Facebook Marketing Mania Become The Next Social Media Mogul By Mastering Facebook Marketing

Before there was Facebook™, there were other online social networking sites such Friendster™, MySpace™ and Hi5™. Social networking sites were the next hot thing in the web 2.0 era, where not only could people pour out tons of user generated content with ease, they could share it with their “friends” or online social contacts.

MONEY TRICKY TRICKS : FREE DOWNLOAD EBOOK FACEBOOK MARKETING MANIA

If Facebook was a country, it would be the 3rd largest country in the world right after China and India. 

That is how fast Facebook is growing and is the most visited website on the planet.

If you do not tap into this massive source of traffic immediately, you would potentially be missing out of tons 

of new leads and traffic for your business.

MONEY TRICKY TRICKS : BANKRUPTCY, THE VERY LAST RESORT (AND HOW TO AVOID IT)

Depending in which country of the United Kingdom you live in the procedures and implications of bankruptcy vary. In Scotland it is a fairly straightforward process whereas in England and Wales the procedure is much more complicated. In Northern Ireland the process is different again.

Although personal bankruptcy is possible in England in Wales it is seldom used because of its complex nature. If you have debts arising from running a business, rather than personal debts, it is quite possible that you will be forced into bankruptcy, but that is a whole different situation and is outwith the scope of this guide where only personal debts are considered.

In England and Wales instead of bankruptcy, it is more usual to enter into an Individual Voluntary Agreement. This is a process where the debtor agrees to allow the court to appoint a supervisor who will take charge of the case and see that creditors are dealt with equitably. If it becomes necessary for goods to be seized and sold, the supervisor will divide the proceeds between creditors, after court fees have been paid.

If it is possible to avoid going as far as an IVA you can have the court issue an Administration Order. Here an administrator will take a monthly payment from you and distribute it to your creditors. This process will save you from having any of your property seized provided that you can keep up the monthly payments to the court. If you are being taken to court by one or more creditors, you may wish to consider this option.

The Bankruptcy (Scotland) act (1985) has as its main provision that once debt exceeds £750, either the creditor or debtor (or both) can petition the control and distribution of the debtor's assets by a trustee. This will involve no new actions against the debtor and liabilities will be discharged after three years.

Debt recovery in Northern Ireland is regulated by the Payments for Debts Act (1971) and the Judgements Enforcement Act (1969). The former allows deductions from any statutory benefit for any statutory debt. You can have money deducted at source from wages or state benefits to pay your creditors.

The Judgements Enforcement Act provides for an enforcements office (EJO) to which creditors apply once they have a judgement from the courts. Once the debtor's case is accepted the EJO interacts with the debtor and decides the appropriate methods of recovery. Where the debtor has insufficient means, a certificate of unenforceability can be issued. This is technically the same as bankruptcy.

If you are forced into, or decide voluntarily to apply for, bankruptcy, all your disposable assets, with the exception of some basic necessities such as a bed, clothing, tools of your trade, cutlery, crockery, etc., will be seized and sold at auction to raise funds towards payment of your debts.

If you are forced into bankruptcy anywhere in the UK, your debts are automatically discharged after 3 years and you can start with a 'clean slate'. The exceptions to this are :

Secured creditors, where, if your home has been sold you are liable for any shortfall between the selling price and the amount you owe. You are also liable for interest until the debt has been discharged.

Fines, maintenance orders and family court orders.

Claims made against you for causing personal injury.

Debts incurred through fraud.

Any matter upon which the trustee is still working.

If you own your own home it is possible that you can keep this. Largely this will depend on the equity of the property. If the home is valued at much more than you owe to the mortgage company, you may be forced to sell to release the equity. If there is little or no equity, or indeed negative equity, on the home then, providing that you continue to make mortgage payments, there is every chance that you will not be forced to sell. It is only the case where there is equity tied up in your property that anyone other than your mortgage lender can force a sale anyway.

If you are unemployed and have your mortgage interest payments made directly by the DSS, and your house value is around the same as the outstanding mortgage it is unlikely that you will be forced to sell. One problem which you may have in this situation is that the endowment policy for your home (interest only endowment mortgages) will still need to be paid and the DSS will not offer assistance with it.

If you are in rented accommodation you may have a lease which states that a bankrupt is not allowed to be a tenant and your landlord could force an eviction if this were the case. Also, even if there is no mention in the lease of bankrupt tenants being disallowed, your landlord may force you out because he feels it will be impossible to recover rent arrears from a bankrupt. In this case you will have to apply for specialist housing advice. See your local council housing department about this.

Anyone who is bankrupt will not be allowed (until after discharge) to have credit of more than £250 - you will find it almost impossible to get any credit at all though.

You should try and keep a bank account because as a bankrupt you will be unlikely to even be able to open one of these.

Although the debts are discharged after three years you may well find it almost impossible to get any kind of credit for a period of six years after the issue of the bankruptcy order, because this is the period of time that the credit reference agencies will keep your details on file.

So, all in all, particularly in England & Wales, bankruptcy is best avoided if at all possible. If you closely follow the advice given in this guide then you should be able to avoid bankruptcy. Even your creditors will not want to force you into bankruptcy in all but the most unusual of cases. They are fully aware that if you become bankrupt they are unlikely to get anything but a very small percentage of what is owed to them and are much more inclined to accept reduced payments, particularly in the hope that your situation will improve.

MONEY TRICKY TRICKS : PROFESSIONAL HELP

When you're in serious debt and worried about it, this guide should help a great deal. Possibly you will find enough information in this guide to help you to solve all your debt problems.

However, in some cases you may need further information, particularly regarding your legal position if things really have been left so late that the situation seems totally unmanageable. In this case you might want to contact a debt councillor, a solicitor or even, if you are being forced into bankruptcy, an insolvency practitioner.

Advice about how to manage debts is available from all Citizens Advice Bureaux. The advice they give is free. You can find the closest one to you by looking in your telephone directory. The name and address of their head office is given in Section Fifteen.

If you need to consult a solicitor you should try and find one who offers legal aid and ask if you are entitled to this free service. Your entitlement will depend on your circumstances.

If you are being forced into bankruptcy then you may wish to consult an insolvency practitioner. The fees for this will be relatively high, but they will not expect you to pay them directly. They will be paid from the liquidation of your assets.

You can telephone the National Debtline on 0121 359 8501 for free confidential information and advice. Their telephone lines are staffed on Monday and Thursday between 10a.m. and 4p.m. and on Tuesday and Wednesday between 2p.m. and 7p.m. If you call outwith these times your call will be answered by an answering machine.

There are a few Money Advice Centres around the country - if you have one near you your Citizens Advice Bureau will advise, or you can find them in the phone book. The advice offered by these centres is free of charge and, because they specialise in advising people about money matters, if there is one which you can visit it is a better bet than your CAB.

MONEY TRICKY TRICKS : WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE?

Once you have made arrangements to pay debts at a small fraction of the original instalments, whether through a court or directly with your creditors or debt collection agencies, and have made payments over a period of time, it is worth considering making an offer for full and final settlement.

If you are paying only a tiny portion of the original instalment and your creditor knows that the debt will take years to clear, they will often accept a small portion of the total amount outstanding to fully discharge the debt.

MONEY TRICKY TRICKS : WHAT'S THE WORST THAT CAN HAPPEN?

If you were to have had unmanageable debts in the Victorian era then you could have ended up in a debtors prison. Thankfully there are no debtors prisons any more. Unfortunately in this country there is still a great deal of stigma attached to having debt problems.

However, as already stated earlier, there are so many millions of people with debt problems today that it is really quite surprising that, apart from the real worry that having debt problems can cause, this is further compounded by being embarrassed or even ashamed of the situation. Don't be - being in debt is not a criminal offence - and whatever problems it causes, these can always be overcome with determination and effort.

MONEY TRICKY TRICKS : ARE YOUR ENTITLED TO HELP FROM THE STATE?

If you become unemployed and have no other source of income then you will be entitled to a range of benefits from the state to help you deal with the hardship of having no salary or wage.

Because the range of benefits available, from a variety of sources, is vast and because legislation changes with great frequency it is pointless to attempt to give detailed advice about what is available and what you may be entitled to.