Self Storage as an Investment

by Schmitt Co

Are you considering self storage as an investment? Self storage is a rapidly growing market worldwide but even more so in the United States. The United States has over fifty thousand self storage locations, with more being opened at a high rate. This can be attributed to various social factors, including increasing divorce rates (which call for storing personal belongings), an increasing home improvement market (which requires more storage for materials and tools), and an increasing rate of home loss.

As experts in the self storage management market we look at hundreds of factors when we consider marketing or managing a storage facility. As a potential investor, you should look at a few key points when considering self storage as an investment. Security, cleanliness, climate control, and complimentary services should be your main focus. Most self storage facilities provide rolling metal doors, with entry-controls ranging from basic lock and key to thumbprint scanners. Security guards are often employed at upscale self storage units, and cameras are a common sight as well. Wire mesh or chain link ceilings provide significantly more security than do dropped ceilings.

Climate control is often overlooked but a huge selling point to some potential renters. Organic materials kept in self storage can accumulate mildew, mold, or be damaged by water if humidity is not well-regulated. Similarly, metallic materials can rust. Keep this in mind when looking at a potential self storage investment are they prepared to regulate humidity (temperature is not quite so important), as it is a prerequisite for any proper storage unit. This can be accomplished by central conditioning systems, which are generally low maintenance and low cost.

Complimentary services are not to be forgotten for those wanting to get into the self storage investment arena. Many self storage facilities offer free dollies or rolling carts. Elevators and freight lifts are used in multi-story units.  These are potential selling points for certain potential renters and may contribute to a higher occupancy rate. Providing trucks or moving vans to customers, whether for free or for a rental fee are services to consider as well. There are numerous other aspects to take into consideration. Self storage is quickly becoming a ripe market, and should be taken advantage of as soon as possible.

About the Author

Schmitt and Co has been in the Self Storage Management industry for over 30 years. From day to day management to long term goal setting, we are the self storage experts.

Where to invest today? Consider Oil & gas

by Mike Traweek

With everyone's attention focused on the crisis in the financial markets, many are overlooking the fact that there are still good investment avenues open if you know where to find them and how to evaluate them. One such avenue is oil and gas and this article will show you why it is still a good investment, and how you can evaluate the ones you find.

Let me clarify that I am specifically talking about investing in oil & gas drilling programs. There are other vehicles to invest in the energy industry but they are currently not doing well so I am focusing only on drilling ventures. So what is a drilling venture?

The entire oil & gas industry depends upon the ability of companies to locate and produce oil and gas from pockets hidden under the earth's surface. Drilling programs do this both for public and private companies. The limitation with public companies is that the only way you can invest with them is via their stock. While this can be a good long term investment, it does not provide the many benefits of investing directly in an oil & gas drilling program with a private company. Here is why.

Investing in a sound drilling program offers the investor the opportunity for substantial returns, plus it offers tax benefits that are only found by investing in these programs. By substantial returns I mean that returns from 50 to 100% per year are attainable, plus these returns can last for 10 to 20 years. I must point out that these returns decrease over time at an average rate of 10% per year, so the returns do decrease as the reserves are depleted. Still these types of returns are hard to find elsewhere, if you can find them at all.

The tax benefits include three distinct mechanisms which when combined make this the most lucrative investment vehicle available. The tax code was revised in 1986 to allow for the following:

* 100% write-off of intangible drilling costs (IDC's) * 100% depreciation write-off of capital equipment over 7 years * 15% of income from the production is tax free (not a deduction)

IDC's are those costs which are essentially services consumed to drill the well. They include hauling, drilling fluids, core samples, electric logs, the actual drilling of the well, and many other services. Since they are not capital goods like tanks and pump jacks, they can be written off immediately regardless of the outcome of the well. What this means is that the risk capital invested in a program is reduced by the amount of the tax bracket for each investor. Essentially the investor is using $0.60 dollars (varying with the tax bracket) to invest in the program. I know of no other investment vehicle that offers this and this alone is one reason it is popular with those who have done it.

Depreciation is well understood though it is worthy to note that equipment is 100% depreciated in 7 years.

Finally for every dollar the investor earns, 15% is tax free meaning only 85% of the income can be taxed.

It should be clear that this is a great vehicle. The real question is how does one evaluate a program with confidence. To do this, we have prepared a Guide To Oil & Gas Investment which shows how you can accomplish this with confidence once you know what to look for and what you must avoid. For your free guide visit:

http://www.successful-oil-and-gas-investment.com/

By: Mike Traweek NOV8TNS, Inc.

About the Author

Mike Traweek has 30 years of experience in sales and marketing, 20 of which is in the oil & gas industry. His experience includes managing drilling programs in Texas and Kansas as a General Partner.

How To Invest When Market Is Down

by Tony Clifton

Some people have the luck to live most of their active life in calm and prosperous times. What about you? Oh well, you don't even need to tell me. We live in these crazy times together. We don't have the luck of those people.

Does that mean that we should give up investing just because the markets are crazy, stocks are going down and we smell the ghost of deflation? No, not at all.

In fact though times for the markets are best for the smart investor. I'll give you some simple beginner investing tips that can help you invest like the pros - and even much better than them.

When markets are in mass panic, then is the best time to buy When a recession or financial crisis is coming, people start being afraid that the things can go much worse. Why were not they afraid of that when the prices of their investments were high? You have much less to lose when buying low as compared to when the markets are growing. Besides that, markets go in cycles - low times follow high times and the other way around. You should worry most when everything seems bright on the financial markets.

You can only win if you buy when everyone sells in panic. Even if you don't buy exactly at the bottom, you'll still need much less time to reach big profits compared to everyone else (yes, including those mutual fund managers).

Recession is great time for real estate investing The panic of recession does not cause just stock sales. Financial crisis often causes apocalypse at the real estate markets because the banks increase the interest rates and start giving loans harder. The higher rates lead to many people's inability to pay their mortgage and as a result they lose their homes. At the same times the demand of houses goes down because of the harder access to loans and it becomes even harder for these homes to be sold.

This leads to very low house prices which of course is excellent news for the smart investor. If you have the money, buy real estate when everyone is selling.

At low markets you can easier find out what assets have real value When the markets are growing and the prises of everything only go up, it's hard to distinguish which assets have real value and which are in bubble. It's not like that when the market is down. At a down times the bubbled assets lose value like crazy while other lose just a little of their price or stay at the same levels.

It's wrong to think that you should buy only the assets that have lost a lot of their value in the crisis. The ones that have not lost are still good because they are really valuable and not bubbled. With the bubbled assets you can target aggressive gains with some risk (if you don't catch the bottom). The really valuable assets will not bring you such big profits but they are secure and will never crash as bad.

Finally, when the market is down, the buyer is the king. You can negotiate your deals. You can negotiate prices of real estate, construction projects, investments, hiring people and so on. There is no better time for the one who has cash than recession.

About the Author

You don't need to be a guru to win from a down market. All you need is patience and basic beginner investing knowledge - you can gain it on our site http://hywd.info. It will help you learn not only passive investing, but also how to make wealth without taking big risks.

Catalog Shopping Online

by Suta

One of the businesses on the Web that is highly profitable is online catalog shopping. With a growing number of consumer patrons who would rather sit down in front of the computer and would rather stay away from competing with the crowd in the malls, catalog shopping online is a sure hit these days. Time-consuming, and sometime confusing online shopping experiences are to be found, despite the increasing demand of online purchase. This is mainly due to a poor level of usability of most e-commerce sites. Sometimes a sale becomes a page exit from the website because the shopper was not happy with the online shopping experience.

If you are an online catalog shopping site owner, it is just imperative that you find ways to improve the "user-friendliness" of your shopping website. It is easier for potential buyers to find what they are searching for with the help you provide. For better usability, optimize your catalog shopping site by following these tips:

Headings, subheadings, and breadcrumb navigation should be used well: This way you can assure the shopper that he is not lost in the site. It saves time and effort on his part and tells immediately what category of page he is in now.

The top area of the page should contain the search bar: The search bar will ideally be simple and plain for easy usage. Also, you can device it in a way that it can search per catalog or category for easier search experience. It should be easy for users to take advantage of this when searching for merchandise so it should be placed above the fold.

Have your contact information or phone number placed on top of the page. If purchases made online are tracked, it is more convenient for both you and the shopper. However, allowing shoppers to contact you can help you establish relationships with your loyal customers. It also provides a certain level of security for the shopper when they see that the catalog shopping site has a legitimate phone number and address.

A "show page" functionality must be present on your site: The option to see a part of the page, for example a particular item in display, and the choice to show the entire page for each product category must be available. Your customers are being given more buying choices to choose from. For online shoppers, it is just as good to offer products as it is to guarantee them an excellent user experience. A unique selling point is to have a user-friendly catalog shopping website.

About the Author

Article By Suta At: http://2goshopping-online.blogspot.com/

The Need for Speed

by charen smith

Postcards are probably hands down the shortest and quickest forms of marketing to design and get out to the people. The space you need to fill is considerably smaller than what goes into almost any other form of advertising, and the messages are often very brief and to the point.

You put a Come on In kind of message on a postcard, or a Sale This Friday statement. The goal with any postcard is to get your message to people in the shortest span of time possible, which means the message has to be brief or no one will bother to read it.

Because they’re so easy to design and create it means you can get them to your customers much faster than you can with other advertising, and you can send them a lot more often. But can you make the process even faster?

This is where postcard templates come into the picture. A postcard might be quick and easy to design, sure, but you still have to spend a certain amount of time figuring out just where you want the pictures to go, where the words will be on the postcard, and so on.

So what you do instead is set up a certain amount of postcard templates with your designs already there. All you need to do is change out the information in them and send them right back out to the people.

Now you have access to lightening quick direct mailing campaigns for just about any kind of sale or event you want. No matter how short of notice you have you can get your postcards out the door without any hassle.

You also get to save a considerable amount of time on your part that would’ve gone into designing multiple postcards. Many companies send out postcards every month or even every few weeks. That’s a lot of different postcards to design if you aren’t using a template to make the job easier.

And, as the old saying goes, time is indeed money, so why waste your money on something that can be done for cheaper and with greater ease? A postcard might be simple, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it doesn’t take any time at all to design them, and if you are sending them out every few weeks, you don’t want to spend anymore time than you have to on the design aspect.

It isn’t as if getting a solid template is a difficult task to achieve. Once you settle on a few postcard designs you like just make a template from those, and your work is already finished.

The stronger your competition is the greater the need for mobility becomes. Beating the competition by getting a certain message to your customers first can give you a big advantage in the long haul.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit Postcard Templates

About the Author

Charen Smith writes articles about Internet Marketing. She has an extensive knowledge and experience when it comes to business strategies, techniques and business solutions.

Essential & Successful Link Building Tips For 2008/2009

by Steve Hill

It is coming towards the end of 2008, Google have just celebrated their tenth birthday, boy how things have changed in those ten years for those of us involved in the web promotion business. Fair play to Google, I understand their reasons for waging war on the paid links market, however I hear that it is still thriving "underground" as it were. I also agree with their new stance on excessive reciprocal linking, so what forms of link building should a webmaster be involved with and what are the best ways to promote a website in these heady days?

In my humble opinion 2009 is the year where one way backward links are going to be all the rage. They have always been of a higher value than the reciprocal link but next year could be the time when these links are given even extra weight and power.

I have never really understood the value of a reciprocal link in any case. I give you a pound, you give me a pound, where is the value in that. We started with a pound and we still have a pound. Linkmetro really highlighted the whole problem with these types of links and hence a change has been made.

I am one of those people who really believe in the benefits of article marketing. Why? Well to put it in simple terms, it works. I have been writing articles for the last three years, I set myself a goal to write an average of one article per day and have managed to do this for the last eighteen months. The results have been quite amazing and what's more this form of web promotion is free.

I also believe in viral marketing. This is where you start or try to start people talking and more importantly linking to your site because of something that you have wrote on the site. It can be quite tricky to start with to fully comprehend but again it's quite a clever way to obtain those all important backward links.

Without a doubt though, the best way to gain links is by having quality, original and fresh content on your website, a site that you update on a regular basis. Content is king as they say.

About the Author

Steve Hill is a webmaster from Birmingham, he has interests in a number of websites including: stuttering memory foam mattresses DVD replication

Marketing on the'Net: Your Marketing Plan Must Turn Visitors Into Buyers

by Diamonique Fortune

One of the most challenging goals of an Internet Marketer is attracting visitors to your website and then turning them into buyers. The vastness of the Internet makes this an almost impossible task because of the anonymity it creates.

An Internet business is located in cyberspace, which is invisible and infinite. It is completely different from a "real world" business because you can't touch or feel the products, and you can't see the persons you're doing business with. Trust, then becomes a very important issue with an Internet business.

A real world business is operated through a physical location. Even if it is a mail order business, the business is to a physical location with an address. The business and its owner are easier to locate, and business can be conducted face-to-face if desired.

Not so with an Internet business. That means you not only can use conventional forms of marketing and advertising (i.e. catalogs, flyers, classified ads, magazines, newspapers, radio, tv, etc.), that's associated with the real world or offline businesses, but you will need to adapt to using strategies that are exclusive to the Internet.

Because of its vastness and infinite structure, the Internet thrives off of search engines, which in turn thrives off of keywords. And as far as the Internet is concerned, people will mainly find your website while using the search engines.

Keywords are words or search terms that people type in the search engine box for information they are searching for. From a marketing standpoint, and regardless what strategy you use to attract potential customers to your website, keywords will always be the main factor that drives them to your website.

That means your Internet business must be built upon and thrives on keywords. Keywords must be prevalent throughout your marketing, your web content, articles, titles of e-books, books, and used in the description of your products and services.

Once you attract visitors to your website, then your landing page or website must do its job in converting visitors into loyal buying customers. The content on your website then becomes your automated salesman, which if convincing enough, will convert your visitors into buyers. If your marketing plan fails to accomplish this, then your Internet business will not thrive. Without sales, you're out of business.

Once you discover a strategy that works for your business, use it over and over again to create profits for yourself.

About the Author

To learn more about how to successfully market your Internet business go to SuccessLearningNow.com by clicking: Internet Marketing Success Now!

Get Google Ads Free

by Dr. Jon Cohen II

A new breakthrough secret is all you now need in order to get your Google AdWords pay-per-clicks FREE!

A gentleman from New York discovered what he calls an "oversight" on the part of 99.9% of all marketers that allows him to get otherwise paid-for advertising at Google as well as all other search engines that allow sponsored ads.

And no, nothing about his "secret" is illegal - nor does it require that you know someone on the "inside" at Google, Yahoo, MSN, Overture and others.

Instead, the New Yorker boasts proudly "...this is something that I caught onto just before 2000 when there was so much search engine craze running around, and started doing small just to test things at first ... but which I later expanded on after getting the hang of it."

This same fellow went on to start and operate sixteen separate online companies selling everything from pet food, DVDs, children's toys & games, books, software, and sold not only his own manufactured products but became an affiliate for other web businesses - all the while applying his mastermind secret.

Over the course of nearly eight years the New Englander confesses "I've actually gotten over $87 million in advertising that using my secret I never had to pay for ... and the largest share of which was more recently in Google pay-per-clicks as well as other forms of pad advertising at search engines ... all of which I got for free ..."

So powerful is his secret that he's able to monopolize any niche online, and can always secure the top premium spots just above the usual organic results featured at most search engines.

He still has to set up an account with the search engines - but after applying his secret he is removed from having to pay for all the costs otherwise involved. Again, nothing about his secret is either illegal or robs from the search engines. One spokesperson from one of the most popular search engines said chuckling after being made privy to this amazing secret "Wow! Ha! This is really unique ... and in my expert opinion it would only serve to enhance and bring more business to us at [name of search engine withheld for legal & confidentiality reasons] and not cause us to lose business in the slightest. Amazing!"

The northerner revealed that in this nearly eight years' period of time since applying his secret he's done well over $300 million in sales revenue with a most diverse line of products, and most recently in the last two years netted nearly $166 million after really "buckling down and pressing my secret to its fullest potential."

Now to everyone else's fortune, the city slicker is releasing his secret for getting an unlimited amount of pay-per-click ads to the general public. But he's not promising any of us for how long.

A bit of an eccentric, the gentleman says "We'll see just how long I can make it available before it saturates things."

One famous public web guru pointed out that although this man may gain economically more so as a result of the publication of his secret "he's already so amazingly rich that whether he continues or discontinues its sale will neither make nor break the man, but not grabbing it for yourself while it's still available could prove disastrous for you as you may only have one chance, and a very limited one at that, to get this."

It is currently available at:

http://ourmoney56.freegoogle.hop.clickbank.net

...so you may want to head on over there now and get it.

It's in a very easily readable format and is quickly and readily understood and mastered by anyone with even a 4th grade reading level.

While you're there, why not scroll down and review for yourself the huge successes others are now having with this incredible breakthrough in targeted advertising now made freely available to the rest of us?

To your success,

-Barbara

About the Author

A New York Doctor discovered what he calls an oversight on the part 99.9% of all marketers that allows him to get otherwise paid-for advertising at Google as well as all other search engines that allow sponsed as.

Why IRA Investing in Real Estate is a Sound Idea

by Camille Kent

IRA investing in real estate is becoming an increasingly popular choice. If you’ve never heard of the option, it’s because most account custodians don’t offer it.

In order to begin, you need a self-directed account. But, even some companies that have self-directed accounts don’t offer the real estate option. Those that are currently advertising “free and easy online set up� are stock market brokers.

So, just as you carefully choose what investments to make, you have to carefully choose your custodian. The fees they charge vary greatly, as do the services they offer.

The success stories about IRA investing in real estate are amazing. The most successful people are those who are experienced at making real estate investments with their personal funds.

Rehabbers, for example, are people who buy houses that need “some work�. They usually get a very good price and with minimal work are able to resell them for a profit.

But, if you have no experience, you can learn. There are seminars, books and investment clubs. There are groups of experienced investors that basically teach you all about IRA investing in real estate, in a “step-by-step� manner.

They have a lot of good ideas that are particularly relevant for today’s market. The economic problems in this country have affected many people’s credit ratings. Due to all of the foreclosures, most banks no longer make “high-risk� loans.

With the money in your retirement account, you could offer to provide financing at a much higher interest rate than a traditional bank loan. This is usually accomplished with a simple lease-option agreement.

You buy the property. The prospective buyer agrees to lease it for a period of time and has an “option to buy� at the end of the lease. In a year’s time, they should be able to improve their credit rating enough to qualify for traditional financing.

You sell the house for more than you paid for it. The rental income and the profits go back into the account. Any cost related to the transaction comes out of it. That’s just one example of how IRA investing in real estate can work.

Along with learning about the buying, selling and leasing, you should also learns some rules related to prohibited transactions. I’ll give you some examples. You cannot sell the house you are currently living in to your retirement account. It may seem funny, but a lot of people ask about that.

You can’t lease office space in a building owned by the account. You can’t take a vacation in an investment property owned by the account. Your kids can’t rent a house that is owned by your retirement account and neither can your parents.

All of the relevant rules have to do with self-dealing and indirect benefits. You can learn more about them through the better companies that offer self-directed accounts or by reading the relevant IRS publications.

IRA investing in real estate has helped investors grow from $20,000 to over a million in a relatively short period of time. If you make the right choices, you may be the latest success story.

About the Author

Camille Kent is a money management expert who specializes in IRA's.

Investing from Within an IRA Can Allow You to Walk Away a Winner

by Camille Kent

You have many choices for investing from within an IRA. The best choice for you depends on how much risk you are willing to take. Typically, the greater the risk you are willing to take, the higher your returns may be. But, even if you’re a risk-taker, some choices are better than others.

The only investment types that are completely free of risk are bank certificates of deposit and government bonds. They are guaranteed by the federal government, but the returns are low.

When CDs are used for Investing from within an IRA, the rate of return depends on how much you have to invest. For example, if you have $20,000, the best rate you can get right now is 3.2%. If, on the other hand, you have $100,000, you can get a “jumbo� CD and a rate as high as 5.3%.

Banks need money right now, primarily due to the large number of defaults and money lost on foreclosure. So, they are offering higher rates than usual for people with a lot of money to invest.

If you choose government bonds for Investing from within an IRA, you will only earn about what you would with a standard savings account or “money market� account. Right now, that’s an average of 2.44% for a $10,000 retirement account. That’s even lower than the rate of return on a CD.

So, how about the stock market? Well, last week the Dow closed more than 51 points below the previous week. NASDAQ didn’t lose that much ground, but still dropped by nearly 15 points. Car sales were down. GM reported huge losses and the only thing that really increased in value was a barrel of oil.

If you want to be successful and actually have enough money to live on after retirement, you need to take a less than traditional approach to investing from within an IRA. With a self directed account, you can invest in a number of different things that may not have a guaranteed return, but they aren’t that risky, either.

For example, real estate has become an increasingly popular choice for investing from within an IRA. Didn’t know you could use account funds to buy a piece of real property? Lots of people don’t.

Even a lot of self directed trustees don’t offer the option. Most trustees are brokers, so they only now about the stock and money markets. Even many accountants don’t understand the ins and outs of using a retirement account for real estate investments.

The housing market has always been considered a relatively safe place for investments. Property values almost always go up. Not many people are buying right now, but that has to do with the economy and stricter credit rating requirements.

With a little education, there is no limit to the amount of money that a smart investor can earn for his retirement in a year’s time. It is not unheard of to turn $40,000 into $400,000 by choosing real estate for investing from within an IRA. Maybe you should consider the option.

About the Author

Camille Kent is a money management expert who specializes in IRA's.