These days, traditional employment structures seem to be more in flux than we have ever seen before. This had led to a boom in people looking to work from home, and an explosion of people creating their own part time home based businesses in order to provide a supplementary income. If you are a flexible sort of person and can adapt to change easily, you may find that a work from home business provides you a number of unique benefits. Let’s take a look at three of the biggest advantages that you can enjoy if you own a part time home based business or work from home:• Convenient – One of the biggest advantages of a part time business, or work from home in general, is that it is extremely convenient. There is no boss to answer to, you decide when you want to work, how hard, and for how long. There are no schedules or deadlines other than those that you set yourself. The convenience of working for yourself puts the most generous flextime package to shame.• Profitable – While you may draw less total gross revenue if you work from home or supplement your income through a part time home based business, your time spent may be more profitable on a per hour basis. Remember, performing work from home or owning a part time home based business means you have no overhead, no rent expense, and none of the other costs associated with owning a brick and mortar commercial storefront.• Tax Advantages – Having a part time home based business or working from home can provide you some real and significant tax advantages. Commute costs, food and beverage, entertainment for clients, and even office space within your own home all can be tax deductible and save you thousands of dollars on an annual basis.As you can see, working from home or starting a supplementary part time home based business is a great idea that offers some real benefits to people in a wide variety of circumstances. Another major benefit that we haven’t mentioned is that when you work for yourself, you enjoy true job security. Corporations and industry in general simply do not take care of their employees in the way that they used to, and a person cannot afford to rest on their laurels and place themselves at the mercy of a business dedicated to maximizing profit.

When searching on a search portal, Google or Bing, your advert will occur next to or on top of the organic search results for the search phrase you entered. PPC advertisements are known as “sponsored ads” with the Google results page and “ads” with the Bing results page.

Advertisers place bids for individual search phrases. When a searcher clicks on your ad, you will be charged based on the amount you bid for that search phrase. The more that you’re willing to bid for any specified search term, the higher your advert will appear within the sponsored listings. The larger the pay per click service’s network, the higher the bids the advertisers will be willing to pay for high positions.

It’s important to closely track the performance of your advertising and marketing right from the start. The ultimate measure of the overall performance of the pay per click advertising campaign will be the return on investment (ROI) of every advert.

Pay per click affords advertisers a high degree of control and the capability to effortlessly measure the outcomes of their campaigns. Control is the major advantage of PPC advertising and marketing but considering that all the advertisers with which you compete also have the same control, pay per click campaigns have to have active monitoring and management.

The major attraction that any pay per click service provides to advertisers is its capability to distribute advertising. Pay per click also makes it possible for advertisers to target different geographic locations with a selection of specific countries and languages to target.

A typical Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisement as it’s shown on the search portal.

PPC Advertising campaign management (Headline / Title)

We setup and manage Google AdWords & Bing / Microsoft Advertising campaigns (Description)

domain.name (Display URL)

Headline / Title: The hyperlink in the headline will redirect visitors through the pay per click service to the URL set by the advertiser.

Description: All pay per click services restrict the length of advert copy to a number of lines and/or a specified number of characters.

Display URL: A display URL is shown to reveal to the searcher where the advert will take them. The display URL doesn’t necessarily reflect the exact page to which a visitor will be sent.

Both Google and Bing advertisers can run parallel campaigns using the very same search terms. The same advertisements which are utilized in search results may also appear in Google AdSense and Microsoft Advertising contextual advertising. Google and Bing offer a contextual advertising option through which advertisers can open up their campaigns for distribution by way of Google’s and Bing’s networks, which comprises large numbers of individual Internet websites, news sites, and content portals.

Google’s main advantage will be the size of the AdSense network, as well as the power to reach a variety of smaller Internet websites. AdWords advertisements are always displayed on the Google search portal. Advertisers can decide whether or not to distribute their adverts by way of Google’s AdSense network of partners.

There is a range of second tier players who could possibly offer useful services and more cost-effective advertising and marketing alternatives in many instances. You’ll find Pure pay per click providers, Regional providers and Vertical market providers, who specialize in distinct kinds of products or services.

Fundraising Auction Tip: You should always provide potential bidders with a printed Auction Listing of both your Live and Silent Auction items at any Fundraising Auction. A printed Auction Listing is vital for several reasons:

An Auction Listing informs bidders of the order of sale, and what is coming up next. If you keep your bidders guessing, they will simply not bid.

If bidders are not 100% certain of what they are bidding on, they will not bid. A printed Auction Listing should answer any and all questions about what is being sold in order to encourage bidders to bid as much as possible.

Bidders often need time to plan their bidding strategies, especially on multiple and/or larger value items. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Couples often need time to consult with each other about what they are willing to spend on something. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Potential bidders need to know the specifics, the benefits, and the restrictions on any item they are going to bid on, especially on travel and/or other higher value items. A printed Auction Listing should answer all of their questions, in writing.

After bidders see that they have lost an item to another bidder, a printed Auction Listing makes it easier for them to re-strategize on what else they can bid on.
Printed Auction Listings generally come in 3 forms:

Printed in the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-inserted into the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-delivered to all attendees, or left on each dinner table in the room.
Auction Listings cost practically nothing to produce and they can make the difference between the success and failure of a Live and Silent Auction. You should never conduct a Fundraising Auction without one.

A Case Study

Let me share a real-life experience with you. Once I was hired to conduct a Fundraising Auction for a nationally renowned organization. The event was held in a major hotel, in one of the country’s largest cities, with several hundred “black tie” participants attending. It was an extremely professional event, with the music, singing, lighting, speeches, and awards all perfectly timed and choreographed. Everything was done to perfection… exception the Fundraising Auction.

Although I had signed an agreement to serve as their Auctioneer nearly one year in advance of the event, no one bothered to contact me for any advice or help. Approximately one week prior to the Auction date, I contacted the group to see if they had replaced me with another Auctioneer. But they said that I was still their man.

Upon arriving at the event I asked for a copy of the Auction Listing. I was told that there were none. I’m not sure whether they felt that the Auction Listing wasn’t necessary, or whether someone forgot to have them printed. This was never made clear. When I asked what I was to use at the podium, I was told to copy the list of Live Auction items from a committee member’s computer. It took me about 30 minutes to copy three pages of hand-written notes in order to prepare for my role as their Auctioneer.

I knew that they had created a PowerPoint program showing the various Live Auction items. When I asked whether the PowerPoint slide order corresponded to the order of sale I had copied from the committee member’s computer, I was met with a blank stare. The committee member left to check the slide order, and returned to let me know that the slide order did not correspond my notes, and he provided me with the correct slide order… hand-written on a paper napkin. This forced me to re-arrange my three pages of hand-written notes before taking the podium.

There was a Live Auction Table with descriptions of the Live Auction items that were to be sold, but the table was not clearly marked, and it received significantly less attention than the Silent Auction Tables, which were clearly identified. Since the Live Auction Table was located adjacent to the “Raffle Table”, it appeared that most people thought it was part of the raffle and therefore paid very little attention to it.

According to the event program (which did not include an Auction Listing), I knew approximately when I was to begin the Live Auction. At the designated time the Master of Ceremonies announced the start of the Live Auction to the several hundred people in attendance, and introduced me as Auctioneer. As I approached the podium I realized that photographs of award winners were still being taken… directly in front of the podium where I was to stand… which required me to stand aside for several minutes until the photographers were done. Can we say “awkward moment”?

As the photographers cleared, I approached the podium and began my Live Auction introduction. Approximately one minute into my introduction, the “Raffle Committee” approached the podium and stopped my Live Auction Introduction in order to pull the 8 or 9 Raffle Winners. These drawings lasted about 5 minutes. Upon it’s conclusion I was allowed to resume the start of the Live Auction.

When standing at the podium two intense and extremely bright spotlights were pointed directly at the podium. The lights were so bright that I literally could not see the center 1/3 of the room. I could see the tables on the right, and on the left, but was totally blinded when looking straight ahead. It took perhaps five minutes before the spotlights were turned off.

While at the podium and describing Lot #1, I had to ask someone to start the Lot #1 PowerPoint Slide… because apparently no one was assigned that job.

So with only the Auctioneer’s verbal description, and a PowerPoint slide, it appeared that few people in the room had any idea about what we were selling… or when we were selling it… until it was announced by the Auctioneer. As a result, bidding was extremely light and the final results fell several thousands of dollars short of where they should have been
The learning experience is this:

The Live Auction is where you place your better items, and where the real money should be made at any Fundraising Auction. Let bidders know as far in advance as possible what you will be selling, and the order of sale, so they can get excited about the Auction, and plan their bidding strategy accordingly.

Auction Listings are absolutely vital to the success of both Live & Silent Auctions. In my opinion, revenues at this Auction fell thousands of dollars short of where they should have been, because no Auction Listing was provided to the guests.

If bidders are not perfectly clear on what is being sold, including both the item’s specifics, benefits, and restrictions, they will not bid.

When you have a committee of volunteers, especially volunteers having full time jobs and/or very busy schedules, the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can help to keep the committee on track.

And once you retain the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer… use the services that you are paying for.