While the idea of starting a home based business may appeal to many people, there are a few things you should consider prior to investing your capital. Home based business appeals to individuals primarily because of the following reasons:- Flexibility of working hours- Ability to control level of income- Ability to hold several jobs at once- Comfort of having home as a work stationIn the world of the 9 to 5 grind, one does not usually experience these types of working conditions, yet they are a great motivating factor towards starting a home based business. Picking the right home based business is important. Ideally, one gets both the job satisfaction they need and the profit margins they desire.Here are 3 great tips on how to choose the right business for you:Consider your level of knowledge in the businessGoing into a business requires not just passion and drive but also the technical know-how of how to start, run and make a profit from the business. Going into a business that you know little about may result in a waste of time, money and other resources. If you decide to go into a business that you have little or no experience in, make sure you take a few courses to know how the business works before embarking on it.Decide between product and serviceMaking this decision is very vital to the success of your business. Deciding whether your home business will be product based or service oriented will determine how much resource you need to invest when starting off. Services require much less capital because they are usually based on a certain skill or expertise that you have. If you find a market whose demand is high for your skill then this might bring you a lot of profits. Product based businesses need a lot of capital to start because of the need for manufacturing and keeping stock. If you have ready market then your product can sell very well.Consider the amount of time you needPicking the right home based business involves a lot more than just considering the business logistics. Personal attributes and traits also come strongly into play. For instance, Home based business requires a lot of time and dedication. An individual who is lazy and under-motivated will definitely not make the kind of money they hope to. Similarly a stay at home mum with several kids will have her hands full most times of the day. This does not mean however that such people cannot find a home based business that works for them. Calculate the amount of time you will need to put in to make the amount of money you want and project tis over periods of time. The next step is to work out a comfortable schedule and adhere to it. In this way, you will spend time wisely and succeed in your home based business.There is no harm is seeking help from successful entrepreneurs who have experience working from home. They will point you in the right direction and offer you valuable tips on which business is best for you. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you should follow your passion and your drive, and you will ultimately be successful in whatever you choose.

WHAT IS A PENNY AUCTION?

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

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

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

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

HOW PENNY AUCTIONS WORK!

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

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

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

HOW TO WIN!

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

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

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

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

HOW TO AVOID SCAM SITES!

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

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

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

CONCLUSION!

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

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

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

Are you thinking about a home based business, but are not sure if it’s the right decision for you? There are countless of work from home opportunities that flood the Internet and our emails every day, making it even harder to decide.

If you’re not quite sure where to begin, don’t despair. Years ago, I too was faced with the same decision. I had just delivered my first child and was on maternity leave for a few weeks. I knew that I would have to return to work when my 6-week leave was over. I battled over the idea of someone else watching my daughter, even though I had already researched and visited several day cares and finally chosen a fun loving place. But I didn’t have a choice. I needed money to pay bills, get diapers, buy infant formula, the list continued. So, on week seven, I returned to work tearfully leaving my child in someone else’s care. It was a very difficult decision for any new mother to make. That day, I resolved to find a way to work from home by either working for someone else or starting a home based business of my own.

My dream to work from home didn’t come true right away, but I didn’t give up. I tried several work from home opportunities – everything from typing to stuffing envelopes – and found several scams and programs that just didn’t work. I invested thousands of dollars into different businesses hoping to find a legitimate and profitable home based business. After trying again and again, I finally found a program that worked for me. If I can do it, so can you.

Maybe your reason to start a home based business is to build income and supplement your current cash flow. You may want the luxury of setting your own hours. Maybe you are tired of the time you spend commuting and want to save on gas. Or maybe you’ve been laid off and you don’t know how you can make ends meet. Whatever your reason, don’t get discouraged. It’s okay to want to improve your life and get out of the rat-race. It’s all right to want to start a home based business and build residual income. You may have tried different home based programs in the past and run into a lot of scams. Don’t let the scams prevent you from achieving your dream. If you’re thinking about working from home, you can. You may have been blessed with a great skill that you can offer as a service or product. Or you may want to start a home based business that’s already been created, so you can save some extra time and energy.

Take the first step and give it a try. Do your research about the home based business you would like to start or join. Are there other businesses in your area that are offering the same services? How are they doing financially and how are they getting business? Will the home based business require that you leave your home to drive more business your way? How will you advertise your business? If you’re still not sure, there are a lot of free resources on home based businesses. You may start with your local library or review home businesses online. If you don’t have a lot of money to invest, look for a home based business that’s already established and includes an automated system. Make sure it offers the support and training you need, so you can start generating income.

The home based business that I own is 98% automated and very cost-effective. There are some good programs out there. Just be sure to do your homework and research them thoroughly. Make your dream to have a home based business of your own a reality. Nothing beats a failure but a try.