Should you most likely buy a vehicle, either pre-possessed, you have to be an aware and informed consumer. While just about all vehicle merchants are honest and sincere companies, you will find rip-offs available that may set you back large money. To get a run-lower on possibly the most frequent auto vehicle car dealership rip-offs happening today, keep reading through.

1. VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) Etching

The vehicle Auto Dealer Supplier you with to etch the VIN onto a window, explaining these functions as being a robbery deterrent and can help you rapidly identify your car. The cost will most likely be set from a couple of $ 100 having a 1000.

The vehicle car dealership may even offer you a discount relevant for this service, letting it is just for just about any roughly 200 dollars. What you do not know was which can be done this both in a mechanic’s look for 20 to 30 dollars or mindful of an affordable etching package.

2. Years old-Years old Financing Rip-offs

During this scam, the vehicle Auto Dealer Supplier encourages you to definitely certainly accept vehicle home, stating they’ll take proper care of all of the financing particulars. A few days later, the vehicle car dealership will contact you to definitely condition he’s getting trouble creating your financing, but sometimes create a new financing plan directly through his vehicle car dealership.

Clearly, the brand-new financing plan costs more interest and you will be dealing directly while using the dealer. For people who’ve less-than-perfect credit, arrange to possess all of your financing taken proper care of before you decide to step foot round the dealer’s lot.

Visit your bank or loan company by having an auto financing loan or credit line which means you do not even are stricken by vehicle car dealership financing. In addition to, if affordable, provide the entire auto cost with cash.

3. Warranty Plan

Most merchants will sell an warranty plan or service contract deal, and lots of of individuals will endeavor let you know it is a condition in the bank’s auto financing. Just in case your dealer tries this, request him to place it on paper to actually can choose the financial institution and request on their behalf directly.

Also, keep in mind that numerous cars include manufacturer’s warranties, meaning you’d therefore be requiring buying redundant and unnecessary coverage.

4. Prep Costs and Market Changes

Some merchants are very recognized for marking within the cost from the automobile, from stating market changes for popular automobiles to charging you to definitely certainly “prep” the vehicle available. Collect local sales data on new models in your location. Try the Honors prices for brand-new cars where you live to discover what so many people are really requiring to pay for, and do not be convinced to pay for more.

New Normal | 2008-Today

• Chronic uncertainty | Turbulent demand
• Short product cycles | Hyper competition
• Fully informed customers control marketplace

Winning practices in New Normal marketplace

• Focus on marketplace | Emerging demand
• Adaptability | Agility | High innovation | Continually create fresh value
• Mid-long range strategic perspective

Old Normal | 1945-2008

To fully appreciate the capabilities and best-practices required to compete and win in today’s New Normal marketplace, it helps to look at conditions  that shaped winning capabilities in the Old Normal.

• Predictable markets | Consistent demand
• Stable economy | Linear growth
• Sellers control information available to customers

Winning practices in Old Normal marketplace

• Process | Production focus
• Reliance on long-standing best-practices | Moderate innovation
• Focus on near-term tactical results
• Strategies tended to be narrow and inflexible

When Best-Practices Become Liabilities

Faced with the challenge of the New Normal marketplace, the first instinct of most small-midmarket business is to do what they  already know how to do… just work at it harder.  Unfortunately, the best-practices and capabilities  that work so well in the Old Normal marketplace can quickly become liabilities that waste time, energy and resources and impede success in today’s vastly different New Normal marketplace.

Facing the Future

Perhaps the most important single decision business leaders can make, is to shift emphasis from reliance on past knowledge and aging practices, to a forward-facing perspective relying on improved understanding of the current business environment and on developing best-practices for the conditions that exist in their marketplace today. 

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by James Stefanile, ABR, GRI, SRES, QSC, REALTOR/Associate, Prudential NJ Properties

Let’s take it by the numbers.

I’ll show you, with raw market data, that prices are AT THE BOTTOM in our marketplace.  There’s little point in waiting any longer for prices to drop .  You’ll see comparisons from 2011 to 2010 that will prove we are at the beginning of the upswing in real estate values.  If you look at real estate for the last 50 years in the US you’ll see 5 year cycles of boom and bust.  We had an artificially elongated boom cycle from 1996 to 2006 because of 9/11.  The loosening of regulations that resulted from the government panic brought on by that tragedy gave us another 5 years of boom.  The market should have deflated in 2001.  Instead, it did so in 2006.

Most people think the “bubble” burst at the end of 2008 with the overall financial crisis in the US.  Actually, if you tracked the numbers, town by town, in the market every month (which I’ve been doing in my market area for the last 10 years) you would have seen prices slipping during 2006, the amount of inventory rising and the differences between asking and selling prices moving downward.  Those trends continued during the period 2006-2008 and the financial crisis made it more obvious and accelerated the downward spiral.  It’s a very clear 5 year cycle: 2006 to 2011 and, now, as you’ll see, the real estate market has been improving for the last year – not dramatically and there’s still lots of distressed properties weighing on prices – but improving nonetheless.  The graph at left shows existing home sales for from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It shows a very clear upswing lasting from 1996 to 2006.  It also shows the very clear dip beginning in 2006 and the beginning of another upswing now.  The consensus of this graph is for sales of 4.80 million at a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) for late 2011.  If you click on the graph you’ll see a more readable full-sized version.

 I understand that different parts of the country are performing differently.  On February 1st there was an article in The New York Times about the Atlanta, Georgia market which is still experiencing a depressed downward slide in prices.  There are other hot spots (cold spots?) in the country like Las Vegas and Phoenix where their lofty highs in real estate made them the first to fall and the hardest to recover.   The figures I’m going to present are for Essex County, NJ.  This data is from the Garden State Multiple Listing Service.  It’s not conjecture.  Let’s see the numbers:

This is a comparison of average sales prices for all of 2010 vs. all of 2011.  You’ll notice Caldwell, Glen Ridge, Montclair and North Caldwell all had IMPROVING prices year to year.  Cedar Grove, Essex Fells, Nutley, Roseland, Verona, West Orange and West Caldwell had drops, but not by much, some less than 1%. certainly not the town by town 10% to 15% drop in prices we’ve seen year to year over the last few years.  Only Bloomfield, Fairfield and Livingston did not fare well.  Bloomfield has a lot of diverse neighborhoods from upscale suburban to heavily urban which translate into lackluster overall performance.  Fairfield and Livingston are slow markets, even in the best of times.  The overall year to year price comparison was a loss of 3.63%.  I regard this small number as a sign of stability.  It’s well below the recent average 6% to 7% declines.  It’s certainly not the gloom and doom we hear every day in the media.  Even in The New York Times – which I believe hates real estate based on its coverage – there have been stories of improving consumer confidence, rising numbers in new construction of housing and glimmers of hope in real estate in general.  As lately as January 21st The Times Business Section ran a Reuters piece called “Markets End Day With Slim Gains”  where it was said, “In economic news in the United States, home sales hit an 11-month high in December and the number of properties on the market was the fewest in nearly seven years, pointing to a nascent recovery in the housing sector. The National Association of Realtors said on Friday [January 20th] that existing-home sales increased 5 percent to an annual rate of 4.61 million units, with all four of the nation’s regions recording gains. Sales of both multifamily and single-family homes rose…There were 2.38 million unsold homes on the market last month, the fewest since March 2005.  That represented a 6.2-month supply at December’s sales pace, the lowest since April 2006 and down from a 7.2-month supply in November.” (Copyright 2012, The New York Times and Reuters).

Don’t forget, markets are partly psychological.  When more people feel good about purchasing homes, an improving market becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.  The market will improve, and is doing so now, based partly on the positive perception we’re beginning to see in the media.  When you consider, also, that whatever you see or read in the media about real estate has already happened, you see that the confident trend is not just starting but is well under way.

Let’s read our next set of tea leaves:

The numbers of closed sales between 2010 and 2011 are an obvious sign of improvement.  Most towns had more sales or an almost identical number and even in the slowest town markets, where there were less sales, the difference was slight.  This is not dramatic improvement, as I said before, but it’s no longer a downward trend.  Think of the market cycles like a roller-coaster (and there has never been a more apt comparison).  The car shoots downward to the bottom of a curve and then slows, stops and begins to slowly ascend the next curve.  These numbers of sold units show the roller-coaster car slowing at the bottom and beginning, slowly, to trudge up the other side.  I believe the sales prices in the previous graphic show the same thing.

Here are some more telling numbers:

The DOM or days on market numbers are about the same or a little higher in 2011 which can be a continuing reflection of consumer reluctance and non-awareness of  the continuing improvement in the  market or the fact that there has been more protracted negotiation in housing sales.  The significant issue is the number of listings on the market.  For the most part, these numbers are shown to be in decline or virtually the same.  Over the last few years the number of listings on the market has steadily increased, inflating the overall inventory and increasing the time it would take for that inventory to be absorbed through sales and putting more pressure on price.  Now there’s a sign of stability and decrease in those numbers which will bring down the absorption rate and will be another factor contributing to the stability and, then, rise in prices.

Here’s my favorite set of stats:

This is the percentage of what sellers got in sale price in 2011 vs. what they asked in listing price.  In fairness, these percentages may reflect the final sales price as compared to a price reduction.  There’s no way to ascertain how much of a factor price reductions play in these percentages.  It’s also unlikely that every sale used in these averages had a price reduction.  That aside, no town’s sellers got less than 95% of what they asked, even in the worst performing markets.  The overachiever, Glen Ridge, had a whopping 99%.  In the good old days we’d see lots of numbers in the 100% to 105% range in the best towns.  What’s interesting, however, is that underperforming towns could be in the 75% to 85% range in the best of times and now are joining their better performing brothers and sisters in the mid 90′s.  This, to me, is a sign of overall strength where all results are about the same.

If you want to see results on a national basis go to:
http://www.realtor.org/wps/wcm/connect/b810d08049dae5a8972adf7393f1335d/RELEHS.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=b810d08049dae5a8972adf7393f1335d
 where the National Association of Realtors has published a chart of existing home sales and sale prices since 2009 with a detailed recap of the last year.   All the results for numbers of units are in the plus column with the exception of the Midwest and the sales prices, while showing declines, are no more than 3.2%, except, again, in the unfortunate midwest.

Well, there you have it.  If your butt is sore from sitting on that fence maybe it’s time to jump off and get on with your hopes and dreams.  There has never been a better time to be a housing consumer and there may never be a better time if these trends continue resulting in higher prices and less inventory.  Certainly this trend can be halted or reversed with some political, financial or natural disaster but assuming normal conditions (normal being current conditions) there’s no reason to believe this improvement won’t continue.  We’re not falling anymore so time spent waiting is time spent watching your purchasing power decrease.  You may think you’ll wait another 6 months and maybe prices will fall another 1% to 2%.  I don’t believe that will happen, over all, and, in 6 months, when everyone is finally convinced that we’re at the bottom, there will be more competition for less inventory.  Competition always means higher prices which can negate any falling prices, assuming those decreases occur in the first place.  Also, I hope mortgage rates stay low forever but, normally, improvements in the economic picture lead to higher rates.  Mortgage money is available for well qualified buyers and has not been this cheap for 60 years.  There are even reports that lenders are loosening their underwriting standards in order to lend more.

As is the case with most trends of this nature, we don’t become fully aware of them until they have matured and burst into view.  Wouldn’t it be smarter to take the knowledge these statistics provide and act before the herd gets wise and tramples this opportunity?

by James Stefanile, ABR, GRI, SRES, QSC, REALTOR/Associate, Prudential NJ Properties

I was wracking my brains trying to come up with a connective piece of wisdom between the New York Yankees’ collapse in this year’s American League Divisional Series and real estate.

Detroit Tigers celebrate eliminating the Yankees to move on to the American League Championship Series

Let’s get the obvious and trite out of the way first and fast:  “Pick yourself up after a defeat and face the next day”  “The best laid plans….” “Sports is like life – a compressed version of our lives”  “Even heroes have bad days”

There are probably many more vacuous and un-original sentiments to be gleaned from baseball but I don’t want to clutter my mind with any more.

The reason this Yankee loss resonates with me is that I’ve been their fan since I was 10.  I’m always saddened when their season ends, be it in the first round of the playoffs, as in the last two years, or at the end of the World Series because, for me, it’s the end of baseball until next spring.  There’s no particular joy in watching teams play that I don’t care about if the Yanks are gone and there’s no more baseball with winter approaching even if they win the Series.  The days are shorter, colder, less forgiving and won’t be amiable and gentle again until the next crack of the bat at Yankee Stadium in April.

I think I have a clue of a connection between the 2011 Yankees and the real estate market in general.  By all accounts, the team ultimately failed because they ignored or didn’t try to correct some glaring weaknesses in pitching and their lineup.  These are pretty fundamental deficiencies. 

A.J. Burnett - Pitching Enigma

We real estate practitioners are enduring a market on its knees and I think that a lot of us are just marking time, waiting for buyers to come flooding back and prices to rebound to past levels.  We’re ignoring the fact that neither will probably happen.  Our past expectations of market conditions are, most likely, gone forever as are the type of buyer and seller we became accustomed to. 

So, like the Yankees, we need to deal, head on, with the glaring deficiencies in our thinking.  Neither the Bronx Bombers nor real estate agents can rely on a storied and successful past.  The percentage of home ownership has dropped, nationwide, from 66% to 65%, the largest 10 year drop since the Great Depression.  Even the Obama Administration has opined that home ownership is not as important as it once was and renting is the way of the future.  This is a seismic shift in government position.  Washington has always been a home ownership cheerleader, encouraging us all to take our destiny in our own hands through the autonomy of ownership.

Well, not any more.  And I think a lot of people are heeding this message which is why the rental market is so hot and the residential and multi family markets are so flat.  Paradigm shift is the best way to view this, in my opinion.  To illustrate this, for example, the Yankees have always relied on slugging veterans to win.  By contrast, in the 80′s, Manager Whitey Herzog introduced the concept of “small ball” to the St. Louis Cardinals, another slugging club with shifting fortunes. 

Whitey Herzog - Hall of Fame Manager

Also called “Whiteyball”, this paradigm change from home run slugging  to small hits, speed, stolen bases, bunts, pinpoint pitching, defense and smart base running, manufactured enough runs and victories to propel that team forward.  They shifted their thinking to acknowledge certain realities and succeeded.  Maybe the Yankees should try a paradigm shift, rely more on youth, speed, reliable pitching, and find another bunting coach as good as Phil “Scooter” Rizzuto who taught their players a thing or two before he died.  It appears to me they need to fundamentally re-examine their approach to the game.  Their starting pitching was cobbled together and, ultimately, unreliable but the team put the best face on it all season. They had the highest number of home runs this past season but a miserable percentage of productivity with runners in scoring position, especially in the playoffs. 

Yeah Robbie, we feel the same way...

The big producers in the middle of their batting order had a puny average during the playoffs, underscoring the futility in relying on a few big hitters to carry the team.  In fact, the bottom of their lineup was much more productive.

It always takes time for humans to react in any productive way to a paradigm shift.  Our situations shift under our feet and it’s a while before we realize the world has changed.  Then there’s usually some lag time while we comfort ourselves by denying that anything is different.  By the time we are ready to act it’s often late in the game, the fans are headed for the exits, the pitcher is throwing high and tight to our heads, the umpires are ringin’ us up and we’re slinking back to the dugout.  I see real estate offices closing or consolidating into smaller quarters, brands disappearing, agents leaving the business.  The membership of the National Association of Realtors has dwindled from its highest point a few years ago.  The pitcher threw “bean balls” at these folks and they didn’t think to duck.

We REALTORS need to learn to play our version of “small ball”, a new way of practicing real estate which includes skills attuned to our new reality, just like big-leaguers need to learn how to bunt and steal bases.  We need to acknowledge that buyers have changed, gotten younger, become more tech and information savvy and are certainly more demanding.  We can’t rely on the same old scripts.  It’s always been unbelievable to me that the profession pushes “scripts” or pre-written responses to objections, etc.  Whatever happened to honestly listening and answering our clients’ concerns from the depth of our knowledge and experience?  The “back to basics” approach that covers most real estate training must shift from pre-recorded palaver to genuine leadership.  We must acknowledge that buyers are insecure as well as informed, sellers are VERY insecure and angry and we all need to be better informed, faster on our feet and – dare I say it? – charismatic.  More than ever before, we need to be our customers’ “muse”, a wise man (or woman) that they can rely on and learn from.  The old methods of customer relations where clients are merely handled will only set up adversarial relationships.  We need to inspire and lead and beat the catcher’s throw to second as we steal the bag.

Back to the drawing board, Joe?

If this all seems pretty obvious, I’m sure you won’t be surprised to know that some real estate agents are clueless to all of the above.  They are hard-working, honest, diligent – and dull.  They couldn’t inspire a leaf to fall from a tree.  I don’t want to come across as superior but I hope I can muster a better attitude than that.  We in the business all need to aspire to an appreciation of another paradigm where our cleats are clean, we have a big lead off of first and we’re catching the ball with the bat (that’s a bunt, for the rest of you).  Otherwise, the end of the season will be fast approaching and the days will become shorter and shorter and colder.

Interested parties may register online.

I hope that it goes well for you  2,500 new shares of (e)COLEAG available – buy up, lest the sky fall!!

1) Clearly define your core business capabilities’ reality
2) Which market a business stakeholders believes is theirs
3) A realistic wish list for engaging new markets

by AMERICAN WRITER

Manufacturing Research Practitioner ™ by Pietro

Read, write, and question everything!
Our voices are powerful and true!

Pietro Savo E-Mail Link PietroSavoUSA@aol.com

Why? It’s part of the Federal Government’s restructuring of the mortgage rules for government-backed insured mortgages coming into effect on April 19th in order to help prevent a housing bubble – and the inevitable collapse – as we saw not long ago in the U.S.

So where’s the good news, Kelly? We’re going to have to have more money in order to borrow less! What’s good about that?

Well buyers, it means that the market conditions are going to change. If you’re looking to buy a home and your buying power is changed or reduced, it doesn’t mean you won’t be buying, but it will change your price range. Buyers will be signalling to home sellers that the price the market will bear on a given home may not be supported as it may have been prior to the Olympics.

It may take some time for these new conditions to present themselves, though; between the interest rates, new mortgage qualifications, and the fear and suspicion surrounding the new HST, it may be time for buyers to take action now. Remember that the HST only applies on house sale prices for new constructions only as does the GST, but it does apply to the services involved in the sale and purchase of properties, such as legal and conveyancing fees, Form ‘B’ orders for strata properties, and home inspections.

Our advice? Buyers, talk to your licensed mortgage professional about the new qualifications and your options, and get qualified before you start looking for your next home. Once you know your price range, you’re in a better position to make your “must-haves” and “deal-breakers” lists.

Home sellers, talk to your real estate professional and discuss the current market conditions with an eye to watching how it will fluctuate as these new factors come into play. Good realtors have an effective marketing plan for your home to promote it in the best way possible, but accurate pricing for the market is always the key to putting your home on a prospective buyer’s tour list.

For more information about the rising interest rates, the new mortgage qualifications, and how this will affect the market, check out some of these articles:

• Industry not surprised by Flaherty’s mortgage rule changes
• Mortgage Rate Increase, how does this affect you and why now?
• New Government Guarantee Parameters for Mortgage Loan Insurance and CMHC Product Changes

Sources: camiloblog.com, vericoideal.com, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

You must remember that the trading plan will change with the market conditions and even though you must follow what is written (as it is a plan) just like it was written in stone, as the trading day ends, you should re-evaluate the plan and make necessary adjustments, if needed.

Developing the perfect trading plan that will work for you entails 10 key points.  Actually, you can consider this your Master Plan, as changes may be necessary and the market changes.  Those 10 key points are:

1. Assess Your Skills.  Are you ready to start trading?  If so, are you a seasoned trader or just a beginner?  It is great to have confidence in this game; however, confidence while lacking skill, will only hinder the results.  Traders who are successful have a plan and they follow that plan, raking in profits from those who are not as prepared.  So, where do you lie in this scenario?
2. Are you mentally prepared?  We learned last week about the psychology of trading and how one should be prepared mentally.  Have you done your research on this subject?  Can you handle the pressure?
3. Set the risk level.  How much are you prepared to lose?  This point must be well defined in your trading plan.  How much of your portfolio are you ready to invest in a given trading day?  Most of the time, traders choose between 1-5%.  The key here is that any time during a given trading day, you happen to hit the mark that you have set for loss, you get out right then.  There should be no waiting to see what will happen.
4. What’s your goal?  Just like setting your risk level, you should also set a goal for profit.  At what point would you consider that you have gained enough profit to get out?  Most investors set their goals for three times the risk level.  For example, if you won’t take more than a $1 dollar per share loss on your investment, then your profit goal should be $3 per share.
5. Research.  Before making any type of a trade, you should first do your homework and see what is going on around the world.  World situations actually affect the markets and can have an impact on what the trading day will be like.  You should trade on probability; don’t gamble.  If waiting on a report to be made public is necessary, then wait on it.
6. Preparation.  Before the trading day begins, reboot your computer to get a fresh start.  Depending upon the trading program, if any, that you may be using, you might have to reset alert signals for entry and exit, etc.  Eliminate any distractions during the trading day.
7. Make sure to observe your exit rules.  If you are only willing to lose $1 per share, then make sure that when the trade hits that point that you get out.  Trading is a game, you are not going to win all the time.  With that being said, don’t take losing personally.  Everyone has to take a loss at sometime; don’t gamble by staying in, who knows you just might lose more money by doing so.  Set these parameters before even entering a trade.
8. Set entry Rules.  At what point do you want to enter the trade?  Of course, the point is to enter low and exit high; however, how low must it be before you will enter?  Watch for the signals to enter at your set point and don’t let your feelings or apprehensions get in the way.
9. Keep accurate records.  If you were successful at a trade, you will want to know how you did it so that you can do it again.  Keeping records of your trades will help you to research your efforts and help you to become a better trader by revealing your habits, whether good or bad.
10. At the end of the trading day, always add up your profits and losses.  This is a must for keeping accurate records as well.  It will also let you know where you stand.

You can find trading plan templates available for download on the Internet that can help you with the development of your perfect trading plan. If you have any questions past what is mentioned here, feel free to contact us, Locus Capital, as we are always glad to help.

The news industry is going through a MAJOR transformation, in a manner that hasn’t hit it since the original wire services involved themselves in the market in the late 19th century.  But the AP is foolish, they aren’t at risk.

The model for news has been, a few wire services publish information, AP being dominate, and UPI and later Reuters being competition, and a few other services provided the global and national coverage.  Most local news markets bought their national/international feeds instead of sending out reporters, leaving them to add a little local flavor and advertising.

The fact is, the AP has the product people want, the news story.  The “editorial” provided by local media to pick and choose which wire stories to run may seem important to people in the industry, but seems like minimal value add, especially since bloggers and other people seem willing to do it for free.

Mr. Ahearn suggests that public discussion as to what is a reasonable quotation and other codes of conduct seems perfectly reasonable.  The term Fair Use is intentionally broad, left to the courts to interpret, and therefore causes lawsuit adverse people to shirk back from.  Publishing a reasonable usage guideline could include Fair Use rules, and most people will behave if you are reasonable.

Reuters and the AP have the product people want, and it isn’t them in danger if they are smart.  Threatening to sue bloggers and Google is foolish, building your own advertising model makes sense.  The Internet cuts out middlemen, Reuters isn’t the middle man, the local paper is.  I expect the local papers with news feeds are going to die out, and ultra-local papers covering city and regional issues without national feeds, no subscription model, and advertisements for local pizza shops are the future of local news… and that’s okay.

Reuters collecting a lot of links helps them with traffic and search engine ranks, and gives them the ability to build a real business model online, the death of local papers in smaller markets seems to be okay, if there is a demand for local news, a business will materialize.

Keep an eye out for his new publishing venture, Tir Na Nog, which will bring out a reconstituted Fantastic Stories.

• It is helpful when submitting a story to include a professional cover letter.
• Don’t send submissions directly to the editorial staff – please send submissions to the e-mail address listed in our guidelines.
• Please do not paste your story into the body of your email. It is an instant rejection and not helpful to anybody.
• Plausible story lines and science also go a long way.

“GORDON VAN GELDER’s _The Magazine of Fantasy & SF_ is switching to
bimonthly publication. ‘Rising costs — especially postal costs — and
the economy put us in a position where we either had to raise our rates
severely or cut back somewhere. Given the state of the economy, I decided
a cutback on frequency made the most sense. We’ll lose a little more than
10% of our content this year, but publishing on a bimonthly schedule
should put us in a great position for the coming years.’ (2 January)”

Of course, me being me, I had to confirm it. This from the F&SF forum, posted by Mr. Gelder himself just 23 hours before this little post of mine:

“I thought I’d better start a new thread for this subject, but as mentioned in the “thin December issue” thread, F&SF is going bimonthly.

The March 2009 issue will be the last monthly issue. Starting with the April/May 2009 issue, we’ll be publishing one issue every two months. Each issue will be 256 pages (16 pages longer than our last Oct/Nov issue) except for this year’s anniversary issue, which will be a jumbo.

Subscribers don’t need to take any action. If your current sub expires with the April 2009 issue or with the May 2009 issue, your sub now expires with the April/May 2009 issue.

We’ve made the change because rising costs—especially postal costs—and the current economy put us in a position where we either had to raise our rates severely or cut back somewhere. Given the state of the economy, I decided a cutback in frequency made the most sense. We’ll lose a little more than 10% of our content this year, but we should be in a great position for the coming years.

I know it’s a big change and it will take a little while to get used to it, but I think it will work out fine. Thank you all for your support.”

If it keeps them in business, I say Best of Luck to Mr. Gelder and The
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction!

One of the most important talents any management team of a business can have is to be able to detect changes in the marketplace and adjust how the business operates to function in that new market.  Some call it “thinking outside the box” and others refer to this talent as “working with a new paradigm”.  Whatever the term of the day is, without the flexibility to change as the market changes, a business is destined to fade away.

Of the many business and market trends that have changed the paradigm by which business is done in the new century, internet marketing ranks near the top of the most drastic and sweeping change that virtually every business has had to adapt to in order to survive and thrive in the new business world.

At first, most in the business world considered the internet to be a toy and perhaps a good communication tool.  But in the last decade, the power of internet marketing and the need to compete in that marketplace has never been more evident.  And just as business learns new marketing and communication methods when they enter a new market such as learning to do business overseas, the internet has brought with it entirely new tools and weapons that the modern business must learn to use skillfully to succeed in a cyberspace business environment.

Of the many new acronyms that have been added to the business vocabulary, “SEO” is one that is central to success in the internet marketing world.  SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and it is an entire discipline unto itself.  By learning to utilize well developed SEO methods, a business can learn to dominate their particular market niche even in a cyberspace business world.

Just as in the conventional business world, to be successful with a particular market, you have to go where they are and learn to get noticed and get your message to the consumer even as your competition is doing the same thing.  In the world outside of cyberspace that may mean various methods of advertising, promotional campaigns, good customer service and a long term promotional strategy that will grow the businesses market presence over time.

All of these business objectives remain the same in the world of internet marketing, but the “places” customers can be found are profoundly different.  As such, it becomes critical that a business builds a modern and up to date web site that appeals to the customers perceptions of what they will expect when they come to shop with you and that stays up to date continuously s the internet continues to change and evolve. 

But it isn’t enough to just have a state of the art business web site up for modern internet business web site to succeed.  Just as to be successful in the physical world, customers must come to you or you must go to them.  And the primary method of letting customers know who you are and drawing them to your well designed web site is to connect to them through a search engine such as Yahoo, Google or MSN. 

Search Engine Optimization methods are powerful techniques that can be used to assure that when your customer looks for a business such as yours, they will notice you first and your competition second, or not at all.  That means when the customer “searches” for your product or service on Google or another search engine, your business comes up on the first page of selections that the search engine finds. 

SEO takes time, investment of funds and talent and skill to work with the search engines so your business gets that kind of attention.  But it is worth the investment because the outcome can be an internet business presence that bring the kind of success every business wants.

If you think your credit isn’t good enough, well how do you know if you don’t look at your report.

I have many loan officer contacts that would be happy to sit down with a potential Buyer and review their financials and credit report and give them direction. Maybe you’d be pleasantly surprised or maybe you can get good information about how to repair damages big or small. If the ultimate goal is for you to be able to own a home of your own, finding out how to get from where you are now to keys in your hand at the closing table.

I know that when I have a goal for myself, sometimes others need to help me get there. To sit down with someone and find out what you need to do to make it happen is a no pressure, no cost opportunity to get you one step closer to your goal.

The only one holding you back is you! Go for it!

“We get a whole lot of stories from people more interested in experimenting with form than telling about interesting characters. I think everyone is pretty sold on ‘fantastic elements’ so while we wouldn’t consider something hard enough to be in, say, Analog, the kind of stuff that shows up in F&SF or Strange Horizons would be great.”

The general submission period is Sept. 15th – Feb. 1st. The guidelines say, “The editors welcome submissions of poems, stories, and essays. There are no limitations on form or subject matter.” Maximum length 9000 words or 3-5 poems. No electronic submissions. Pay: as funds permit.

Order The Wall Street Journal from Amazon for $9.99 monthly.

Don’t have Amazon Kindle? You can always purchase it from here
Or if you prefer to read the Print editions instead, you can get it from here

Other Kindle Books/Periodicals of Interest
The New York Times
The Washington Post
Le Monde
Forbes
Time

Order Selling Used Books Online: The Complete Guide to Bookselling at Amazon’s Marketplace and Other Online Sites (Harvard Perspectives in Entrepreneurship) from Amazon for $3.99

Don’t have Amazon Kindle? You can always purchase it from here
Or if you prefer to read the Print editions instead, you can get it from here

Other Kindle Books of Interest
How to Use the Amazon Kindle for Email & Other Cool Tricks: Read and Answer Email Anywhere, Anytime on the Amazing Amazon Kindle (The Complete User’s Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle)
Beyond the Literary-Industrial Complex: How Authors and Publishers Are Using the Amazon Kindle and Other New Technologies (… to Unleash an Indie Movement of Readers and Writers)
Start Earning a Living Today Writing Articles for the Kindle: How to Use the Kindle to Publish Short-Form Writing Content (Publishing and Marketing Books, … Digital Text Platform for the Kindle Reader)
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Atonement: A Novel

1. The perfect Seller understands this market is not the same as the market a few years ago. The price of a home today will be less than it would have been a few years ago. In the Lake Minnetonka area homes are still selling for higher prices than in some areas but the prices are still behind the prices of two years ago. If sellers could understand this situation is would be beneficial to all.
2. The perfect seller hires the real estate agent based on their ability to sell a house, not on suggesting to list it for a very high price. When you as a seller meet with a realtor, don’t pick the one who tells you your house will sell for a very high price. That agent may very well be trying to “buy” your listing by telling you something that you really want to hear, but may not be accurate. Pick the one who has had the most experience helping people buy and sell houses.
3. The perfect seller will understand that every house needs to be staged. As one seller I am working has stated; “As soon as the for sale sign goes in your front yard, it is no longer your house.” This seller gets it. He and his wife have recently staged their house and I bet it will sell in the near future.
4. The perfect seller will be open to price reductions when necessary. It is best to price a house just a tad under the competition in today’s market. That way buyers have a great impetus to buy your house. There are so many buyers just kicking tires, it’s amazing. However, when they see a house priced at a value, they will make an offer. When the house has been on the market for 30 days or 10 showings and no one has made on offer, it is time to lower the price.
5. The perfect seller understands the real estate agent has to pay for all of the marketing out of their own pocket, not the company’s pocketbook. So when the house isn’t selling and the agent is no longer putting ads in all the papers on a weekly basis, instead of demanding more marketing, please understand its probably more about price and a slow market than it is about marketing.
6. The perfect seller has a sense of humor. Even in this challenging market, it is still possible to have some fun when selling a house. When a seller can roll with the punches, and laugh a bit along the way, it makes our job so much more rewarding!
7. The perfect seller thanks us for our hard work. Most people have no idea how much work goes into selling a house. When you get a glimpse of all the work, please take a minute to acknowledge it to your real estate agent. Thank you!!!

Virginia Lord

Raising the Bar in Real Estate

612.333.SOLD

VirginiaLord.com

Nat Says:
Hello, I’m Nat, the new Executive Editor/Owner of Afterburn SF. I really appreciate you helping spread the word about needing resubmissions. I also wanted to let everyone know that we have also increased our rate to $30 per published article and we are decreasing our publication frequency for now to a quarterly publication cycle.

Thanks again for your help and support!

Nat

Good information there, Nat! Thanks!

I do not guarantee ANYTHING

New Markets:

Drollerie Press is looking for “fiction works of all lengths that examine fairytales in unique and unusual ways. We are also interested in re-tellings of, or stories using characters from, Native American myth and legend.” Guidelines

Cat Tales: Fantastic Feline Fiction is a new anthology series being put out by Wildside Press, publishing “fantasy and suspense stories of 500-5,000 words involving cats.” Guidelines can be found at Ralan.com and Wildside Press.

Staffs & Starships Magazine is a PDF magazine of “literary quality speculative fiction”. Guidelines.

Tower of Light Fantasy, a new online magazine, is looking for “almost any kind of fantasy especially stories that blend genres, such as dark fantasy, science fantasy, and superhero fantasy.” Guidelines.

Blazing! Adventures Magazine will open to submissions on August 20, 2007, and will close again on September 20. “I’m bringing back the good ol’ style of writing that was made popular by the Pulp.” Guidelines

Hayseed Novellas will publish novellas in most styles and genres. “We want rich characters, interesting plots, and a developed voice. Unlike some small publishers, we don’t think commercial is a bad word.” Guidelines

Goblin Reader is currently accepting “Science Fiction (Cyber Punk ), Horror, Anything strange and unusual that is not in the mainstream.” Guidelines

Market Updates:

Backroom Publications says “Beginning in April, we will be reading submissions of novella and collections of fiction and poetry up to 50,000 words.” Guidelines

Withersin is open to submissions until September 1, 2007. Guidelines

Due to increased popularity, Aberrant Dreams has taken on a number of new editors. For a list of the new editors, check their news blog. Guidelines

Trabuco Road is open to submissions until May 3, 2007. Note that response time is now 6 weeks, and they now pay 5 cents per word. Guidelines

Interzone will be open to e-mail submissions during the months of May and November, 2007. Guidelines

As Hub is becoming a free e-zine, author payment rates have declined. Guidelines

Ralan’s says that Atomjack is going quarterly, but is doubling its pay rate to $10 per story. This isn’t reflected in Atomjack’s guidelines yet, though.

Afterburn has a new owner/editor, but somewhere along the way all previous submissions got lost. If you’ve got a sub in there, please resubmit. Guidelines

Electric Velocipede is open to all submissions, and has a new URL: electricvelocipede.com

Flytrap is open to submissions until May 31, 2007. Guidelines

Closed Markets:

Shadowed Realms is closed to submissions, and the next issue will be their last. Read the announcement on the Shadowed Realms Readers Forum.

Walking Bones is gone.

Hub is closed to fiction, except flash fiction between 800 and 1500 words. Guidelines

Rogue Worlds is closed to submissions until August 15, 2007. Guidelines

SpecFicWorld.com’s Featured Fiction is closed to submissions until January, 2008. SpecFicWorld’s Guidelines

Dark Energy SF is not accepting any submissions until September 1, 2007. Dark Energy SF website

Dated Markets (Anthologies, Contests, Special and Themed Issues):

Ticonderoga Press is looking for speculative “which focus on the migrant experience, both from the experience of the migrant and resident, stories of forced refugees and voluntary migrants” for an anthology entitled Belong/A Place Called Home. There will be two volumes: one containing stories by Australian authors, and the other by international writers. Deadline: September 1, 2007. Guidelines

News:

AnotherRealm is having a run of bad luck. Earlier this month, the website “was hacked by some not so nice people.” Now, as they rebuild their site, they are being sued by a certain unpopular agent, because they ‘mirror’ the Preditors & Editors site, and P&E says this agent is ‘Not recommended’, among other things. You can get more info at AnotherRealm’s website.