Links for Brokers and Consultants

Some tools and resources for your business.

Warning! These links will take you away from our web site. Please be sure to come back.

We are not affiliated with the other web sites listed below and can't be responsible for any problem you might have by using their services or information.

Toll Free Telephone Numbers

Kall8   New -- now you can keep your existing toll free number and still enjoy the extra benefits provided by Kall8.

If you're doing business out of your area you really need to have a toll free phone number for your customers to use. This site will provide you with a toll free 888, 877 or 866 number for $2.00 per month ($2.00 setup). You can have a real 800 toll free number for just $5.00 per month($5.00 setup). There is an additional 6.9 cents per minute usage charge also.

This service is loaded with features. You get voice mail. And you can receive faxes on your toll free number. Voice mail and faxes are sent to you by e-mail. You no longer need to maintain a fax machine or a dedicated fax line.

At this price we got an 800 number for voice calls and a separate 800 number just for faxes.

You can change the number that your toll free number rings on over the internet instantly. So if you're going to be traveling you can just have your business number ring on your cell phone, without giving everyone your cell number.

At this price, everyone in your office can have their own toll free number.

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Professional Email Addresses

I highly recommend that you get your own domain and web site (see section below on how you can do this for less than $30.00 per year). However, if you don't think you're ready for that you should at least consider something more professional looking than an @aol, @yahoo, @hotmail, etc. email address. Even using your regular ISP email account, like @earthlink.net or @comcast.net isn't the best choice.

Some people even make it worse by using email addresses like RacySue@hotmail.com or BigBadBubba@yahoo.com.

All of these type of email address will make it look like you are new, working from your kitchen table or not serious about being in business for the long term.

One solution, if you are not going to get your own domain and web site, is to use an email forwarding service, or stand alone email account, with a domain name (that's the part after the @ in your email address) that appears to be a real business address.

You can use your favorite search engine to look for "mail forwarding" or "email forwarding" and find a variety of companies who will provide forwarding services. Be sure to find one that has a domain name that reflects your profession standing in the business community.

Below is one of these services. I haven't used this one, but they have some great domain names for your broker/consulting business.

I recommend that you get your own domain name and hosting service instead of using one of these mail forwarding services. (see below)

www.papergame.com/yourownemail.htm The PaperGame web site has over 200 domains available for broker/consultants/investors in notes and real estate. They charge $12.00 per year for your choice of the following services.

Email Forwarding. With a service, like these any mail addressed to your new forwarding email account is sent to your existing email address. To receive mail sent to this new address you just log in to your email account and download mail as usual. Hopefully, your email reader allows you to filter your mail so you can send all of this mail to a separate folder.

You must remember to change your outgoing email address when you reply to your business mail or when you send a new email message. Otherwise your regular @aol, @hotmail, @yahoo, etc. email address will show.

POP Email Account. This is a separate, stand alone email account. It's just like your current email account, but it is totally un-connected to your regular email account. You will need to log on and down load this mail separately from your existing email account.

Depending on your email reader you may be able to set up separate identities that will log on and down load the mail from this account independently from your current account. When you send mail from this business identity the email reader should send it with the proper return email address.

Other email readers will require that you run a separate session to get the mail from this separate email account. Consult your email reader help file or manual.

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Web Site Hosting and Domain Names

You can't hardly be in business anymore without a web site. It has almost become as necessary as a telephone.

And using an @aol, @yahoo, @juno, etc. e-mail address doesn't enhance your credibility or professionalism.

Here are a few links to help you set up your own web site for less than $35.00 per year. By having your own web site and domain name you also get your own personalized email address. In fact, you can have as many email addresses as you would like.

I highly recommend getting your own domain and web site hosting.

www.godaddy.com Register your domain name here for $8.95 per year, or less. This is the first step in setting up your own web site with your own e-mail address. But, don't use them to host your web site until you check the next link.

I have several domain names registered with them and have been pleased with their service, so far.

www.findmyhosing.com FindMyHosting is not a web host. The link to FindMyHosting should help you find a hosting service that will fit your budget and other requirements.

www.lunarpages.com While LunarPages is not one of the hosting services that will allow you to host a web site for under $30 per year, this is the hosting service that I am now using for all my personal and business hosting services.

They charge $6.95 per month with no setup charge if you pay for a year in advance. For that you get a large amount of bandwidth and storage space. They also have telephone support as well as email and a web based forum. In addition you can host up to 10 separate web sites under the same account at no extra charge. As a bonus they are currently offering what they say is $700 of web design related software.

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HTML Editors for Your Web Site

Once you have a domain name and a web site hosting service, you'll need a web site design. If at all possible I urge you to learn HTML, which is the "language" of web sites.

I started with a $20.00 book, Teach Yourself HTML in 24 Hours (Sams Publishing). It consists of 24 one hour lessons. Believe me, it's easier than it looks.

I have used two, easy to use, HTML editors

1st Page 2000 This is a free HTML editor. It is the one I started with. It's not WYSIWYG so you need to know some HTML.

AceHTML This is the HTML editor I'm currently using. They have a free version on their web site. Like the HTML editor above it is not WYSISYG, but it certainly makes it easy to create web pages. I have moved up to the "Pro" version (not free) to take advantage of some of the extra features available. But the free version also worked very well for me.

CoffeeCup This is the web site creation software that is being offered as a free bonus by the LunarPages web hosting service I referred to above. I haven't tried this software yet, but it looks like it may be very good.

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Free and Cheap Web Site Templates

Free Web Templates If you don't want to create your own web pages here is a listing of web sites with plenty of free and inexpensive "templates" available on the web. Many web hosting services also include a selection of free templates along with their hosting plans.

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Interesting and Useful Software

www.poptray.org PopTray is a free email checker utility. It will look to see if you have any email and alert you if new mail has arrived.

Each mail account you have can have it's own color coded balloon that pops up in your system tray showing how many messages are on your mail server waiting to be downloaded.

There are too many features for me to list here.

I'm currently using it to monitor 7 email accounts every 5 minutes. That way if a client or broker/consultant sends me an email, fills out an on line web form or if I receive a fax (see Toll Free Telephone Numbers above) I can respond immediately.

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