Ced's Blog

Part 8 Identity Theft in the Workplace Nationwide

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:10:38 -0500

We all probably know by know that there really isn't a company that can totally prevent identity theft. It's just like we can't stop injuries that cause us to go to the hospital or having an accident in our motor vehicle. All we can do is do what we can to prevent identity theft, injuries and accidents.

Perhaps you are doing all you know to do to protect your clients identity. You do all the right things to store their information in password protected computers. You lock information in the best file cabinets. You make sure only the people who need to view your clients identity are the only people who see it.

Did you know that nearly 50% of identity theft happens in the workplace? It's absolutely amazing what pressure will cause a person to do. To use the information of a client can be an almost untraceable event. Of course those clients who have a credit monitoring service will be alerted. But what if the thief uses the identity for something else other than credit. A credit monitoring service does the client no good.

The fact that identity theft comes in mainly five different areas is something most people are not aware of. When a persons Character/criminal, drivers license, medical and/or social security identity is breached it takes an expertise the majority of us don't have. Having a lawyer in the family could be a good think if that's their specialty. But if not it's going to be 500 plus hours to get a persons identity restored.

Really, who has the time to invest 500 hours over and above our already busy lives? Here's a clue, help your clients, your office staff and your vendors get an identity theft plan that offers credit and identity monitoring, and a comprehensive restoration service. This way you'll be doing more than anybody else regarding workplace identity theft nationwide.

A Revelation on Debt Elimination

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:17:29 -0500

Have you heard of the Debt Elimination Project (DEP)? It's really quite an interesting project.

There was a gentleman who had a heart's desire to help pay off the debt of a single woman in his church who had been struggling from year to year. So much prayer had happened for her by the congregation but nothing seemed to change in her finances.

This man who was one of those who prayed for the lady but he was just frustrated as he continued to observe her financial life. He soon discovered that she was in debt because she just couldn't get her debt down because she could only pay the minimum payments on high interest rate credit cards and loans. Nothing ever seemed to change even though she was doing what she could.

The story goes on to say that the man decided that he would take things into his own hands. He decided to do something. He made it his purpose to help this lady pay off her debt. He was able to give her $30 a month. What he asked her to do was to make sure she sent the $30 as extra payment toward the principal on her highest interest credit card.

After a few months of giving $30 the man just felt like he was only helping her scratch the surface toward getting out of debt. He thought to himself, only if there were a few other people who could give a little like I'm doing. He started sharing what he was doing with a few of his close friends and they caught the vision. Five of his friends decided to do exactly what he was doing and started giving the lady $30 a month each. Now she was receiving $180 to put towards the principal of her highest interest credit card.

Long story short, the concept began to spread like wild fire. The gentleman who started the project soon had 34 people who were giving between $15 and $50 a month to help this one lady. In less than a year the lady had all her debt paid off and she was overjoyed.

Here's the clincher. After the lady had her debt paid off she said, how can I help somebody pay their debt off? She said this in the middle of the group of the 34 people who had just helped her pay off her debt. There were several people in the group who were in debt so the group chose one from among themselves and started the process over.

Now imagine this. This new person didn't receive $30 a month. They received over $1,200 a month and had their debt paid off in five months.

The group continued to grow and they continued to choose different people in the group to help pay off their debt. Some people were getting their debt paid off in less than three months. One person even got a $16,000 debt paid off on the spot!

The Debt Elimination Project got it's name based merely on what now over 700 people were committed to doing. They base their purpose for helping others get out of debt on Matthew 7:12 "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them..."

When I heard of this project I committed to help a person I know get out of debt. I'm now in the process of talking to a few of my friends to help them get out of debt.

I'm actually seriously thinking about taking this to another level. I'm thinking about starting an official Debt Elimination Project in our church. We have plenty of single women, widows and certainly families who are in debt who desperately want to be financially free.

****************************************************************************************

What you've just read is just a story I wrote to capture your attention. The gentleman in the story is me. The story is a vision of what I believe the Lord has shown me to help people in my congregation get out of debt and stay out. The other reason I wrote this story is to solicit your prayer as I pursue God's plan to help one person at a time get out of debt. I truly believe it's a whole lot easier for one person to get out of debt if 200 people are helping them.

A debt free church is a church that can be used to to it's full potential.

Stay blessed,

Ced Reynolds

Part 7 California Identity Theft and Real Estate

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:42:12 -0500

California is one of the states where identity theft has decreased when it comes to credit cards. It hasn't been eliminated and probably never will be. Compare the other types of identity theft and you'll see it's about the same or a little bit more or less based on the category. The other categories not mentioned in this report are criminal/character, social security, medical and drivers license identity theft. If you will note "other and attempted identity theft", you will discover these two categories cover 30% of of identity theft.

In the Real Estate business you will probably come across a client who has or will have their identity stolen. Be a good resource for them in their time of need and refer them to an Identity Theft Consultant to help them get their identity restored.

2007

2002

Rank	Identity Theft Type	No. of Victims	%
1	Credit Card Fraud	9,883	23%
2	Employment-Related Fraud	7,832	18%
3	Phone or Utilities Fraud	7,729	18%
4	Bank Fraud	6,238	14%
5	Government Documents or Benefits Fraud	3,537	8%
6	Loan Fraud	2,045	5%
-	Other	11,097	25%
-	Attempted Identity Theft	2,107	5%

Rank	Identity Theft Type	No. of Victims	%
1	Credit Card Fraud	12,607	32%
2	Phone or Utilities Fraud	8,231	21%
3	Bank Fraud	7,243	18%
4	Employment-Related Fraud	5,525	14%
5	Government Documents or Benefits Fraud	3,378	9%
6	Loan Fraud	2,031	5%
-	Other	7,287	18%
-	Attempted Identity Theft	3,118	8%

Percentages for 2007 are based on the 43,892 victims reporting ID theft to the FTC from California. Percentages add to more than 100 because some victims from California reported experiencing more than one type of identity theft.

Part 6 Realtors and Nationwide Identity Theft

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:55:41 -0500

Nationwide identity theft is no big surprise to any Realtor. What might be a surprise is how their clients could have their identity stolen while on a business trip to locate their new home. For the most part most Real Estate offices have secure computers where the identity of their clients is safe.

So where might the identity of a client be stolen? Imagine with me as I describe a true story. All the way from Columbia, a citizen we'll call Salvador utilized illegally installed keystroke logging software on public computers in hotels, airports and lounges all over the United States. The people who used these computers were professionals who traveled for business.

Salvador used this software to collect the personal information of over 600 people over a 18 month period. He collected every bit of financial data including social security information, credit information, medical information, passwords, you name it. Salvador was able to steal and divert money from people who unknowingly were giving him their personal information with every keystroke on the public computers they were using.

The story goes on to describe the details of how Salvador's lavish lifestyle and how he was able to avoid being caught. This internet thief was eventually caught but not before living "high on the hog" with the money of over 600 people whose identity he stole.

Advice for your clients: Have them do their business with their banks directly or use the computers of people they know and trust. Advise them to watch avoid using unsecured wireless connections in hotel lobbies or anywhere else for that matter.

Advice for Realtors: Be certain to secure your wireless connections in your office and/or your home office, especially when working with your client's files online.

Great Legal Help

Success vs. Significance

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:46:15 -0500

Today we here so much about success. Many are doing whatever they can to attain "success". But what is success without significance? If we are striving to be recognized as being successful without including others along life's journey what are really striving for?

Success without significance is worthless. My aim is to make a differnce in the lives of others to the point I may be included in their testimony. I can think of all the successful people who have helped me. When I share with people how I arrived at various stations in my life I have to mention their names.

Significance is long lasting and it passes from generation to generation. The stories of people who have made significant contributions to society are rarely forgotten. At least not by the people who they directly affected.

Let's be people who strive to be contribute significance in the lives of others. Then we will truly be successful.

Helping people grow spiritually and in business. That's why I'm an entrepreneurial pastor.

Ced

Part 5 of Nationwide Identity theft challenges

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:32:39 -0500

Identity theft goes way beyond credit cards and online shopping. In fact credit card identity theft is only about 25% of the problem of identity theft. That leaves another 75% of problematic areas for you and I to be concerned about.

Here is what you should look for when looking to preserve your identity:

1. A good company which can provide you a up to date credit report along with your credit score to give you a baseline of the status of your identity.

2. A good company to monitor your credit and public information via all three credit repositories.

3. A good company which can provide the actual restoration service should your identity be breached. This company should provide licensed investigators, fraud alert notifications and the ability to access local and national databases to restore your good name.

Important news for your client's estate

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 01:35:41 -0500

Both Wills and Trusts are devices which you can use to provide for the distribution of your estate upon your death. Deciding whether a Will or a Trust best fits your needs depends on your circumstances. A living Trust is a popular alternative to the traditional Will, but you should weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each before deciding on one form or the other.

	Will	Living Trust
Probate	Subject to probate proceedings. Out -of-state property requires probate proceedings in that state, as well. Provides court supervision for handling beneficiary challenges and creditor disputes. Becomes public record at the time of your death.	Not subject to probate proceedings. Avoids the cost of a second-state probate proceeding where there is out-of-state property. No automatic court supervision to deal with disputes. Remains private.
Tax Savings	Same tax saving provisions available as are available in a Trust.
Management of your Assets	In addition to the Will, must use a Power of Attorney or Conservatorship to manage assets.	Allows you as the grantor to manage the Trust assets as long as you are willing and able. Makes provisions for a successor trustee to take over in your place.
Costs	Costs less to prepare a Will than a Trust. Cost to probate a Will can be substantial.	Costs more to prepare, fund and manage a Trust than to prepare a Will. But avoids probate costs if all assets were held by the Trust.

What does a Will do?

A Will is the legal document that allows you to distribute your property to those you choose. A Will allows you to designate beneficiaries to receive specific items from your estate, and other beneficiaries to receive everything else. For example, if you want your house, your car, or your antique thimble collection to go to a certain person or organization, you designate that person or organization as the beneficiary.

Who's going to make sure that your antique thimble collection goes to the proper person? The executor of your Will. The executor's the person you designate to carry out your wishes.

A Will also gives parents of minor children the chance to nominate a guardian. The court makes the final decision when appointing a guardian for your children after your death, but the court will usually accept your nomination. A guardian’s legal responsibility is to provide for your child’s physical welfare.

What does a Living Trust do?

A Will comes into play only after you die, but a living trust can actually start benefiting you while you are still alive. A living trust is a trust established during your lifetime. It is revocable, which allows for you to make changes. You will transfer substantially all of your property into your living trust during your lifetime, and any omitted assets can be transferred into the trust at the time of death through the use of a simple Pour-over Will. You should always make a Pour-over Will at the time that you establish your trust.

A living trust will be used as the mechanism to manage your property before and after your death, as well as provide how those assets, and the income earned by the trust, are distributed after your death. If you should become incapacitated or disabled, the trust is in place to manage your financial affairs, usually by a successor trustee, if you were serving as trustee. A living trust is not subject to probate, and therefore, all provisions of the trust will remain private.

Most relatively simple estates (cash, publicly traded securities, small amounts of other easily valued assets, and no special deductions or elections, or jointly held property) with a total value under $1,000,000 do not require the filing of an estate tax return. The amount was $1,500,000 in 2004 and 2005. For 2006 through 2008, the amount is raised to $2,000,000.

What happens if I don't have a Will or Living Trust?

The legal term for dying without a Will is dying intestate. If you do not specify through a valid Will or Living Trust who will receive your property, state law controls and generally distributes your property to your spouse and/or your closest heirs. This may or may not be what you intended. Furthermore, if you fail to nominate a guardian for your minor children, the state could appoint someone you don't trust as a legal guardian of your minor children. Finally, by failing to appoint someone to carry out your wishes, the state can appoint anyone to be the administrator of your property, and the administrator may have to pay certain fees or post a bond at the expense of your estate, before he or she can begin to distribute your assets.

Great Legal Help

A little break in the action - listen to me being interviewed

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 11:07:00 -0500

Just had a great time on an interview with Paul Stanton of the number one Homebased Busiiness Talkshow on the internet. Thought I would take a break and share it with my friends here on Active Rain. Get a chance to hear the voice of the guy who's been writing these blogs. It will be fun... Here's the link to the mp3 version of the talkshow.

Hope you enjoy the show,

Ced

Part 4 - More of what most people don't know about nationwide identity theft

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:48:05 -0500

There are so many uncommon things occuring today we never know what to expect. Years ago when I was a kid, my parents never worried about locking the doors of our home while we were there. Today that's another matter. Just a fe short years ago I didn't give much thought to if or not my car door was locked while I was driving. Today I find myself double checking when I approach a stop light. Things have definitely changed.

Today we're faced with "muggings" that are not so much physical in nature. Criminals have become so sophisticated and are moving from hijacking cars and airplanes to hijacking people's lives in the form of their identity. The big time criminals are doing worse than that, they are hijacking entire communities, namely institutions who have our private information. We can be innocently sitting in our home and become a victim even if we'e done everything we know to do to protect our identity. The truth of the matter is we can't stop our identity from being stolen no more than we can stop someone from stealing our car or having physical accident that causes us to end up in the hospital. Identity theft has fallen in the category of needing a remedy like automobile accidents and physical accidents. None of us, well most of us wouldn't get caught without automobile insurance or medical insurance. It's becoming painfully obvious that the same will be true of identity theft coverage. The potential losses are way to high.

We drive $50,000 automobiles and we insure them because we want to protect ourselves from potential loss in case we have an accident or it's stolen.

We have health insurance because we want to have routinie office visits and whatever medical procedures we need without having to pay an "arm and a leg." :)

We have dental insurance to avoid paying big bucks for keeping our teeth maintained.

We have home owners insurance to protect our most valuable asset from uneventful fires and damage.

We have mortgage insurance, long term care insurance, flood insurance...I think you're getting the picture.

The point I'm making here today is that even with all these insurances, if our identity is ever breached we'll have a difficult time even proving who we are to make a claim. That's what most people don't know. Today we are more than who we say we are. We are who we can be identified as.

Keywords: nationwide identity theft ced reynolds prepaid legal

Part 3 of More of what most people don't know about nationwide identity theft

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:37:40 -0500

As I methodically drip information regarding things that most people don't know, I hope people are taking heed to the harsh realities that many people are faced with everyday.

Did you know...

1. Financial identity theft is only one of 5 elements of identity theft.

2. Monitoring identity is good because it serves as a early warning dector that your identity has been breached.

3. Pulling your own identity won't damage your credit score. Consumers have the right to review their credit report without it harming their credit or credit score.

Did you know these things?

Keywords:nationwide, identity theft, ced reynolds, prepaid legal

What professionals are learning about nationwide identity theft

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:18:32 -0500

For the next several blog postings I will be sharing information that about my business that most people don't know or have a misconception about.

Did you know...

1. In 2007 the San Diego based Identity Theft Resource center reported a fourfold increase in personal iniformation breaches which included 162,000,000 customer records compromised worldwide? That works out to roughly about half the population of the United States. (source The Silent Crime)

2. The Federal Trade Commission states that it could take from 150 to 500 hours and as much as $3,000 to solve the identity theft breach? What's really alarming is that the FTC says 41% of victims of Identity Theft have not fully resolved the incident as many as two years after discoverig their was a breach.

Did you know about these things?

Something most people don't know about nationwide identity theft

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:34:23 -0500

I have to admit I don't know a lot of things and I am always willing to learn. How about you?

Did you know...

More than half of all households have a legal situation right now. —Legal Needs and Civil Justice Survey, published by the American Bar Association

Even law abiding Americans will encounter a legal situation an average of four to six times per year. —National Resource Center for Consumers of Legal Services

You are nearly three times more likely to be in court than you are to be hospitalized. —National Center for State Courts/American Hospital Association

Ced Reynolds
Great legal help

Talk about a great day!!!

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:51:33 -0500

This morning I got up focused. I mean I was laser focused on what I had to accomplish. Just last night I purposed to write down 10 key people I had to contact in my data base who I knew appreciated the work I do with the Kidz-n-Biz project.

As I sat down at my desk I looked over all of the phone numbers and rehearsed what I was going to say to each person I was about to contact. My first phone call was to a friend in Orland, CA who immediately agreed to assist me with the project. My second call was to Bedford, Virginia to a friend who's a printer. He caught my excitement then he interrupted me and asked me how he could help. The third call was to an internet guru buddy of mine in Arizona who has one of the top online talk shows in the nation. Not only did he receive my call and agree to assist our project, he asked me if he could interview me on his talk show. The calls went on and on throuhgout the morning. All in all I talked with 8 people, left two messages and out of the 8 I spoke with, 6 of them agreed to assist me with our project. FYI, the assistance I'm talking about is financial.

Here's the clincher. The project we're working on is for kids 3rd thru 8th grade. One of my associates is in charge of the scholarships at the college he works for. He initially said he couldn't help me because the kids were still to young to offer college scholarships. As we continued to talk I mentioned we were expanding our project in the fall to include high school age kids. Immediately he said how about $20,000 in scholarship funds. I almost jumped through the roof. I couldn't believe it. But today we received $20,000 in scholarship funds for our project and we're still in our infancy.

Talk about a great day. I had one today.

Why you need a business legal plan

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:26:56 -0500

Often business owners believe they are safe from law suits because they incorporate. They do have some good protection but what about those frivilous law suits. A good legal plan designed specifically for their size business will do a world of wonders.

Can you imagine having an attorney on retainer only to find out when you call him/her that they don't specialize in the area of law that you are calling about? So you uncle Bob gives you a great deal on legal advice. The tough deal is that he practices family law and you need business legal advice.

Legal plans for home based businesses, the self employed and businesses with up to 99 employees offer way more than most people even know. First of all the majority of people 97% don't even know legal plans for families or businesses even exist. Interestingly enough, 80% of the families in Europe own a legal plan.

So why should you as an independent contractor or business owner have a legal plan? I'll put it to you this way, what do you do when...

You need to consult a lawyer?
You need legal letters written on your behalf?
You have debts you can't collect?
You need contracts reviewed before you sign them?
You have to go to court to represent your business?
You need business advice?
You have your identity compromised?

These are just a few reasons every business owner should have some sort of access. I'm not talking about just an attorney but a bank of attorneys who specialize in your specific challenge no matter where you may happen to have a legal challenge in the United States.

Are you a Realtor, Mortgage Broker, Financial Planner or Insurance Agent with and LLC? How are you protecting your number one income producing asset? Sure you have E & O insurance, business insurance, health insurance, long term care insurance and even life insurance. All of these protection elements have a form of legal counsel but how far will they go to protect your personal and business interest? That's why even the highest level executives have their own personal legal counsel even though their companies have legal counsel.

In my business I have legal cousel in various areas pertaining to the work I do. But if someone were to sue me personally I'm on my own to defend the suit. That's why I have a legal plan beyond what my orgqanization offers.

Stay tuned I have some additional information coming real soon.

CedReynolds.com
(909) 597-3502

Where do I get all of these freebies?

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:06:31 -0500

Believe it or not giving away freebies wasn't something I ever planned on doing. When I first started on the internet I had no idea what I was doing so I sought out free information that would help me. Eventually I started investing in training. Then I found out that the people who offered free internet tools were giving them away for a reason. My interest began to grow about the internet and how to make money.

Several years ago I began affiliate programs just to get a feel for how to generate income. I did develop a little bit but what I found out more than that was how to market my own business on the internet. Today I do very few affiliate programs. The key one I work with is a free program that has helped me get educated on the internet and how to market.

There are people from all walks of life in all sorts of businesses who use this affiliate program. Some have gone on to become SEO specialists and internet gurus. Most have just used this free service to learn and grow their own business. If you've been watching my blog, more than 80% of the free offers I've given away come from this affiliate program.

Do any of the images ring a bell to you below? They all come from my affiliate source.

Looking for more free stuff, visit Jordan's Blog

Create your own online banner for free

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:57:51 -0500

Have you ever wanted a banner you could personalize for your blog or website? Addesigner.com is a site that offers free online banners. The one below is what I created for Active Rain. Have you ever wondered why you see so many banners online? There must be something to it. Perhaps they work. It's all about distribution in the right places.

Consider supporting the Kidz-n-Biz Project. I will donate 50% of my profit to the Kidz-n-Biz Project for any person who signs up online for any Prepaid Legal Plan and/or Identity Theft Membership.

You can also donate online.

OK, my little secret is out

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:32:57 -0500

OK, you're probably wondering where I get all these free gifts. The reality is that I have just accumulated them over the years. Some I use more than others. But at some point they all have served to be of value to me in my business. The one I use the most, in fact everyday is the free directory listing. I give away a free business directory listing to at least two business owners everyday. It puts people into my data base who I want to get to know better.

If you're not sure you have received a free business directory listing from me, go to GoSmallBiz.com and search the directory section. All you have to do is type in your city and your state and you'll see the list of businesses in your area and your business if I've listed you.

This particular tool is so non-threatening that no one has ever turned me down, at least not yet :) I give this listing away because the business owners who get listed on GoSmallBiz.com often go there and discover all the free services that are provided for business owners and they call me wanting to know more information. OK, my little secret is out. I'm not just giving away free business listings because I'm a nice guy. I do have business reasons as well.

Have you ever wondered why I give away so many free tools? "I give to receive to give again." In the end I always end up on the giving end which is a good thing. Providing my service to people is nothing more than giving people an opportunity to hear my story. Once they hear my story they decide if the story is something they want to be included in or not. It's really that simple. Even if people say no to my story, we part as friends because I find a way to give to them again somehow.

Can you imagine the number of people I've given business directory listings to? Literally hundreds of business owners all over America have received a business directory listing from me and welcome my phone calls, email, mail and personal visits. I've actually developed friends in almost every state. I don't want you to think that they are all my clients but I do want you to understand that I have distinguished myself from every other Prepaid Legal Associate they know in a huge way.

Somebody might be reading this blog saying, "why is he sharing his marketing secrets?" The truth is they aren't really secrets. The other truth is that most people won't do what I do anyway. Another truth is when you hear from me you'll know what to expect. Don't you do much better when you receive a call from somebody when you have an idea what they're going to say? Sure you do. Your guard is down because of the trust factor that's been built up. The trust factor is built up because of the like-ability of the person making the call. The like-ability of the person is built up because you've gotten a chance to get to know the person. It's the old adage, "people do business with people they know, like and trust."

Let's get to know each other. That's where it all starts.

Stay in it to win it,

Ced

Free Masters of Marketing E-book valued at $49.95

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:54:00 -0500

This is an exclusive $49.95 value ebook filled with the secrets of America's top Internet gurus. Written, researched and compiled by Thomas Prendergast.

Masters of Marketing
This is in PDF Acrobat format.
Masters of Marketing

This is an older e-book but it has some information that is still valuable. If you work in the business to business market this e-book makes a great giveaway.

Short SEO Training Idea

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:09:43 -0500

Most of you know that we get tremendous Google juice with Active Rain. If you're looking to take it a step or two higher you might want to pay close attention to what I'll be sharing in thie blog posting.

1. Promote Your Business with Merchant Circle

Find new customers with high search engine placement
Track what people are saying about your business
Advertise online with coupons, ads, newsletters & blogs

Over 525,000 businesses
are already part of MerchantCircle

2. Plug into 1-Family Classifieds

3. Create a link chain with yourself on your Active Rain blog, your 1-Family Classified ad(s) and your Merchant Circle profile and blog.

4. Use Blastomatic, a free website submssion tool to promote your 1-Family Classified ad(s), Your Active Rain blog and your Merchant Circle profile and blog.

This simple strategy will cause the search engine spiders to pick up all of these sites whenever any of them has a change in content.

Key: The 1-Family Classified has content changes constantly because of the people placing ads there everyday. Because your ad is there you get a little SEO juice.

Your Active Rain Blog has content changing everytime you post a blog or somebody makes a comment on your blog.

Your Merchant Circle Profile changes when new businesses connect with you. You also have the opportunity to post a blog here which changes everytime you add content or somebody makes a comment.

This is a simplified strategy I utilize to to optimize my profiles and blogs. Can you imagine working this strategy with a bunch more sites. I use about 20 at a time for various campaigns. Believe me, it does bring inquiries. The key is having a goal and putting in the work. It doesn't take me as long these days because I have SEO tools that do most of the work. Thank God because it could become very tedious.

This is just a glimpse of a much bigger picture in SEO marketing.

Ced

What are people saying behind your back?

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:57:07 -0500

Clients and prospective clients always have something to say behind my back. I used to be afraid of what they were saying until I found out what they were saying. Initially there wasn't much good being said because I didn't really give them anything worth talking about. Today I can proudly say that my clients and prospective clients have good things to say behind my back.

Lots of people talk about adding value to your offer. My question is why not give value before your client becomes your client? It surely will get people talking about you in a positive way. How many of your competitors give value before they get some sort of commitment from their prospective clients? Can you see how to get people talking about you behind your back in a good way?

How do I know clients are saying good things behind my back? I give prospective clients and clients reasons to talk about me because of the value I give them prior to becoming clients or doing additional business with me. I think you would be surprised by the number of calls and emails I receive from people just because they are amazed at the value I offer them. In most cases they barely know anything about my business but what they do know is I know enough about their business to offer ways to help them.

Here's a clue. People aren't looking to be sold by me or anybody else. People are looking to buy what they want when they have the need or desire. My goal is simply to be available to help them when they decide to buy.

In closing let me share a story with you. There is a Realtor and a Mortgage Professional in my network who I gave an idea to. The Realtor had just recently helped a family acquire the home of their dreams. The scenario was the company of the wife was relocating and many of the people in the company were looking to move closer to where the company was relocating.

Here's the idea. I just suggested that the Realtor and the Loan Rep ask if they could set up a booth in the lunch room of the company. They did so and they were able to access a few hundred people during the course of a day. Here's what the team had working for them. They had a great testimony from a satisfied client. They had the approval of the company to share useful infofmation about the local Real Estate market. They were able to connect with people who expressed interest. They got this access all for the cost of a $75 gas card which they gave away in a raffle.

Can you imagine the people who are talking positively about this team behind their backs? It's all about valuable service before the sale. It's not to say service before and after the sale isn't important. Valuable service during and after the sale is a given. Get people talking about you in a positive way today. The key is giving them what you want them to say.

Go ahead and start talking about me. I really don't mind. Really I don't...

Ced

Another Freebie - We really can't advertise enough

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:39:20 -0500

I almost forgot about this free tool. Most of us are looking for different ways to advertise. Here's a site I started using about 2 years ago. Various people from all sorts of industries advertise here. The good thing about it is that there is a Real Estate section also. Take a peek and see what you think. The site is called 1 Family Classifieds. You can advertise as much as you want. You can even advertise in various sections of the site.

1-Family is the oldest and most visited classified system on the Internet. Posting is free and remote posting is allowed. Ced

How many websites do you need? Here's another free one with SEO juice

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:46:11 -0500

Having a website is important for business owners these days. But why should somebody have more than one?

Free Web Site Hosting Services Create and maintain you're own professionally designed World Wide Web site by using the instant Web Publisher. No HTML programming, CGI scripting, or graphic design skills required. Everything is as simple as filling in the blanks. Best of all, there is no cost to you, EVER! These pages make great "Doorway" pages and can be an easy, integral part of you're Internet Marketing Campaign.

I have nearly 100 websites, blogs, profiles and calendars on the internet. The majority of them are syndicated so it doesn't take much of my time to manage them. It's pretty much point and click to make the updates I need to make.

Free Moving Boxes for your clients

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:01:05 -0500

Become a hero with your clients by helping them save hundreds of dollars. Boxes are sometimes the last thing people think about that will cost them several hundred dollars when they are ready to move. Click here to see the site for yourself, then decide if it's something you want to put in your arsenal of referral sources for your clients. I used to work as a Relocation Consultant for United Van Lines and offering free boxes to my clients got me more business than you can imagine.

Get free moving boxes or used moving boxes and recycle moving boxes

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Free Email System 100% Risk Free!

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:22:36 -0500

Veremail: World Class, Spam-Free Bulk Emailing System.

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Professional studies have found that it takes 5-7 or more advertizing exposures before a prospect will actually make a purchase. With Veremail's unlimited autoresponders and unlimited follow up email system, your opt-in prospects will automatically receive your message 5-7 times (or more) over a period of days, weeks, and months when they request information from you. Veremail will save you time and money, but also increase your sales conversion rate, maximize your marketing efforts, keep you organized, and increase your profits. Most importantly, Veremail allows you to build a sphere of influence passively by consistently keeping you in front of your customers.

A freebie you can use if you are audio/video savvy

Cedric (Ced) Reynolds - (909) 597-3502 (CedReynolds.com) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:38:51 -0500

Here's another freebie. This one is a little tricky to figure out but if you are audio or video savvy, you'll appreciate the potential of this service offered by FreeIQ.com. If you are just getting into audio or video you could actually use this service platform to learn everything you need to know to embed audio and video on your website or blog.
have fun,

Ced