Alternatives to Stock Market Investing

The recent downturn in the stock market has caused many investors to look "outside the box" at alternative investments. Not all of these different types of investments can be compiled into your 401k plan, but they are worth looking at.

PRECIOUS METALS:

One of the most reliable safe-havens for your money is precious metals. Gold has long been the standard repository for stashing investment funds. During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt actually made it illegal to hoard gold because people were buying large amounts of the shiny stuff, which hurt the U.S. Dollar. Gold sells at a high premium compared to other metals, such as silver and copper. Gold hit an all-time high around 1980, and it has never eclipsed that peak until 2008, when it surged over $1,000 per ounce. Today, gold is back into triple digits, and given the recent bank collapses and unreliability of the American Dollar, this may be the last chance to see these prices for a long time. Check Nymex.com for current precious metal prices.

There are several ways to invest in precious metals. One is to go down to your local pawn shop or gold dealer and actually purchase coins, bars or other objects made of the desired material. Another method of investing in precious metals is buying shares of mutual funds or other securities that fluctuate with commodity prices. For instance, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) currently trades at around $90 per share, and seeks to closely track the price of gold.

For those who can't stomach the price of gold, silver and copper are priced much lower than gold, and are used in many industrial applications around the world. Some commodities experts are predicting that silver will outpace gold's return in the coming years due to silver price suppression in the past.

LAND:

Even though Real Estate prices have generally dropped across the United States, the same can not be said for land prices. Homes have lost up to 20% of their value in the last couple of years as supply outpaced demand. However, land is still very much a desired commodity. It's usually very expensive to buy large parcels of land in populated communities, but good deals can still be easily found in uncivilized areas. One good thing about investing in land is that due to the ever-increasing population, usable land will continue to become more scarce. One good website for finding cheap land bargains is Land Bazaar, which shows land for sale listings by state. There can be many formidable aspects to buying land, so be sure to due your own due diligence when purchasing any property.

INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES:

Investing in domain names is a relatively new phenomenon, with the first domain names having been created only 20 years ago. While it's true that most of the "best" domain names were snatched up in the 1990's, many domains are still purchased and then "flipped" for many times the value of the original investment. One way to start in domaining is to search for unregistered domains using a registrar like GoDaddy or Moniker. It's a good idea to concentrate on .com domains, as they have traditionally held their value better than the other domain extensions (such as .net or .mobi). Another tip for novice domainers is to search for domains inside a niche that one is familiar with, such as auto parts or mystery novels.

A great website that frequently produces lists of unregistered domains is Domain Bagger. Also visit the various Domain Name forums, such as Dnforum.com or Namepros. You'll find a wealth of information there.

Get Thousands of Free Hits With YouTube

Many people mistakenly believe that once a website goes live traffic will automatically come. Unfortunately, this is wishful thinking. If nothing is done to bring traffic to a website, chances are it will never get seen, despite it now being a part of the Web. Yet, webmasters don't have to fret, because with YouTube not only can they get thousands of free hits, but they can also have fun in the process.

So, what exactly is YouTube and how can you get traffic from it? YouTube is a website that allows members to share videos they have created. The content of these videos can be on virtually anything that is not violent or pornographic. In fact, even advertising is allowed, which is where the site's traffic-building possibilities come into play.

Yet, you don't want to make a blatant advertisement, since these types of videos are less likely to get views. Instead, you want to create a video giving information on a topic related to what you're selling. Then, at the end of the video, you can advertise your website. Make sure when you get to this point you use a URL that is short and memorable, since members won't have an opportunity to cut and paste your domain name into their browser. This means affiliate links and subdomains are out of the question. Of course, if all you have is an affiliate link or a subdomain, consider redirecting it to a more marketable domain name.

As far as creating the video, you can use Sony's Vegas Movie Studio. This program is not very expensive and works with most computers. To use it, you basically upload images or videos and manipulate them.

If you have no video, you can create one with images and a microphone. You can get the images from royalty-free photo sites, Microsoft Power Point, or you can take pictures yourself if you have the time and photography skills. Either way, as you are acquiring them, think ahead of time about how they're going to be presented in your video. You will want them to relate to what you're saying. For the best organization, consider writing a script before you find the images. That way you'll know what you need to look for ahead of time.

After you have uploaded your images into the program, read your script into your microphone. If you want you can even incorporate music into your program, though like your images, you will have to make sure they are royalty-free.

When you are finished with your video, you can upload it into your YouTube member account. From there, YouTube will take care of everything. If your video is interesting, people will watch it. Some may even incorporate it into their own websites, making your video even more visible.

To get more help in determining the flow of your content, look at other videos on YouTube. The most popular ones tend to be humorous, though there are others that get a lot of hits because they evoke a variety of emotions.

The 12 part E-course walks you through step by step on how to get the traffic coming to your site. This is traffic that you just put your time into, you don't have to spend any money for it. Find out more at www.newwebtraffic.com