News reached me a few days ago from a friend at a major national commercial real estate brokerage that LandAmerica 1031 Exchange, a substantial firm in the 1031 business, is ?terminating operations? immediately. They have frozen customer accounts and are unable to meet customer withdrawal demands. Seems LandAmerica invested its customers? dollars in illiquid auction rate securities. So now all LandAmerica customers who have their hard-earned capital gains and principal with LandAmerica can't access their funds and stand a good chance of losing some or all of it.
There has been trouble brewing for a long time for certain 1031 companies, specifically the ones that have other businesses, such as selling/packaging tenant-in-common deals or other brokerage activities. Consider this hypocritical information posted directly on the LandAmerica 1031 website:
?As a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly traded LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:LFG), which also owns an FDIC insured bank, LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services, Inc. (LES) is uniquely positioned to provide the security and liquidity that taxpayers and their advisors should be demanding from a qualified intermediary. To learn more about the strength of LES and why it is the appropriate QI to choose to facilitate your exchanges??
?Recent events have caused many advisors to recognize the need to better assess the solvency and fidelity of the Qualified Intermediaries (QI) used to structure ?safe-harbor? IRC ? 1031 deferred exchanges, commonly referred to as 1031 exchanges. Advisors, including attorneys, accountants and real estate professionals, are examining anew the importance of recommending a QI that is a reliable financial resource for their clients. In an industry that includes a vast number of privately held, unregulated providers, LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services stands out for its transparency and reliability. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc., a publicly traded company, and operating in a highly-regulated industry, we are held to strict legal standards concerning reserves and transparency in our finances and processes. LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. holds its own bank, and has affiliates licensed to issue title insurance nationwide.?
Serious investors should be advised to work with 1031 exchange companies with no other product areas or affiliated companies that can draw cash from it. Working with a company that focuses only on 1031 exchange services is the best and only way. Make sure they simply deposit the exchange money in highly liquid money market accounts that only invest in US treasuries, and then return it on the date the investor specifies. It's that simple, and that safe. Or at least it should be.
Another Bites The Dust
It's easy to catch a whole plethora of links on the Web. In fact, some cutting-edge bloggers and writers have managed to garner a universe of links simply through their strong writing skills, while denser types slave away at writing volumes of dull content, only to find that no one cares. Simply put, the successful bloggers have demonstrated that they are proficient at the science of link-baiting. And it truly is a science, one that can be learned through practice.
If the Bait is Delicious, the Fish Will Bite
The most important issue is to design or make a tempting bait so that web visitors will visit your page.
People love to hear about what's going on in the news, so you can use world news as a bait to draw your readers in. The reason for this is that current news is fresh content. Fresh, new content attracts visitors, always. Look at the success of the Drudge Report. Current news organized into a provocative design has resulted in immense success.
Imagine if you were one of Drudge's link partners. You would immediately reap the generous rewards of Drudge's current-news baits. In addition, The Drudge Report itself has garnered an astronomical rise in search engine optimization due to the amount of inbound links it has generated. (Inbound links are non-reciprocal links, for instance, when someone links to your site, but you don't link to theirs, you are receiving an inbound link.)
The more raunchy and provocative the news is, the more likely people will click on the link.
Bloggers Know Where It's At
People love to talk, especially on the Internet and in the Blogosphere. Bloggers often respond to current events and other developments in the world. This will create a firestorm of a discussion. The odds are, a great number of people are discussing this subject, because what is discussed in the blogosphere is what people are currently talking about.
The fat cat, well-established, most famous bloggers will undoubtedly take a stand on this issue. Therefore, in order to distinguish yourself from the crowd, start a debate. Take a stand opposite these punks. Who do they think they are, anyways? Make sure you study the content carefully so you can provide a well-reasoned defense of your argument. Doubtless, after your post, there will be rivers of links pouring into your site.
Make sure that you conduct a comprehensive subject of the study at hand. Speak as an expert. Don't drop to bad taste or libel.
The Cardinal Rule of Web-Fishing: Be Humble and Respect the Fish
Set up a disciplined fishing schedule so that you are regularly providing content to these blogs. It's really great if you can write three times a week, but once a week should do.
Just like in fishing, sometimes you'll catch a lot of links, and other times, you won't catch any. But most of the time, you'll catch a grouping of links, little by little. The important thing is to be patient and humble. Baby steps. But the more you go out link-baiting, the more links you'll collect, and in turn, the higher your site will be ranked. SEO experts know that link-baiting works, so the best experts suggest it as a sure-fire way to improve your search engine rankings.
Both Bob Horton & are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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Body Language Attraction Signals Too much of a smile that never softens can look forced and nervous. A pleasant smile with a twinkle in your eyes will convey the impression that chatting with you will be a pleasant experience