|
August 30, 2005
Written
by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews
We
Want You To Know...When you sign up to receive the
FREE weekly Tuesday Report announcement your e-mail address
will never be sold, traded, or given to another party.
Please
Note: We receive e-mails from people who have signed up
for the Tuesday Report, and then tell us they’re not
receiving our weekly announcement. In most cases this is because
they’re blocking unwanted e-mails.
To
ensure that our weekly Tuesday Report e-mail announcement
reaches your mail box, we suggest you add bmeyer@barternews.com
to your address book or safe sender list.
Work + Genius Is The Formula For Today’s Wealth & Progress
Next Monday
is labor day in the U.S., where we honor the sweat and toil of our
productive work force. But given that we are now living in the “information
age,” in which knowledge and education are very necessary
and important keys to success, maybe it’s also time we acknowledge
and honor the genius of man.
For it’s
the power of man’s mind to reason, invent, and create that
has enabled the incredible progress and burgeoning wealth that we
all enjoy today.
Trade
Exchange Owners...
Build Rapport And Empathy With Your Client Base!!
The most powerful
marketing tool in the barter industry, The Competitive Edge
newsletter, is a monthly, ready to use, professional 4-page publication...no
work is needed!
To
learn more about The Competitive Edge newsletter and how
it can help build your trade exchange, click
here
Statistics
Reinforce Enormous Potential For Commercial Barter Industry
In May 2005
the published results of the sixth annual Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor showed that “Seventy-three million people across the
globe are either nascent entrepreneurs or own or manage a young
business.”
The Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor report, directed by the London Business School and Babson
College, is the largest annual measure of entrepreneurial activity
worldwide, spanning 34 countries and a total labor force of 784
million people. (In 2004, 11.3% of the U.S. adult population were
entrepreneurs while in the U.K. the percentage was 6.3%, and in
Germany 4.5%.)
Entrepreneurs
are the backbone of the world economic community. Yet many failures
are due to lack of capital. If the world expects to survive and
prosper economically it needs to increase the availability of capital
to the undercapitalized global entrepreneurial community.
And that may
well be the most valuable service our industry can provide to millions
of entrepreneurs—showing them the way to use their products
and services as a secondary form of capital.
Our industry
has made substantial progress over the decades, but viewed in the
larger context of what’s possible it can be safely said that
we’ve barely scratched the surface of the incredible possibilities!
More importantly,
the business model needed to build a critical mass of clients/members,
which will number in the millions, is yet to be created.
BarterNews
Online Classified Ad Service
We have $50,000
in popcorn from Trails End—the producers of popcorn for the
Boy Scouts of America fundraising efforts. Packages come in eight
different flavors, and are available in $1,000 lots or more. For
details on flavors and prices call: James Kusturin, president of
iBTX, at 800-298-5211.
New
Ruralism Taking Place In Florida Real Estate
A Florida developer
is betting that wealthy Americans are eager to escape suburban sprawl
and spend weekends working the land. To that end, St. Joe Company
has broken ground on the first of three planned projects in northwestern
Florida. The lots run as large as 150 acres, but are hardly for
cowpokes: amenities include fitness centers, watercraft rentals,
and oyster roasts.
The first 134
lots were oversubscribed at its RiverCamps development on Crooked
Creek, 130 miles west of Tallahassee. The latest group of lots went
on sale with an average price of $342,900.
To maximize
the getaway experience, St. Joe has a “camp master”
to coordinate activities such as kayaking, nature study, and stargazing.
Owners can also submit requests, such as stocking a refrigerator
prior to arrival, to the concierge staff through a web site.
Get
New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!
You can obtain
useful, informative ideas and contacts in every available back-issue
of BarterNews.
Trading
On One’s Labor & Ambition Still Popular
A little-known
federal plan “The Mutual Self-Help Program” provides
financing for homes in rural areas for low-income families. To get
into the program low-income families must quality (based on income,
or lack thereof) and then provide “sweat equity” for
10% to 15% of the value of each new home. The barter of one’s
labor serves as the down payment.
A typical scenario
will see a dozen modest homes built in a cluster with the 12 families
contributing their time together, amounting to about 2/3 of the
labor, to build the houses in the group. (Air conditioning, plumbing
and stucco are among the tasks left for licensed specialists.)
Each year on
average the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) disburses some $200
million in mortgages for about 1,500 families in 40 states participating
in the self-help program.
Some USDA officials
see the program paralleling the Homestead Act of 1862 under President
Abraham Lincoln, when people were given a 160 acre tract on which
to build and plant with the intention of populating the frontier.
Now
available ...BarterNews issue #64, get your copy
now! Orders will be shipped within two business days of publication.
Click on Order Form.
(If you
are not sure if your subscription has lapsed, e-mail your name,
address, and zip code to bmeyer@barternews.com
Moving Billboards...Advertising On The Go!
Transit advertising—placement
of print ads on buses and other vehicles and in bus shelters and
train stations—is an important medium for reaching an audience
of all ages, backgrounds and incomes.
Advertisers
at one time tended to shy away from internal transit advertising
because of the perception of who the bus rider was. Today, concern
for the environment and the popularity of programs such as Park-and-Ride
have caused a wide range of business professionals, teachers, college
students, and many others to leave their vehicles in mall parking
lots and ride the bus to and from their jobs.
The large, colorful,
innovative cards demand attention, reaching drivers and passengers
(who spend an average of 30-40 minutes on the bus) no matter what
radio stations they’re listening to.
Transit advertising
makes sense because passengers can’t zap it, ignore it, or
turn it off. Plus, it delivers to a varied audience and it offers
flexibility of ad size and location.
Types of transit
advertising:
King and
queen signs are located on the sides of transit vehicles. They
are the largest of the signs and are attached to the bus with aluminum
frames.
Tail signs
are located on the rear of transit vehicles. If you’ve ever
been stuck behind a bus at a traffic light or in a traffic jam,
you know what the back of that bus says by the time you start moving
again.
Interior
cards are smaller and are seen only by the riders. They line
the tops of the bus windows and include a sign located on the divider
behind the bus driver.
Wraps.
In some cities wrapping an entire bus with the theme of a company,
a product, or a museum is all the rage. These giant moving advertisement
are impossible to miss...but wraps are expensive propositions and
usually require a minimum one-year contract.
Outdoor billboards
and transit signs are very effective when used together, whether
it is a full outdoor billboard or repeating your own store sign.
The combination keeps some of your signs anchored and some mobile,
which gives great coverage.
Check with your
barter company to acquire advertising on the go. (Link to
all barter companies)
Every
barter company in the world is listed on our web site,
click through to our Global List
of Barter Companies.
Truck
& Auto Media Another Option
Another way
to break through advertising clutter is to acquire advertising on
trucks and automobiles, whereby you can effectively reach the huge
numbers of road warriors traveling our nation’s thoroughfares.
FlapMedia (www.flapmedia.com)
sells advertising on the mud-flaps of trucks. For a reasonable $50
to $75 per truck per month, you get your message on a customized
flap. (The company says you’ll reach an average of 612,000
impressions per vehicle per month.)
Step up a notch
to $150 to $300 per vehicle for a four-week spin with AdFleet (www.adfleet.com),
where your message will appear on specialized non-spinning hubcaps
of taxicabs in major urban areas as the cabs make their way around
town.
Yet another
option comes from Targeted Media Partners (www.targetedmediapartners.com),
which is rolling out interactive touch-screens in urban taxis. The
screens provide passengers with news, weather reports, and other
content that’s merged with advertising. Reaching this captive
audience comes with a much higher price tag—from $7,000 to
$50,000 per month.
(Editor’s
note: Don’t underestimate the power of outdoor media. Vehicle
advertising certainly paid off for Lawrence Hallier, the founder
of Taxi Tops. He’s now co-developer of a 380-unit high rise
condo complex in Las Vegas, where housing is selling for between
$500 and $600 per square foot, and they’re sold out.)
Give
A Gift To A Friend Or Associate. If you know someone
who might benefit from this newsletter, feel free to forward it
to them! (Complete the information below)
Here
& There...
- Maureen Neal
passed away on Saturday, August 27, in the arms of her husband,
ITEX founder Terry Neal. (Terry was the mercurial innovator who
launched ITEX in 1983, and a valued contributor to the commercial
barter industry during its formative years.)
|
