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Hollywood loves the stock market. The chaos of the stock exchange floor, the tension of boiler room day-trading, devious power brokers making back room deals; it all makes for great drama. Then you have the true-to-life stock market stories in the news: insider trading, big money IPOs, the dot com bust. All of it is enough to make you steer clear of the market for good and travel down a safer investment path. But don?t be frightened, history shows that long-term, there?s no better place to put your money to watch it grow. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Stocks 101

Simply put, when you purchase stock in a company, you become part-owner of that company. Along with other shareholders, you all combine as investors in the business, and therefore reap its rewards, or suffer its losses. Stocks are most commonly divided into separate categories depending on the size and type of the company (e.g., mid-cap, small-cap, energy, tech, etc.).

While speculation can drive stock prices in the short term, it?s long-term company earnings that determine a stocks gains or losses. Speaking of short term, that?s when stocks are extremely volatile. Over a span of just a few months or years, stocks can climb to astronomic heights or drop to pitiful lows. But, since 1926, the average stock has returned over 10 percent per year. That?s better than any other investment vehicle out there, and that?s why stocks are your best bet for long-term investment.

Picking Stocks

Before you dive head-first into the market, there are a few things you should know about picking stocks. First, the market?s performance as a whole is not necessarily a reflection of its individual stocks. Good stocks can keep growing even in a down market, while bad stocks have the frustrating tendency to drop or remain stagnant in a strong market.

Also, remember that history is not indicative of a stock?s future performance. Even solid stocks can slip from time to time. Remember that stock prices are based on a company?s earnings outlook, not its past performance. If the future looks bright for a company, a $100 dollar stock is probably a good buy. If earnings look less than promising, even a $5 stock can be a waste. Finally, investors determine a stock?s value by measuring a handful of primary criteria, most notably cash flow, earnings, and revenue.

?Diversify?

It?s the rallying cry of all smart investors. When compiling an investment portfolio of stocks, it?s smart to own shares in companies from several different industries. Consider it a ?hedge bet?. When one part of the economy experiences a downturn, you?ll have other stocks in your portfolio to put your faith in.

When building your portfolio, the safest bet is to pick from financially strong businesses with earnings growth above the average. Surprisingly, that limits the lot to choose from, as only around 200 stocks today fit that bill. A solid portfolio features somewhere in the ballpark of 20 stocks selected from seven or more industries. A general rule of thumb is to invest in stocks with an above-average rate of growth and reasonable valuations.

Buy and Hold

Day trading is a great way to lose your nest egg, but quick. As we noted before, stocks over the short term are highly volatile. Sure, brokers today are offering cheap trades, but beware. There are a ton of hidden fees and taxes involved with day trading, not to mention the amount of attention required by you to monitor the blow-by-blow proceedings of the market. Our recommendation: buy and hold. A ten percent return over the long term is nothing to sneer at.

The formula is pretty simple: your small business must pay taxes on what’s left of your revenues after you have deducted all your expenses. That said, it would seem to make sense to claim the maximum allowable number and amount of deductions in order to reduce your tax liability. Luckily, the IRS gives you lots of choices as to tax deductions that you can legally claim.

Here are some deductions that you should think about when doing your business tax planning.

Here’s some allowable tax deductions that you don’t want to miss.

1. Deductions for Start-up Costs

In your first year of small business, you are allowed to write off as much as $5,000 in start-up costs. In addition you can write off an additional $5,000 in organizational costs. Not only that: you also have the option of spread out expenses not deducted in the first year over a period of 15 years, beginning with when you opened your business. Eligible costs include things like market research, company advertising, training of your employees, travel for business, legal advice and other costs. Consult your tax professional for more details.

2. Deductions for Education

First stop: IRS Publication 970, ?Business Deductions for Work-Related Education.? For the most part, you can write off expenses related to your employees? education if the courses relate to their jobs.

In other words, if the course helps them keep pace with the marketplace demands (or improve their skills) or if they need the course to actually keep their existing jobs, then the expense may be a legitimate deduction. The bad news is that you can?t take a write-off on any expense related to training in a new, unrelated field. A couple of other things to remember: You can also claim a write-off if you are self-employed. Deductions also include the cost of getting to and from the classes. Consult your tax professional for more details.

3. Deductions for Vehicles

Be careful here: the rules for deducting automobile expenses are pretty detailed and the Feds pay close attention to anyone claiming these deductions. So, for starters, keep clear and concise records. You can deduct expenses two ways:

The first option is to claim a deduction by counting how many miles you drove while on business. Currently, you can claim a deduction of 44.5 cents per mile. Check to make sure that is the current amount, as it does change occasionally. The other option is to track your total expenses incurred on things like gasoline, repairs and maintenance.

Remember: keep good records. If you?re using your own personal vehicle for your small business, make sure you separate the times you use it for business from the times you do not. Include dates, destinations, purpose of the travel, etc. Read IRS Publication 463 for more info. And here?s an important point: if your employees use a business vehicle while running personal errands, for example, you have have to show this as income to them on their W-2.

A couple of other things to remember: If you bought a new (or previously owned) car, you can take a write-off. You?ll have to decide if it?s better to take it in one single deduction or spread out over a period of time through depreciation. And if that car is a hybrid, you might be eligible for a tax credit. Read IRS Publication 8910 for more details. As always, consult your tax professional for more details.

4. Equipment Deductions

If you have purchased new or used business-related equipment, you can take a write-off on it. In 2006, the upper limit for purchases was $100 thousand, so you have quite a bit of latitude here. The key is to be able to show that 50% or more of the equipment’s usage was business related.

Qualifying equipment includes computer hardware, furniture for your office, business machinery, cars and other similar equipment.

Make sure you read a current copy of IRS Form 4562 before planning your tax strategy on this point. If you decide you are not going to claim this write-off immediately, you can spread it out over a period of years by claiming depreciation on that equipment. Consult your tax professional for more details.

5. Deductions for Entertainment

The IRS definition of entertainment is pretty flexible. Generally speaking, if you attend a business meeting, for example, and you are not reimbursed for the expenses, you?re allowed to write off up to half the entertainment expense. They do caution you that the ?entertainment? must be in a business context. This means if you go to a seminar or conference, that?s OK. Also, the entertainment should come immediately before or after the meeting. You get a break if you are self-employed; then, the 50 percent deduction cut-off does not pertain to you. Consult your tax professional for more details.

Conclusion

There are lots of ways to reduce your small business taxes. Generally it involves increasing the number and amount of allowable business deductions. Consult your tax professional for more details.

Hitting the ways on how to retain an employee is absolutely more difficult than ever before. But one thing is evident ? businesses that can effectively identify and pay their best performers and provide feasible incentive programs will definitely win the retention battle.

In reality, people may come and go in a certain organization. Every company is faced with unending series of employee resignation or dismissal announcements. Whether the grounds for such cases is based on one?s search for greener pastures or for more secured futures, nobody can dismiss the fact that these events can still create a great impact on the operational mode of businesses.

So what is the bottom line of all these mess? Aside from full compensation benefits for the employees, it is best to identify achievements and skills through incentive programs.

Incentive programs are considered as the great-pound brute of retention. In fact, experts say that giving incentive programs can absolutely motivate people to work harder and deliver better results.

Incentive programs are obviously the most prevailing weapon in the industry. However, just like the other weapons endowed with great power, when used wrongly can do more harm than good.

Incentive programs when spread evenly in a certain group of employees may create confusion, insult, and preconceived notion. Of course, top performers would feel snubbed because others were given the same amount of incentive even if they have not exerted the same effort like they did.

Moreover, people who have not yet proven their worth to receive such incentive programs will have an impression than they too can be rewarded just by showing up.

The idea of a true and efficient incentive program should focus more on distinguished performance, free from biased-treatment and unscrupulous evaluation. Effective incentive programs should be based individual achievements.

It is also important that employees should know how they were rated and why such incentive programs were given. In this way, employees can clearly assess the things that they can do to improve their performance, which will result to greater incentives.

In companies where employee?s incentive programs moves in fundamental lockstep, a mechanical and influential deterrent can be created. On the other hand, really gratifying carrying out of functions obtains the reverse result by increasing the performance level and instigating others to go beyond the line. This will be triggered more by various incentive programs.

Moreover, incentive programs should encourage employees to develop full concern for the company. These programs should not make them see rewards as forms of greed but more as a type of connection that will link the employee to his organization.

Business experts say that giving out incentive programs will be totally useless if the employee will not develop concern for the company.

With this, incentive programs should not focus more on materialistic rewards, such as money and other tangible items. Incentive programs could go as far as giving more challenging tasks and convenience in their work environment.

Incentive programs can be as diverse as they can be. The most important factor to remember here is that when implementing incentive programs, the management should be able to create a better working environment for everybody and achieve the highest standards of employee retention to foster stable operation.

Keep in mind that frequent resignation and dismissal of employees can be devastating. Hence, incentive programs can balance everything and maintain quality people.

Every engineer has a specific engineering knowledge as he graduated from university or college. When engineers work, their working experiences develop. Each of them has unique experiences, since they work in different organizations, different companies, and various industries.

Unfortunately, most of engineers do not realize the advantages they already have. Most of them do not like to compile their unique knowledge and experiences in form of writing. They just save their knowledge and experiences in their heads. If engineers want to write what they know and their experiences, they could share with other people, such like student, fresh engineers, or anyone else, who search everyday for such kind of information. Even many people would like to exchange their cash to get the information.

By using the internet, engineers could compile their knowledge and experience with easy, free of charge and effective. No programming skills required. You only need to be familiar with using the internet. The easiest and fastest way is through blogging or blog. All you need to start compiling your knowledge and experience are already provided and these are free of charge. Moreover, you could earn cash while you compile the information you have, i.e. through targeted affiliate program. The most common such affiliate program is Google Adsense. Adsense is free to join and could give nice income for you. http://inside-chemical-plant.blogspot.com is an example of engineer?s blog that built using the same principles. The author posts about everything inside a chemical plant, his daily engineering jobs and his own thought about an engineering issue.

To build your own blog, you only need to follow five easy steps as described below. Please finish each step completely. Do not jump to the third step before completing the second step.

1.Do keywords research. Find out what keywords match with your blog?s topic. Do not use keywords for your blog that currently have 10,000,000 websites or blogs competitors. Use search engine and directory for keywords research. To get good keywords you can visit http://www.goodkeyword.com or http://www.wordtracker.com. At wordtracker.com you will have chance to search best keywords based on KEI or Keywords Effective Index at a low price.

2.Create an account at blogger.com. Use the keywords you have chosen in your blog title and blog address. Having created your account, pick up a blog template that you think is suitable with your topic. Start your first post for your new blog. It may contain a welcome letter or anything else. Do not forget to publish your blog.

3.Sign up as Google Adsense Publisher. It may take about 48 hrs to get approval. After getting approval, you can start immediately insert Adsense Code into your blog. Read Adsense Terms and Conditions, to make sure you do not ignore Adsense rules. To insert Adsense code into your blog, simply click Template Adsense. You can choose text ads, link ads, Adsense referral or Google search. You may also customize the ads appearance that matches with your blog to get a high Click Through Rate (CTR).

4.Post regularly to your blog. Remember to use keywords in your post. Readers will love updated and original contents, as well as the search engines. Vary your posts, between short and long posts. It is good to insert picture to your post sometimes to make it interesting.

5.Promote you blog to major search engines and directories such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Moreover, do not forget to add your blog to blog directories because these will generate traffic to your blog. You can find list of search engines and directories at http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55 . Other sources of traffic to your blog are link exchange with other blogs on your niche, actively involve in forums and placing good comments to other blogs. Also submit your own articles, which contain a back link to your blog, to article directories and ezines. To make people find that you have updated your blog without visiting your blog, you should prepare RSS for your blog. Do not worry blogger.com has provide it for you.

Actually, if people find your blog is valuable to them, naturally they will come back to your blog and invite their friends. Your blog will grow naturally. So, always bear in mind to make your posts original and valuable.

Building a blog is not a quick-rich scheme business, but a long-term business that potentially will give you a good source of income as it grows.

Those who are first opening a dollar store often wonder how they can survive when their competitors have the advantage of already being in business. They fear the competition will receive all the shoppers and the accompanying dollar store profits. Many realize to survive they must have a business plan that includes strategies to make their store special. They must take action to create a store that stands above the crowd. They realize this provides an advantage in the local marketplace when this can be accomplished. To find out more read on as I present 3 steps to stand above the crowd.

Step #1) Actually go out and examine the competitors in your marketplace. While in their store begin to really look at their stores. Begin to ask yourself questions such as

? What are the things in their stores that make it a pleasant experience for shoppers?

? What are the things that detract from the shopping experience while shoppers are in the store?

It is worth the time to actually stop after each visit and make notes about what you have discovered. Remember, maximizing your dollar store profits depends on the discoveries you make and the actions you take.

Step #2) While in the stores examine which of the features in their store you want to incorporate in your store. There will be a core set of things that you will want to incorporate into your store. This should include the most important things that set your competitors apart. This isn?t about ?copy exactly? ? rather it is to incorporate the strengths of those businesses into the overall environment of your store. Once you?ve completed this step don?t forget to include these features into your core business plan and the actual set-up of the store.

Step #3) Finally it?s time to look at all the things that detract from the shoppers? experience while in your competitors? stores. These are your opportunities to stand above all of your competitors when opening a dollar store. For each feature that detracts in your competitor stores, you need to define a specific feature in your store to take that negative and turn it into a positive. While this takes a little time and effort, you will end up with a store that doesn?t just meet the competition, but stands apart from the pack ? and is positioned to earn dollar store profits.

Your visit to competitor stores will take time and effort. Developing your unique plan will take even more time and effort. Yet if you are opening a dollar store this effort can literally make the difference between earning dollar store profits or not.

To your dollar store success!

Making the decision to purchase a new home can be exciting and stressful. When looking at homes there can be quite a big difference in value and prices. When talking to an agent or looking for yourself you may not know how much you can afford. Take the stress of home buying away by getting pre-qualified for a home loan. This way you will know exactly the price range you can afford to look for.

Getting pre-qualified is not as hard as it may sound. After choosing a lender you will need to bring a few items with you so that the process can be done quickly. Each lender may want something different, but the majority of lenders will need the following items to help pre-qualify you for a home loan:

Credit report ? You should bring in a copy of your (and any co-signer) credit report from the three credit agencies: Equifax, Experian and Trans Union. This is the first thing your bank will need to see. If you don?t bring a credit report, it may take days for your bank to get them. You can get these reports yourself from home before going to the bank. Go to Freecreditreport.com for your copies.

Work history ? Your bank is going to look into your work history and will need to know information on your current employer. They will probably look back a few years into your work history. If you have not been with your current employer for at least 2 years you will need to bring information on former employers as well. You need to have the full name of your employer, address, phone number and what your gross income is. A month or two of your paycheck stubs will be very helpful to your lender and may quicken the loan process.

Bills ? Allowing your lender to see your current financial situation other than what is on the credit report can help them determine what you can afford to pay each month on a mortgage. Bring a copy of all of your monthly bills with you including electric, gas, water, grocery, phone and any other bill that may not be on your credit report.

Identification ? This is something that may seem small but is required. Have your driver?s license ready when going to your lender to get pre-qualified. You will need some form of picture identification if you don?t have a driver?s license.

Having problems with debt can be embarrassing, and consequently, people tend to keep their predicament a secret. Whether you have overextended yourself buying a house, and now have mortgage payments you can’t afford, or have a number of maxed out credit cards, you may have chosen to keep this information private. Unfortunately, this is not usually the best strategy for getting out of debt. Before you can get out of debt, you need to be honest with yourself and admit that your debt is getting out of control. Facing the problem is the most important, but also the easiest step in regaining control of your finances.

For most people who find themselves deep in debt, professional help of some kind is necessary to get back on track. One good place to seek help is the lender who services your debt. Most lenders are eager to solve the problem early, rather than having to resort to taking legal action later. Lenders can help you solve your debt problems in a number of ways. They can temporarily suspend payments to help you catch up on a delinquent account, work out a different payment plan, or completely restructure your loan. Credit card companies will often be willing to help you get your finances on track and get back on a timely payment schedule.

Another place to find debt help is on the internet. Many companies offer debt consolidation and credit repair services to help you regain control of your debts. Normally you will get either a single loan consolidating all of your outstanding debts, or pay a credit consolidation company directly who in turn will pay your creditors. When you are working with a professional credit consolidation company, some lenders will even suspend interest charges to your account because you are making an earnest attempt to remedy your debt issues.

When deciding to utilize the services of a debt relief or credit repair company, be sure to first check them out with the Better Business Bureau. Avoid offers that sound too good to be true, and be wary of potential scams. By law, companies that offer credit repair services cannot charge you until service is complete, and are prohibited from making misleading claims regarding their services. You must also be given a three day waiting period during which you can back out of the agreement. Finally, be aware that just because an organization is designated a “non-profit” does not mean that their services are entirely free. There will still be some kind of fee associated with the service.

Many companies offering credit repair services cannot deliver what they promise. Almost all of the services they provide are things that the consumer can do on their own. By law, each of the three national credit reporting agencies must provide you a copy of your credit report upon request once a year. Credit reports often contain inaccurate items, and by law, the credit reporting agency must remove inaccuracies within 30 days. In cases where particular items are in dispute, the burden of proof rests with the company who reported the item to prove that the information is correct. Avoid credit repair companies that require payment up front, advise you not to contact the credit agencies directly, or propose that you create a new credit identity by applying for an Employer Identification Number to use in place of a Social Security number.

Whether you use professional assistance to get out of debt and improve your credit, or you decide to tackle the problem yourself, it is vital that you identify what caused the debt and credit problems in the first place. Take a close look at your credit report and you can begin to identify a pattern of credit use. Perhaps you have a number of open credit accounts that you don’t use, or even worse, many accounts that are maxed out. Once you have eliminated any erroneous credit entries and are working to correct legitimate negative items, you need to construct a budget that allows you to live within your means. Use credit wisely and sparingly, and begin to set some money aside to cover future expenses. Continue to be vigilant so that you never again fall into the trap of excessive debt.

The guideline on what books to look for, what books to avoid.

If you?ve bought books on the Internet at a website like Amazon, you?ve probably noticed that there are used copies available at a lower price. Did you ever wonder who is selling those copies? It could be you. The Internet makes it possible for almost anyone to make some money by selling books. It can be done in just a few hours a week to make some extra money to pay for that new car or whatever else you would like to buy but can?t quite afford now. Or you might be able to do it full time and make a decent living. But, for beginners, how do you know what kind of books will sell best and make the most profit? Here are the simple tips to help you determine what books to buy and what books to avoid.

Books to Avoid

- Textbooks are very profitable if you can be sure it is the latest edition. Usually, a new edition comes out at least every 5 years. Check that it has the CD-ROM if there is one. One of the tricks publishers have come up with to prevent textbook resale is to make customized editions for each University. It?s pretty much the same book, just ten pages of local stuff in the beginning but that lets them use a different ISBN for each version making them very difficult to resell as it is only good at one college. Generally, 99% of the textbooks you?ll see are worthless.

- Anything published by a magazine ? Time, Life, National Geographic, Popular Mechanics, etc

- Anything that is falling apart unless it might be an extremely rare first edition valuable book from the 1800?s. It?s possible to fix books but it?s rarely worth the trouble.

- Popular fiction ? If you?ve heard of the author, it?s probably worthless. There are a few valuable ones but unless you see it in a guide to rare copies, don?t buy.

- Anything published by the federal, state or local government is probably available free somewhere else.

- Anything with a year number in it is probably published annually and is worthless unless it is the current one (and usually the 2010 edition will come out long before 2009 is over).

- Anything in a foreign language including Spanish

- Anything published by a book club ? these use the cheapest possible materials and fall apart quickly.

- Any encyclopedia, dictionary or thesaurus

- Kids books unless they are old and have very good art in them

- Library books labeled ?YA? (young adult)

- Recently published autobiographies of anyone famous

- Diet books other than the latest craze top seller

- Cook books unless they are very specific subjects or very old

- Older art books on broad subjects like the renaissance, French painting, Italian sculpture

- Paperback romance novels

Books to Look For

- Bestsellers that have only been out for a week or two

- Books in the 100 to 1000 sales rank

- Non-fiction history books if they are very specific. The more specific the book subject is, the more likely it is to be valuable. For example ?Great Wars of the 20th Century? is almost certainly worthless. ? World War II? is still too vague to be valuable. ? Panzer Strategy in North Africa During the Later Years? is specific enough that it was probably a small printing and might still be of interest to historians, students or military strategists

- Non-fiction books that might help people make money like investing strategies, real estate.

- Non-fiction books that people might need at work ? especially chemistry, advanced math, engineering.

- Art books on very specific subjects like the work of a single artist, the more obscure the better.

After you have tested the water, and you decide to run a larger business, then you?ll need to be able to look up prices in a database or on the Internet to compete with other dealers to buy large quantities at competitive book sales. The following are popular tools you can use:

? Telephone Price Lookup

If you have a phone with a fast Internet connection, you can simply go to a site like amazon.com, enter the book ISBN number and get the current used price. For older books, that don?t have an ISBN number, you can check on a site like abebooks.com. No matter how fast your phone connection is, this is going to be slow compared to pocket computers with local price databases.

You may use the asellertool.com cell phone price lookup. Based on the entered ISBN, it returns the present price on Amazon. The ISBN number can be entered manually or via an attached laser scanner if the book has a barcode.

?

But, for real speed, you will need a

? Pocket Computer

The pocket computers like the Dell Axim with laser scanner typically cost about $400. In addition, you have to subscribe to a service that lets you download updated price databases to your pocket computer, which costs about an additional $50/month. The database usually contains CD?s, DVD?s, video games and sometimes other categories. If you?re going to book sales and rummage sales, you?ll find these items for sale in the same place. DVD?s are video games sell fast and are cheap to mail. It?s a nice supplement to a book business.

There?s a half dozen similar services. Look at booksalefinder.com for the advertisements to compare the latest deals. Below is a display from a typical pocket computer based price lookup system. Based on the book?s ISBN number ? which you can enter by pressing a button to activate a laser scanner if it has a barcode- the device tells you the used and new book price on Amazon as of the last day it?s database was updated. It also allows live lookup of the present price if WiFi is available.

Now, with the tool you select, you are all set to run a book business on Amazon to make a decent amount of money.

We are still in tough economic times. CNN reported today that the number of people unemployed in the United Kingdom has topped 2 million for the first time in more than a decade. So the good times are not rolling yet. Here in the USA we are not faring too much better.

We are fast approaching another month end and time is moving speedily. Marketing online has become incredibly important for many who seek a second income are looking to replace a lost income.

So let’s talk a bit about what can be done to improve your financial rewards for the efforts you put in. Whether you are new to marketing online or a bit more seasoned, the opportunities are there and you the entrepreneur will have to work on deciding what path you will take in your marketing journey.

Many entrepreneurs are still working on figuring out their game plan and this is a good thing. If you are not stepping back to take a look at what’s happening in your business then you are not operating as a true business.

Marketing online is a ‘real’ business! So you would want to treat it as such and make smart decisions which would positively impact your cash flow. Many marketers are still not making the money they want to make, so certainly it calls for some assessment of what products & services you are marketing and what strategy are you using to expand your business & your profits.

Nadira Haniff says, ‘the easiest and fastest way to instantly transform your business results is to change the strategy you follow’. Given that, you would want to take a hard look at what markets you are in and establish whether that market could generate the solid profits you seek.

There are many, many business opportunities online but a great number of them are a waste of time and effort. In addition to that, I wouldn’t advise you to put all your eggs in one basket either. You have to be smart with your marketing and work towards setting up a few sources of income rather than one.

Here’s what Perry Marshall said today, ‘For most businesses, the failure rate is 90%. For the “anybody can do it” type of businesses, the failure rate is 99.9%.’

So be wary of those business’s that promise big payout for little or no work. Most don’t last 6 months! Do your due diligence and start setting yourself up to win in business.

As a business owner you have all kinds of ideas about what products and services you want to offer to your clients. If you?re like me, you probably think about it a lot.

The question is, do your clients really want what you are offering? Are you meeting their needs and helping them with the issues that are most important to them?

Imagine being able to see inside of your client?s brains and know what they are thinking. It is actually possible and you don?t have to be a mind reader. The way to find out is to ask!

Yes, the ultimate marketing source is each of your clients. They know better than anyone what they want and need. It seems obvious yet many business owners don?t ask their clients specific questions about how they can best serve them. To get you started, here are some examples.

You can ask your clients questions about:

- Existing products and services

- New products and services

- The biggest obstacles they face

- What might be missing from your offer

So now you know what you want to find out, but how do you do it? There are many ways to ask your clients are thinking. Here are some ideas to get you started.

You can:

* Call them yourself

* Hire a third party to call them

* Send them a survey in the mail

* Create an on-line survey (Survey Monkey offers a free option

http://www.surveymonkey.com and has a helpful demo)

Since you are asking your clients to spend a few minutes of their time, it is normal to give them a reason to answer your questions. What could you give to your clients as a way to say thank you for their willingness to share their insights with you?

What about:

> Offer to include everyone who answers into a lottery to win a valuable prize

> Give valuable information to everyone who completes the survey

> Offer a discount on future purchases to people who respond

Ready to stop guessing what your clients need and find out directly from them what they really want? First, think about the best questions you can ask. Questions that will reveal information that you will be able to use to create products and services that will really help your clients.

Next, take a look at your client base and decide on the best method to use to ask them your questions. Then offer your clients something in exchange for their cooperation. Once you have the results of your survey, analyze it and create something your clients are really waiting for!

(c) 2006