Posted by tigertom on Mar 17, 2009 in
marketing Here are a few pointers on how to earn extra money from home online:
- - One of the most popular ‘home business’ jobs is associate marketing. This is usually accomplished through businesses which offer affiliate programs that you can join up with. Most famous concerns have a lot of recognizable brands to offer to affiliate marketers. Selling other peoples’ goods and earning a fee is the easiest way to get going.
- - If you’re not familiar with search-engine marketing, it’s necessary to understand how it works. You use search-engines to get surfers to visit your web site. 80 to 95 per-cent of your sites surfers will come from search engines, unless you’ve created a ‘viral’ product of your own, or a ‘buzzing’ forum or blog.
- - Social-media should be given due consideration. Social media sites are changing the way people connect with one another. Your success or failure is decided by your approach. The most important part of a successful social media plan is the content on your profile page. Use them to your advantage. Micro-blogging sites can have embedded web addresses that tell users about products. Free blog networks can help you build search engine optimisation into your web sites as well. There are tons of ways to exploit social media. Look to other media types to publicise your wares.
- - A simple method of making money on the internet is to sell domain names. You can approach businesses which are already on the internet and present to them a domain-name superior than the one they’ve got. If a business thinks your jazzy name would be beneficial for them, you can set to doing a deal with them. If you’ve a flair for this form of thing an eight dollar investment can pay off hugely.
- - Making a website is fairly easy, that’s only half the battle. It’s also important to drive traffic and learn how to sell your website. The problem with working on the web is that 99 per-cent of these cash-making opportunities offered are a waste of time and (your) cash.
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- - Don’t only click on every advert you come across to find income sources; try to find networked groups of WAHMs (work-at-home moms) who have found success in earning money on the web or off and ask them for tips. They can give you some ideas about which programmes are actually worth investing in. Investigate message-boards and forums. Some message-boards allow users to post links in the body of a message. Make sure you read all the forum policies carefully prior to attempting this, or you may be banned for spamming.
- - The difficult part of selling online is staying with the enterprise until it begins to make a profit. You find advice spammed all over the Web, but how much of it can you believe in? Internet scams exist in their thousands, each one designed to bait suckers with the promise of quick and easy cash.
- - Pay Per Click (PPC) might well bring in a good conversion, but each click costs cash. The majority of professional marketing experts will tell you that getting involved in Natural Search is excellent value for your cash.
- - Toddle over to Clickbank.com to find the most recent products. Look for a product that’s popular, but make sure it’s one you know something about. Potential purchasers discount marketers that are ignorant of the product they’re selling, which causes them to be more unlikely to buy it.
- - Article writing is a fine means of website or self promotion. You can also author articles for other people for money, but the most webmasters will offer you is about twenty-five dollars, and often it’s a lot less. Article directories allow you to include a promo piece about yourself and your website to encourage people to visit it. You can also get more potential clients by creating an e-book and using blogs to publicize these.
- - Online success is easy; it just requires a plan. Most webmasters just try anything and everything, haphazardly. You can contact a wide range of consumers and communicate with anyone in the world, speedily. You can use your email opt-in list to send data about your special offers, products and newsletters; whatever you think your potential customers want.
- - Keywords are very important to your websites traffic campaign, but how you make use of them is also significant. Some websites do “key word stuffing” where they create near-random sequences of words to draw in search engine bots. Search engines have algorithms that can catch this and will penalise rather than promote the offending website.
- - Associate programmes are a very useful source of cash-flow. Most internet promotion strategists make the mistake of not developing their client base enough to actually sell their product. Affiliate programs can build your prospect base quickly.
- - If you have a web site set up, you need to design it. All your site needs to include is a review page about your products with user testimonials stating that each item works well and is worth purchasing.
- - You can try reciprocal linking. This is an agreement between website owners to hyperlink to each others’ websites. It’s a good way get a web site off the ground, but you need one-way backlinks to get search-engine ‘love’. It’s a good idea to link to sites that sell compatible but not competing items.
- - Most people who want to earn money via the internet start out working part-time to see if it’s a worthy project before jumping in and stumping up a big investment. Dropship opportunities give you a chance to give it a go for little to no money investment upfront. Create a database of websites that have the kind of viewership your product requires so you can emulate their wheezes and techniques. In drop shipping the vendor simply organises the deal and makes cash from it when a third party company ships it. There’s much less effort involved and it gives excellent rewards if you discover your niche. You can increase trust in your product range by distributing information about them through email newsletters.
- - Commit time to testing out various strategies in order to discover the ones that work best. Select a business type that you find agreeable and that you are keen on. Then research the industry. Start your own website or blog. Build a mailing list. Replicated associate sites won’t provide that for you. Start with what you know.
- - Be cautious of worldwide web marketing scams; they can take every euro you have. Most scams sound good. If you stick to affiliate marketing, you can’t go too badly wrong, unless you invest in PPC marketing to get traffic, and select the wrong keywords.
- - SEO (search-engine optimization) is the means whereby you push your web site up Search-Engine Result Pages (SERPs). At least 80% of all internet traffic now starts at a search engine. You can engage an SEO expert, but choose carefully; an inexpert one can destroy your rankings and get your website banned. Always get references on reputable webmaster forums. A top notch web marketing company will work very closely with your server logs, web analytics, and any additional statistics they can get hold of. This helps the creation and optimization of any ad campaign.
- - Blogging can draw visitors by co-ordinating link-exchanges with other blogs and making more contacts within the blogging community.
- - You can do everything from freelance work, such as writing or web design, to selling goods you’ve sourced yourself on the internet. If you’d rather work in a steady job you can get into remote admin, telecommuting, and work-from-home opportunities.
- - One-way backlink building is a method to publicize your site. Paid links allow you to get listed in web directories that post good quality web sites and offer links to your sites for a fee.
- - The more visitors you draw the greater the possibility of more money. Place content-rich pages on each one of your web sites and include keywords that will climb to the top of search-engine results and increase traffic volumes. Research in advance, don’t just work on an ad-hoc basis.
- - Purchase a web address that’s very similar to to the affiliate marketing product you’re trying to publicise. Do not, however, infringe on the copyright of a registered brand. That may annoy the brand owner.
- - An excellent way to make money online is by generating and then flipping web sites. You can either flog your own website, or you may buy a new website, increase its worth, and then sell it on. Site-flipping can be risky; it calls for a large amount of upfront investment. Thanks to the growth of greater usability, purchasing and selling web sites has become easier. It is considered a regular business venture, and people are making nice money from it. The market is always looking for good web sites. If more traffic is attracted to your website each day, the value of your domain will be higher. Before putting a website up for sale, make it look nice and attractive. Ensure it meets the specifications of likely buyers. Web sites that flog other sites ask for minimal data about your website, such as how many visitors it attracts and how much revenue you are earning from it monthly. The more transparent the data is, the simpler it will be for you to sell. When buyers are convinced about the quality of your site, they will start bidding.
- - When your enterprise is off the ground, if your product is not selling, drop it and try another. Do not hang about hoping that it will sell; it probably won’t.
- - Increase hits using keywords. You can find tons of keyword suggestion tools that generate a list of keywords on a chosen niche. You can make use of these to attract potential customers to your sales page. Most associate marketing programmes offer up to 75 percent commission on every sign-up you generate for them, so they do all the hard labour, and you rake in the cash! What you are doing is being their sales rep. Salesmen are traditionally very well remunerated, as they bring the money in.
- - Online promotion requires brand name exposure. Content on your site needs to be optimised. Get your name all over the Internet in order to generate worthwhile visitor numbers. Targetted traffic is what you’re aiming for; if you get a viral video on Youtube about hang-gliding, but you’re selling mortgages, you won’t make any moolah off it.
- - Blogs are handy for generating interest, but don’t think you can get one well-known in a few days. As a way into marketing, they are fairly quick and easy to set up. Research web-based tutorials and related forums. Or you can hire someone else to create the blog for you. For the time being a hosting account with Cpanel and Fantastico installed will allow you to install a no-frills blog at the press of a button.
- - There are a variety of alternatives for researching internet marketing. These alternatives include reading paperback books, reading affiliate marketers blogs, lurking in webmaster forums, clever search engine queries and paying attention to other successful online marketing campaigns.
I hope these few simple suggestions will be of some use to you in your marketing efforts.
Niccolo Svengali is an internet marketer for
make extra money online and
internet marketing web sites in London, Great Britain.
Posted by tigertom on Mar 16, 2009 in
business Here are beginner tips on looking for good quality merchant account services:
- - Examine Fees Charged. There are many different services out there and as a result there are diverse fees assessed to transactions. If you utilize credit-card processing services you will be charged: A monthly fee, a discount rate which is essentially a percentage of the price of the product sold and a transaction fee. There are also other fees applied by some providers so you should watch out for that.
- - Telltale Signs You Need One. A company that has high revenue and takes in large sums of cash each month, as well as companies with special ecommerce needs and those that are high risk. Fully assess your venture as well as potential services to make sure you find the right fit. It is important to base your decision on all the data rather than just the fees.
- - If you believe you have found the perfect merchant a/c service because the discount rate is very low, the application processing is free, and approval is guaranteed then you’re likely making a mistake. You sign up for one of these low-discount, overnight-approval account providers. Then, several weeks after your company information has been reviewed you receive your real discount rates, transaction fees, and other fees associated with your account which are nowhere near the ‘economical’ or ‘free’ plan you thought applied for.
- - Receiving payments online is not as simple as you might think and when a client purchases something online there are three steps the cash goes through before it actually gets to your bank a/c. These include a payment gateway, Internet merchant account, and your site.
- - Payment Gateway. This is basically Internet code that communicates the payment information made on your internet site to the Internet merchant provider. In this process you’ll be able to accept all the credit or debit card data the provider needs in order to process the payment including full name and address, credit-card number, type of card, expiration date, phone number and any other required info. Once all of this info is collected the card may then be billed. After the payment gateway has accepted the payment info details they are transferred to the credit-card processing account provider which is simply a financial institution that allows you to process credit-card payments. The payment gateway provides the bank with the info and then the credit-card can be billed.
- - Don’t expect to toddle down to your local bank and receive cc processing a/c services because they most likely are not available. There are many online credit card credit-card processing account services that do offer this service however and will probably be your best bet.
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- - The billing process will be completed on and integrated with your internet site where the client will finish the order processing and then be able to sign out or print confirmation numbers that the order was placed successfully. While there seems to be a lot involved in processing a simple online order it actually occurs rapidly and most clients never know their data is traveling to so many places.
- - Rates: You are likely interested in the average fees charged by these companies. Since there are so many different online credit-card credit-card processing a/c providers on the Internet to choose from there are also a multitude of payment structures. In general, however, rates include: Application fee due up front, Discount rate, Termination fee, Monthly fee, Transaction rate and a variety of Miscellaneous fees.
- - Things to avoid, if you can: a) Expensive credit-card processing softwares rental or hire-purchase. b) Monthly fees. c) High discounts (the % of your sales they keep). d) Fat fees up front (anything over $500 is a joke). e) Salesmen calling you up with a scripted pitch. f) Getting lumbered with renting their shopping cart software as well. Also if they want a down-payment, and the size of their application fee. And the usual monthly minimums, discounts etc.
- - Internet merchant accounts: If you have a merchant a/c you can take credit card from anyone in any country, but if you are taking them over the phone or the internet you must be authorised for ‘card not present’ transactions. If you’re taking credit-card details over the internet, specify that you want an _internet_ credit card processing a/c. This is important. ‘Card not present’ transactions attract more fraud; if you do them with an ordinary cc processing a/c you risk losing it.
- - Set up a secure order form on the internet, and get ecommerce merchant accounts, you can trade world-wide. Ecommerce credit-card processing a/cs come in two varieties: Third party, whereby you ‘pimp’ off somebody else’s account, and a true ecommerce credit-card processing a/c, which is yours and yours alone. This latter option not as handy as it sounds if your payment gateway vendor (the service that funnels your orders to the bank) doesn’t have good fraud protection. If you’re just starting out, or you have a low volume of sales, utilize a third-party provider to start with. See how it goes, get a feel for the business, then change.
- - If your ecommerce cc processing account is terminated for reasons of fraud, you will find it very hard to get another one. Effectively, you go on a blacklist. The good news is that most gateway vendors now have good fraud protection. Still, vigilance is necessary. If an order seems suspicious, a bit too good to be true, it probably is.
- - If you have a bank a/c of years standing, a good credit rating, or a business bank account, there’s no reason you can’t get an ecommerce cc processing account.
- - If you want to sell on the internet, you need to accept credit cards. To accept credit-cards, you need a cc processing a/c, or access to one. There’re two ways of getting this: Get your own credit-card processing account, or ‘pimp’ off somebody else’s.
- - You can utilise a third-party to process your payments. They take a percentage of the sale. These are very good if you’re just beginning in business or you have a small business. They also offer more options for payment. This encourages sales. Here are some popular ones: 2Checkout.Com, WorldPay.Com, PayPal.Com and Google Checkout.
- - Chargebacks: A chargeback occurs when somebody asks their cc company for a refund. They claim they didn’t get the goods, or they bought the goods, or the products were not as advertised. This is passed on to the processor, who in turn debits the merchant. Or drops him entirely. You don’t want too many of these.
- - Don’t leave large amounts of money ‘on deposit’ in any web-based company; they’re not banks, and even banks go bust sometimes.
- - Third-party factoring sites have to be very stringent; they are answerable to their own credit-card processing account provider. Too many bogus orders and they go out of business. This is why third-party factoring services like 2Checkout are very useful to a greenhorn merchant: fraud prevention. They can screen out dodgy orders.
- - Most sellers would like to think they can sell worldwide. The fact is most of the world is impoverished; MOST countries can’t afford your products. So some citizens attempt to acquire them illicitly. A smart merchant would forbid most of the world from accessing his cart and only accept orders from the USA, Australia, Canada, Western Europe and New Zealand, and his home country. Harsh, but you’ll rest easier at night.
- - If an order looks dodgy, it probably is. Contact the client by email or ‘phone. If you don’t get a satisfactory reply or doubts remain, refund the card. Don’t let greed cause you to make a mistake.
- - When you’re making $1000+ a month, get your own cc processing a/c. Look for ‘merchant services’ at your local bank. Having one’s own credit card processing a/c means paying less in processing fees.
I hope these few beginner ideas will be of some use to you in looking for inexpensive merchant account services.
About the author: Nicky Svengali is an author for
merchant account providers and
web hosting provider internet sites in London in the UK.
Posted by tigertom on Mar 16, 2009 in
finance The following are beginner ideas on getting secured and unsecured loans online:
- - If you’re looking for a personal loan don’t make multiple enquiries to different lenders in a short space of time; this may have an harmful affect on your credit rating.
- - Debt consolidation can be used to clear up a group of smaller loans, like charge card or other debts; these can be amalgamated into a single loan, normally with a slimmed down monthly repayment. This works best if you negotiate the consolidation loan yourself i.e. get a cheaper loan to pay off more expensive debts which have higher interest rates.
- - Be wary of promises of getting a loan deal quickly. A lot of applicants are told that their finance offer will close within a specific time. They don’t make repayments on existing debts, in anticipation of the new finance deal. After a few delays, they become overdue, with no cash from the new loan deal. Some lending agents then order new credit rating reports, and charge the borrower higher fees, and/or a higher rate, because of the delinquent loan(s), which resulted from postponements caused by the lending agent themselves!
- - Ensure you grasp and are willing to pay all of the fees listed. Origination fees are usually about about 1% of your finance deal. If you have bad credit, you will likely have to cough up higher rates and fees, but shop around. Beware of words such as “No cost to you”. Some financiers will tack on closing costs to your balance rather than demand you provide cash upfront at closing. Ensure you understand all of the fees you are paying.
- - Beware of ‘An Offer Of A Lifetime’; the deal that seems too good to be true. A few lending agents may quote much lower than average. If you you can never speak to the same loan officer again, or you have to spend a lot of time ‘on hold’, this indicates the quality service you are likely to get. Keep a copy of every check you write for your finance deal. If you call your lending agent about your loan deal, ensure you get the full name of the person to whom you speak.
- - All inquiries for your credit report within a 14-day period will count as one inquiry if you are looking to refinance your home, a mortgage, a home equity loan, or a car loan. Such loans are secured on valuable property. If you are seeking a _personal_ loan or credit card, however, each inquiry will be counted separately. The loans are not collateralised by valuable property, so are more risky for the financier.
- - A loan deal is an contract between an applicant and a lending agent. When you are researching finance, you must first determine what type you’re looking for: a personal, auto, debt consolidation, poor credit or a bridging loan. Amongst the variety of loans ‘on sale’ there are two basic kinds: unsecured and secured. Secured loan deals are those whereby you set some property against your finance deal as security for the broker. Unsecured loan deals do not expect any property to be set against them but they attract higher interest rates and it’s necessary to have a good credit record to obtain finance of this type. Personal loan deals are useful when you need to cover certain expenses or you need to make important purchases.
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- - The total cost of your finance will depend on the annual percentage rate (APR), and associated fees. The APR takes into account the whole interest amount and associate fees. The lower the APR figure the less finance costs will be. Interest on loan deals is charged in one of two ways, as either a fixed or variable rate. A fixed interest rate is guaranteed for the whole term of the loan deal and it won’t be subject to market fluctuations. The variable interest rate is usually lower than fixed interest rates in the beginning; however they do not offer the security of a fixed interest rate. Once you make a final decision on a loan, make sure that you are aware of the total costs involved, including any extra fees attached to early repayment. You need to be sure you can afford them.
- - Lenders consider a variety of things when working out how much you can borrow, like your income, employment status, expenses and credit history. Different companies use different rules but most of them follow these guidelines. Top lending agents are subsidiaries of the main clearing banks and they can arrange competitive rates to guarantee you a loan deal that suits your money needs, with payments you can afford.
- - Ensure you ask your financier about early repayment, since a lot of them will charge you a fee if you decide to pay off your finance deal earlier than was first expected. Some companies may offer flexible bargains allowing you to make under or over-repayments. It’s important not to over-extend yourself. Leave a portion of your regular monthly income aside as coverage for emergencies and unexpected bills. Before signing off on anything, find out exactly what would occur in a situation where you are able to pay off your finance debt earlier than anticipated. The lending agents terms may be different to whatever you are expecting.
- - It is necessary to understand every word of your finance application before you sign, including terms and conditions, because a loan deal may become too expensive by adding APR and other fees.
- - Start with banks and well known credit-unions and building societies. Start with your current bank. These are large brokers with solid reputations, so scamming should not be a problem. Although you may not get the best rate with a large financier, the security you obtain can frequently be worth it.
- - As with so a lot of other purchases in life, there’s a price point below which you’ll not be gaining a good quality finance deal. See for yourself: get a few quotations from different brokers. Some can shave a half-percent here or there, but you may repay it back with fees, insurance or potential penalties later. Keep an eye on the small print.
- - Do a budget. Ensure you use realistic figures. Keep an account of all of the cash that you spend in a month. Use this to help you create the initial draft. Review and update it regularly. An accurate budget allows you to get the most ‘bang’ for your money without beggaring yourself, while taking aim at wasteful spending.
- - Verbal quotes are not worth the paper they’re printed on; get them in writing, and get more than one. You may ameliorate your credit ranking by only having one or two credit-cards and paying them off in good time. Dump lines of credit you don’t need. The smaller you can make your finance, the better. Loans, like credit-cards, are a dear way to get money. If you can beg or borrow from friends or relatives to bulk up your cash-at-hand, do so. You will feel a good deal more tranquil if you are only paying out a few hundred, rather than a grand, a month.
- - There are loan deals available, even to people with bad credit. Your rate is partly calculated on the basis of the risk of default; a good risk receives a lower rate, a lousy risk, a higher one. It’s like a bookie calculating the odds, and offloading bets. The trick is finding the best finance deal for you, given your circumstances.
- - Avoid taking on a fat loan deal thinking “Well, I can always go bankrupt if I get into trouble”. This is dumb. If you go bankrupt, it will be entered in the records of the County Court and you will find it very difficult to get credit with anyone in the future, except at usurious rates. Credit referencing agencies make it their business to sift court records, to keep their databases up to date.
- - Overpay your loan if you can do so without penalty, especially if your payments are re-calculated week-to-week or month-to-month. This means you will incur much less interest over time, and get peace of mind sooner. Get your outstanding loan deal amount down, and get on with the more enjoyable things in life. If you have several small loans with various lenders then you can combine them all into one monthly payment. The easiest way is to get an inexpensive loan to pay towards more costly ones, such as credit-card debts.
- - Always make sure you understand the terms of the finance and exactly how much you will have to pay back over its term compared to other offers. Make sure you compare like with like. Credit cards and easy lending can be a curse. You can get into default if you do not keep track of your revenue and outgoings. You get a nice-paying job and find that you are being proffered credit cards by various companies. If you are smart you will find a low interest card from a solid financier, sign up, keep track of your purchases, repay your credit card bills in full each month, and disregard offers from other lending agents (and your current one).
- - Lenders will accept some applicants with a lousy credit history; it depends on their own internal credit-credit system. There are providers who charge fairly low rates of interest. You just need to fill out a basic form. To make sure that you are getting accurate quotes, fill out the form as completely as possible BUT without making yourself a target for identity theft (hint: they don’t need your mother’s maiden name or your exact date of birth!) A small variation in revenue or employment dates can reduce or increase your interest rate.
- - If making an application over the internet, you should not have to pay processing fees, as there is minimal human labour involved. You can cut out a lot of bureaucracy and cash in the approval process. Research providers. Only by requesting quotes and comparing the small print can you be sure of getting the lowest rate. With some internet sites you can make side-by-side comparisons, while other internet sites will email you multiple loan offers.
- - Loan brokers work diligently to attract clients by negotiating lower rates with lending companies, so you frequently will find nicer deals through their internet sites than through the high street or newspaper or TV ads. You should note that the finance application process will be affected by the amount you are trying to borrow, your debt-to-income ratio, your credit history and other factors.
- - Make sure your credit report doesn’t have any errors or discrepancies. If it does, send off a correction request to the broker with the mistake; either CallCredit, Equifax, TransUnion or Experian. You should really know how much of a loan you can afford.
- - If you have okay credit and are seemingly a good candidate for a loan deal, web brokers will be keen to offer you a minimal rate and the best terms possible, in order to get your business. Interest rates are, however, only part of the overall picture. So when assessing internet companies, be sure to ask about closing costs, prepayment penalties and other aspects of the “small print”. It’s essential that you get everything in writing. This is excellent fiscal practice in general, but it’s especially important with large financial deals.
I hope these few basic tips will be of some use to you in getting a worthwhile internet loan offer.
Jim O’ Reilly is an author for
secured loans UK and
best mortgages internet sites in London, Great Britain.
Posted by tigertom on Mar 16, 2009 in
business Here are some tips on hiring a good lawyer:
- - Choose A Professional. The worst mistake you can make is choosing a lawyer you can’t trust. There are thousands of solicitors on the net. It’s necessary to discover one you can rely on. You want a good deal but it’s important you’re choosing one with a high standing. Ask your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues for recommendations.
- - It’s A Competitive Market. There are many web sites proffering legal services. Most are directories or resellers. A reseller is someone who passes you onto the lawyer who will actually handle your case. This can save you money, or be a damned nuisance. The attorney you choose ought to be in sync your requirements and circumstances. You do not need an ambulance chaser for a serious criminal charge. If you’re skint, some good lawyers do ‘pro bono publico’ work; free, ‘for the public good’.
- - What’s Involved In Your Case? You need to get the overall picture, and what your role will be as the case plays out. You also want to get an idea of how good a communicator your solicitor is. Attorneys are advocates; if they cannot communicate clearly to you, they’ll likely not have the ability to do it in a law court.
- - Shop Around. Get quotes from three or four professionals. You may be able to save yourself thousands in fees. Don’t employ a professional just because they have the cheapest rates. Consider the overall, long term fees and how important the case is to you.
- - A Law Firm Or Just A Referral Service? Referral companies have sites that make them appear to be the complete package. They take your case and then flog it to the real law firm who will pay them a fee. Once you’ve settled upon a few law firms, you can enter their business name in a search engine with the words ‘problem’ or ’scam’, and see what comes up. It may be revealing!
- - Gird Your Loins And Flex Your Wallet. Law is slow; preparation for a trial and then the trial itself will take months, sometimes years. Initial costs will be in the thousands. Costs are items like hiring expert witnesses, travel, depositions etc. The lawyer who represents you advances these initial fees that are associated with the trail and preparation.
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- - Make Sure You Are Comparing Like With Like. When shopping for a lawyer on the internet, compare apples with apples. It’s foolish to line up a kid fresh out of school against a senior partner in a firm that dates from early last century. Suit the man to his employment!
- - Contingency Fee. When pursuing damages, try to hire a solicitor who’ll take on your case on a contingency-fee basis; he won’t get paid until you get paid. Make sure you clearly understand the payment schedule before you commit to the retainer contract. He’ll take his fees out of the money you get in your settlement; about one-third of your final settlement _after_ expenses are taken off the top!
- - The Firm’s Area Of Expertise: Some law firms web sites make it seem the firm specialises in cases like yours, but their experience is in other areas. A misinterpretation of pertinent law could be deadly to your case.
- - Ensure Your Attorney Is Aware that you will not pay anything that isn’t covered in advance by a signed and agreed-on estimate. If during the work new fees arise, make sure that your solicitor understands that you have to pre-approve the expenditure or it will not be paid for by you.
- - Put It In Writing. Disputes arise over assumptions not put down in writing. The attorney has his version of your ‘verbal agreement’, and you have yours. Disputes are best avoided by clearly spelling out everything in advance; the basis of a good contract.
- - Ask If The Solicitor Intends To Really Handle Your Case Himself. Many firms simply refer on the job to the ‘real’ specialist and get part of the fees in return. This might not be in your best interests.
- - Some Questions You Ought to Ask: How many years have you been in practice? How speedily can I expect my case to be finished? When can we meet? How long have you been with your current firm? Are you a partner or an associate? Time and accessibility. How much will the total cost be, approximately? How do you charge for your services? Can you give a detailed, written statement of cost? Is the first consultation free? Do you communicate via telephone, mobile phone, fax or email?
- - Demand A Written Estimate Of Fees, all disbursements and extras. They don’t usually get asked this sort of request. Make sure that the estimate includes an upper limit, an hourly rate and a schedule of chargeable items. Attorneys usually charge for telephone calls and photocopies. Be sure and cover contingencies with him. What will the fees be if the unpredictable occurs? You will want to be aware before you get a large bill. Attorneys aren’t charities. They’re in this game to make a profit and only the simple-minded would begrudge them. It cost a lot to get them where they are, so they charge you for it.
- - Educate Yourself About Basic Pertinent Law, both in theory and practice. Look up past cases. Then you may ask your lawyer informed questions, instead of paying his fees and hoping for the best.
- - Complete Disclosure. Be completely honest when reviewing your case with a solicitor. He can only succeed with your case if he’s aware of all the relevant info; if you keep something back it could trip you (and him) up further on. Tell him as much as you’re aware of. Do try to recall every relevant detail. Any related photos and literature you have will be very useful to him in evaluating your case.
- - A Lot Is At Stake. If you want to break a man, tie him up in lawsuits. Sit down with a number of lawyers before you come to a final decision. Consider trying to get a few recommendations. Unless you’re broke, free legal aid isn’t the way to go. You tend to get the law you pay for, regrettably.
- - Do Some Sums. Get out pen, paper and calculator. What’s the worst that could happen? Do you have enough cash to cover the lawyer’s expenses if you lose? You should ask yourself if you truly need an attorney. Do you really need to begin proceedings? A lengthy court case can hang like a sword of Damocles over your head.
- - Any solicitor who will not give you an half-hour free initial consultation is not worth meeting. Tell them upfront you want to discuss all cash matters up front at the initial meeting. Most solicitor and client disagreements are caused by misunderstandings over cash.
- - Find The Right Lawyer. Most people find lawyers by the following methods: 1) In the US, you can contact state bar associations. 2) Lawyer referral services will refer you to a lawyer who specialises in your problem, for a fee. These services can be discovered in the yellow pages. 3) Recommendations from other businessmen, friends and family who have used a lawyer recently. 4) Advertisements. ‘No charge and ‘free’ are warning signs. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Many worthwhile solicitors do not advertise. Avoid hiring one who knocks at your door unannounced. ‘Ambulance chasing’, known technically as barratry, is often forbidden by local bar associations. If he’s bending or breaking rules to find clients, how likely is it he’ll follow them to win your case in a court of law?
- - Learn How To Fire Him. A contract can specify that even if you sack a lawyer, he can still get a sizeable cut of any future payout or award you may receive on your case. Ensure you know how to dismiss your attorney, preferably before you hire him!
- - Know Your Options. Be sure your lawyer informs you of them. Solicitors don’t just pursue lawsuits. Lawsuits can be a most time-consuming and costly method for one to get compensated. Ensure your solicitor is open about other methods to resolve your problem, such as arbitration or mediation.
- - Ask What Can Be Expected As A Retainer. If you like a certain lawyer feel free to negotiate over fees. A solicitor likes to charge by the hour, but often their rates can be negotiated. There are too many solicitors with too few clients today. You can get a better deal.
- - Are You Getting The Best Deal from a energetic, capable person, or a fly-by-night carpet-bagger, who, when you need them the most, will not return your calls? Trust your intuition over your head.
I hope these few handy suggestions will be of some use to you in hiring a good lawyer.
N. Svengali is an author for
lawyer and
UK personal loans internet sites in London, UK.