Whether you have just started out as a loan officer or you have spent some time in the business and wondered why you weren’t doing as well as your contemporaries, it becomes important for you to think about the aspect of marketing. For a loan officer, marketing is one of the most important things that he or she can spend time on. There are plenty of ways that a loan officer can sell himself or make him more appealing, but at the end of the day, marketing is a skill that you need to learn. Take a look below for some of the best tips on how to market yourself and your services.

Loan Officer Marketing Tip 1: Know Your Audience!

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in terms of marketing your services is being too vague about what you can do for them. While you should briefly mention your skills and your experience, keep it focused on them. Chances are, there is a demographic that you want to work with, whether that is people who are older than 45 who want to buy their second home, or younger adults who are looking for a way to go back to school. One of the best ways to grab someone’s attention is to make it sound as though you are speaking precisely to them. You’ll also be able to tailor your marketing campaign a great deal more when you think about places you want your advertising to go up.

Loan Officer Marketing Tip 2: Make Them Move

If you have a marketing campaign going, don’t let it just peter off. You’ve given them a reason to be interested, now give them a place to release that interest. Have them call in, go to the website and get signed up, or meet you at your local office. While you should keep in mind that the less work they have to do the better (writing an email is preferable to calling in is preferable to going to your office) it is important that you get them motivated and actively looking for what you can do. Without this last step, there is a good chance that your advertising campaign will be going nowhere fast. Give them all the information they need to get a hold of you, and then tell them to use it!

Loan Officer Marketing Tip 3: Stay On Top of Your Own Numbers

If you are putting the effort and the manpower into an advertising and marketing campaign, you need to find out if it is profitable. A good marketing campaign might be one of the priciest expenses that you deal with all year. Crunch your numbers and make sure you keep track of everything from how expensive it was to run the ad, to how long it ran, and what your numbers and calls were after it ran in certain areas. As any good scientist will tell you, the more data you can get, the more you’ll be able to tell if something is working or just making things worse!

As you can see, there are a lot of things that separate a good loan officer marketing campaign from a bad one. Make sure you hit these all-important things and get the goods!

Jeffrey Nelson helps loan officers increase loan originations by getting referrals from real estate agents.

Click here to get a free Video Book. It shows Jeffrey’s exclusive marketing solution for getting clients from real estate agents in as little as 30 days.

Visit us at www.Loan-Officer-Marketing.com

1. Overview
Before we look at the laptops most suitable for college students, we should understand what makes a good student laptop. Typically, a student would want a laptop that’s lightweight and comfortable enough to lug to and from their various classes. In addition, the laptop has to have great battery life and performance. And price is sometimes a concern, so the above features need to be packed into an affordable package.

After considering the types of laptops suitable for college students, I’ve decided to split them into three categories: budget, thin and light and ultraportable. So let’s take a look at them now …

2. Budget Laptops
For a college student who is short on cash, a budget laptop is a good buy. Some of the best budget laptops include those from Dell, Toshiba and HP. I personally find the Toshiba Satellite A215-S4747 to be a great budget laptop. You get an AMD based dual core CPU, which perfroms very well with most applications. You also get a huge 200GB hard drive and a large number of peripheral ports.

There’s also a nice Sony VGN-NR160E/S model that is (surprisingly) within the budget category. Out of the box, this machine gives you the Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 processor, 1 GB of RAM and a large 160GB hard drive - that’s a lot of computing power at budget price.

3. Thin and Light Laptops
If you prefer a more powerful laptop and don’t mind a little bit of weight, then try going for a thin and light laptop. Some of the models I can think of include those from Lenovo, HP and Sony.

The Sony VAIO VGN-FZ280E is a pretty good choice for a thin and light notebook. This system comes with a Bluray compatible writer that can also burn CDs and DVDs. You also get an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz CPU, 2GB RAM and a very large 250GB hard drive.

Another model I’d consider is the HP Pavilion dv6675us. You will get an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz CPU, 4GB RAM and 250GB of hard drive space. The 4GB of RAM is a great feature which will come in handy if you’re a student of finance or science and need to run intensive computational applications.

4. Ultraportable Laptops
If the size and weight of the laptop is of high importance to you, then go for an ultraportable laptop. These laptops give very good computing performance in a very small, compact package.

In this category, I think the Lenovo ThinkPad X61 is a great choice for students. It is slightly pricey (but not outrageously so) but it is one of the best performing laptops around. It weighs only about 3 pounds and is hence an extremely portable piece of hardware. You also get an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz CPU, 2GB RAM and an ample 100GB hard drive. You don’t get a built-in DVD writer though - that unit is external to the laptop.

Another good choice is the Toshiba Portege R500-S5001X. It weights 2.4 pounds and is less than an inch thick. This is one of the thinnest and lightest notebooks you will find in the market. It’s also very reasonably priced.

Conclusion
Well! I hope this article has shown you the various types of laptops which are suitable for college students. Regardless of your needs and budget, make sure that you do proper research before shelling out any cash. Until next time, best of luck and happy shopping!

Gary Hendricks runs a website about laptops. Visit his website at Best-Laptop-Guide.com to learn more about selecting the best laptops and accessories to suit your needs.

Here is a question that has, in the past, been the subject of much debate. However, as today’s ‘power game’ takes center stage on courts all over world, there is little doubt as to where a player needs to start building a solid foundation for their game.

My answer to the question posed in the title of this article is: Neither - at least yet. The answer really depends on what your tennis goals are. If, for example, you are a young player who wants to play tennis ’seriously’ and gain a national ranking and/or perhaps a college scholarship, I am going to tell you that you need to start with neither your strokes or your footwork. You need to start with physical conditioning. After you have a physical fitness regime in place, you would then - and only then - start with learning proper footwork. Once you have a solid foundation of physical fitness and proper footwork, you can then start working with your coach on the details concerning your racquet, grip size, types of grips used for different strokes that best suit you, and begin the process of grooving your ground strokes.

If you are a social player, and play a couple of time a week but still want to improve, I would suggest to you that learning - and applying - proper footwork is definitely where you will see the fastest improvement in your games, hands down.

Why?

Well, first there is the obvious fact that if you’re not in position to hit the ball, then all the proper ’stroke training’ in the world will not help you to hit a great shot. Secondly, I have seen time and again on the tennis court, from my students, from nationally-ranked players to the top pros, that the player who has the better footwork - and can continually employ that footwork on the court over an extended period of time - has the upper hand in the match. In short, between two players with equal shot-making ability, my money is on the player with the better footwork - and I don’t gamble, so that should tell you something.

Proper footwork is, by far, THE most important overall aspect of the game of tennis, and is by far, THE most underutilized weapon is a player’s arsenal.

Why?

Putting it bluntly, footwork isn’t as ’sexy’ or as ‘cool’, as watching Andy Roddick serve 150 mph bombs on Centre Court at Wimbledon (and secretly wishing you could do the same!) This is where you, as a player, need to figure out what you want to get out of your game. Do you want to get results on the court, or just ‘look cool’? Your footwork is more important than any of your strokes, what type of racket you play with, or what brand name is stitched into your tennis clothes.

Here’s what arguably one of the greatest players to ever pick up a racket, says regarding footwork:

“My game has a lot to do with footwork; when I’m moving well, I play well.”

- Roger Federer

The next time you’re on the court, focus on ‘feeling’ your feet moving constantly, and, like Roger Federer, focus on getting into proper position quickly to hit each and every shot. Then you’ll be able to let those awesome strokes of yours do their work!

To Your Massive Tennis Success,

Coach Kyril

Kyril Popoff is a former NCAA Div1 All-Conference Tennis Player, Instructor, Coach and Author.

His books include THE TEN LAWS OF TENNIS SUCCESS and FOCUS & WIN: WHY YOUR TENNIS GAME ISN’T WHERE YOU WANT IT TO BE, & WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!

You can sign up for Coach Kyril’s Tennis Lessons, Tips & Tricks newsletter at:
http://www.coachkyriltennis.com