Before getting into the explanation of an inactive agent and an active agent we will begin with a short summary of how the real estate Brokerage system works in Ontario. We will refrain from getting into too much detail and thus the following will be a very simplified version.

In Ontario we have a Brokerage governing board called R.E.C.O. or the Real Estate Council of Ontario. A Brokerage is registered with R.E.C.O., pays its fees and dues which include errors and omissions insurance and is then ready to trade in real estate in the Province of Ontario only. The Owner/Broker may work alone as a single entity or invite licensed real estate salespeople and Brokers to join his or her Brokerage Firm and trade in real estate on behalf of the Brokerage.

A real estate Brokerage in Ontario may apply to become a member of its local real estate board. If accepted, the Brokerage will pay the board fees and dues which may include fees and dues applicable to the Ontario Real Estate Association and the Canadian Real Estate Association. If this option is taken by the Brokerage, then all the registered realty agents with this Brokerage must also become members and pay their applicable fees and dues to the said board and associations. In very rare cases, the Brokerage will cover these fees and dues for selected agents. The difference between being a board member or not is, the board members will have the privilege of all the services available to them from the board and associations including the multiple listing service which has proved invaluable to the real estate full timer and professional.

So, what is an inactive real estate agent? Simply put, an inactive agent in Ontario is one who is licensed under R.E.C.O. and for whatever reason has decided that he or she will not be trading in real estate and has not been doing so for a specified amount of time. There are still many agents in Ontario who remain with their current Brokerage and if that Brokerage is a board member, then even though an agent is inactive, he or she may still be paying fees and dues. Fees and dues may also include their Brokerage monthly fees, desk fees, franchise fees and other expenses. Since this is obviously a big waste of money these inactive agents will seek other Brokerages that will allow them to park their license without the wasted expenses.

Here are some of the terms used when referring to a Brokerage that will accept inactive real estate agents in Ontario. “Park your license”, “warehouse my license”, “hang my license”, “hold your license”, “real estate license holding company or Brokerage”, just to name a few.

A real estate agent who decides to park their license will still have some fees to pay but the difference will save them hundreds if not thousands of dollars yearly. Some of the fees will be to R.E.C.O. like their license registration fees due every 2 years and the errors and omissions insurance will still apply. In Ontario, they must earn 24 credits in their continuing education requirements as well and these credits are due on renewal.

What about the real estate Brokerage that provides the license holding services? Here the agent must do their due diligence. Seek out a trusted and proven Brokerage Office who is not a member of any real estate board. Ask for the highest commission split available to you in the event you do sell a property or 2 or if you refer sales out to other Brokerages or agents you may know. Even though your license is on Park, and you are inactive, your license in good standing is still active. Make sure you do not pay any ridiculous desk fees, extra monthly fees, franchise fees etc. Having said that, there most likely will be a small membership fee applicable for their services. Shop around for the best deal but remember to keep the experienced Brokerage that park or holds licenses a priority to you.

Inactive then, refers to the actual agent who is not active in the day to day trading of realty properties. As long as the license is registered with the Real Estate Council of Ontario and remains in good standing, your real estate license is “active”. If you decide, as an agent, to become inactive, you now have a wonderful and money saving choice to transfer and join an Ontario Brokerage that you can park your license with. This Brokerage will hold your license and this will allow you the opportunity to keep your license active so it does not fall by the wayside and lapse or be terminated.

I shudder to think about if I had to go over the process and expense of getting my Realtor license all over again..yuk! If you now have this valuable asset and are thinking of becoming inactive for whatever reason, think hard about keeping your license active because you never know how valuable this asset will be for you in the future. Hang it, park it, warehouse it, hold it, keep it active! Good luck.

Have you tried without success, all the creams & jellies under the sun, to rid yourself of that ugly collection of fat on your waistline? Do you find yourself fighting a losing battle with your weight? Then, it’s more than likely, that you have been getting one or all of the fat loss principles, wrong!

To possess a lean, muscular & graceful body is a dream most of us share. But only a few go on to develop & enjoy that perfectly sculpted, enviable body. What is it then, which prevents you from reaching your goal, even when you have tried so hard? Read on to find out the correct & healthy way to get rid of that fat, forever!

1. Eat on Time
Eat small meals, several times in the day. It is important to have your meals at a fixed time everyday, so that your body gets all the supply of nutrients it needs. This allows your body to let go of the fat stores, since it is getting a regular supply of calories & nutrients from your meals. Ideally, you should be having around 6 to 8 meals in a day.

2. Watch what you eat
Your diet should supply you with proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins & minerals. Make sure you have enough fruits & vegetables to take care of your nutritional requirement. Also, include protein sources such as white meat, eggs & pulses on a daily basis. Avoid oily food products completely. This includes most packaged snacks. The excess sugar in ice-creams, cakes & pastries is converted into fat. So stay away from them!

3. Aerobic workouts
Aerobics is any exercise which increases the body’s uptake of oxygen over a period of time. Aerobic workouts include cycling, swimming, running, dancing & brisk walking. This form of exercise activity is believed to be the most effective way of burning out calories. In combination with a customized diet program, your body should rid itself of the excess fat in no time.

4. Strength Training
Strength training is the best way to both tone up your muscles & also increase your metabolic rate. The exercised muscles demand energy supply long after the exercise session, leading to an effective usage of the stored fat.

Most of all, approach weight loss & fitness with dedication & discipline. There are no shortcuts to achieving your goals. Enjoy this process of becoming a healthier & happier person. Happy exercising!

Many Internet marketing tips on the Internet give you information on copywriting for your website. But how many of them tell you the primary things you should be focusing on if you hope to be successful? I’m pretty sure most of them don’t. In this article I’m going to give you a few Internet marketing tips to help you start creating better copywriting so that your customers take you more seriously.

To begin, your copywriting should focus on the subject line. The subject line is key, especially seeing as how the subject line is the most visible and often the only attribute of an e-mail or a piece of content that a reader uses to make the all-important decision to either read or not read. How many pieces of content have you read that had crappy headlines? You must keep this in mind when you are creating content or e-mails to send to your list.

Your copywriting should also focus on pulling in customers, meaning once you have enticed the customer to open the e-mail or to read your content you need to engage them even more. This is one of the best Internet marketing tips I can give you. By pulling in your potential readers and customers more you get them so focused on what you’re saying that they want to read more. And they will follow whatever you say in order to read more.

The last thing you need to focus on is not killing the enthusiasm or interest of your readers. This means you need to get to the point as quickly as possible, and be upfront to get the reader’s attention and maintain it. When people are reading your content or the e-mails you send them they want to know what you have to say immediately. By getting to the point right away you don’t risk losing a possible sale.

As long as your copywriting focuses on what I’ve mentioned in this article then you shouldn’t have any problem generating leads and ultimately sales. What I’ve mentioned in this article is very valuable when it comes to Internet marketing tips. Remember to focus your copywriting on the subject line, along with creating copywriting that pulls in customers, and lastly focus on not killing their enthusiasm.

When you focus on these three things your copywriting will become almost magnetic in nature, and no further convincing on your part will need to be done. All you need to do is offer a little bit of interaction in order to clinch the relationship.

It’s not news that video is at the forefront of marketing these days.

From creating videos for your website to hosting Facebook Live sessions, this marketing tool has transformed from a nice-to-have to a must-have if you want to effectively engage with your audience and build a loyal following who will be more apt to purchase from you.

Video-based marketing is a great way to stand out from the multiple messages people get in their inboxes every day, not to mention how effective it is on social media.

This article focuses on using video in your email marketing. Keep reading for the technical parts of utilizing video in your email marketing and the creative aspect for some inspiration.

I’ve talked about using video many times in the past, but in case you’re still not convinced or didn’t think to use video in your email marketing efforts, it’s time to pay close attention. According to a study done by SuperOffice, including video in emails led to open rate increases of six percent (the average open rate across industries is about 25 percent).

Some other benefits of video marketing:

• It saves time. You can create short, engaging pieces of video much more quickly than it will take you to write an 800-word blog. It also gives info to your viewer in an easy-to-understand way.

• It can help SEO. Your Google search ranking can improve if your footage is viewed and shared by enough people.

• It’s cost-effective. You don’t need CGI effects or animation to make something great. A video can be much more affordable to produce than a blog or ad.

• It grabs attention. Especially when added into your newsletter, a video captures your audience’s attention and compels them to want to watch.

First, the Technical Part of Video Email Marketing

Before you start brainstorming ways to use video in email, you need to know how it plays in different email clients.

There are over 30 major email clients, including Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail and Yahoo Mail, and some of them don’t support the requirements for using email with video.

Traditionally, marketers would use HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language) to code HTML video directly into an email, but recipients with certain email clients aren’t able to play it. Many popular email providers will only show a fallback image, and your marketing message will be lost in the crowd.

Fortunately, some of the popular services like MailChimp, Constant Contact and AWeber make it easy to share across all providers by using a screen capture image of your video and linking it to your original content on your blog, YouTube, Vimeo or similar sites.

This gives the appearance there’s actually video in your email and avoids technical issues with your email provider.

Instead of having to learn HTML5, there are also 3rd party services that can create a video snippet for you to include right in the body of your newsletter. In fact, I did this in a recent newsletter of ours!

Check out Playable to embed a short video in your next newsletter. Playable will replace the video with an image of your choice if the email service provider doesn’t support the video technology.

>> Learn more about the features of our favourite email providers.

No matter what eNewsletter tool you use, it’s crucial to test your campaign before you send it out. You’ll need to have accounts on all of the popular email platforms so that you can see how your footage works in each of them.

Sound like a lot of work? Trust a professional marketing company that’s been helping clients create successful eNewsletter campaigns since 2003.

Next, Make Sure You’re Mobile

According to Hubspot, mobile opens accounted for 46 percent of all email opens. That means you have to ensure you’re keeping smartphones in mind when you’re email marketing with video.

Fortunately, eNewsletter providers such as MailChimp and Constant Contact let you test and see how your messaging will look before you send it out.

It’s still important to keep the file size as low as possible so the video doesn’t need to buffer to start playing. Mobile devices don’t have the fastest download speed.

A good tip is to take a 10 second snippet of your video to use in the newsletter. That snippet can then link to the full feature on your blog.

Also, always make sure autoplay is off, especially on mobile. Most people don’t appreciate having something start playing (often noisily) as they sit in the office or on a bus; they prefer to click on Play themselves.

Now, On to the Creative Part

With the technical stuff out of the way, let’s look at how you can actually create content that will engage your viewers and get you more visitors to your website.

You need a plan with clear objectives or else you’re just sending content out into the world and hoping it will be seen and loved.

Why are you creating this campaign? To generate leads, brand awareness, followers… ?

Once you’ve identified your objectives and goals, you can start thinking about actual email, and the content you want to produce.

As mentioned, host the full-length video in a blog post, landing page or even on social media and then plan to incorporate a “sneak peak” of that video in your email marketing campaign, linking to the full-length version.

Here are six tips and inspiration to get you started:

1. Use the word “video” in your subject line to make your message stands out.

2. Promote an event. Let’s use a law office as an example. We created a short video using Wave.Video for one our clients, A Family Law Firm, to promote an upcoming seminar they were hosting.

3. Offer tips. When it comes to email marketing with video, users want short, digestible clips. A “Top 5″ or “4 ways to improve” will get more attention than a 2-minute creation of you trying to explain a product.

4. Create a series. This is a great way to keep people engaged with your expertise, as long as what you’re providing is valuable to them. Stay away from a five-part series on your latest offering. Instead, solve a problem.

Using the law firm video marketing again as an example, you could set up a list-building campaign and do a four-part video series on ways to prepare for a separation or divorce:

• Part 1: DIY or hire a lawyer?

• Part 2: Filing the necessary paperwork

• Part 3: Dividing assets

• Part 4: Supporting your children

5. Make tutorials. Your product or service solves a problem, so how can you showcase this to your clients? Educate your viewers with a short explanation around how your product or service will improve their lives, using real-world examples.

6. Think outside the box. Now, we don’t all have the budget outdoor company Patagonia does; however, look at how they’ve integrated amazing footage into their email campaigns. It doesn’t focus on their surfing gear, but it’s relevant to their customers.

Whether you’re a life coach shooting some footage while you’re on vacation or a wellness provider offering viewers a glimpse of your dinner prep process, get creative and get shooting!

Email marketing with video can be incredibly powerful, increasing your open rates, engagement, leads and sales substantially.

However, not every email should contain one. If you start using this marketing tactic every time you send out an eNewsletter to your subscribers, they’ll stop paying attention. Think of it as one way to stand out from the crowd, but don’t neglect your other tactics.

Crafting an eNewsletter campaign with video (or without), choosing the right email provider, testing and monitoring open rates and engagement is a tough job. And, it needs to be done well or else you’ll end up alienating and losing subscribers.

Getting into a car accident can be one of the most stressful events in life, no matter how light the damage. Dealing with insurance companies, understanding consumer rights and selecting a body shop for collision repair can be overwhelming. The situation is even harder when insurance companies disguise the truth and even try to get customers to choose their preferred repair shops.

Choice of a Shop in Nevada

Under Nevada law, the owner of the car has the right to select the auto body shop of their choice to carry out any collision repair. The car is the legal possession of the owner, not the insurance company. No company or policy can decide where it will be repaired. Unfortunately, many insurance companies tell customers they must use a list of pre-approved or recommended shops. A consumer who knows their rights is at an advantage and can select a body shop they know and trust.

Responsibility of Costs

No matter which auto body shop is selected, it is important to understand who is responsible for paying the bill. Of course the cost of repairs must be paid to the shop. The owner of the vehicle must pay the total cost of repairs. If the owner has insurance, the insurance provider must then repay the owner for the loss they have suffered. The amount paid to the vehicle owner takes into account the cost of repairs, minus any deductible on the policy and lost value.

What the Insurance Company Must Do

All insurance policies in the state of Nevada must conform to the law. This means every policy is required to restore a vehicle’s appearance, value, safety and function. In Nevada, when a vehicle is hit by someone with insurance, the car owner is entitled to payment for the loss of value. Many shops can help a customer send documentation of diminished value to the insurance company, which is used to award compensation. No matter which shop the owner chooses for collision repair, the insurance provider must restore the vehicle to its previous state.

False Insurance Company Claims

Many insurance companies use false claims to make customers select one of their preferred auto repair shops. One popular claim is that the customer is required to use a body shop from a pre-approved list. This is false and not what the law says. Some insurance providers tell customers they can have the vehicle repaired at a better price elsewhere. There is no financial benefit to the customer if the insurance company uses a cheaper auto body shop. Other insurance companies tell customers they can have the vehicle repaired faster at one of their preferred shops. However, quality work takes time and there is no way for the insurance provider to guarantee the speed of collision repair at their body shop.

It’s important for every consumer to know their rights when they are in an accident and need auto repair. According to Nevada law, only the owner of the vehicle can decide where the car will be repaired. No insurance provider or company can tell a consumer which shop to select. While some insurance companies make false claims to save money, an educated consumer will choose their own trusted shop for collision repair.