It worked well, and the idea spread throughout the world.1 There are two main types of timesharing plans: deeded and non-deeded. With the deeded type, you buy an ownership interest in a piece of real estate. In the non-deeded plan, you buy a lease, license, or club membership that lets you use the property for a specific amount of time each year for a stated number of years. With both types, the cost of the unit is proportionate to the season and the length of time you want to buy.2 Before You Buy As with any major purchase, you need to understand what you are getting before you sign any papers or pay any fees.
The general information should be accompanied by careful analysis and perhaps even professional advice that concerns all aspects of a particular timeshare purchase. Before purchasing a timeshare consider the following points.3 A major reason people buy timeshares is for the convenience of having prearranged vacation facilities. Therefore it would be wise to determine whether you will be able to use the timeshare facility regularly. When evaluating a timeshare with units in several locations, consider whether sufficient units are available at the sites you prefer at the time you want to use them. Question any investment claims made by the seller. The future value of a timeshare depends on many factors. Resale of timeshares is almost impossible.4 So, if you are considering buying a timeshare, do it, realizing that you will probably not be able to resell it; and, even if you are able to sell, you probably won’t be able to sell it for anything close to your original purchase price. Closing costs, broker commissions, and financing charges also must be considered as part of the investment costs. The total cost of a timeshare includes mortgage payments and expenses, such as travel costs and annual maintenance fees.
The annual maintenance fees usually rise to equal or exceed inflation and could add hundreds of dollars to the purchase price.
To help evaluate the purchase, compare the total timeshare costs with rental costs for similar accommodations and amenities for the same time in the same location. Do not act on impulse or under pressure. Review all documents or have someone familiar with timesharing review them before you make a purchase. Do not be pressured into making a purchase without having a couple of days to think about it. Find out if the contract provides a cooling-off period during which you can cancel the contract and get a refund. Be sure everything the salesperson promised orally is written in the contract. Remember that exchange programs, which offer the opportunity to arrange trades with other resort units in different locations, cannot be guaranteed. When you trade your timeshare unit for another, expect one of approximately the same value. Many timeshare sellers offer gifts to potential buyers who will listen to a timeshare sales presentation. Consider the value of these gifts or prizes. Most are of little value.5 It would be to your advantage to attend a sales presentation only if you are interested in the program. Your timeshare will be a good place to vacation only if it is run properly. Therefore you should consider researching with local real estate agents, Better Business Bureau, and consumer protection offices, the track record of the seller, developer, and management company before you make your purchase.
If you are considering buying a timeshare on property where the facilities have not been completed, get a written commitment from the sellers that the facilities will be finished as promised, and require that a certain amount of your money be held in escrow.6 Find out what your rights are if the builder or management company has financial problems or in some way defaults. Make sure that your contract has both non-disturbance and nonperformance clauses. A non-disturbance clause ensures that you will continue to have use of your timeshare unit in the event of default and subsequent third party claims against the developer or management firm. A nonperformance clause allows you to keep all your ownership rights even if a third party is required to buy out your contract. If you have any questions or complaints regarding timeshares or a timeshare that you have purchased, contact the Real Estate Commission of the state in which the timeshare property is located, as well as the Correspondence Branch, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC 20580. How Timeshare Resale Scams Operate If you already own a timeshare, be cautious about people who offer to help you resell the timeshare for a fee. Because many of these types are rip-offs, be careful to deal only with legitimate sales companies. Companies that use questionable resale practices operate like many other telemarketing scams. You might be contacted by a telephone salesperson or through a postcard, asking you to call a particular telephone number about selling your timeshare. The salespeople are likely to tell you that the market for resale of timeshares is “hot” and that their company has a high success rate in reselling these units. They may even claim that they have extensive lists of sales agents and potential buyers for timeshares and for an advance fee of hundreds of dollars these salespeople promise to sell your timeshare for a price equal to or greater than the amount you originally paid.7 The market for resale is actually extremely poor, because there is no secondary market for timeshares.8 Currently American consumers own 1.5 million timeshares. Approximately 870,000 of these are presently available for resale, with 845,000 for sale far below the original purchase price.
In truth, over the past 20 years, only 3 percent of owners who have wanted to sell their timeshares have been successful, and the vast majority of those have had to sell below their original purchase price. So, it is highly unlikely that a company can sell the timeshare at all, let alone for the original purchase price. There are some precautions to consider if you decide that you want to resell your timeshare and are approached by a resale company. (1) Do not agree to anything over the telephone. (2) Ask the salesperson to send you written materials to study. (3) Ask for company references of customers who have used their services. (4) Ask where the company is located and in what states it does business. (5) Ask if the company’s salespeople are licensed to sell real estate by the state where your timeshare is located, and check with the state licensing board to verify the information. (6) Be cautious of any company charging an advance “listing” fee for its service.9 Conclusion Timesharing is not an investment product and is not intended as a way of making money. It is, though, a financial commitment to your leisure enjoyment. So, how much is leisure and preplanned vacation time worth to you? This is the question that must be asked before you decide to buy a timeshare. If it is not worth thousands of dollars in initial investment, plus hundreds more in maintenance fees, then you should probably stay away from timeshare promotions.
But if, on the other hand, you enjoy preplanned vacations and realize that timeshare is not a money making investment, then it may be a good choice for you.
Visually appealing websites is one of the reasons why online browsers visit. Along with good web content, attractive and well designed websites entice visitors to come over and over again. If your website is for an online business, this could be very beneficial to you as more traffic would mean more potential customers and most importantly this would mean more revenues. To design a good website you must learn how to use HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and web page editors. These programs are most helpful to web design newbie as these would facilitate the building of the website. Being a novice at web design, free online tutorials would provide you with invaluable help in building your website. It is a must to have a definite idea on what you would like your website to look. You should choose the right fonts, graphics, and color as well as page layout. You have to bear in mind however that too much of everything could give negative result. In the case of website building, too many graphics and animations will result to the slow loading of the page. Use graphics sparingly and needless to say, use graphics that have relevance to the content. Of course it is acceptable to use pictures or graphics that would enhance the design of the page but using a picture of your favorite movie star on a website devoted to the care of pets is of course unacceptable.
Additionally, glaring colors of the background as well as the text and flashing images would drive visitors away.For sure you wouldn’t want visitors to leave when they could be potential customers who could add to your revenues. Always remember your readers by writing relevant content and be sure that you will be writing topics that your target audience will like. Visitors searching for information would click on links. Be sure to provide strategically placed relevant links at the bottom of your homepage. Knowing the preference of the target audience would come a long way in ensuring steady traffic. If your website is primarily aimed to give forex information, you should try to achieve a professional look by reducing the graphics and featuring more relevant statistics instead. Now if your target audience is teens, you can give in to your wish of using vibrant colors and featuring video files and clips. Advertisement is another important factor in web design. Although ads are a source of income it would be wise to keep the ads to the minimum since readers come to your site in search of information and not to read the ads. Moreover, only use ads that have relevance to the content of your website otherwise readers won’t be enticed to click on it.
Lastly, the most important factor in web design is keeping the website simple as graphic and animation - rich website would often cause slow loading.
All the features and designs made will be useless if visitors will be forced to click on the next link because your page is unavailable or slow to load.
Mark Nenadic Have you ever seen an add that offers you ownership of a keyword? If you’re on the internet much, or if you have an email account, the answer to that question is almost certainly a yes. There are many services out there that offer to sell you keyword ownership – specifically premium keyword ownership – for the cost of a few hundred dollars every year. The primary selling point used by these companies is that if anyone happens to type the keyword you have purchased into the address bar of their internet browser, then they will automatically be sent directly to your website. There are, in fact, about 2 percent of internet users around the globe who have this ability enabled on their computers, since it specifically requires certain element such as Internet Explorer.
Studies have shown that approximately 4 to 7 percent of all search queries are done by way of a keyword being entered into the address bar of the internet browser being used. For Internet Explorer users, any search queries performed using the address bar are defaulted to an MSN search. However, over time, most of us have installed a good deal of additional software onto our computers, allowing for such searches to be re-routed to other search portals. This is often a sign of having installed a file sharing software. Among the spyware and potential for viruses, worms, and other undesirable additions to your computer, by installing a program such as Limeware, Morpheus, or Kazaa, you may have altered your default search in your address bar from MSN to a different portal altogether. Of the queries that are entered into the address bar, approximately 50 percent of them are the result of having accidentally mistyped their desired URL, therefore instigating a keyword search. This accounts for the between 2 and 4 percent of internet users who actually use the address bar to perform their searches. To understand the way that this functions, it is important to know how address bars work. There are many different companies offering the ownership of keywords. So many, in fact, that they are able to compete with each other, and even sell the very same keywords, only to different search companies. This being said, it means that if you buy a keyword, then depending on the company you buy it from, they may only make the search available to those specific internet users who have installed that company’s unique proprietary address bar plug-in. This makes the total number of people quite low for entering your keyword into the address bar and then find your site. Though it is up to you whether you choose to use keyword ownership among your online marketing techniques, it is vital that you keep yourself informed of the actual potential that this method will offer you. Never hesitate to ask questions of the company you’re considering, and if anything looks fishy or not as appealing as it should, simply walk away. There is lots of competition out there, and there is surely someone who will be willing to make you a better deal.
A marketing strategy based on keyword ownership is difficult to measure. After all, many of the tools for the process are not interchangeable, there are many competing companies all selling the same companies to your competition, and your target of internet users is quite small in the first place. It can easily happen that all of the money you spend on such keyword ownership will lead to absolutely nothing. In competition with these keyword ownership businesses are the search engines themselves; specifically those who have their own toolbars. Many of the major search engines offer a downloadable toolbar that allows you to enter keywords and run searches quickly and easily. You are then presented with that search engine’s range of closest matches from all of their indexed websites. Not only does this not cost anything, but more than one keyword possibility can lead to your site. As you can see, it is quite clear that keyword ownership can be quite the tricky business and must be managed with the utmost research and technical knowledge if any notable gains are to be witnessed
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The online business is on an all time high. Millions and millions of people are venturing in online businesses and as expected, they would try to outdo each other. Competition is so stiff that businesses have tried to do all tricks in the book just to be able to stand out from the rest. Massive advertising campaigns were launched with the purpose of luring potential customers. Giving coupons and promotional items are just two of the several tricks employed by business to promote the company. Of course these are effective ways to gain traffic that could be converted into potential customers but an equally important factor vital to the success of any online business is a good website.
A good website serves as the virtual office of an online business and as such should be able to present a good impression to the potential customer.
Just like any other office, it should be “uncluttered”, clean and pleasant to the eye. With just a single click, it should be able to provide the visitor or customer with the vital information he or she is seeking for. And this is possible by creating a website free from excessive trimmings, from unnecessary graphics and animations. Slow loading sites due to heavy graphics are comparable to an unattended store where customers are waiting in line to be served. There’s a great probability that customers would transfer to other stores rather than cool their heels waiting. This would mean losses in terms of sales. Just like an office space, the interiors should be pleasant and cool to the eyes. This could be achieved by using complementary colors and decorations. This is also true in a website; the background should be lighter to give emphasis to the darker text. This way, the site is made more reader friendly. Nothing is more distracting than a website with glaring colors, with jumping animations and with bouncing banners. These are sure customer turn-offs. Serving as an online store, the website should be able to provide unobstructed view of the merchandise offered. Using the simple Times New Roman and Arial for the text is most advisable as well as using bold letters and underlining words to give emphasis to key points.
This would surely draw the attention of readers. An office or a place of business will reflect the personality of the company-meaning a beautifully kept office with carefully tended grounds would mean that owners are serious with the business and that they are ready to give the optimum service to customers. The same is true with an online business. A website that is visually appealing to the visitors would draw more traffic thus increasing the chances of attracting customers. This would also mean that the webmaster is serious with his business and have taken great pains to ensure that the site have a professional look. Moreover this would mean that the website owner have used programs that made the creation of the website faster and easier. Attracting visitors is easy with professional looking websites and shopping would be a pleasure because of the security it provides to the customers.
