I seem to be much better at picking and buying stocks than I do at selling them. The number one reason for this is because I often forget to sell on the gains. But if I could always call the tops and bottoms of every stock than ranking with investing legends would be a snap.

Where will the market top? Where will it bottom? Buying after a correction or after a company has a rough week is easy. Learning to sell right before one happens is the real trick.

So If I’m not claiming to be a great investor what exactly do I need to be doing to get there? One thing that I need to work on is determining my selling point and timeframe BEFORE I buy the stock.

From there it is a matter of sticking to your guns and selling when you have hit the mark. Of course if significant news come out you will need to re-evaluate where you are going.

If I would have been following my own advice here within the past month I would have been able to sell off one of my stocks at my price, right below the top. Now I have lost much of the gains that could be out growing in another investment.

Well, I have learned quite a bit from this, and hopefully that will make me a better investor in the future. I suppose only time will tell.

What lessons have you learned in bear markets?

Prepare to be bombarded with Christmas sales, decorations, endless stress, and other holiday cheer. Even though Halloween is still fresh on the mind, you need to think about the coming holidays. Of course if you run a retail shop of any kind, then you probably already have.

What kind of sales are you going to have? What products are you going to promote? How will people who don’t already know about you find out? Will you have enough of the hot products in stock?

Christmas is coming quickly, and you will need to take care of any preparations right away, because once the holiday spirit comes and everyone begins thinking about the Holidays, it might be too late!

It’s easy to anticipate the holidays equating to more traffic, more customers, and of course more sales. If you haven’t already begun your holiday campaign, you have a bit of catch up, because you can bet your competitors already have!

If you are in a business where you need to ship, get the materials to ship. If you are in the service industry, get any extra help you might need. If holidays even remotely matter to your business, then get ready.

I ran into this little post over at Medallia Blog a few months back and wanted to share the idea with you. A large pharmacy company wanted to tap into the market for aspirin in the middle east. The problem was that many of the people are illiterate so using words is out if they want to go for the maximum amount of people being able to understand the ad.

What they did was place this on many billboards…

After running the campaign for a few weeks, the advertising had no effect whatsoever. After a bit of market research, (Also known as asking people!) the problem dawned on them. Arabic is read from right to left, so the pictures were being read in the wrong order making it look like the medicine actually causes the discomfort.

I just picked up a book from Seth Godin. If you haven’t heard of him, then you are really missing out. He has published quite a few bestselling books and is quite the knowledgeable fellow. His site is www.SethGodin.com and he has some great marketing and business ideas. I haven’t finished the book ‘Free Prize Inside’ yet, but I have made it through the first section. It has a lot of really great ideas about ’soft innovations’ which are inventions and add-ons to products. An example is the free prize in cereal that makes the kids want Fruit loops over Captain Crunch. Things that aren’t exactly world changing, but product pushing.

I am going to share a clip from the book that I found interesting.

My argument so far:

1. Advertising doesn’t work so well, because you can’t buy attention.
2. Big R&D hardware innovations don’t work because they’re so risky and ever more expensive.
3. Soft innovations are the sweet spot, the free prize, the means that will allow your organization to grow and thrive.
4. Anyone, including you, can create a successful soft innovation, even (and especially) if you’re not in the marketing department.
5. Not only is it profitable, but it’s empowering, engaging and fun.

So, you may be wondering, if this is so effective and so productive and requires so little training, why doesn’t everyone do it?

Exactly.

The Reasons Everyone Doesn’t Do It

They’re scared.
They’re organized to resist change of any kind.
They don’t understand that soft innovation isn’t risky, it’s free and important.
They don’t realize how much their bosses want them to pursue soft innovations.
They’ve never been sold on doing it, and they’ve never been taught how to do it well.

This Means There’s Huge Opportunity

Everywhere that you go, when you start to, you can come up with ways to make products better. Or perhaps a more attractive way of displaying them. Once you get your mind exercising, the ideas just begin to flow.

Not only have I enjoyed this book so far, but I went to Amazon to see what else he has available I ran into “The Bootstrapper’s Bible” which is available as a PDF. I just purchased and downloaded that for less than three bucks, and I’ll let you know how it is.

I should also include a link to his blog here, Seth Godin provides a wealth of information here as well.

A couple of months ago when I was in Buffalo about ready to leave, I saw the most amazing display of customer evangelism. It was one of the more interesting things I have seen in quite a while. I don’t think I’ve seen anything so positive about a product in quite some time.

I pulled into a small gas station that was far away from any commercial civilization and began to fuel up my vehicle. Moments after I arrived at the pump, a shiny brand new Beetle pulls up at the pump behind me. Out of the car steps this gal who was probably around a hundred years old. She was defiantly a ‘go-getter-grandma’ if I’ve ever seen one. She wore a bright red dress with bright red lipstick, and next to the shiny bright red Volkswagen, it looked like she color coordinated the whole thing to match perfectly.

Across from her there was this guy who just finished filling up his tank and was on his way inside to pay. He stopped when he saw her car and struck up a conversation about the woman’s car.

He talked about how he used to have a bug back in the day with the old model, and they just went off from there. They talked about all these little facts that only VW beetle owners fanatics would know about. They talked about the differences, the history, and the general life of a VW owner. Did you know that the old model of beetles ran the windshield washer fluid powered from the air in the spare tire? Better hope you don’t get a flat after driving through a swarm of bugs!

The amount of information and love these two had for the product and brand was absolutely incredible. She simply adored the car, and it really showed. I wouldn’t picture these two talking to each other in a million years without being related, but they were brought together by a silly car.

That gave me quite a bit to think about over the next two and a half days of driving. Volkswagen created an environment, possibly unintentionally, that gave their customers a chance to do more than simply drive around.

Any company that can do more than just a customer appreciation for their product, but something to actually get excited means the company must be doing something right! This was certainly an example of the type of product evangelism that Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin often applaud, and I certainly do as well.

It was about a year ago that Katie and I started Aridni, and in the last year we have had some all kinds of articles. Some good ones, some Great ones, and of course some lousy ones. Today I want to highlight what I think have been some of the years best articles for each month in 2006.

1. January - Investing: When can you start? How can you start?

One of the earlier articles from Aridni to help get you going in the stock market. What are the issues and skills you need to be aware of and possess?

2. February - I’ve got a Big Sky Booya coming at ya!

Watching Jim Cramer is like jumping into the stock market. It isn’t easy for the novice, but here are some tips to getting started.

3. March - “Acey said ten percent.” – Why less is more.

I still really like this ideology about investing less to learn more.

4. April - Weekend Homework: Define ‘Value’

What is important to you? How are your actions stacking up to what you hold important?

5. May - Marketing with MySpace

While this approach works out well in theory, it’s a lot harder than my article makes it look. I’ve been trying things out and will certainly post some new ideas about it.

6. June - How you might destroy $1,000,000 dollars or more today.

Do you keep track of your ideas? Tomas Edison didn’t either, until got fed up with losing to many. From then on Tom and ‘the boys’ filled up thousands of notebooks with all kinds of ideas and discoveries.

7. July - Expand your business with “The Three C’s”

What’s the best way for you to set raise the capital needed to increase the output of your business?

8. August - An employee finds a second job. An entrepreneur finds an opportunity.

Katie takes a moment to ask just what exactly is she working towards.

September - Have you ever considered that you are not good enough? With Billions of people in the world, you might not be good enough. By no means does it mean that those who are won’t be willing to work with you.

9. October - Is real estate calling you?

This is an article Katie wrote about some of here experiences and thoughts after spending some time in the real estate market.

10. November - On hiatus for the month!

A little break before it’s back to the grindstone.

11. December - Step back from the obsession with $

Katie gives us some reflections about money and the desire for wealth. What is money, and how does it work?

Katie found some of her favorite posts from the past year and put them in an article called Seeking Goals and Reaching Objectives - THIS YEAR

I hope that we can provide another great year of ideas and inspiration. And as always, feel free to leave a comment or even send a message with our Contact form

The basics of marketing—product, place, price, promotion—apply to more than businesses selling the newest flavor of soda. These keys fit every time you want something from someone else: a job, a used bicycle, a tenant, a stellar stock. The next time you seek, consider implementing these four points. See where they take you.

The classified ads lured me this morning with a few things:

First, an item I didn’t ever think I could want, let alone need–

Product: WWII radios who in her right mind would want these things? …I almost called because of the tempting description of something else that I didn’t need. The product wasn’t just a radio—it was the best radio, or so said the ad. These radios were in breathtaking oak frames, functioned like new, and had been maintained since day one.

Place: location, location, location I can get these radios here in town?! Or they’ll provide shipping on my online order? Hmmm—prime downtown pawnshop?

Price: I think that a product has to be the cheapest possible (aka Walmart) or the best of the best in quality Ummm—fully functional, ancient radios? Best of the best, not KMapart as Todd calls KMart

Promotion: How will we know about the product? Radio, word of mouth, county fair, door to door? Advertising a radio on the radio could have a nice ring to it, but honestly, Rick Dee’s Weekly Top 40 is playing right now, and I’m not sure his youthful listeners are interested in these radios. The best advertising– Newspaper: classifieds: items under $100. Perfect Is someone obsessed with James Blunt also going to go gaga over this item? Know the demographics of your target–stuff like age, race, lifestyle, sex.

Second–

And which of these would you think to rent from today’s paper?
1. XYZ Property Mgmt 999-9999 * 2 bdrm house
2. Exquisite 4 bdrm Ranch House on 1,000-Acre Ranch. River to forest service. A naturalist’s dream location. Spectacular environment. 10 Mi. S. of town $xxxx/mo 999-999-9999
3. Spacious 4 bed w/ fenced yard near Lincoln Park: dishwasher, garage $xxxx. Andrew: 999-9999
4. Avail now; 2 bdrm, very clean, w/fridge. Stove + hookups, no garage, no pets/non smoking, $xxxx/mo + 1st, last, dep. 999-9999

*the last one cracks me up—why would you pay per line to tell readers that you have a fridge and stove provided in your rental? Isn’t that a norm? Should have done their research.

It is quite possible that somebody has their eye on you now. Who exactly are they? And what exactly are they watching for? They are waiting for you to mess up.

Before you run off to pick up a tinfoil hat or label me as a conspiracy theorist, hear me out.

For the purpose of this post, ‘they’ are not necessarily people who would benefit from your business or your reputation going through rough times. This is all about managing your image really and the need to actively work to improve it.

Take for example Rockefeller. He was not a bad person; however by not controlling his image, he was not well liked. Anyone who makes massive amounts of money is easily targeted by those not as fortunate and Rockefeller was certainly no exception.

It took him years of philanthropic work to recoup the ground he had lost from the public’s eye. When he died in 1937, he had spent almost 40 years of his life trying to regain his image.

(Continue reading this article…)

Welcome to the carnival of business. It looks like everyone has quite a bit of reading to do because we’ve got a lot of great articles for you to read.

Scott Allen is up first with his article Pricing IS Marketing posted at About.com Entrepreneur’s Guide.

Shay has just launched his new web business Boomawang. It’s in the format of an online magazine coming out once a week. It looks good so far!

David Maister presents Alignment and Accountability posted at David Maister’s Passion, People and Principles.

Ohad Gliksman presents Google VS Microsoft posted at Ohad’s Internet News. See how google’s entrance into the online office application market will affect MS’s plans

Supermom_in_ny breaks down what her motivations are and asks what yours are Home Based Businesses: What Motivates Me to Succeed posted at Getting Out of Debt.

Steve presents Team Building - Four Stages posted at Small Business CEO.

Henry Habgood has an idea on how we should handle Customer Service for the e-business owner posted at The Online Lifestyle.

Trent presents Hewitt (HEW): When a Share Buyback Should be Viewed as a Warning posted at Stock Market Beat.

A Samuel presents Munich property shortage posted at Off Plan Properties Blog.

Chris Brunner is next up to help you start Reducing Taxable Income Through Retirement Funds posted at The Small Business Buzz.

Starling gives us some thoughts on Cruises and Cruising posted at The Business of America is Business.

Daniel Scocco presents First Mover Advantage Revisited posted at Future Tech Web.

Dave Lorenzo gives usStep One to a New E-mail Lifestyle posted at Career Intensity Blog - David V. Lorenzo.

Black presents Online business - Blogging money fantasy - can you make a living blogging posted at Leverage Your Effort.

Harrison presents The 10 “Q” in Business

I’m sure you have heard of Multi-Level-Marketing before, heck if you read Aridni just yesterday there was an article supporting it. Today’s article is not going to be quite as affirmative.

If I were to start up one of these companies, for the example we’ll call it “Todd’s super-cool MLM company” the first step I would take would be to find some product to sell. Okay how about we sell lemonade and lemonade accessories.

I’ll get my catalog all set up and good to go with all kinds of exotic lemons, juicers, squeezers, mixers, pitchers, and those big wooden spoons. Now it’s time to take TSCMC out to make some money.

I go around to some houses selling overpriced lemonade and find out one big thing. It’s only a matter of time before I discover that selling things is hard work and not very much fun.

My next step is to get an army of cronies to go door to door. I’ll sit at home watching movies while they fill the streets selling my lemonade and lemonade accessories. Now for every piece they sell we both make money.

(Continue reading this article…)

**Editor’s Note- The following article does not represent Aridni’s views on Multi Level Marketing. Any company, product, or service mentioned in the following article is not endorsed by Aridni in any way, shape or form. It is important to note that all writers are defined independently based on their own work. This particular piece represents only the particular writer and not the entity of Aridni**

We all want to find meaningful ways to achieve financial freedom outside the traditional 9-5 timetable. Network marketing is a perfect way to realize this goal because it enables you to be a self employed business owner while retaining many of the perks of working for a company.

For starters, your product and all the advertising/marketing has already been designed for you. Whether you are selling Mary Kay, Avon, Tupperware, Amway, or Xango you don’t have to put any time or effort into manufacturing a marketable product. All you need to do is sell the product and get others to sign up to sell it under you. Then, you earn commission or residual income from the sales of people in your down line. No, I am not talking about a pyramid scheme where one has to put up thousands of dollars upfront to get into a company and where lots of people have lost a lot of money in the process. Network marketing is NOT a scam. In as little as a few years, people go on to make millions. The best part is that those who succeed can “retire” in a few years and are taken care of for life. Better than the 30 year plan, isn’t it? (Continue reading this article…)

There are people everywhere who have the name of their company plastered to the side of their car. I’m sure you have seen hundreds of them, heck as a reader of Aridni, you might be driving one.

But as I journeyed across the country to new and exotic places, I saw my fair share of these. But what is really interesting is when you get cut off by these people.

Some people either fail to realize, or flat out just don’t care that when they have their company name on their car, they are representing their company. So by driving carelessly you give the impression of a careless company.

By being a responsible courteous driver, that reflects back on your company. Do you want people to think your business is a bunch of maniacs or just you the person?