Have you ever wondered why some people are able to invest in any financial instrument or property at a low price and why you have always missed the boat? This article explains the importance of understanding why contrarian investing works and how having such a mindset can help you make more money as part of a larger investment strategy.

1. Value Investing mindset

Before one can profess to be a contrarian investor, you must have an understanding of the underlying value of the thing you are buying and decide that it is undervalued and historically and the market will rebound within a good period. A good book to start reading on value investing in the stock market is “The Intelligent Investor”, by Benjamin Graham who was Warren Buffets’ Professor in Columbia University and helped shape his investment strategy. So because you know the usual market value of something, you can purchase it on the cheap when prices drop , not unlike shopping for discounts at a supermarket.

2. Look out for downturns

Another key indicator is to understand your market well and then pay a careful attention to downturns in the economy or freak incidents like September 11. Some investments do down in value due to macro economic factors that may have nothing to do with your particular investment. A contrarian investor would spend time looking for ominous signs in the papers which may lead to a downturn so as to purchase stocks, shares at a discount to the average price.

Downturns that can prove profitable include:
• Natural Disasters that have nothing to do with the underlying stock.
• Cross Border Disputes affecting a particular Company’s price which has nothing to do with its main operations.
• Wars and Hostilities that can affect the competitors of your current favourite stock.

3. Look out for excessive exuberance

Contrarian Investors know that downturns can also be profitable if you use Put options which pay you when the underlying stock declines in price? The best way to predict such a downturn would be to look for in the words of the former Chief of the Federal Reserve Allen Greenspan, “excessive exuberance”. This means basically that while prices are still rising furiously, the number of buyers would start decreasing and a market correction might follow.

Some indicators of such excessive exuberance include:

• When you see financial analysts being very rosy on highly speculative stocks.
• When the stock market indexes start rising close to record highs.
• When you notice that trading volume diverges with the price, meaning that while prices are rising, the trading volume is dropping.

Contrarian investing is thus a mindset where the individual looks for trading opportunities which can yield profits. A contrarian investor thus looks out for economic, political and other factors which can cause a large market movement in the particular financial instrument that he is trading in and can make a large capital gain from his investment. This form of investing can be part of a larger investment strategy and one should consider contrarian investing as part of his online investing warchest today.

With all the hype, scams and information coming at you everyday, it's so easy to get confused and frustrated with what training courses, self-improvement programs, software, and info-products you need that will work for you. . Information overload is the primary reason for failure on the internet. Most newbies don't have a clue where to start anyway, and they get bombarded training courses, software, and self-help programs that use different approaches and give out conflicting information.

One such example I see everyday is people trying to learn about getting traffic to a website, SEO, PPC, copywriting, and advanced marketing skills and techniques before they even have a website or product to sell. YIKES!

It's no wonder many marketers start with affiliate marketing because of the ease and simplicity involved. But you still need to learn how to market on the internet regardless what your selling. So the right information at the right time is essential to your success.

About internet marketing training courses...

A really good marketing course should have a step-by-step formula to follow so you never get confused and bogged down with where to start and what to do next. It should be designed to keep you better focused to maximize your understanding of how everything works together as a complete process.

The course should also include the 'business mindset' training as the starting point. Without the proper success mindset, any form of training is of little use. This is very important point to remember.

Unfortunately, most courses don't include 'minset training' but I have found a few that do.

Most marketing training courses follow a certain approach or philosophy. Just as everyone is unique in his or her beliefs and have different goals, choosing a marketing course takes research and patience and should match up with your needs.

For instance: Affiliate marketing courses are different from others that teach you how to develop and market your own product. But they should have some basics that are very common. At the same time however, any training course with merit can offer valuable information the other one doesn't or perhaps a different point of view.

Searching for marketing courses...

Many websites offering training and marketing courses will offer free information or a short ecourse you can subscribe to. I have received a lot if valuable material just by subscribing. They may even include teleconference calls with top marketers you can participate in for free. This could very well help you decide whether the complete program is worth buying into, no matter what the cost.

Self-Improvement programs and courses...

Not all self-improvement programs are created equal either, and many do not offer real solutions to real problems.

As an example: Maybe you've attended self-improvement workshops or seminars and heard some of those well-known motivational speakers. You get all pumped up and ready to make your first fortune. What happens a few days later? All that energy and motivation is gone. I would say some basic and necessary ingredient is missing.

One of my subscribers asked me the following question:

How quick can one start making money when one is desperate?

Here is my response:

I am going to jump right into this one first. That is a great question, and contrary to all the hype you see online about getting rich overnight, this is not a get rich quick business, although some people do get rich in a hurry. Some really do. But it is an inconsistent business when you are first getting started. If you have a list or are promoting a product already, you know that some days you only get 3 subscribers and some you may get 100. Some days you do not sell anything, and others you get four orders for $67 each. When you have 100 sales a day, then if it fluctuates by 10 sales daily it is no big deal--one day you get 90, the next 100, the 110, etc, and maybe down to 80 on another day. But when you have a small list and only 100 visitors a day--you get 1 one day, none the next, 2 the next day--not enough to pay the bills.

So if you are really desperate, and you cannot afford to go a few months without much income if it happens that way, then you probably shouldn’t be gambling on the internet to make you rich fast. But if you are not so desperate that you can take a few months and really learn the ropes, then maybe if you work really hard you can build a business.

You see, I think that one of the biggest disservices online is when someone sells something with the premise that if you will just do this and this exactly like I have done it, then you will get rich. What we can do online is show you what we have done, so you can model it. For example, if I share with 100 people the exact same methods that I use, and tell you to go out and do the exact same thing, what is going to happen? Have you ever gotten 7 of the exact same email from 7 different lists that you are on? The market simply becomes saturated with the one product that is claimed to be the end all and be all. So all you can really do is model what someone else is doing, who is successful.

I hate to say this too, but I do not believe it is possible to set up a true ‘cookie cutter’ online system. If you see a web site that promises that all you have to do is promote that one web site and you will get rich, I think that is bunk. Sure, if you are one of 10 people promoting it, yes, maybe you will make money. But if I sell the same web site to 1000 people, what happens? Nobody gets rich.

Think about this. I could sell my entire business. I could sell all my articles, all my auto responder campaigns, and all my squeeze pages. If I sold them to one person, he could do just as well as I do with them. If I sold them to 2 people, maybe they could do just as well. But what would happen if I sold them to 100 people? You know the answer.

Electronic payments are simply those that involve no paper – neither currency nor checks. Such types of payments rely on a complex electronic and telecommunication infrastructure. Different types of electronic payments include credit or charge cards and those made via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network like e-checks and electronic debits and credits.

While both individuals and businesses can benefit from the convenience of making electronic payments, it also makes ample sense for businesses to receive payments the same way. For one, it reduces the costs of having to manage the inevitable paperwork that comes with traditional payment formats. It’s also quicker, as account to account transfers can be done almost immediately. Third, with electronic debits and credits, reliability is not an issue, since the bank has standing instructions to pay your company on a certain day, and that eliminates the possibility of a check bouncing. No misplaced checks and no forgetful debtors – what more do you want?

If you anticipate that a significant part of your business will be conducted online, you might like to go for an in-house solution. The first step is to install a secure server, which uses complex encryption technology to make sure hackers can’t get to confidential data. A secure server is the hallmark of a reliable vendor, and goes a long way in assuring customers that they can trade safely online. Follow this up with a digital certificate for your website from a digital authorization service. This protects both parties’ interests – it validates customer payment related information and also assures them of the security and genuineness of your site. Step three is to make an online store – this means building a shop front displaying all items on sale as well as creating an online shopping cart for customers to load their purchases into.

It is so easy to get caught up in the massive amount of knowledge that is floating around. If you are like me, you get many emails everyday touting the latest newest best program for getting ric.h online. If you want to learn about getting started online and you go surfing, you can spend hours, download thousands of pages of information, read it all, and not be any further along than you were when you started looking for information. You literally get lost in the avalanche of information.

I advocate the KISS principle---keep it simple, stupid.

I believe there are two legitimate ways to make mo.ney online---Create your own product and sell it, or find someone else’s product and sell it. Either way you have to sell. Period. No way around it.

You might ask about all the multi-level and pyramid and ‘just invest 10 dollars and you will get millions in two weeks’ programs. Do you read scam? Move on. Do not pass go. Spend your money on a dinner out.

To make real money online you must sell. Sell what you create or sell what someone else creates. But you must sell. I really believe that anyone that tells you differently is just downright not honest.

If you are just getting started, sell someone else’s product.

Your game plan will look like this:

Start with just a squeeze page (web page with just a headline, 3 bullet points and an opt in box to collect names and emails)

Build a list.

Develop a relationship with your list. Teach them what you know, however little it may be.

Recommend products to your list that you have used.

Once you have been building a list for awhile, and are comfortable with it, and are regularly corresponding with it, begin to develop your own product.

Once you have your own product, simply begin to promote it to your list.

You may have noticed that I recommend starting with a list, rather than a sales page. Remember, if you are selling something for someone else, you do not need a sales page.

By the way, never send traffic directly to an affiliate site. Always send the traffic to your squeeze page first. That way they can opt in to your list and you can send that same traffic to the site multiple times. If you send them directly to a web site, and they do not buy, you have lost whatever you spent on traffic.

By the way--a note on traffic. There is fre.e traffic. But it takes time, effort, and energy. If you have the money, buy traffic and write articles. That’s it. If you can’t spend money, write articles - lot’s of them. When you start making money, invest it in traffic, not a new program.

Many people today are rushing to get started in the investment game by opening online trading accounts with the largest brokers in the USA today. However, many people are also losing money each day due to either a lack of trading knowledge or merely having the gambling mindset when doing online trading.

This article highlights there essential strategies that you need to know in order to make more money from online trading.

1. Understand market trends Regardless of whether you are trading commodities, forex or stocks online, you need to have a basic understanding of market trends. Financial analysts generally categorize this knowledge as fundamental analysis which deals with general factors and trends concerning the instrument and technical analysis which is an indicator of market psychology. Regardless of whatever your inclinations are, spending some time reading about these two contrasting theories will help you understand what direction the market is moving and to make money from online trading.

2. Set stop losses One advantage of most internet trading platforms is that you can set stop losses on any trade that you do so once the share price drops below a certain level, the trading system will sell your stock for you. There are two kinds of stop losses normally and they are the trailing stop loss and the fixed stop loss. The trailing stop loss is the one that you should pay special attention to. Always focus on protecting your downside and your upside profits will be protected. Stop losses are therefore essential if you want to ensure that your profits are locked in. Remember that for stop losses to work real well, you need liquidity in that instrument as even if you have a stop loss and the market is not liquid, you would not be able to exit fast enough to avoid a loss. Making money with Online trading in this respect is the ability to cover your downside potential so as to retain your earnings.

3. Devise fast and effective online trading strategies Most people today doing online trading are not day traders with huge amounts of time daily, nor people with huge amounts of money so they are hard pressed for time and yes they have to work unlike some people. Therefore the key to success in online trading is to either devise fast and successful trading strategies or spend time reading or attending a course. You want a trading strategy that works time and time again and that takes little time to evaluate and execute. Imagine the irony today, people are paralysed with information overload and remain unable to trade quickly and efficiently daily without spending either lots of time or losing lots of money.

Spend some time today working on learning all you can to succeed with online trading and you will start making money online with your trading platform.

I have experiences that never forget now. When my family and I took trip few month ago at the little village at San Francisco, we felt hungry because of have taken trip long way. We decided to drop at a little café for dinner. This was beautiful café with many menus to serve, like hot dog, hamburger, spaghetti, hot coffee etc. they sold many souvenirs that so interesting to buy. I still remembered that we did not bring money cash except credit card. I was interested in to buy one of little souvenir, purposed to give for my beloved mother. I thought that these souvenir impossible to find at my country. When we finished all of my business, I went to the cashier for paying. I was astonished that the café did not receive credit card except cash payment. Of course, I was very disappointed. By that matter I had to cancel to buy my favorite souvenir because of we did not enough cash money. By that experience, I begin to consider to shop on line. I try to find the best shopping mall on line that sells every think I need. By shopping on line, we can avoid from complicated traffic, take more time and full of risk. By the way, I found shopping on line that gives much opportunity business on line, because many shopping on line have affiliate program now. I shop there, from soap, magazine, telecommunication, book, food, drink and any think else that I cannot say one by one. Of course, there are many benefits to shop on line that shopping off line.

1. Decrease energy and time By shopping on line, you do not need to go anywhere, just stay at home and on the computer that connecting to Internet. If you are too busy, not have time and not much energy, shopping on line become ideal solution.

2. You do not need cash money. Just using credit card, all will be okay. You do not need cash money in your pocket. You look for the complete shopping on line and choose that you need and buy, using credit card. The orders will come in your door.

3. Avoid from complicated traffic. It is very nice to stay with your family in the weekend than spend much time to breakthrough - complicated traffic for shopping.

4. You can build your own business. Many shopping on lines offer affiliate program that give many benefits to customers. Why do you try to build your own business through shopping on line? Let’s try now.

Fossil information sites are abundant on the web. But not all sites are created equal. Some sites are scholarly and may be over-the-head of the first-time or casual fossil collector. At the other end of the spectrum are sites that are a collection of links with no real information. Their sole purpose is making money from their google ads. There are plenty of sites in between that offer every form of fossil information you can imagine and for every audience.

Focused Sites
The scholarly sites often delve deeply into one fossil information topic. Dr. Sam Gon III’s site- http://www.trilobites.info/ shares just about anything you would want to learn about trilobites. His site is easy to navigate because it links logical topics, but also because it has a long list of the topics covered on the home page. Elasmo- http://www.elasmo.com/ covers sharks: fossil sharks, modern sharks, classification and disputed classification. This site is usable by the novice, but has enough depth to bring you back over and over again.

General Sites
Sites like UCMP- http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/ approach the fossil information topic from a broad perspective. They have a huge amount of information on fossils. They include fossil-related topics like geologic time and classification (phylogeny) of both fossil and modern species. Fossils-facts-and-finds’- http://www.fossils-facts-and-finds.com/ target audience is teachers and pre-college students. The topics covered relate to both fossils and geologic time, but additionally include tips and lesson plans for sharing the information with students, and there are projects that students can do on their own.

Especially For Kids
Since fossil information is often needed by young students, there are sites feared toward short, quality information about specific species. Enchanted Learning- http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html gives a little information about LOTS of topics…not just fossils and dinosaurs. Their approach gives good starter information.

No Help Here
Watch out for “links-only” sites. These sites contain long lists of linked sites that MAY contain pertinent fossil information, but you can waste huge amounts of time following these links and never really find what you are looking for. (Of course, that’s what these sites WANT you to do, because for every click, they make money!)