Life Insurance Book Review

In the past I’ve used promotional marketing products to promote my various websites. I’ve always used a local firm - but I’ve come across an online site that offers similiar products but allows you to shop online.

I’ve ordered such items as t-shirts, pens, etch-a-sketches, golf shirts, coffee mugs and baseball hats with my company’s logo to promote my sites. I typically provide these products as giveaways to my prospects or business clients. Out of all of them, the metal coffee mugs and the etch-a-sketches were definitely the biggest hits. The most success I’ve had with these business promotional products was as free contest giveaways on some of my professional forums.

What I’m trying to do with these items is promote my services and get forum viewers to participate. In order to do that I’ve set up easy to enter contests where simply posting or participating qualified the visitor for entry into the contest. For example, on the etch-a-sketches engraved with my logo, the entry might consists of a simple post by the visitor suggesting various uses for the etch-a-sketch. That makes it very easy for people to enter, and some of the posts are bound to be a hilarious read for other visitors. It also encourages people to register at the site and post - which can then lead to further postings by them….and then increasing the size and posts of the community. All in all a very inexpensive and fun marketing tool.

Other times I’ve used these products as corporate gifts where I’ve provided t-shirts and mugs as thanks for client’s business.

When I’m promotional products like this I’m looking for a few things. I’m always concerned about pricing - when ordering in high volume I’m generally looking for something in the few dollar range rather than $20-$50 or higher. I also want items that are going to get used or stick around for a while so that the client sees my logo on an ongoing basis or remembers the product fondly. As a result, while I’ve purchased pens as giveaways, I’ve always purchased high quality pens rather than the dirt cheap ten-cent items. That way the client gets a nice pen that they’ll actually use. The etch-a-sketches were also a big hit for no other reason that EVERYONE loves them. While some folks claimed they were for their kids, I’m not so sure that was always the case. That being said, some of these folks did give them to their children - and again there’s some real value there. Hard to beat when your clients come home from the office with a real cool toy for their children, engraved with your logo - makes them look like heroes. I know my kids loved these items.

High end metal drink mugs have also been a big hit in the past for me. I received numerous feedback posts about visitors who love their new mug and use it everyday on the train or commute into work - even years later. Again, it’s hard to beat marketing like that, and for a few dollars, you sure can’t beat the cost.

All of these items - and in fact 700.000 more - are available online at a company called MBH promotional products. Check them out if your interested in easy online ordering of corporate gifts, promotional items, and other business promotional tools.

I’d previously written about a site that deals with increasing your credit score by somehow tagging onto someone else’s credit score (this is for Americans). Well, if folks are going to increase their credit score by hanging on the tailcoats of someone else, there’s got to be a site looking for the other half of the equation - for folks with a good credit score.
And sure enough, there is. You can see a bit more information on how this works at TradeLineBroker.com. They’re actively seeking people with good credit rating. Apparently it works something like this - you get a credit card where somehow folks with poorer credit rating are attached. Buy something with the card, pay it off. I guess that’s how the credit rating gets transferred. And of course, you get paid for doing this. How much? It’s not clear from their site what the pay rate is.
Looks like a tough call. Is there any danger to this for folks with good credit ratings? I don’t see how, but I don’t honestly understand why this whole scheme works either. Either way, if you’ve got good credit ratings and want to maybe earn some cash, check out the folks at www.tradelinebroker.com and see what they’re offering.

The folks over at all-about-excellent-retirement have a new twist on an old subject; driving affiliate sales through retirement - but targetting old folks. Sorry, I meant ‘retirees’ .

The site basically discusses how to get into affiliate sales (primarily ebooks) using websites. The owner discusses such things as leveraging your knowledge to create ebooks on whatever topic you’re familiar with and then selling that; he also discusses briefly how affiliate marketing works, though admittedly without calling it that specifically or going into too much detail.
He’s got a good point though - targetting retirees and those looking to help fund their retirement is an excellent niche market. A computer and an internet connection is something just about anyone can have, and retirees looking to fund their retirement plans have two things of use in that market - time on their hands to sink into learning this type of marketing, and likely some specialized expertise or knowledge in whatever markets they’ve worked in that they can leverage in this market.
In the midst of all that, the site owner is also doing some affiliate marketing aimed at retirees . Green tea anyone? .

Here’s one from down under - www.moneybuddy.com.au. It’s a newish website dedicated to home loans, car loans and credit cards in Australia.

They’ve got a very nice looking site that’s a dream to navigate around. I played around a little bit and was quite impressed that they’ve actually got an online shopping service for Australian credit cards. You can select a few parameters and it instantly kicks out a detailed list of providers and their rates. How cool is that?

They’ve got sections on home loans, credit cards, and car loans. They also have an a variety of informative articles on budgeting for your car, reserve bank interest rates (that must be an Aussie term?) as well as an extensive financial services directory for Australians that includes insurance, car loans, home loans, credit cards, and personal financial services. All in all, a very well rounded financial hub website for Australians.

If you are graduating from college with a big debt soon or have already graduated take a look at this site www.unitedloanrate.com. They specialize in student loan consolidation, which can lower your monthly payments.

If you are looking to consolidate loans you have acquired over the last few year into one low monthly payment this site can assist you. They are insured and backed by the United States Department of Education.

Their site offers lots of information in helping you make the right decision with your current debt load. The frequently asked questions section has lots of good information to advise someone who has not used a service like this before.

The site also offers low interest credit cards and has the option of applying for these or the education debt consolidation loans online. Check out the helpful articles section for lots of information on student loans, debt consolidate and more.

Here’s a bit of an odd idea - buying gold bullion online. The folks at Bullion Vault apparently let you purchase your own gold and they store it in the center of your choice (London, New York, etc).

On the negative side, I expect you really don’t have access to the actual gold - is there any way to tell for sure that the gold is actually there? Probably not. It seems well suited for people somehow looking to get rich quick, or for the tinfoil hatters amongst us who believe that you’ve got to physically own the gold (though you’re still dealing through an intermediary here).

On the plus side, gold has been a solid investment for as long as I can remember. In fact, I can remember in the 70’s when gold started out at around $35CDN an ounce. Along came the Iranian diplomatic standoff, and gold soared to over $1000CDN an ounce. People were pulling their gold caps out of their teeth to cash them them, it was that crazy. Lots of people made an awful pile of money over that. And back in the ’70’s, a $1000 was REALLY a $1000.