A Beginner’s Guide to Insurance

Having the right kind of insurance is central to sound financial planning. Some of us may have some form of insurance but very few really understand what it is or why one must have it. For most Indians insurance is a form of investment or a superb tax saving avenue. Ask an average person about his/her investments and they will proudly mention an insurance product as part of their core investments. Of the approximately 5% of Indians that are insured the proportion of those adequately insured is much lower. Very few of the insured view insurance as purely that. There is perhaps no other financial product that has witnessed such rampant mis-selling at the hands of agents who are over enthusiastic in selling products linking insurance to investment earning them fat commissions.What is Insurance?Insurance is a way of spreading out significant financial risk of a person or business entity to a large group of individuals or business entities in the occurrence of an unfortunate event that is predefined. The cost of being insured is the monthly or annual compensation paid to the insurance company. In the purest form of insurance if the predefined event does not occur until the period specified the money paid as compensation is not retrieved. Insurance is effectively a means of spreading risk among a pool of people who are insured and lighten their financial burden in the event of a shock.Insured and InsurerWhen you seek protection against financial risk and make a contract with an insurance provider you become the insured and the insurance company becomes your insurer.Sum assuredIn Life Insurance this is the amount of money the insurer promises to pay when the insured dies before the predefined time. This does not include bonuses added in case of non-term insurance. In non-life insurance this guaranteed amount may be called as Insurance Cover.PremiumFor the protection against financial risk an insurer provides, the insured must pay compensation. This is known as premium. They may be paid annually, quarterly, monthly or as decided in the contract. Total amount of premiums paid is several times lesser than the insurance cover or it wouldn’t make much sense to seek insurance at all. Factors that determine premium are the cover, number of years for which insurance is sought, age of the insured (individual, vehicle, etc), to name a few.NomineeThe beneficiary who is specified by the insured to receive the sum assured and other benefits, if any is the nominee. In case of life insurance it must be another person apart from the insured.Policy TermThe number of years you want protection for is the term of policy. Term is decided by the insured at the time of purchasing the insurance policy.RiderCertain insurance policies may offer additional features as add-ons apart from the actual cover. These can be availed by paying extra premiums. If those features were to be bought separately they would be more expensive. For instance you could add on a personal accident rider with your life insurance.Surrender Value and Paid-up ValueIf you want to exit a policy before its term ends you can discontinue it and take back your money. The amount the insurer will pay you in this instance is called the surrender value. The policy ceases to exist. Instead if you just stop paying the premiums mid way but do not withdraw money the amount is called as paid-up. At the term’s end the insurer pays you in proportion of the paid-up value.Now that you know the terms this is how insurance works in plain words. An insurance company pools premiums from a large group of people who want to insure against a certain kind of loss. With the help of its actuaries the company comes up with statistical analysis of the probability of actual loss happening in a certain number of people and fixes premiums taking into account other factors as mentioned earlier. It works on the fact that not all insured will suffer loss at the same time and many may not suffer the loss at all within the time of contract.Types of InsurancePotentially any risk that can be quantified in terms of money can be insured. To protect loved ones from loss of income due to immature death one can have a life insurance policy. To protect yourself and your family against unforeseen medical expenses you can opt for a Mediclaim policy. To protect your vehicle against robbery or damage in accidents you can have a motor insurance policy. To protect your home against theft, damage due to fire, flood and other perils you can choose a home insurance.Most popular insurance forms in India are life insurance, health insurance and motor insurance. Apart from these there are other forms as well which are discussed in brief in the following paragraphs. The insurance sector is regulated and monitored by IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority).Life InsuranceThis form of insurance provides cover against financial risk in the event of premature death of the insured. There are 24 life insurance companies playing in this arena of which Life Insurance Corporation of India is a public sector company. There are several forms of life insurance policies the simplest form of which is term plan. The other complex policies are endowment plan, whole life plan, money back plan, ULIPs and annuities.General InsuranceAll other insurance policies besides Life Insurance fall under General Insurance. There are 24 general insurance companies in India of which 4 namely National Insurance Company Ltd, New India Assurance Company Ltd, Oriental Insurance Company Ltd and United India Insurance Company Ltd are in the public sector domain.The biggest pie of non-life insurance in terms of premiums underwritten is shared by motor insurance followed by engineering insurance and health insurance. Other forms of insurance offered by companies in India are home insurance, travel insurance, personal accident insurance, and business insurance.Buying InsuranceThere are an umpteen number of policies to choose from. Because we cannot foresee our future and stop unpleasant things from happening, having an insurance cover is a necessity. But you need to choose carefully. Don’t simply go with what the agent tells you. Read policy documents to know what is covered, what features are offered and what events are excluded from being insured.1. Know your NeedsDetermine what asset or incident must be protected against loss/damage. Is it you life, health, vehicle, home? Next determine what kinds of damage or danger exactly would the assets be most probably be exposed to. This will tell you what features you should be looking for in a policy. Of course there will be losses which cannot be foreseen and the cost of dealing with them can be very high. For instance nobody can predict that they’ll never suffer from critical illnesses no matter if they’re perfectly healthy at present.The biggest mistake while it comes to buying insurance, particularly life insurance is to view it as an investment. Clubbing insurance and investment in a single product is a poor idea. You lose out on both fronts because for the premiums you’re paying more cover could’ve been got in a term plan and if the premiums were invested in better instruments your returns could’ve been several times more.Be wary of agents who want to talk you into buying unnecessary policies like child life insurance, credit card insurance, unemployment insurance and so on. Instead of buying separate insurance for specific assets or incidents look for policies that cover a host of possible events under the same cover. Whenever possible choose riders that make sense instead of buying them separately. Unless there is a fair chance of an event happening you do not need insurance for it. For instance unless you are very prone to accidents and disability due to your nature of work or other reasons you do not need an Accident Insurance policy. A good Life Insurance policy with accidental death rider or waiver of premium rider or a disability income rider will do the job.2. Understand Product Features and ChargesThe worst way of choosing an insurance product or insurer is to blindly follow the recommendation of an agent or a friend. The good way to do it is to shop around for products that suit your need and filter out the ones offering lower premiums for similar terms like age, amount of cover, etc. All details you need about the product features and charges will be provided on the company’s website. Many insurance policies can now be bought online. Buying online is smarter because premiums are lower due to elimination of agent fees. If buying offline in case of life insurance, tell the agent that you’re interested only in term insurance.Before you sign on the contract make sure you have understood what items are covered and what items are exempted from the cover. It would be so devastating to learn in the event of damage or loss that the item you hoped to cover with the insurance was actually excluded. So many people rush to their insurers after being treated for diseases only to realize that the particular disease was excluded. Understand details like when the cover begins and ends and how claims can be filed and losses be reported.Don’t choose an insurance company because your neighbourhood friend is their agent and never let them coax you into buying from them. Insurance premiums run for years and it means a sizeable amount of money. Apart from the premiums charged look for the service provided. When you are faced with a peril you want the claims collection processed to be complicated with non-cooperating staff in the insurance company’s office. Seek answers from people who have had previous experience with the company for questions like how customer friendly and responsive the company is when it comes to handling claims.3. Evaluate and Upgrade in TimeAs you walk from one life stage to another or when the asset insured changes your policies must be reviewed. Perhaps your cover will need to be increased (or decreased) or you’ll need to top it up with a rider. Some instances when you need to review your cover are when you getting married, when you have children, when your income increases your decreases substantially, when you’re buying a house/car and when you’re responsible for your ageing parents.

Five Traits You Should Have As a Network Marketer

Well, becoming a network marketer is very easy! You just have to make people join your team. If I ask you how you are going to do it, what will you answer? I think, this time it does not look as easy as it seemed before. Actually, anyone can be a network marketer even the cleaner or janitor; but not everyone can show impressive performance in network marketing beyond their own circles of friends and family until and unless they have the passion, endurance, appropriate selling instinct and belief in their success. Most network marketers step in this industry being amazed by the success of others. People who have been successful in the industry have gone through a lot of hardships. However, this success can also be yours if you know the other side of the coin.The key problem is, most network marketers out there are not sure of what they are marketing, to whom they are marketing and how they are marketing. Clear idea about these stuffs makes the real difference between successful and failing network marketing. You should know that your company, products or plans are of least interest in network marketing. It is you who is the brand. You have to market yourself. People are likely to join individuals whom they know, trust and like. Keep it in mind that people out there are searching a system or leader who is trustworthy and help them achieve their financial objectives.Trends have revealed that most of the high earning network marketers have some distinctive traits. You may already possess some of them, but even if you don’t, the good news is that all of them are obtainable with training, and to attain success you need to do more than just pay lip service to these areas, because they are keys to either doing badly or earning a high salary.How to Speak So People ListenA successful network marketer knows how to speak so people listen. If you don’t know how to talk, you’ll never be able to reach your clients. You must speak in a way that matches your client. If you speak fast and your client speaks slowly, they will not pay attention; similarly, if you speak slowly and they are fast, they will switch off and not hear your words. Pay attention to your body language, because people use visual clues to give meaning to your words. Do not mumble, speak understandably and loud enough to be heard without yelling or raising your voice too much.The tone and how you change your words give your speech a more interesting slant that grabs attention. Emphasize some words, raise and lower your voice, so that your speech pattern varies. Listen and respond to what has been said to you, and maintain eye contact, particularly if you are in a one to one meeting.Try to avoid filler words such as um and ah. They sound as if you are not confident, and if you are not confident in what are you are saying, then you will not get people to listen to you. Try to project enthusiasm and energy when you speak, but take a lot of breaks, let people digest what you have said and give them time to respond, do not over talk. Personalize your words; make them relevant to the person or people you are addressing specifically, not more generally to any old person in the street.The major problem for any person willing to become a network marketer is that communication skills are a pivotal area; if you do not possess the speaking and listening skills to connect your audience, you will not sell your services. If your skills are not yet up to scratch, take courses and study anyone who you find interesting to listen to, and analyze why you are willing to listen to them.The Power of PersuasionA successful network marketer knows how to persuade people by being able to move and motivate them. In order to motivate someone else, you will need to learn how you are motivated. If you do not know what motivates you, how can you motivate others?To become a successful network marketer, you must have the capability to motivate others. You will never be able to succeed in your task, if you cannot get others to follow your lead. Part of this is learning to read how others react to being directed in what to do, and then adjusting your lead to make it a natural joint effort, rather than being forced in to following you. If you are a leader, you are helping others do what you want them to do, but getting them to take responsibility and task on for themselves, because they want to succeed. Recognize and reward any interaction, give people the chance and confidence to take on board the task they are being able to do, talk through doubts and help them find the solution without giving it to them.You will want to keep your leadership and motivational skills up to date, because they are important and if you keep refreshing and updating your skills, you will not fall in to bad habits. Motivation is about empowering others to do it for themselves.Overcoming Fear of RejectionA successful network marketer knows how to overcome their fear of rejection. Being a network marketer is all about trial and error, there will be a lot of failure, it’s not an instant success. There are always going to be a lot of people who are not interested as well as those who will be interested. Fear of rejection can have a negative impact on your performance. You will need to recognize that it is normal to find a situation intimidating, but the key is to recognize how you feel and then rationalize it. If you let your nerves win, you can guarantee you will not be a successful network marketer. If you understand that your feelings are something you can conqueror, you will. Rejection is rarely personal; you will need to develop a lot of self-confidence and a thick skin. There may be many reasons as to why they rejected you and you as a person are probably very low on that list. You could have approached the wrong person, they might have had a bad day, you caught them off guard, and they were still thinking about something else. Your success rate will be higher if you are able to brush off rejection and try again. The next person is the big contract, believe in yourself.The Importance of PerseveranceA successful network marketer knows how to get through to reluctant buyers. You will meet a lot of reluctant buyers, and your job is to convince them that you are the solution. It is not a simple or easy task. You will need to keep working hard, and you will have to refine tactics for persuading them that you really are just what they are searching for. They meet a lot of people out there who are trying to convince them. So set yourself out. Ask what they want, not what you want to give them, and then show why they should pick you up. In order to become a network marketer, you have to give what your client is asking for. If they are hesitating, it is you who have to instill confidence in them. So you need to influence them and do not give up too soon. Hesitating is a sign that you are in with a chance, it is up to you to take it and show you are the right solution.Being a Lifetime LearnerA successful network marketer knows how to be a lifetime learner, always creating new opportunities and looking for new ways to improve, you will need to keep going on courses, spot the latest trends, and make sure you know how to exploit them. You have to keep yourself up to date with the marketing side, with selling techniques which are refined over time, and with the latest technology. Look at how people interact and then how you would like them to interact and find ways of achieving that. Always look to the future, what you will be doing in two years, five years, and ten years.A successful network marketer is willing to keep looking at the skills that he or she possesses; the ones that are not so strong, the network marketer works on them. You will need to make sure that you are not overconfident and over bearing; your clients want someone they can approach, who will motivate and lead them, who is friendly and easy to talk with. They need someone who is an expert and can show that expertise. They want the confidence and reassurance, and they want answers, which you can give them. People do not like to be bossed about or told what to do. They want to feel that they are in charge and if you do your job well, you will get repeated businesses and generate word of mouth effect that will help you grow. Your client wants to be the most important thing in the universe, and when with them, you must make them feel nothing else is more important. Keep learning, keep evolving and most importantly, enjoy your work to become a brilliant network marketer.

Free Internet Marketing Advice

You can find Internet marketing advice in many places but how much of it can you really trust? At best, the average person is likely to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Internet marketing advice available. Internet marketing advice is a bit like a roundabout where someone starts to promote a certain aspect of it and others get on the bandwagon and regurgitate what was said before them.This is a simple but very effective piece of internet marketing advice for you. Find a person or source of information you trust and stick to it or them like glue!MarketingMarketing is an ongoing process of planning and executing of the marketing mix product, price, place, promotion of products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals and organizations. Marketing is an ever changing process and advertising is undergoing a revolution with the emergence of a new style of marketing namely the world wide web. Marketing, or any other field for that matter, is knowledge. what better place than right here, where we teach you about the various types of internet marketing businesses, and fill you in on all of the basics of what you need to know to start an internet business.OnlineLearning all this stuff online and acquiring the knowledge I now have, has been both a steep learning curve and extremely expensive process. Quite literally I have been ripped off, let down and burned more times than I care to admit to. However an even more worrying trend since I first started online, is that marketing advice is becoming more and more directed at companies with websites and big budgets as the internet slowly develops into the world’s most dominant marketing tool.Therefore I believe leaving the small person without huge $$$$ budgets to play with, to basically fend for themselves. I genuinely want to try or attempt to fill that void for you with the aid of my articles at your disposal.I have and intend to showcase in the future, online programs designed to take the beginner through all the steps and processes of creating an online business. Providing marketing advice and information services to the small business community to help maximise the effectiveness of online marketing and web promotion. I basically want to pay my dues as I see it and I want to give props and support to all the hard workers out there like “you” that are shaping the way we do business on the Internet.I want to provide you with through my articles,with a complete Internet marketing strategy, how to start an internet business, online e-marketing, and e-marketing strategy, search engine optimization in other words the whole Shebang. All you need to ask yourself in a very honest fashion is, are you ready to start making money online?AffiliateAffiliate marketing is one of the many ways I make money on the Internet. Affiliate marketing is by far, one of the easiest ways to make money online.Also affiliate marketing is not hard, although it does take quite a lot of work. It is also a very important point to convey to you that Affiliate marketing is a marathon… not a sprint and does require hard work and determination on your part.SeoSEO is the practice of increasing your rankings in the organic (non-paid) search results of a search engine. SEO is one of the most popular buzz words in Internet marketing but unfortunately most Internet marketers simply do not know enough about SEO to make this strategy work for them. SEO covers the process of making web pages spider friendly (so search engines can read them) and helping web pages be relevant for targeted keywords. SEO is the process of optimizing web pages for keywords and key phrases so that the pages rank highly in search engine results.That said there is also a good amount of free bad information all over the net (especially in forums) about SEO, affiliate marketing, etc. It is exceptionally hard for me to just keep up with the topic of SEO so for a beginner it is nigh on impossible. I’m just about to write an article about some free quality SEO e-books I reviewed and during my research there were quite literally tons of worthless e-books full of affiliate links.SEO services can differ hugely and its often hard to compare one company with another. What I found is that a majority of the seo firms out there are way out of my readers budgets.Unfortunately most seo consultant websites either lack actual client case studies or have outdated stories. However a certain amount of seo training is very important for your future success. I again want through my articles to help you learn about seo (search engine optimization), advertising, and email promotion through seo tutorial, articles and tools on how to get traffic to your website.SuccessSuccessful business people are not people who try and do everything themselves, they know their limitations. Successful entrepreneurs know the value of good information; they develop a network of information sources, they recognise a good opportunity when they see it, and they “seize the day”.Unfortunately you can’t put up a website without any knowledge or the correct Internet Marketing tools and then expect to have a successful online business. I constantly look for clues around me, and especially the people who have gone before me, people I admire, or people who I know have had obvious and visible success.Successful marketing is about meeting the needs of your customers – profitably. I firmly believe my articles contain everything you will need to quickly and easily build your online business and be your essential guide to making a success of your own business. These internet business ideas will not turn you into an online success story who makes six figures instantly, but they will help you separate fact from fiction and learn internet marketing. Taking action,hard work and determination are ultimately going to be the keys to your success.SalesThou shall not buy anymore get rich quick products even if the sales copy is pushing all of your hot buttons.Equally on that note it is important to point out to you that nothing happens until the sales copy is written. Fancy graphics alone I promise you will never sell a product, but strong salescopy alone will as I and I’m sure you as well are living proof of. While many people do not like long sales pages, if you artificially cut down the information just to keep it short you are going to find you have more objections dangling than you would like. At the other end of the scale, choice of the right keywords leads to greater sales opportunities and the reaping of boundless rewards.I personally for way to many years, worked in a high pressure sales environment where you had to truly believe in what you were doing to be any good.Well I do truly believe in what I’m doing now and the value it provides to people just like you.Therefore a major tip for you is backing off just a little bit and providing valuable content (that is not provided after a squeeze page) this has provided me with loyal readers and customers and good sales at the end. I am extremely competitive by nature believe me I don’t even like losing at monopoly to my kids . However being top in sales was not I promise you anywhere near as satisfying as getting an unsolicited testimonial from one of my online clients.I have read many, many, many reports on internet marketing and affiliate sales, including some majorly bum ones. Therefore I have endeavoured to build my business on a solid foundation of honesty, integrity and client focus. It goes without saying that regardless of how excellent your product is, it won’t make any sales if there is no trust in you or your company.Every week, I will try to reveal through my articles, an internet marketing tip that will help you find more customers and increase your sales that you can put to use right away. I’m equally confident that I can help you save money and increase your sales. If you are looking to start an online business or maybe you already have an online business, but need the right resources to explode your sales, I believe you will have all information you need in my series of articles.If your site isn’t intended to sell a product or gain a customer, then what is it for? The internet marketing info product world has become a sensationalized, over-hyped, over-priced, landscape filled with predatory practices. Not only that, I and I”m sure you as well, have even bought products we didn’t need, as a direct result of the great copywriting and marketing skills of masters.In the amount of time it was taking me to read blogs, emails, products, listen to teleconferences, and everything else, apart from growing a beard through lack of time to shave. I can now start up and profitably run an entire website. One thing and one thing only I don’t buy nearly as many products. As I don’t read the emails that are sent to the one address I gave up to the spam gods a long time ago.With regard to the above it’s worth pointing out that sometimes the “best” isn’t really what you need there are always better products around by the time you get your hand on a “best product”. So you may not want to subscribe to every list on the planet and you certainly don’t want to buy every product.ContentYou want visitors to find more of your great content, right? To construct a great content-rich website takes like anything else a certain amount of planning.The main essence of search engine marketing is submitting quality content with the website attached with contact information. Hence, in order to get ranking in the search engines, the website needs to optimize their pages with the most appropriate keywords that match their web page content too. This occurs as a result of search engines scanning through webpage content to find relevant information for words typed in during a search.You need to be sure that your landing page is keyword dense and is full of quality content, but I stress to you “do not use duplicate content” on your web pages.You can not only use keywords in your website content, but also in the title tags, meta tags, alt tags of your website in order to boost your website performance. These include back linking with other websites, content submission with link to content sites, press releases, news letters, email marketing, and now a-days also video and SMS marketing are becoming a part of the big game of search engine marketing. Thus, one has to provide more and more content in the website so that it appears higher and higher in the search engines.Of course, there’s the educational content like this one but I’m a sucker for giving out free content.ConclusionSometimes when you’re looking for internet marketing advice it’s hard to sort the good advice out from the bad advice. Some internet marketing advice is the same, many offer services that will provide top 10 results (a promise that I believe can’t be made). Having a way to learn about internet marketing advice is one of the best ways to beat competition in your marketplace.Whether you are a beginner, at an intermediate level, or a professional marketer you will find my articles are filled with all the necessary internet marketing advice to build and promote your business online. I also give Internet marketing advice on how to start and promote a business online, even if you don’t have a product to sell. I Provide real information and advice including internet marketing advice for small businesses and those new to Internet marketing including lots of useful links to many free and useful resources. I set my stall out to Obtain True and actual case studies of home-based entrepreneurs who earn tens of thousands of dollars every month through Internet marketing, so I can provide a rich source of information for you in these articles.Internet Marketing Training and web success I believe go very much hand in hand. My articles are dedicated to providing quality information to help as many people as is possible like you succeed in the field of marketing online. So if you’d like the benefit of unlimited internet marketing advice, including business ideas, website reviews, salescopy advice, traffic secrets, and more all from the same centered source ? Then “you” my friend have landed at the right place.To Your Success As AlwaysDouglas StuartPs Final piece of advice and most valuable tip of the day
“The more people you help succeed the more SUCCESSFUL you will be ”