospect is pumped and in the perfect state to enter your sales funnel.

Even if you just end your case study here, you’ll still get a good conversion rate. Readers will navigate around your site and find a way to purchase your products.

However, you will lose some of your potential customers.

To minimize that loss, make an extremely clear call to action (CTA) asking them to take the next step (whatever that is for your product).

At the bottom of every HubSpot case study, there is not just one CTA, but 4.

The CTAs come right at the end of the article and are the only things there. If someone reads the whole case study, it’s very clear what they should do next.

Ramit does it a bit differently. He ends his case studies with a CTA to download a highly related lead magnet.

Again, the use of color and large text makes the next action obvious to the reader.

This second approach works well if you have a well-developed email marketing funnel or only sell a course or product at certain times (let them know through email when they can buy next).

How to solve the hardest part of making case studies…

The hardest part of creating case studies is writing them, right?

Nope.

Writing them is actually pretty straightforward if you follow all the steps in this post up until this point.

The hardest part is getting customers to agree to be featured and allowing you to publish their data.

However, if you plan ahead and approach it right, you can create a system that regularly produces highly motivated case study subjects.

Part 1 – Pick the right customers: While not all customers will want to be the subject of a case study, you also don’t want to write a case study about every customer.

If you created websites primarily for large companies, would it make sense to create case studies of every customer that owned a small business?

Probably not. You want to create case studies that are going to resonate with the main types of prospects you attract (or want to attract).

That’s because if someone from a big business sees only examples of your work for small businesses featured on your website, they will not relate to those case studies. 

Pick customers that not only love your product and got great results from it but also fit the profile of the customers you’re trying to convert.

Part 2 – Identify them early: Most companies decide at some point that they should probably have a few case studies on their website.

So they contact past customers and ask them to participate.

Chances are that customer won’t have relevant data from their experience sitting around.

You’ll end up producing low quality case studies with this method.

Instead, every time you get a new customer, decide if you want to create a case study with them.

Part 3 – Give value before asking them to participate: Just because you’ve decided that you want to create a case study using your new customer doesn’t mean you should ask them right away.

If you do, it will sound like you’re asking them to do the work for you, which most will understandably pass on.

Additionally, this can turn your new customers off your product, reducing the chance that they will buy again in the future.

The better alternative is to give them value first.

Check in with them often during the post-buy period and make sure that they aren’t having any issues with your product.

Obviously, you should fix any issues they may encounter and provide any required assistance at this point.

Then, once you’re sure they like your product, think about how being involved in a case study could help your customer.

Here are some common benefits:

• Exposure - being featured positively in a case study can expose their company to a new audience. It’s good for the brand and can even lead to customers. If you can also promote the case study to a large email list, let them know.
• Extra help (free) - when someone is a case study subject, you have even more incentive to make sure they have amazing results. Offer to assign extra help integrating and optimizing your product into their business for free (and also take care of compiling reports/data so they don’t have to do any extra work).
• Recognition - if you’re a well-known company in your industry, you can highlight your case study participants elsewhere on your website as industry leaders.

Start with the benefits, and then ask if they’d like to participate.

If you’re really eager to do a case study on a particular customer, you can sweeten the deal even more.

The most common way to do this is to offer a free product or a free month of your product, depending on what it is.

Part 4 – Make it clear what you’re looking for: This is when a case study can either become great or just mediocre.

You cannot make up a case study as you go along. I can’t emphasize this enough. Before you start, you need to outline the problem your customer is facing and know the specific outcomes you’re trying to produce.

That way, you know exactly where to focus your extra attention to produce a great result.

In addition, knowing what you will be evaluating will ensure that you can collect data from the beginning that can be used in the case study.

Unless you sell a product with built-in reporting like HubSpot does, you need to take extra care to ensure that you have the right data (and enough of it).

Start by showing your customer what a good case study looks like (preferably one of your own). While some customers may already know, many may not.

Next, explain what you need from them and provide a document with all the information. Typically, this will include certain data and access to at least one person for quotes and explanations (if your customer is a company).

If you don’t do this, you’ll often have a difficult time getting information from anyone. They’ll all try to say that they’re too busy and try to pass it off to someone else. Get one to three specific contacts who are involved in implementing the product (and make sure they know about it).

Finally, give them a rough timeline so they know what to expect and when to expect any benefits (that you explained previously).

Conclusion

Creating content that both resonates with your readers and makes them want to buy your products isn’t easy.

However, case studies are your best bet at achieving that.

Although writing case studies may seem a bit abstract at first, if follow these 7 steps, you’ll produce compelling high-converting case studies.

If you have any questions about creating case studies or whether they’re a good fit for your business, let me know in a comment below, and I’ll try to help.

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