Buying Stock for Begginers

The beginner stock market investor could be forgiven for thinking that the end of the world is nigh. With share prices having fallen dramatically the world over and the economies of most developed nations entering or already in recession things certainly do look grim. That's why I thought it was time to put together another "how to buy stocks for beginners" type of post.

So lets get back to basics. When you purchase shares in a publicly traded company, what does it mean? Well the first point I'd make is that your investment is more than just a number next to a stock symbol on the Yahoo Finance website (or whatever financial website you prefer). Your investment represents ownership of a portion of a real business. That ownership entitles you to a share of that business's future profits.

This is a very important concept to grasp. Don't be taken in by the daily fluctuations of share prices. These prices are driven by investor sentiment, by a bunch of people trying to guess what the future may hold. The rate at which these prices change belies the stability of the underlying value of your investment. The value of the business - your business - doesn't change that quickly. Sure there are times when a company makes an announcement about a fundamental change in their operations which may cause the price to plummet. But more often than not, it's just the general mood of investors pushing prices up and down.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not suggesting that we can ignore the current economic problems. But by the same token, don't let the current gloom and doom terrify you to the extent that you're willing to ignore quality companies trading at bargain basement prices just because you don't know if the stock market has bottomed yet.

That brings me nicely to my next point. I'm a firm believer in buying stock for the long term. One of the advantages of this approach is that it frees up your mind from worrying about the day to day gyrations of the stock market. By fixing your eyes firmly on a point 3 to 5 years (or even longer) down the track, you can afford not to worry about what your shares will be selling at next week or next month. You'll be able to focus on what really matters - watching the business, making sure it continues to perform as you expected when you bought it.

However, in order to do this you'll first have to put some effort into learning how tounderstand stock market concepts. Learn how to read a company's financial statements. Compare profitability ratios with those of it's competitors. Consider the financial strength of the company - does it have excessive debt and will it be able to make the interest payments on that debt?

There are a number of very good books available on investing in the stock market. I wrote a post some time ago about what I thought were some of the best investment books for beginners. The books mentioned in that post are all very good and well worth readying.

When To Buy Stocks

This is the essence of being a long term investor and is what I was alluding to before. If you're willing to take a long term view, you can afford to think more about the best stocks to buy rather than the best time to buy stocks. Accept that you wont pick the bottom. There's every chance that prices may go lower. However, if you're happy that you've bought stock in a good quality business who's earnings are going to grow over the long term, you'll be able to ignore the short term price movements. If it's any consolation, you probably wont pick the top either.

I think if you can remove this focus on short term results, you will remove one of the biggest impediments to beginners buying stock.

Best Investments For Stock Market Beginners

Watching the stock markets rise and fall, you can imagine why a total beginner might be frozen with fear.

A thousand points in six months! Two hundred point drops! Booms and busts! Which are the best investments, our novice rightly asks.

Well, first of all, let’s put that volatility into some much-needed perspective. Yes, 2008 and 2009 were seriously frightening years for stock investors. A decline in the Dow Jones average from above 14,000 down to 6,626 was hair-raising.

But we’re back above 15,500 now, just four years and a few months on. Unless you expected to retire in March 2009, the move — while dramatic — was not relevant to you.

Yes, it was relevant to everyone, of course. But, if you are a stock buyer, which by definition most of us are, a decline is welcome news, not a reason to give up. Prices fell. Bargains were everywhere.

Ah, you might say, but who buys at market bottoms other than traders and crazy people? Well, index investors do it all the time. Portfolio indexing is nothing more than holding a variety of investments in precise measures, according to your tolerance for investment volatility and how long you have until you retire.

Some of these investments are dividend payers. Some are interest-paying bonds. Presumably, you are working and saving money to invest with every paycheck.

If so, and you should be, then 2009 was a great year for you. The holdings you already owned fell in face value and only turned into losers if you panicked. And stocks previously priced out of range were there for the plucking.

Best investments 1, 2, 3

Stock market beginners need to understand only these three simple ideas:

1. Index funds and ETFs represent your best opportunity to diversify and cut risk while staying investing in markets high or low.

2. A well-designed investment portfolio will neither zoom higher with equities nor crash to earth with corrections. Rather, you will sell off as stocks rise and reinvest in them when prices fall, using new cash, dividends and interest inflows.

3. You are not retiring tomorrow, next month or next year (unless in fact you are). Most people trade their retirement accounts as if every day were do-or-die. It simply isn’t true, and you shouldn’t approach retirement investing that way.

You can get the kind of steady, compounding return that investment pros seek and you can do it yourself at minimal cost and risk. All it takes is a broader view of the opportunities in the markets and the patience to see a serious retirement plan through to the end.

Placing Banner Ads

Placing banner ads can be a highly effective way to market your business on the Internet. Banner ads are essentially advertisements which appear on a website, usually in the form of a combination of graphics and text, to encourage Internet users to click through these advertisements to your website. The most common form of banner ads is an advertisement which appears on the top of a website and spans the width of the webpage. These advertisements derived their name from the similarity to a banner but technically banner ads can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. This article will take a look at the effectiveness of banner as well as methods for placing these banner ads.

Banner ads can be highly effective if used properly. However, placing your banner ad all over the Internet with very little consideration to whether or not the location is likely to be beneficial to your business is not a good idea and can be a tremendous waste of money as well as other resources such as time and effort. Therefore business owners who are considering using banner ads to promote their business should spend some time to learn how to use banner ads effectively and to find ideal location for placing their banner ads.

The most ideal location for a banner ad is prominently displayed on a website which receives a great deal of website traffic and also complements your products and services well without providing direct competition for your products or services. As an example consider a business owner who specializes in selling athletic shoes specifically for runners. Buying banner ad space on a website which offers advice on training for running events and provides information on upcoming races would be an excellent idea. This website attracts visitors who have an interest in running and are likely to purchase athletic shoes but does not sell running shoes directly. This means the website attracts members of your target audience but does not compete for your business.

In addition to purchasing banner ad space, some business owners opt to join banner ad exchange groups. This is an alternative in which the business owner does not pay for their banner ad to be placed on another website but in exchange they agree to post one or more advertisements on their own website. This is a very affordable option for placing banner ads but it is not always the best strategy. This is because the business owner often has little input into where their banner ad appears and has limited input into the banner ads which appear on his website in return. In most cases, business owners have the ability to decline to host advertisements which they deem to be offensive but cannot specifically choose the banner ads they must post.

Finally, when posting banner ads, business owners should be aware of the effectiveness of the ads they place. They may choose to post different designs for their banner ad on different websites but they should monitor the results of their advertising to determine if one style is more effective than another. This information can be very important. If one style is enjoying a great deal of success while the other style is not, the business owner may wish to use the more successful style for all of their banner ads or to redesign the less successful style to make it more appealing to Internet users.

Internet Marketing for Beginners

Internet marketing for beginners is somewhat of an oxymoron. This is because while in theory the concepts behind Internet marketing might be quite simple, executing effective strategies can be extremely difficult. This can even be tough for those who are quite experienced in the world of Internet marketing. With this in mind, this article will attempt to explain the concept of Internet marketing for beginners and will outline some basic strategies which can help a business owner to launch his own Internet marketing campaign. We will cover concepts such as creating a website, placing banner ads, sending out e-newsletters, orchestrating an email marketing campaign and optimizing your website for search engines.

One of the most basic steps for starting an Internet marketing campaign is to create a website. If you don’t have a website or have a poorly designed website you should consider creating or re-designing a website to adequately market your products. If you do not have experience in web design, there are a number of software packages which make it simple for those with no design experience to create a functional website. However, hiring a web designer is worthwhile because he can work to create a website which is attractive, functional and suitable to your products and series. He can also help you include more advanced features on your website.

Banner ads are another popular option for advertising your business on the Internet. Banner ads are advertisements which typically appear along the top of a website but it may also include smaller ads in other locations. Banner ads typically include graphics and text which entice Internet users to click on the advertisement. Once a user clicks on the ad, they are directed to your website. This type of advertising can be very effective when care is taken to place the advertisements on high traffic websites which attract an audience who may have an interest in your products.

Sending out e-newsletters can also be a part of an effective Internet marketing strategy. E-newsletters are essentially emails which may contain a variety of information including informative articles, useful quizzes, relevant advertising or any other information which is deemed worthwhile for the recipients of the e-newsletter. The importance of these newsletters is that they can be used as marketing tools which are not viewed by the recipients as an advertisement. One way to do this is to incorporate links or other soft sale approaches into the copy of the e-newsletters. However, care should be taken to keep these references minimal so the e-newsletter is not viewed as spam.

Email marketing campaigns can be another successful aspect of an Internet marketing campaign. Email marketing essentially involves sending out emails to a group of individuals who may be interested in your products and services. Care should be taken in sending out these emails to avoid sending emails which are unsolicited and will be viewed as spam. One way to do this is to only send out the emails to users who have requested inclusion on an email mailing list. Another way to do this is to provide value in the emails as opposed to just including advertisements. This can be done by offering relevant advice in your emails and other useful information which may be of interest to the recipients of the email.

Finally, optimizing your website for search engines is a critical aspect of an Internet marketing campaign. Search engines rank websites according to quality and relevance for particular search terms. Many Internet users appreciate the effort by search engines and use these search engines to find the best websites on a particular subject. This means the Internet users are likely to only visit websites which rank well with search engines. Therefore if your website is not high ranking, you are not likely to generate a great deal of traffic from Internet users who use search engines to find relevant websites. Top ranking websites are likely to obtain the most traffic from search engines and all websites falling on the first page of the search engine results will likely enjoy some degree of success in improving their traffic.