You have probably heard that it is better to make your home loan payments as frequently as possible. How can we best understand this concept?

Let us look at the two different ways of making weekly or twice monthly payments (prêt hypothécaire).

-accelerated weekly payments

-minimum weekly payments

The most common method is the accelerated weekly payment. It is really the monthly payment divided by 4. But in reality, there is not 4 weeks in a month, but a little more. This method is called the accelerated payment method because is has 4 extra weekly payments over a whole year and this fact by itself increases the payment made against the capital of the home (prêt hypothécaire) loan during the year.

The other method is the minimum weekly payment. It is the minimum payment that you can make on your mortgage until the end of the amortization period, and the home loan is fully paid.

It is clear that the savings from these different two mortgage payment (hypotheque) methods is not alike. The minimum weekly payment only increases the frequency of the payments from 12 times a year to 52 times a year, and the accelerated weekly payment increases not just the frequency of payments, but also adds 4 additional payments.

Let’s look at the result of my studies on mortgage payments for these two cases.

The minimum weekly payment

Summary:

1. The minimum weekly payment method saves $1,294.12 on a $200,000 loan amortized over 25 years with an interest rate of 5.4%, in comparison with monthly payments – hypothèque.

2. The higher the interest rate, the better the weekly payment will fare. If the rate is doubled, the savings will be 7.08 times more.

3. One receives 43% more savings with a weekly payment than with a payment every two weeks (14 days) and the rate of interest does not make a difference.

Why?

The explanation is simple, but difficult to describe. Since there is less time between each payment, one part of the capital is repaid a few days earlier, which more rapidly reduces the interest paid on the amount that is paid down. The savings is small for each payment but increases dramatically over time.

Conclusion: The more frequent the payments, the greater the savings, even if you do not increase the amount paid. If it is possible, make your payments each week, if not, pay your mortgage every two weeks – prêt hypothécaire.

The accelerated weekly payment

An accelerated weekly payment will increase the payments on a mortgage by $23.25 per week on the $200,000 mortgage, amortized over 25 years at 5.4%.

In this case, the home will be paid for in 1,107 payments, or 21.3 years.

The total savings will total $28,173.78i (please refer to the calculations at the end of the article.)

However, you are better off not to make accelerated payments if you have a fixed or guaranteed investment that pays 7.52% per year before taxes.

It is important to choose the best payment method for your mortgage, but the most important thing of all is to choose the best mortgage strategy.

Notes : If someone buys a home for $200,000 (with a rate of 5.4%) and pays it once a month ($1,209.16 a month), he will have paid $362,749.83 after 25 years ($200,000 plus $162,749.83 in interest); on the other hand, with accelerated weekly payments ($302.29 per week), he will have paid $334,576.05 ($200,000 plus $134,576.05 interest) in 1,107 weeks our 21.3 years. This is a savings of $28,173.78 ($362,749.83-$334,576.05) to pay the same mortgage.

Marketing is the part of business that no one seems to like. Perhaps that’s because it’s confusing and made to be even more confusing when you begin to read books on marketing and its applications to the business world. So, are there any secrets that actually work and that you can actually apply to your online business? The answer is yes. There are three home based business marketing secrets that you can keep in mind as you begin this adventure into running your own business – and as you become a success.

Less is More

One of the things that marketing professionals don’t tell you is that you really don’t need to do as much as you think you do. By simply adopting a strategy of telling as many people as you can, treating each customer with respect, and then repeating this cycle, that’s going to bring in a lot of new business. Word of mouth advertising may not get as much press as it once did, but it certainly still works when it comes to smaller home based businesses.

You also want to keep in mind that these marketing secrets don’t require a lot of time or a lot of money in order to be effective. Something as simple as adding your website address to your emails is just as effective as running a commercial on TV and a lot less expensive to implement. Think about smaller ways to spread the word instead of bigger ways. Target only the customers that have already shown interest in what you have to sell and you’re certain to market for success.

More is Less

You also want to remember that a customer on the internet these days is accustomed to seeing a lot of advertisements, so they know when they are being ‘sold’ something. Instead of focusing your messages on sales exclusively, try bringing the customer information they can use – informational articles, etc.

When you put too many advertisements in outgoing emails or you simply push your company too much, you will turn off prospective customers. Even if they are interested in what you have to say, the more you talk to them about the same things, the more they’re going to wonder what the ‘catch’ is and why they should buy from you at all.

Recognize that your customers are smart and that they WILL respond to you, even if you don’t tell them about every sale or every feature for your products. You just don’t have to beat them over the head with what you want to sell them.

Use Your Home Based Appeal to Bring People to You

By adding a personalized touch to your marketing strategies, you will begin to pull in more customers, almost without trying. So often, online businesses forget that it’s their placement and location that allows them to be unique. Instead of downplaying the fact that you work from home, make sure that your customers know it. Show them pictures of your office and pictures of yourself to make the experience more personal. This is a marketing strategy that works no matter what you are selling. Since people aren’t meeting you in person, the personalization will do the ‘talking’ for you, making a customer more comfortable with you.

Try adding a blog to your website that will introduce the kind of person you are and what you are capable of helping a customer with. Or you might want to include a video of yourself talking about your product or a personal story that relates to your product. The internet can be such an impersonal place, so try to connect with your customer more.

Anyone involved in home based business marketing has heard of a blog and an RSS feed because these two things are becoming more popular all the time. Both of these things can help you get traffic to your business, which will help you make money.

So, do you know how an blog can help you get that traffic? This is very important to know, especially if you have an online business.

When you make a post on your blog, your RSS feed will automatically be updated. This will allow the people that are subscribed to your RSS blog see your new posts right after they are added. This is a good way to get many people to revisit your blog.

Many people will find a blog that they like and will subscribe to the RSS feed so they will be alerted when you have added a new post. This is a powerful tool to get repeat customers.

Another way that an RSS blog can help you in your home based business marketing is because there are times that other people don’t have their own feed so they will look for someone else’s that they can use on their site for informational purposes. This will help you because if someone chooses your feed then you will be getting traffic from this other person’s website.

When you have a blog and you add a new post, you will be able to ping different directories to let them know that there is new information. At the same time you can also do this with your feed. You want to add your feed to different directories that are just for RSS. This will definitely help you get more traffic to your website. You just need to spend some time looking for these directories and start a list so you can use it whenever you need to.

These are just a few of the different ways that an RSS blog can help you get traffic for your home based business marketing. There are others that you need to learn about and you can easily do this with just a little bit of research.

If you are a business owner than you need to definitely learn all you can about RSS feed and blogs because this can be a very powerful business tool for any internet business owner. Plus, with it rising in popularity you will definitely be able to use it to get traffic to your business, which will help you make money also.

A huge amount of time and effort goes into the advertising and marketing of an online home business so herewith some online business marketing ideas and tips for affiliates to ensure you get the maximum out of your online promotions.

Unfortunately there are people using the internet who are dishonest and will have no hesitation in changing affiliate links. Affiliate links are easily changed so it is strongly advised that you cloak your links prior to starting any advertising in order to avoid the loss of commissions. You can do this through your hosting panel if you own your own domain or by using tinyurl.com.

It is really important to check that all the links on your website as well as your affiliate links are working as there is nothing more off putting to a potential customer to click on a dead link. If you search on Google for `link checker` or `link validator` you will find some really helpful free online tools to check the links on your website.

It is not unusual for sites to go down for some reason or another, for example they may be having server problems and if that is the case you need to be in a position to immediately pause your marketing campaigns during the period the site is offline. You certainly do not want to be paying for clicks to a dead link. If you are using pay per click advertising (PPC) you can access your account and temporarily disable the display of your advert.

The same applies to credits you may have accumulated or purchased in the traffic exchanges. For example Traffic Swarm offers a facility where you can temporarily disable the display of your link. Once the site is back online you can then simply log in to your account and enable the links again. Most classified advertising sites also give you the option to open an account which will enable you to make changes to your adverts and put them on hold if necessary.

It is also unfortunate that some programs are short lived on the internet and so it is important that you ensure that you are not promoting an affiliate program that no longer exists.

If you are considering purchasing targeted traffic then be sure you will be given access to a panel where you can check your stats and change the targeted website if necessary.

Sure there are going to be places that you are promoting your online home business and affiliate links that you will not be able to change immediately, but at least for any paid advertising it is advisable to only use services whereby you have access to your account in order to be able to control when your adverts run.

Also be sure to read emails that you receive from the affiliate programs that you are marketing as they may include important information regarding changes to their links or advertising materials such as banners and landing pages. It is advisable to upload any banners you are using to your own hosting account so that in the event of the affiliate program discontinuing a banner your link will not be affected.

One of the very important things I have learnt while growing my own online home business is that you need to be in control of as much as possible on the internet and you can achieve this to a certain extent by owning your own domain. You then have more control of your online home business marketing and will be able to promote all your affiliate links on one website and be in a position to instantly access your hosting panel to change, cloak and redirect affiliate links.

One important home business marketing tool is your email list. List building is an important part of having a successful Internet business. There are certain elements of building a list that will determine whether it is a responsive one or not. In this article I want to talk about four critical lessons I have learned about list building.

1. The fact that you are requiring people to opt in to your list is an important point. There can be no doubt that they want to be on your list because you are requiring them to fill out a form, and then that they confirm their intentions by clicking on a link in their email.

The second point is critical. By requiring them to click on the link they now become a double opt in subscriber.

Many Internet marketers do require this and although it will cut down on the number of subscribers you get, it will strengthen the quality of the ones you do have. It’s up to you whether you make it double opt in or single opt in, but the fact that people are giving you their contact information confirms their intentions.

2. It is important that you use an auto responder that can get the job done. By that we mean it will get the messages through spam filters and into the mailboxes of your subscribers. There are different levels of quality auto responders but many of the large Internet marketers today use Aweber and GetResponse. That should tell you something right there.

3. The way you build your list should start with eye appealing splash pages. This is the easiest home business marketing on the Internet because it allows you to focus on getting the splash pages out where they can be found.

You want to concentrate on features and benefits when building the splash page. Features are what a person will get from subscribing to your list. Benefits or how it affects them specifically. Keep it short and then direct your reader to fill out the short form and click the submit button.

4. Having an opt-in subscriber is just the first step in building a quality list. You often read about the importance of building relationships with the people on your list and this is very true.

A list is more than just a group of names and email addresses. By making yourself a friend of the people who are subscribing you become a trusted business partner. This is critical in home business marketing and will increase the amount of sales that you make to your subscribers over the time that they are on your list.