Advertising-The Best Marketing Tip

The best marketing tip you will ever hear is to advertise your product or business. In fact, any marketing tip you hear or see will be related to some form of advertising. In this article, we will go over several marketing tips and the reason you should use them.
One great marketing tip is to use an auto responder. Autoresponders automatically send out emails to people on your mailing lists or to people who have been to your website. You can then send out advertisements of your business or service. This is a great marketing tip because it is often inexpensive and sometimes free to use an autoresponder.
A second marketing tip you may enjoy is the use of slogans or logos. This is an excellent marketing tip. People will always remember a clever logo or slogan. Many people find it best to use a funny slogan because it brings people happy thoughts when they think of your business. Try to think one up.
A third great marketing tip is to put your URL everywhere. Get yourself noticed. Put your ULR all over your site, in your autoresponder emails, hand out flyers, business cards, etc. This is always beneficial.
The next great marketing tip I have for you is to use an SEO. An SEO (search engine optimization) enables your website to be listed at the top of search engine lists. SEO uses keyword and link popularity to maximize this result. This leads to more visitors to your sight and more profit. Again, this is another great marketing tip.
Another great marketing tip is your web design. A great web design can attract more people to your site, and keep them coming back. In addition, another similar marketing tip is to use flash pictures to get attention. Or, another marketing tip is to use eye catching photographs or illustrations or your product or service. This will attract more attention as well.
My favorite marketing tip is to use testimonials and offer feedback to customers. This marketing tip is a must for anyone who wants to show positive feedback of their business. A similar marketing tip is to post these positive testimonials on your site or to send them out in your autoresponder.
Lastly, a great marketing tip is to keep your domain name simple and easy to remember. People can't find your sight if they can't remember it, let alone if they can't spell it. A catchy domain name is always helpful.
For another good marketing tip, try asking fellow business owners. I'm sure they will have a marketing tip or two to aid you. You can then make some friends in the business circle and swap ideas. Eventually it will all lead you to a successful and promising business.

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By Jay Moncliff

Jay Moncliff is the founder of http://www.marketing-eficaz.net a website specialized on Marketing, resources and articles. This site provides updated information on Marketing. For more info visit his site: Marketing

Warning: Objects Within Your Browser Window Are Smaller Than They Appear!

Is your internet window showing objects (companies) that seem larger than they appear? I think so. The Internet not only has allowed us to market to the world but it also has allowed many companies to hide their true nature and size.
Some Consumers Want To Work With Large Companies:
Many companies out there try to make themselves seem larger than they appear and sometimes they do this on purpose. There are consumers out there that feel more comfortable going with established companies that have a team of employees and (apparently) have more responsibilities to their employees and clients.
Other Consumers Would Rather Work With Smaller Companies:
Then there are other consumers out there that can't stand working with big companies and would rather work with the little guys who treat every customer like they're family.
The problem lies with the misconception about how large or how small your company really is. See, if you give an appearance online that you're a massive company when you're not, this might actually backfire on you once people call for your products or services. People don't like to be misled in any way, shape, or form.
Smartads has 5 people involved with us on a daily basis. We are not a team of 1 but at the same time, we aren't a monster company either. Our contact pages reflect this as well.
Do You Have 10 Email Accounts Online That All Go To One?
It's when you go through a companies contact page and they have an entire directory of emails listed for different departments that ALL, and I mean all go to the same person. It would look something like this....
For customer support email: support@bogussite.dumbFor technical support email: techies@bogussite.dumbFor advertising email: ads@youknowwhat.comFor general inquiries, don't even bother!
See where I am going with this? I can understand if you like to separate your email accounts because of the volume coming in but, ironically, if you list over 5 "live" email accounts on your contact page, I'll bet you're getting a ton of spam as well!
Exploit Your Size To Appeal To The Right Clients:
Don't try to hide your company’s size just because you're a small business enterprise; exploit it to those who are looking to do business with specifically smaller companies. I can understand if you have the need to separate your email accounts, try having an online form that responds to a drop down menu which in turn sends the emails to different accounts on it's own.
If you don't like the fact that your business is a one-man band, hire someone to answer your calls for you. In fact, try out someone at home (family or roommate). They are a lot cheaper anyway. At least you can free up some time, and seem more professional from a client’s point of view.
The whole Point Is This...
Just because we can hide behind our computer's to attract better, larger fish, it doesn't really mean we actually need to. You might hurt your business more if you try to "act as if" or promise to make something work which you know you don't have the resources for.
Raise Your Prices To Make More Money, Don't Raise Your Curb Appeal:
You don't need to look big in order to attract more money, sometimes the simpler answer works better. Try raising your prices to see whether or not this will actually deter consumers (Yes, there is a risk) but, if you try to appear larger than you actually are, you're already risking a great deal.
Be true to your business and you will attract clients that are true to you. "Thoughts are things" really takes affect online because consumers can't relate on an emotional level, they can only compute what they read and what they see. If your website gives consumers a false statement, your business will not profit from this method of promotion, but will only be hindered from your mistakes.

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By Martin Lemieux

Martin Lemieux is the owner of Smartads and is an internet marketing expert who helps companies to market their business online and offline.
Smartads Internet Marketing http://www.smartads.info NEW LOOK! Pay Per Click Search: http://www.smartadsearch.com
You may reprint this article ONLY if you keep the ENTIRE article the same, including the author resource box!

Mortgage Leads, Junk vs. Real Time

If you are a loan officer or mortgage broker and you are on the market for mortgage leads, you may want to research the companies you are considering to determine exactly what kind of leads you will be receiving. Not to mention, where they are coming from.
A junk lead is classified as a lead that is old or recycled by many loan officers and many lead companies. It may come cheap, but chances are, it won’t be worth the two dollars you spent on it.
A real time lead is a lead that is considered fresh. Meaning, you will receive it on the same day the applicant fills out the on-line form. If the lead is any older than a day, it can hardly be considered real time.
When researching mortgage lead companies, be sure to find out where the mortgage lead company is obtaining their leads from.
If they obtain them from web sites they own and operate themselves, where they are directing potential clients to fill out on-line forms, you can safely assume that you will be receiving fresh, real time leads.
If the customer service rep for the mortgage lead company you are considering starts dodging your questions, than you can safely assume that the leads are not fresh.
This is not to say that the lead company does not have good leads to offer, but it would be wise on your part to find out exactly where the leads are coming from to be sure you are getting the best quality leads for your money.
In the end, it all depends on what you are looking for. Quality or quantity.
Quantity will most likely get you hang ups and answers such as “ I closed that loan weeks ago,” or “I filled out that application months ago.” If you are tired of these scenarios, you should definitely consider going with quality mortgage leads, otherwise known as real time mortgage leads, it just might be worth your while. Best of luck.

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By Jay Conners

Jay Conners has more than fifteen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry, He is the owner of http://www.jconners.com, a mortgage resource site, he is also the owner of http://www.callprospect.com, a mortgage lead company.

Why Should You Outsource Your Sales Lead Generation?

The answer is simple….. It makes good business sense to do so!
An outsourcing partnership with a 'good' lead generation and appointment setting supplier is more effective at getting the quality and quantity of leads you need and in the long run costs considerably less than doing it in house. Here's why:
1. Delivering results.
No matter how many times you tell them, most salespeople don't do enough prospecting to keep their pipelines full. They frequently don't enjoy cold calling and would far rather be negotiating or closing a deal. This is a sweeping generalisation but it holds true in many organisations. By outsourcing you are assured of a steady stream of new prospects.
2. Turning a fixed cost into a variable cost.
Handling your own telemarketing means building and maintaining your own telemarketing team with the necessary human, financial and technical capabilities needed to do the job properly. This brings with it a high fixed cost. By outsourcing you turn this fixed cost into a variable and scalable cost - you pay only for hours worked on your campaign (no vacation, holidays, sick days, etc.) and you can increase activity or turn it off easily.
3. Removing the opportunity cost of 'non-core' activity.
If running a lead generation telemarketing team is not your core business, the real and intangible costs of doing so may be the most decisive expense of all. You will be diverting key personnel and capital to the establishment, maintenance and management of this part of your business. This will dilute their contribution to the core business!
4. Removing the people management issues.
Advertising, Interviewing, hiring and managing an in-house lead generation team takes time and money. You have to recruit, train and manage this team. Outsourcing removes these issues and you don't have to worry about staff turnover. Losing a trained team member can impact the effectiveness of your entire campaign and cost you greatly in missed opportunities. By outsourcing you won't jeopardize your campaign, or incur the cost of retraining.
5. Working with specialists.
For an outsourced lead generation company their whole business proposition is based around their ability to use the phone to get results - they can't afford to get it wrong!
6. No business is 'too' complex to outsource!
Many companies argue that their business is too complex to outsource. They fear that an outsourced partner will not understand their business well enough to deliver a complex sales message. An effective outsourced partner will build trust by spending the time and energy on training their team to understand your business and they will ensure that you have the necessary reassurance over quality control. The outsourced lead generation team effectively becomes an extension of your sales team.

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By Mark Brewerton

Mark Brewerton is responsible for marketing at Broadley Speaking. We provide a full range of business-to-business (B2B) outbound telemarketing, telesales, sales development, appointment setting and lead generation services for our clients. In addition to our telemarketing and telesales services, where our clients want us to help them further, we also provide sales and marketing consultancy services to support the development and implementation of their sales and marketing strategy. For some of our clients, based on our own extensive experience of effective sales, we also provide sales training for their own internal sales teams. Contact us to see how our intelligent sales approach could work for you on 01822 618537 or by email to info@broadley-speaking.com or visit our website at http://www.broadley-speaking.com

Role Behavior in Highly-Effective Teams

Does the behavior that makes individuals successful in their jobs provide the same degree of success in a team? The answer is frequently and sometimes surprisingly, no. On the other hand, successful people often adapt their behavior to different situations.
It makes sense that a person who performs well in their job exhibits behaviors in that job that would make them successful. Because they're successful, their behavioral style effectively gets reinforced over time. If it becomes their natural behavioral style, they may carry over certain behaviors into their team work which can be a source of conflict for other team members.
Let's look at an example of this. In this example, Mark has responsibility for the production line in a division of a major corporation. Through coaching, a role behavior instrument, a DISC profile, and a comparison tool, Mark was able to see there was a pretty good fit between the ideal role behavior regardless of the person in the role and his behavior in this role.
On the job, Mark's very high Dominance dimension of behavior is useful to his role as manager of the production line. Mark has a bit of a gap in his Influence dimension, but this is less important when it occurs in the lower three segments of the instruments.
At the division's management team meetings, Mark was exhibiting a similar behavioral style that he uses on the production line, a style that was reducing his effectiveness in the meetings. Once again, the role behavior instrument was used to define the ideal role behavior for a team member based on the team's purpose and goals.
In the comparison, Mark could see his very high Dominance dimension of behavior was not as useful to his role as a member of the management team. When Mark agreed with the analysis, he could begin developing new behaviors in the Influence and Conscientiousness dimensions and redirect some of his behaviors in the Dominance dimension for his work on the management team.
The comparison described specific behaviors that apply to each dimension and where a gap exists. Mark could then prioritize the behaviors he wanted to work on and develop an action plan. Mark didn't have to change who he is, he just had to learn to stretch a bit to be more effective on the team. Mark now contributes in a manner that fits better with what's required of the team.

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By Russ Pratt

Russ Pratt is a consultant, coach and trainer that promotes effective communication and building highly-effective teams. A DISC profile can be used to help team members understand their own behavior, learn how and when to adapt their behavior, improve communication, promote appreciation of differences, enhance individual and team performance, and reduce conflict. Visit http://www.momentumcoaching.com to learn more about using DISC in your organization and building highly-effective teams.

What is Graphic Design?

What is Graphic Design?
Graphic Design refers to a specialized area of the Visual Arts. Generally, Graphic Design is considered to be for commercial, advertising or educational purposes. It involves the enhancing of a product, service or information by designing a pleasing visual or set of visuals.
Traditionally, Graphic Design has included both the creative preparation and execution of materials in the areas of: Logo Design, Corporate Identity, Brochure Design, Photo Retouching, Charts/Graphs/Diagrams, and other printed materials. Graphic Design can also include the preparation of 35mm Slide Presentations, Television Advertisements, Multi-Media Presentations, and other Visual Aids.
Today, the term Graphic Design also includes the rapidly expanded Web Design market. While a Graphic Designer may certainly specialize in one area, it is common to find designers with applicable knowledge is more than one discipline. A Graphic Designer may be expected to design entire websites, edit photos for both print and web use, and design printed materials which also have web applications.
Most of us are surrounded by Graphic Design work daily without even realizing it. Many of the web sites you visit involve the efforts of a Graphic Designer. Advertising Agencies employ many Graphic Designers to prepare the ads you see on television. And here are some more signs of Graphic Designers on the scene: the signage you see in front of businesses; the menu at last night's restaurant; the morning newspaper; the brochures at the doctor's office; all those greeting cards at the store; and yes (unfortunately!) -- all that junk mail you receive.
In the past, a Graphic Designer could rely on predominately right- brain tendencies of being a "Creative" type. These days, a Graphic Designer needs to have a "balanced brain" in order to be successful. In the last two decades, knowledge of computers and increasingly powerful graphic software programs has become a requirement to accomplish the work of a Graphic Designer. One must not only be "Creative," but also possess the "Logic" skills to pilot numerous software programs, trouble shoot computing issues, etc.
Graphic Design is a highly rewarding career. Not only does it challenge an individual mentally, it also offers the opportunity to network with a wide variety of professionals in numerous fields. Graphic Design is also a great Work At Home opportunity. Once one is established (education, contacts, etc.), a Home Office can be the perfect option. Incomes vary and are dependant on a number of factors, including: area(s) of expertise, years of experience, business contacts, etc.

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By Kelli Swan

Artist and Graphic Designer Kelli Swan specializes in black and white Pencil Drawings and Graphic Design Services. Her artwork is available through pencilplace.com She also has many Horse Lover Gifts and Dog Lover Gifts in her online Store: cafepress.com/ kelliswan Kelli's Graphic Design Services are listed at %20She%20offers%20her%20Gift%20Ideas%20through%20

Six Sigma Tools

Statistics are at the heart of Six Sigma’s powerful methodology for quality improvement. It pays to get to know some of the most important of the Six Sigma statistical tools.
Control Charts
The control chart is the fundamental tool of statistical process control; a proven technique for improving productivity. It monitors the variation of key characteristics and indicates the range of variability that is built into a system. Control charts provide diagnostic information about process capability that can be used to analyze variation in process data to demonstrate whether a process is operating consistently. The bounds of the control chart are marked by upper and lower control limits that are calculated by applying statistical formulas to data from the process. Data points that fall outside these bounds represent variations due to irregular causes, which can then be identified and eliminated. Control charts are effective in defect prevention and will help ensure that your process performs consistently. From them, you can, in a precise manner, monitor, control, and improve on process performance over time. This will allow you to be able to predict fluctuations, lower costs and ensure the process has a higher effective capacity.
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
FMEA is a powerful structured approach that helps you to identify and counter weak points in the early conception phase of products and processes. Using FMEA allows you to analyze any system or subsystem in manufacturing or service industries in the early stages of the process. This systematic methodology identifies potential failure modes in a system caused by either design or process deficiencies. It also identifies critical or significant design or process characteristics that require special controls to prevent or detect failure modes. FMEA improves the quality of products and services and processes by preventing problems from occurring. It documents and tracks action taken to reduce risk while it integrates with the DMAIC methodology.
Histogram
A histogram is used to graphically summarize the distribution of a data set. A histogram is constructed by dividing the range of data into equally sized segments. This data tool enables you to quickly and easily answer several important questions: what distribution does the data have? What is the most common system response? Is the data symmetric or does it contain outliers?
Pareto Chart
A pareto chart is used to graphically summarize the relative importance of the differences between groups of data. A pareto chart is constructed by dividing the range of data into groups. The vertical axis of the pareto chart is the cumulative percentage, and the horizontal axis of the pareto chart is the groups of response variables. Unlike the histogram, the pareto chart is ordered in descending frequency magnitude. The Pareto Chart allows you to focus your efforts to achieve the greatest improvements by identifying the largest issues facing the process. It identifies the 20% of sources that are causing 80% of the problems.

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By Peter Peterka

Peter Peterka is President of Six Sigma us. For additional information on Six Sigma Black Belt or Minitab programs contact Peter Peterka at http://www.6sigma.us He is the Principal Consultant in practice areas of DMAIC and DFSS. Peter has eleven years of experience performing as a Master Black Belt, and has over 15 years experience in industry as an improvement specialist and engineer working with numerous companies, including 3M, Dell, Dow, GE, HP, Intel, Motorola, Seagate, Xerox and even the US Men's Olympic Team. For partial list look here. Peter is a certified a Master Black Belt and holds an MS degree in Statistics from Iowa State and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue. Peter worked for 3M over 10 years where he gained extensive experience applying Sigma Methodologies to a variety of processes.
Peter has successfully developed Six Sigma deployment strategies and training for Product and Process Development, Manufacturing and Business Process Improvement. His broad experience across many technologies helped him gain insight on how to apply Six Sigma methods to Business Processes.

The Power of Two - Marketing and Sales

Leads: Salespeople need them, and Marketing Departments (theoretically) generate them. In a perfect world, the salesperson's challenge would be to keep up with the flood of qualified prospects that Marketing funnels out to them.
In reality, however, the Marketing-Sales lead scenario often plays out like this:
"We work our tails to the bone getting the salespeople leads, but they hardly ever follow-up with the prospects, and we never hear about it if they do," lamented Andy, the Marketing Manager, during a recent training program.
"They give us loads of leads," agreed salesperson Bert, "but they're no damn good. Then, they want a full report on each of them about what transpired within a week after we get the leads. I'd rather do without leads than do all of that useless work."
What's going on here? Who's right - Bert, or Andy - Sales, or Marketing?
In many companies, the Marketing and Sales departments work at cross purposes, rather than bolstering each other's efforts. Each department is communicating different messages to different people.
The result? When Bert follows up on Marketing Department-generated leads, "...almost all of them indicate that they don't know if they will ever be genuine prospects," said Bert. "Yet, some of them try to get me to visit them, because they are 'really interested' in our products. If I waste time on low probability prospects, I won't be able to spend my time with prospects that are ready to buy or specify our products now."
Bert knows that a real prospect is someone who is ready, able, and willing to buy his capital equipment product- now. Following up with 'interested' prospects would be a waste of time. The need to justify his reluctance to pursue low probability prospects to Marketing, and his manager, wastes yet more time and causes unnecessary friction.
Marketing and Sales should be working together towards a common defined objective. Marketing creates Brand Awareness and communicates Product Knowledge to the market, generating Acceptance among target companies. Sales contacts the individuals at targeted companies responsible for Specifying and Buying its products.
The breakdown between Marketing and Sales occurs when the Sales cycle is left out of the equation. Sales should be consulted before marketing communications are sent out: Messages need to be targeted appropriately to different levels of Decision Makers who are at different stages in the Sales Cycle. Lead generation needs to qualify the prospects, and those not ready to buy should be entered into the Company database and receive continuous marketing messages.
Ideally, Andy and Bert would be working together to define and refine the Company's target markets and target Companies. They would work together to develop a detailed database of individuals at target companies who influence, specify, and authorize Buying for their products and services. Andy's Marketing Department would generate the universe of prospects, and Bert wouldn't be expected to contact a prospect until Marketing had determined that the targeted company had entered the Specifying or Buying mode.
When good things happen, Sales and Marketing should both be able to rightfully claim that it was due to their efforts and expertise. That's the Power of 2.
©Jacques Werth, High Probability® Selling - All rights reserved.

_______________________________

By Jacques Werth

Jacques Werth, author of "High Probability Selling," is an internationally respected Sales Trainer and Sales Consultant. HPS graduates are excelling as Top Producers in over 70 industries. Visit http://www.highprobsell.com to read more articles, preview the book, and learn more about High Probability Selling.

5 Training Tips for Sales Managers

How do you get your sales team solidly behind your telephone sales campaign and telephone sales goals?
Here are 5 Training Tips for Sales Managers:
1. Identify your goals
• Identify the goal of your telephone sales campaign.
• Identify the goal of every telephone call your team will make. (These may differ from your overall campaign goals.)
• Know the difference between your campaign goals and your individual telephone call goals. (For example, if your team is making calls to set new business appointments, the goal of the call is the appointment. The goal of the overall campaign is to gain new customers.)
2. Communicate your goals
• Make sure that your sales team understands your campaign goals.
• Make sure that your sales team understands the goal of every individual call.
• Make sure that your sales team knows and understands the difference between the campaign goals and the goals for individual telephone calls.
3. Plan your campaign and your calls
• Plan out every potential sales scenario.
• Develop an appropriate script for each scenario.
• Make sure that your script includes answers to the objections your sales team is bound to hear.
• Make sure that your scripts are well written and in “spoken” English.
• Test and refine your scripts.
4. Report
• Have a method in place ahead of time to track all calls.
• Track all calls.
• Make sure that your sales team reports all unusual or unexpected sales scenarios.
• Analyze those unexpected scenarios and adjust your plan and scripts accordingly.
5. Trust your sales team
• Once you have planned your campaign, communicated all of your goals and trained your sales team, give your team a voice and decision-making power in handling prospects and customers.
• Trust that your sales team will handle calls appropriately and professionally.
• Your trust will result in better morale, better effort and better results.

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By Wendy Weiss

© 2005 Wendy Weiss
Wendy Weiss, “The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success,” is a sales trainer, author, and sales coach. Her recently released program, "Cold Calling College", and/or her book, "Cold Calling for Women", can be ordered by visiting http://www.wendyweiss.com Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com. Get Wendy’s free e-zine at www.wendyweiss.com

How SIP Works

Have you ever wondered why long distance calls cost so much? In part the reason is because telephone lines cost so much. When driving, you might occasionally see a telephone crew maintaining a telephone line, but what you may have never considered is that there are literally thousands of individuals working around the clock to maintain our telephone lines.
The telephony system works via a cog and wheel setup. What this means is that every long distance call you make is routed along a telephone wire to a central station, where your voice is routed to another central station, which is finally carried to the person with whom you are trying to communicate. For the call to be maintained, the entire time you are speaking, a space along all the lines in between you and the person you are talking with must be completely devoted to you. Because millions of people are talking at the same time, the little space along the telephone lines becomes rather desired property. And like all things desired, the price is high. Before recent innovations, however, there were no alternatives, so everyone grudgingly paid the often costly long-distance telephone bill.
SIP, or Session Initiation Protocol, has turned the telephony world upside down. Specifically, SIP refers to a protocol that allows computers to talk to each other without going through a central station. Practically, what that means for you and me is that it is no longer necessary to pay for expensive telephone lines to complete our calls. SIP technology is a relatively new development in which calls are made on a peer-to-peer rather than cog and wheel network. What that means, is that you are now able to call people directly from your SIP enabled phone to theirs. This ends up being radically cheaper than the old way of calling.
The SIP system does not require a central computer and operators like the old telephony system did. Rather, your computer, or SIP enabled phone, does all the routing for you.
SIP has been around for a number of years, but only recently has it begun to go mainstream and take off in popularity. This quick increase in interest over SIP is due to companies like Mobalex, who were aware of the fact that over the generations we have come to expect certain tones, buttons, and protocols from our phones. So what they have done is to transpose those functions onto the SIP system. Rather than forcing users to communicate in a completely new way, what these companies have done is to provide a calling experience which from the user’s perspective is completely identical to traditional telephony.
SIP is typically offered in two formats, computer based and hardware based. Computer based SIP is a system that allows you to make calls using your computer as the router and communicating via a headset on your computer. The more practical and popular version, however, actually provides you with new SIP enabled telephone handsets or converts your existing phones to SIP. By eliminating any technical requirements, modern SIP providers have made using the system as easy, or easier, than using a traditional phone. I say easier, because many companies are able to take advantage of the fact that the system is internet based to provide you with some very unique benefits. These include the ability to adjust your plan, change your calling options, and even pay your bill from the same website.
SIP technology is quite revolutionary in the world of communication. By creating a peer-to-peer network, SIP has been able to radically undercut the prices of traditional telephony, take advantage of the Internet, and still maintain the ease of traditional telephony. It is merely a matter of time before we are all using SIP for all of our telephoning needs.

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By Jim Sherman

Jim Sherman writes about interesting topics such as SIP. See http://www.mobalex.com/products/sip4pbx.html for more information.

The Power of Two - Marketing and Sales

Leads: Salespeople need them, and Marketing Departments (theoretically) generate them. In a perfect world, the salesperson's challenge would be to keep up with the flood of qualified prospects that Marketing funnels out to them.
In reality, however, the Marketing-Sales lead scenario often plays out like this:
"We work our tails to the bone getting the salespeople leads, but they hardly ever follow-up with the prospects, and we never hear about it if they do," lamented Andy, the Marketing Manager, during a recent training program.
"They give us loads of leads," agreed salesperson Bert, "but they're no damn good. Then, they want a full report on each of them about what transpired within a week after we get the leads. I'd rather do without leads than do all of that useless work."
What's going on here? Who's right - Bert, or Andy - Sales, or Marketing?
In many companies, the Marketing and Sales departments work at cross purposes, rather than bolstering each other's efforts. Each department is communicating different messages to different people.
The result? When Bert follows up on Marketing Department-generated leads, "...almost all of them indicate that they don't know if they will ever be genuine prospects," said Bert. "Yet, some of them try to get me to visit them, because they are 'really interested' in our products. If I waste time on low probability prospects, I won't be able to spend my time with prospects that are ready to buy or specify our products now."
Bert knows that a real prospect is someone who is ready, able, and willing to buy his capital equipment product- now. Following up with 'interested' prospects would be a waste of time. The need to justify his reluctance to pursue low probability prospects to Marketing, and his manager, wastes yet more time and causes unnecessary friction.
Marketing and Sales should be working together towards a common defined objective. Marketing creates Brand Awareness and communicates Product Knowledge to the market, generating Acceptance among target companies. Sales contacts the individuals at targeted companies responsible for Specifying and Buying its products.
The breakdown between Marketing and Sales occurs when the Sales cycle is left out of the equation. Sales should be consulted before marketing communications are sent out: Messages need to be targeted appropriately to different levels of Decision Makers who are at different stages in the Sales Cycle. Lead generation needs to qualify the prospects, and those not ready to buy should be entered into the Company database and receive continuous marketing messages.
Ideally, Andy and Bert would be working together to define and refine the Company's target markets and target Companies. They would work together to develop a detailed database of individuals at target companies who influence, specify, and authorize Buying for their products and services. Andy's Marketing Department would generate the universe of prospects, and Bert wouldn't be expected to contact a prospect until Marketing had determined that the targeted company had entered the Specifying or Buying mode.
When good things happen, Sales and Marketing should both be able to rightfully claim that it was due to their efforts and expertise. That's the Power of 2.
©Jacques Werth, High Probability® Selling - All rights reserved.

____________________________________

By Jacques Werth

Jacques Werth, author of "High Probability Selling," is an internationally respected Sales Trainer and Sales Consultant. HPS graduates are excelling as Top Producers in over 70 industries. Visit http://www.highprobsell.com to read more articles, preview the book, and learn more about High Probability Selling

How SIP Works

Have you ever wondered why long distance calls cost so much? In part the reason is because telephone lines cost so much. When driving, you might occasionally see a telephone crew maintaining a telephone line, but what you may have never considered is that there are literally thousands of individuals working around the clock to maintain our telephone lines.
The telephony system works via a cog and wheel setup. What this means is that every long distance call you make is routed along a telephone wire to a central station, where your voice is routed to another central station, which is finally carried to the person with whom you are trying to communicate. For the call to be maintained, the entire time you are speaking, a space along all the lines in between you and the person you are talking with must be completely devoted to you. Because millions of people are talking at the same time, the little space along the telephone lines becomes rather desired property. And like all things desired, the price is high. Before recent innovations, however, there were no alternatives, so everyone grudgingly paid the often costly long-distance telephone bill.
SIP, or Session Initiation Protocol, has turned the telephony world upside down. Specifically, SIP refers to a protocol that allows computers to talk to each other without going through a central station. Practically, what that means for you and me is that it is no longer necessary to pay for expensive telephone lines to complete our calls. SIP technology is a relatively new development in which calls are made on a peer-to-peer rather than cog and wheel network. What that means, is that you are now able to call people directly from your SIP enabled phone to theirs. This ends up being radically cheaper than the old way of calling.
The SIP system does not require a central computer and operators like the old telephony system did. Rather, your computer, or SIP enabled phone, does all the routing for you.
SIP has been around for a number of years, but only recently has it begun to go mainstream and take off in popularity. This quick increase in interest over SIP is due to companies like Mobalex, who were aware of the fact that over the generations we have come to expect certain tones, buttons, and protocols from our phones. So what they have done is to transpose those functions onto the SIP system. Rather than forcing users to communicate in a completely new way, what these companies have done is to provide a calling experience which from the user’s perspective is completely identical to traditional telephony.
SIP is typically offered in two formats, computer based and hardware based. Computer based SIP is a system that allows you to make calls using your computer as the router and communicating via a headset on your computer. The more practical and popular version, however, actually provides you with new SIP enabled telephone handsets or converts your existing phones to SIP. By eliminating any technical requirements, modern SIP providers have made using the system as easy, or easier, than using a traditional phone. I say easier, because many companies are able to take advantage of the fact that the system is internet based to provide you with some very unique benefits. These include the ability to adjust your plan, change your calling options, and even pay your bill from the same website.
SIP technology is quite revolutionary in the world of communication. By creating a peer-to-peer network, SIP has been able to radically undercut the prices of traditional telephony, take advantage of the Internet, and still maintain the ease of traditional telephony. It is merely a matter of time before we are all using SIP for all of our telephoning needs.

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By Jim Sherman

Jim Sherman writes about interesting topics such as SIP. See http://www.mobalex.com/products/sip4pbx.html for more information.

Keyword Rich Pages

Once you have established the keywords for which you should optimize your site for the search engines, it is time to figure out how you can get a high ranking in the search engines for those keywords. The solution is to create Keyword Rich Pages (KRPs) - pages which provide good content and in which a particular keyword is repeated a number of times so that the page gets a top ranking for that keyword.
This article is focused on how you should create these KRPs. I am assuming you have a working knowledge of the different HTML tags like the Title tag, the Meta Description tag, the Meta Keywords tag, the Heading tags, the Alt Tag etc. If you don't, just go to http://www.utoronto.ca/webdocs/HTMLdocs/NewHTML/ htmlindex.html for a good introduction to such HTML tags.
Now, let us assume that your company sells packaged tours to Australia, and that you are targeting the keyword "travel to australia". Here's how you create the KRPs:
The Title Tag:
The first and most important tag to consider is the Title tag. You should always begin the Title tag with the keyword that you are targeting. Also remember that the search engines are going to display the Title tag while they are displaying the results of a search. Hence, you need to make the Title tag attractive to humans as well.
Here is one Title tag that I may have used: "Travel to Australia and discover its scenic beauty". Have a look at the Title tag - it uses the keyword right at the beginning and also tells people how beautiful a place Australia is.
Of course, all Titles need not be like the one I used. The Title that you use depends on the subject matter of your site. However, you should follow all the general rules that I have outlined here.
Meta Description Tag:
The Meta Description tag is used by many search engines to provide a short description of the page that is listed in the search results. Hence, like the Title tag, it is important that the Meta Description tag be keyword rich as well as attractive to humans.
The rules for the Meta Description are more or less the same as those for the Title tag. However, the content of this tag will generally be longer than that of the Title. Here's what I may have used in the Meta Description tag:
"Travel to Australia - We take care of all the details of your trip so that you can travel with complete peace of mind."
Note how this description repeats the keyword and also the benefit that it stresses - it says that the customer will be able to travel without having to worry about the intricate details of the trip - you will take care of them.
Meta Keywords Tag:
The Meta Keywords tag has become less and less important as far as search engine optimization is concerned. In fact, you can get top rankings without having anything in the Meta Keywords tag at all. However, just to be on the safe side, you would want to include some keywords in the Meta Keywords tag. You should also include some of the common upper/lower case variations of the keyword. The rules for the Meta Keywords tag are pretty simple - don't repeat any keyword in the Meta Keywords tag more than three times and don't repeat any keyword one after the other. Here's what I may have used in the Meta Keywords tag:
"Travel to Australia, tourism, travel to Australia, Down Under, TRAVEL TO AUSTRALIA"
Note how I have introduced "tourism" and "Down Under" just to separate the different instances of the keyword.
Body of the page:
Now we come to the actual body of the page. Begin by getting hold of a nice (but not too large) picture which is applicable for the page that you are creating. In the present case, I might include a picture of the lotus shaped Sydney Opera House.
Place this picture at the top of the page. In the Alt tag for the picture, just mention your target keyword once, i.e. the Alt tag would be "Travel to Australia". You can include other words in the Alt tag, but it should start with the keyword you are targeting.
Once you've put up the picture, it is time to create a Heading for your page. Use the H1 tag to do so. Again, in the H1 tag, mention your target keyword once, i.e. like the Alt tag for the picture, the H1 tag could be "Travel to Australia". Again, like the Alt tag, you can include other words in the heading, but the heading should start with the keyword you are targeting.
Now it's time to create the actual text of the page. The way you create the text of your page would depend largely on what you want the visitor to do after reading this page. In some cases, you may simply want the visitor to go to the home page or another specific page in your site after reading this page. In this case, you should write the text in such a way that the visitor is attracted to the page that you are targeting. You would also want to provide links to the home page or the specific page that you are targeting at strategic places in the KRP. Or, you may want the visitor to click on the link to an affiliate program that you are a member of. In this case, you would stress the benefits that the visitor gets by purchasing the product or service that the affiliate program is selling. You would also want to provide links to the affiliate program at strategic places in the page and/or at the end of the page. Whatever it is that you want your page to do, there are some general rules to follow:
1) The first thing to remember is that some search engines don't recognize the Meta Description tag. These search engines will often simply take the first few lines of text in the body of your page and display that as the description. Hence, you must ensure that the first few lines of text in your page are attractive to human beings.
2) Ensure that as many sentences as possible in the page contain your target keyword once. The keyword shouldn't just be placed on an ad hoc basis - the way the keyword is placed in every sentence should actually make grammatical sense and the repetition should be such that your human visitors do not feel that you have deliberately repeated a particular phrase throughout the page. This is not only important from the point of view of ensuring that your readers don't get a bad impression of your site, but also from the point of view of search engine optimization - the search engines may penalize your page for spamming if they find that you have randomly repeated the keyword throughout the page. Also, while repeating the keyword in the page, try to repeat the keyword once near the top of the page and once near the bottom.
3) Make sure that your paragraphs are not too long - each paragraph should be no more than 3 or 4 sentences long. This is because people on the web simply don't have the time or the inclination to read long paragraphs.
4) Try to ensure that the page contains links to other pages with the keyword being present in the text under the link. This can often lead to a higher ranking for your page.
5) If possible, link to other pages which have the keyword in the file names. This can again lead to a higher ranking for your page.
6) There is no hard and fast rule regarding the total number of words that should be present in the KRPs. As a rule of thumb, try to ensure that there are between 500-600 words. However, if the number of words falls a bit short of or exceeds this limit, don't worry too much.
Once you have created the page, ensure that the name of the file in which it is saved contains the keyword and that the individual words of the keyword are separated by hyphens. In this case, the name of the file would be travel-to-australia.html. This will get you a higher ranking in the few search engines which give a lot of emphasis on the keyword being present in the file name.
That's it! When you want to target another keyword, simply create another KRP for it using the procedure outlined above.
After you have created the KRPs, you cannot simply upload them to your site and submit them to the search engines. This is because the search engines take a rather dim view of pages which only contain outgoing links to other pages but do not contain any incoming links from other pages. The search engines may penalize sites which have such pages.
What you need to do is to directly or indirectly link the KRPs with your home page. If you are going to create many KRPs for your site, it will be impractical to link the home page directly with all the KRPs as this will needlessly clutter your home page. Hence, what you should do is to create a separate page in your site called a Sitemap page (name it something like sitemap.html). Add links to all the KRPs from the Sitemap page. The text that you use to link to a particular KRP should be the same as the keyword that the KRP is being optimized for. Hence, the link to the travel-to- australia.html file should say "Travel to Australia".
Now, some search engines refuse to spider pages which only contain links to other pages and nothing else. Hence, if the Sitemap page only contains links to the KRPs but contains no other content, the search engines may ignore this page. Hence, what you can do is to add a short description of the content of each of the KRPs after you have added a link to that KRP in the Sitemap page. This ensures that the search engines will not ignore this page.
After doing all this, simply link the home page of your site with the Sitemap page using a text link. Then, submit your home page, the Sitemap page and each of the KRPs to the search engines. When you are submitting these pages, to be on the safe side, make sure that you submit no more than 1 page per day to any search engine - otherwise, you run the risk of some search engines ignoring some of the pages you have submitted. You can submit your site by going to the individual "Add URL" pages of each engine. Or, in order to save time, you can use our free submission tool which helps you submit your site manually to the search engines, without having to go to the individual "Add URL" pages of each engine. The tool is available at http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/submission.htm
Follow all the rules that I have outlined in this article and you can soon see your search engine blues disappear for ever!

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By Sumantra Roy

Sumantra is one of the most respected search engine positioning specialists on the Internet. To have Sumantra's company place your site at the top of the search engines, go to http:// www.1stSearchRanking.com For more advice on how you can take your web site to the top of the search engines, subscribe to his FREE newsletter by going to http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/newsletter.htm

The Smart Way to Maximize Your Affiliate Links

Affiliate programs are everywhere. There are pretty good programs out there but you may not have enough targeted sites to promote them all. You don't want to bombard your ezine readers week after week with tons of products that you are promoting and also if you own your own product, you want to focus on that first before anything else.
So what is a marketer to do? You want to open up more income streams but you don't want to go into overkill and not get a dime for your efforts. You also at the same time want to be able to promote your bread and butter product (s) and services.
Simple, start an information site.
Many of us have focused so much over the past couple of years on flash and cute designs that we forget that one of the main reasons people are online is to look for information. Information gives them the tools to buy your products.
If you have signed up with various types of affiliate programs, create sites for them.
First find a domain that will match the quality of the information you want to give. Say for instance, you want to focus on internet marketing.
1. Grab a domain through Go Daddy http://godaddy.com. Once you are set up, find a hosting account, if you don't already have one. http://kdmpublishing.com If you already have hosting account, set it up to add on another domain name.
Once that is set up, look for some simple templates. Information sites don't need all the razzle and dazzle that you think. As long as the navigation is good and clear, and people can get to the information they need, you are doing fine. Look for some templates here http://www.kdmpublishing.com/templates/index.html
2. Now create a separate page for each affiliate program you belong to. Place them in categories. Since the theme is internet marketing, then you can have categories such as email marketing, pay per click marketing, search engine performance, blogging and rss feeds, etc. Get the idea?
3. Create eye catching links. Not just the usual "Click Here" but something that catches attention like " Find Out How To Blog For Free" Don't go overboard and sound like a spammer but use your old marketing noggin for catchy links.
4. Grab articles to go with each page. Use informative articles that help, not just a hidden sales letter in disguise. Grab some free articles of all topics here http://reprintedarticles.com Write up your own ads. Don't just go by what was given to you. Be unique.
6. If you are marketing by email, then have a good lead capture page that makes people want to sign up for your information. Subtitle the key points and show them how you can help them.
7. Sprinkle your ad sense ads around but don't make it the only focus on your pages. You want them to buy from you, not leave your site forever. Make sure they are relevant not just a bunch of ads with no content.
8. Keep sign up boxes for your ezine so they will remember you. Keep them coming back. Offer something free that they can grab now from your site, brand it with your url (s)
9. Don't forget to write articles that will lead people to your site. The power of article marketing is at its peak now, take advantage of it.
10. Finally, get your blog going. Add your own personal insights on the topics you are talking about. You can also plug in your affiliate links this way as well. Use Word Press, it is one of the most popular, it's free, and you can find tons of ways to customize it. http://wordpress.org
One last thing, look at your site when its done as a consumer. Does your site give you the information you are looking for?
Read over your site and think about what search terms people would need to use to find your site. Does it make sense, or are you just putting up wasted space?
There are tons of ways to enhance your income. An information site is priceless and the search engines love them. People are always looking for information and they will thank you for it. Keep your content updated, and try to update and add a few pages every week to keep it fresh.
This way you are maximizing your affiliate links and your main products and services. Make sure that the information site you create ties in with your main product so they know they cant live without the other. From that point, you can create even more smaller, niche sites that will benefit everyone.
Now go create and make some money...
The above article can be reprinted as long as the resource box below is included. Please do not plagiarize.
Copyright (c) KDM Publishing

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By Donesia Muhammad

Donesia Muhammad has been doing business online since 2001. Sign up For her Newsletter My IBiz Weekly ==>http://myibizweekly.com/ The Business Ezine For All Netpreneurs. Learn how to start and maintain your internet business and ezine, and stay sane while doing it. Read Our Archives and Learn with Valuable Resources. Helping Readers Online Since 2001... And Counting.

Take Advantage of Mistake that Auction Seller Made

Now one of the most fun and most profitable auctions you can find is misspelled items. You might be able to get a tidy profit of $50 or $70 dollars easily by searching for items that auction seller make mistake in placing their ad. One man lost is another man gain and that’s the name of the game. I have done a research on ebay for a while, and you can find it happen almost everyday. I have seen a branded camcorder being sold X amount , less 30% the average selling price of similar items. Imagine you re-list it immediately and sold it for a 30% profit margin without paying for shipping!!
Let’s try it now and type camcoder or camcodar or anything you can think of and search through Ebay. I am sure you can get some results. You can also try Ebay UK or other auction house you might get something out of it.
So how can we profit from that? First of all misspell item get less page views, less views means less bid, less bids means low selling price. If there is a bid on one misspell item, do not jump in and throw a bid, that is true even if the item is spelled correctly. Just watch the item patiently for few days and post a bid when it comes to an end. However if the starting bid is $1 and nobody has bid, you can put in the next bidding price to” lock “the auction. You are not allowed to edit or cancel your auction once there is a bid. Next click on the Watch this item on ebay which is on the top right corner, check back occasionally to see how many people have bid the item and some auctions have a page counter to see how many buyer have check the item so you have rough gauge on how many bidders to expect.
Do a research on the item you have watched, scan through the listings in ebay. One nice option you can find is the Add Note features it can be found in My Ebay and those items that you have just added is listed according to Time Ending or depend on how you categorize it. Remember that you get more accurate results if you key in the item in the searched box and check the Completed Listings Only, reasons being that on going auctions prices might increase as time goes by so data you have collected is not up to date.
Look hard at the completed listings, make a note on how much buyers is willing to spend on this item. For example a branded sunglass was sold for between $140 to $160 so on averages the closing price is $150. Make a note to the misspelled item like” Sold for $150 “or “Highest bidder was $160 “, this is so important as it let you check back before the item ends and see if the auction has reached the price limit you have set on it or there are still rooms for profits.
Honestly speaking, there will be some people beside you who have the same thinking as you, looking for bargains in Ebay. So preferably wait till the auction is coming to an end and bid at the last hour, remember activity breeds activities you do not want this to happen as the trick is to get less bid if possible.
There are tools on the net which can help to do the jobs for you. Email me if you are interested, I will share with you what I have found or you can get access to www.monaky.com for wide range of auctions tools and information. Free download of auctions resource in the form of e-books for easy reading.
Contact admin@monaky.com http://www.monaky.com
For more auction information feel free to visit http://www.monaky.com

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By Eng Chin Wah

Research the Old-Fashioned Way: Why the Library is Not Obsolete

Although researching and writing a college paper has never been child’s play, it was a bit more straightforward and less complicated before the advent of the Internet. Aspiring student researchers simply visited their university’s library, where they could easily check out a few relevant books after consulting the card catalog and use a periodical index to find a journal article or two. Nowadays, there are many more choices in addition to those regular, “old-fashioned” standbys. Still, the Internet has yet to render the library obsolete!
The World Wide Web has become a boundless source of information, bringing knowledge to the homes of millions. Yet, despite the tens of billions of pages available online, it's a mistake to conclude that everything is available (somewhere!) on the Web. Contrary to popular belief, the entire world's wisdom is not online and free for the taking. Some information will cost you, while other resources are nowhere to be found.
Additionally, the Web is rife with misinformation. Unfortunately, many students not only turn first to the Internet for their research needs, but they are also handicapped by their inability to distinguish reputable resources from unreliable ones. While use of the Internet can make research more convenient, it may also result in carelessness. Students are better served by beginning their research at the library and using the Web as a secondary resource.
Fortunately, the Internet has also changed the way in which the supposedly passé library functions. While you may still see drawers upon drawers of card catalogs, most libraries have also made their catalogs available online. Computers have facilitated interlibrary loan (ILL) as well. Likewise, paper journals and microfiche persist, but these resources are supplemented with subscriptions to online academic databases. Ultimately, libraries have used the Internet to provide the best of both worlds - the reputable resources available at the library, digitalized for greater accessibility.
1. Online Catalogs
In all likelihood, you've probably already used a card catalog, even if it was way back in elementary school. While catalogs do still exist, the good news is that most of them have been digitalized. Now available online, they're much easier to access and search. If you can connect to your library's computer system remotely, you can even browse their holdings from your dorm room!
Online catalogs generally consist of records of the library's holdings (books, journals, dissertations, manuscripts, etc.), as opposed to the holdings themselves. A record can include any of the following information: author, title, publisher, date and place of publication, journal title, subject, and keywords.
You might be tempted to dismiss catalogs since they don't provide instant gratification - immediate, full-text access to all available resources. However, you can access many of the holdings either via online academic databases or in the library itself - all it takes is a little detective work!
Other libraries offer access to their catalogs as well. WebCATS (http://www.libdex.com/) is an index of over 18,000 libraries' catalogs. You can browse them by geographical location or search the index by keyword. Each entry provides a direct link to the library's online holdings.
2. Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
Some libraries partner up with others and form groups called consortia. These consortia provide access to one another's holdings - this is where ILL comes in. When you search your library's catalog, most likely you're simultaneously searching the catalogs of your library's consortia as well. These libraries include not only university libraries, but also public, school, government, corporate, and institutional libraries. If you find a resource that isn't available at your "home" library, you can either borrow it or obtain a copy from the library that houses it.
Many libraries offer this service online, but if you have any questions or are unable to locate an online form, it can be done at your library's reference desk as well. If you aren't affiliated with a library (or if you need a resource that belongs to a library that your own library isn't associated with), you might be able to borrow or order it for a fee.
3. Academic Databases
Academic databases are privately owned or proprietary databases that charge users a fee to search their holdings or retrieve full-text documents. While members of the public can pay to use these services online, students have ready access to dozens of proprietary databases that their libraries subscribe to. These academic databases can cover a wide range of subjects, from business to the humanities, and offer everything from citations and abstracts to full-text documents. A single company may produce several different databases, and different databases may include some of the same materials (including journals, articles, or even smaller or more specific databases).
Before you can choose the right database, you need to have a general idea of what subject you'll be researching. Then, browse your library's site for a database that covers your desired topic. Most likely, you'll have several promising databases from which to select. Don't be discouraged, and don't rely on just one - try them all out! Although some of their coverage may overlap, you'll probably be able to find unique resources in each of them.
While students veer towards databases, especially those that provide instant access to full-text articles, this is a grave mistake. As expansive as they may be, academic databases don't usually include books, dissertations, or multimedia materials. Their coverage generally only dates back to the 1970s, and they don't provide exhaustive coverage of most disciplines. Even worse, the full-text articles sometimes contain mistakes, including typographical errors and omissions of sections of the article - or even the entire article itself! Ideally, you should supplement your use of full-text databases with databases that only provide citations or abstracts. Then, you can use your library's online catalog to locate hard copies of the materials. If the sources you're interested in aren't available at your library, it's very possible that you're librarian will be able to help you track them down.
The next time you need to do some research, make the first stop your library as opposed to your laptop! Far from being supplanted by the Digital Age, libraries have integrated new technologies into their services, making them more useful than ever.

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By Kelly Garbato

Copyright Kelly Garbato, 2005

Kelly Garbato is an author, ePublisher, and small business owner. She recently self-published her first book, “13 Lucky Steps to Writing a Research Paper,” now available at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) or through Peedee Publishing (http://www.peedeepublishing.com).To learn more about the author, visit her web site at http://www.kellygarbato.com.

5 Tips to Find the Best Online University for You

Getting a university education online has become a very practical reality for people who cannot spare the time and commitment to enroll in a regular university on a campus. Today there are countless options for getting yourself an online education, depending on your specific needs and goals. Therefore making the right choice that will be most suited to your schedule and learning style as well as the course itself is of prime importance.
1. Be clear about your needs
Different people have different needs for getting an online education. Before you begin considering your options, do some introspection to determine what kind of education you seek, how you can schedule your online education to fit into your routine, how much time and effort you are prepared to spare and whether it is personal fulfillment or career advancement that you aim to achieve through the course.
2. Investigate your options
The Internet is teeming with offers of online education for every conceivable purpose. So take the time to gather information about the options that suit you. Most schools provide free information kit on their education programs that can help you get a better idea of what’s in store if you choose to enroll with any of them. You have the option of conducting searches according to the type of courses you are interested in and colleges based on locations. Make sure you have a clear idea of the program being offered before you invest your hard earned money and time into any one of them.
3. Be wary of scams
As with all offers on the Internet, there is no dearth of scams that you need to be wary of when doing your searches for the right course. If you’ve heard about a course through a spam e-mail, steer clear of it. Fake degrees and credentials are plentiful and you’ll only be wasting your time, effort and money if you go with one of them.
4. Look for accreditation
Accreditation of the school or institute that you enroll in, is of vital importance. After all if the reason you are pursuing further education is to advance your career, the degree you will be earning needs to be recognized by your employers or prospective employers.
5. What are the facilities being offered
Different online courses have different facilities to offer their students. Many offer services like tutoring, reference links, library access, technical assistance, discussion threads, interaction with fellow students and a variety of other features. Depending on the kind of study aids that are likely to benefit you, make your choice based on the kind of facilities you can avail once you enroll for a course.

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By Jean Chortillion

Jean Chortillion enjoys writing about online education. See http://www.universityreviewsonline.com/2005/10/whats_the_best_.html for an article on the best online university.

Managers: You Know Your Job, but What About Public Relations?

Sure, you’re a business, non-profit, association or government agency manager specializing in activities like sales, human resources, distribution, finance, program management or any of many other operating functions.
So you know what you’re doing.
But what about the money you’re hopefully spending on public relations, which happens NOT to be your managerial specialty!?
Are you doing the action planning you need to alter individual perception leading to changed behaviors among your most important outside audiences? Are you trying to persuade those key folks to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that lets your department, group, division or subsidiary succeed?
Or are you narrowly focused on tactics instead of that core PR strategy? Tactics like brochures, broadcast plugs and press releases which are simple devices public relations calls upon from time to time to move a message from here to there.
When you adopt the core PR strategy discussed in this article, you are then free to move beyond tactics and pay closer attention to the perceptions and behaviors of your most important external audiences, the very people who could hold your professional success as a manager in their hands.
Which means that you have little choice about doing something positive about the behaviors of those key external groups of people whose behaviors most affect your operation.
Energizing such an effort is the reality that people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is usually accomplished.
Happily, results can come quickly when business, non-profit or association managers use public relations to alter individual perception among their target publics, leading to changed behaviors which helps achieve their managerial objectives.
But please keep in mind that your PR effort really must demand more than special events, brochures and press releases if you are to achieve the quality public relations results you’re counting on.
Fortunately, those results can happen right away. For example, capital givers or specifying sources begin to look your way; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures appear; politicians and legislators begin to view you as a key member of the business, non-profit, association or government communities; customers start to make repeat purchases; membership applications rise as do welcome bounces in show room visits, and even prospects starting to do business with you or community leaders beginning to seek you out.
Another bonus is that your PR people are already in the perception and behavior business, and can be of real use for your new opinion monitoring project. But be certain that the PR staff really accepts why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. And the reason why: perceptions almost always result in behaviors that can help or hurt your operation.
Sit down with your PR staff and go over your plans for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Questions along these lines: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the interchange? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?
Do a comparison using your PR people in the monitoring job versus the cost of using professional survey firms to do the opinion gathering work. You may find that using your public relations people is the better choice. But, whether it’s your people or a survey firm asking the questions, the objective is the same: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.
Here, you’ll need to establish a goal calling for action on the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. Will it be to straighten out that dangerous misconception? Correct that gross inaccuracy? Or, quickly stop that potentially painful rumor?
Of course you can’t move forward without a supporting strategy to show you HOW to reach that goal. Truth is, there are just three strategic options available to you when it comes to doing something about perception and opinion. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. The wrong strategy pick will taste like sun-dried tomatoes on your Lemon Meringue pie. So be sure your new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. You wouldn’t want to select “change” when the facts say “reinforce.”
It is here that you have the opportunity to write a persuasive message that will help move your key audience to your way of thinking. It must be a carefully-written message targeted directly at your key external audience. Your very best writer will be needed because s/he must produce really corrective language. Words that are not merely compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if they are to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.
If any step in the public relations problem solving sequence can be described as “fun,” it’s selecting the communications tactics most likely to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. There are many available. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But be certain that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.
It’s not generally recognized by many writers, but HOW you communicate must also concern you since the credibility of any message is very fragile. Which is why you may wish to unveil your corrective message before smaller meetings and presentations rather than using higher-profile news releases.
Sooner or later the subject of progress reports will surface, which means you and your PR team should view the notion as an alert to begin a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. You’ll want to use many of the same questions used in the benchmark session. But now, you will be on strict alert for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.
The icing on the cupcake is the fact that you can always speed things up by adding more communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies, should program momentum slow.
Yes, it seems fairly safe to say that you know what you’re doing as a manager of one of the traditional operating functions in a business, non-profit, association or government agency.
But the seminal public relations questions still await your attention. What are you doing to alter individual perception leading to changed behaviors among your most important outside audiences? And are you trying to persuade those key folks to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that let your department, group, division or subsidiary succeed?
Only in that way will you move beyond PR tactics like special events, brochures, broadcast plugs and press releases to truly achieve the best public relations has to offer.
Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net. Robert A. Kelly © 2005.

________________________________________

By Robert A. Kelly

Bob Kelly counsels and writes for business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has published over 200 articles on the subject which are listed at EzineArticles.com, click Expert Author, click Robert A. Kelly. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com/

Managers: You Know Your Job, but What About Public Relations?

Sure, you’re a business, non-profit, association or government agency manager specializing in activities like sales, human resources, distribution, finance, program management or any of many other operating functions.
So you know what you’re doing.
But what about the money you’re hopefully spending on public relations, which happens NOT to be your managerial specialty!?
Are you doing the action planning you need to alter individual perception leading to changed behaviors among your most important outside audiences? Are you trying to persuade those key folks to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that lets your department, group, division or subsidiary succeed?
Or are you narrowly focused on tactics instead of that core PR strategy? Tactics like brochures, broadcast plugs and press releases which are simple devices public relations calls upon from time to time to move a message from here to there.
When you adopt the core PR strategy discussed in this article, you are then free to move beyond tactics and pay closer attention to the perceptions and behaviors of your most important external audiences, the very people who could hold your professional success as a manager in their hands.
Which means that you have little choice about doing something positive about the behaviors of those key external groups of people whose behaviors most affect your operation.
Energizing such an effort is the reality that people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is usually accomplished.
Happily, results can come quickly when business, non-profit or association managers use public relations to alter individual perception among their target publics, leading to changed behaviors which helps achieve their managerial objectives.
But please keep in mind that your PR effort really must demand more than special events, brochures and press releases if you are to achieve the quality public relations results you’re counting on.
Fortunately, those results can happen right away. For example, capital givers or specifying sources begin to look your way; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures appear; politicians and legislators begin to view you as a key member of the business, non-profit, association or government communities; customers start to make repeat purchases; membership applications rise as do welcome bounces in show room visits, and even prospects starting to do business with you or community leaders beginning to seek you out.
Another bonus is that your PR people are already in the perception and behavior business, and can be of real use for your new opinion monitoring project. But be certain that the PR staff really accepts why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. And the reason why: perceptions almost always result in behaviors that can help or hurt your operation.
Sit down with your PR staff and go over your plans for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Questions along these lines: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the interchange? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?
Do a comparison using your PR people in the monitoring job versus the cost of using professional survey firms to do the opinion gathering work. You may find that using your public relations people is the better choice. But, whether it’s your people or a survey firm asking the questions, the objective is the same: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.
Here, you’ll need to establish a goal calling for action on the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. Will it be to straighten out that dangerous misconception? Correct that gross inaccuracy? Or, quickly stop that potentially painful rumor?
Of course you can’t move forward without a supporting strategy to show you HOW to reach that goal. Truth is, there are just three strategic options available to you when it comes to doing something about perception and opinion. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. The wrong strategy pick will taste like sun-dried tomatoes on your Lemon Meringue pie. So be sure your new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. You wouldn’t want to select “change” when the facts say “reinforce.”
It is here that you have the opportunity to write a persuasive message that will help move your key audience to your way of thinking. It must be a carefully-written message targeted directly at your key external audience. Your very best writer will be needed because s/he must produce really corrective language. Words that are not merely compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if they are to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.
If any step in the public relations problem solving sequence can be described as “fun,” it’s selecting the communications tactics most likely to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. There are many available. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But be certain that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.
It’s not generally recognized by many writers, but HOW you communicate must also concern you since the credibility of any message is very fragile. Which is why you may wish to unveil your corrective message before smaller meetings and presentations rather than using higher-profile news releases.
Sooner or later the subject of progress reports will surface, which means you and your PR team should view the notion as an alert to begin a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. You’ll want to use many of the same questions used in the benchmark session. But now, you will be on strict alert for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.
The icing on the cupcake is the fact that you can always speed things up by adding more communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies, should program momentum slow.
Yes, it seems fairly safe to say that you know what you’re doing as a manager of one of the traditional operating functions in a business, non-profit, association or government agency.
But the seminal public relations questions still await your attention. What are you doing to alter individual perception leading to changed behaviors among your most important outside audiences? And are you trying to persuade those key folks to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that let your department, group, division or subsidiary succeed?
Only in that way will you move beyond PR tactics like special events, brochures, broadcast plugs and press releases to truly achieve the best public relations has to offer.
Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net. Robert A. Kelly © 2005.

________________________________________

By Robert A. Kelly

Bob Kelly counsels and writes for business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has published over 200 articles on the subject which are listed at EzineArticles.com, click Expert Author, click Robert A. Kelly. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.PRCommentary.com

Improve Your Work Relationships

Tips for working smoother and more harmoniously
Ask anyone and they'll tell you that an unhappy work environment can be one of life's most miserable experiences. It's isolating, it's uncomfortable, unproductive, and it can also block your progress in life. That's because work, like everything else, often relies on good will.
That is, the good will of coworkers and bosses alike can help propel your career and business. Likewise, ill will and anymosity can create obstacles to career success and make every day you show up for work a pretty miserable eight-hour (or longer) experience.
Fortunately, feng shui offers some techniques for improving work relationships and making them more harmonious and hospitable. So, if your career has stalled and every day you go to work is an excercise of endurance you'll want try the following.
Tip No. 1 Don't directly confront your boss
Look at your desk arrangement to see if it is facing your boss's directly. Even if you are across the building, if your boss's desk is facing west and yours is facing east, and you could draw an imaginary straight line to his or her desk, then you are in a confrontational position. It's always better to have your boss "at your back" so that you are supported by this person.
Tip No. 2 Ground your relationships with superiors with a gold mountain
Creating your own "mountain of gold" will give you opportunities, help from benefactors, and create great good will with superiors by "grounding" your relationship. Place your mini mountain in the northwest corner of your office. (Find this corner by standing in the center of your office and locating the center with a compass -- don't guess!).
To create your mini gold mountain, purchase a large round glass candle holder. It is important that this plate is made of glass. The plates are those flat glass rounds that hold candle arrangements. Next, paint a mixture of small stones gold with spray paint. Arrange these stones on the plate to resemble a small gold mountain.
Tip No. 3 Make your relationships with your boss smooth
Create an arrangement of crystal, glass, or snowglobe spheres in the center of your office to smooth out relationships. In addition to helping with superiors, these balls will also help smooth out relationships with coworkers as well. Alternatively, you may also wish to display a crystal vase, remembering to leave it empty so it can collect auspicious relationship energy. By the way, I am a big fan of the TV show, the West Wing. Next time you see the President's desk, notice that he has cyrstal balls on his desk!
Tip No. 4 Activate your office according to your boss's gender
If you have an older male boss, activate the northwest. If you have an older female supervisor, activate the southwest. Both can be activated by creating a mini gold mountain. Alternatively, both can be enhanced by a globe of the earth.
Tip No. 5 Activate your office according to your supervisor's age
If your boss is male activate the east corner of the office with plants, flowers, a ficus tree, or a picture of these things. For amale the same age, activate the north corner of your office with a fountain. For male bosses who are younger than you, activate the northeast with a crystal ball, geode, or crystal vase.
If your boss is female and is older than you, active the southeast with some small plants or flowers. If your supervisor is the same age, activate the south with red. If your boss is younger, place metal objects, such as windchimes, radios, fans, etc., in the west corner of your office
Rule No. 6 Enhance your own luck by activating the lucky corner of your office
The corner that is diagonal to the doorway to your office is considered the lucky conrer. People who don't activate this corner are missing important opportunities to influence their career luck and the appeal of their offices to their coworkers and supervisors.
If your lucky corner is south: Place a tall tree or large plant here
If your lucky corner is east or southeast: place an aquarium or fountain here
If your lucky corner is north: Hang a large 6-rod hollow windchime here or metal vase
If your lucky corner is northwest or west: Add a large stone, globe, or cluster of crystals on a marble stand here
If your lucky conrner is southwest or northeast: Place a tall floor lamp here

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By Kathryn Weber

Kathryn Weber is the publisher of the Red Lotus Letter feng shui e-zine and is dedicated to helping her readers develop successful, prosperous, and supportive environments with feng shui. To subscribe, logon to http://www.redlotusletter.com/ and receive this special report Fr*ee "16 Feng Shui Secrets for Greater Prosperity."

How to Become an Event Planner

Some of you may be wondering why learning How to Become a Party and Event Planner would be of interest to anyone. But, if have always dreamed of owning your own business and having the freedom that comes along with it, then you will definitely be interested in the event planning industry. Worldwide, the annual sales generated in the party, business, and event planning industry exceed $500 billion dollars (Source: International Special Events Society). Anyone entering into this industry has a wide range of options available to them and a huge market to tap into.
Estimated start up costs:

The start-up costs of becoming a party and event planner are relatively low but they will depend upon what services you intend offering. For most, the essential equipment includes: cell phone, laptop, business cards, Yellow Pages ad, and a good organizer of some sort. If you intend on offering catering as one of your event planning jobs, then clearly you will need a fully stocked kitchen but it is possible to outsource this function if you are coordinating the entire event. Bare bones start-up costs including a rough estimate for liability insurance would be less than $2500 if you did your homework and found some deals along the way.
Recommended experience, skills, and training:

Although college degrees are available for an event planner, most of the entrepreneurs within the industry do not have one. The majority of business owners started out in catering or business meeting planning and expanded into event planning. However, many owners have attended classes and attained certification. In addition to education, learning how to become a party and event planner includes experience in the following areas: marketing, accounting, management, and sales.
Marketing tips:

To obtain credibility as a competent event planner, it is imperative that you present a professional image at all times. All of your invoices, e-mails, business cards, and correspondence should bear your company logo and have continuity in visual presentation. You will probably see good results from joining networking groups and the local chamber of commerce. Word-of-mouth will be critical in the early phases while working with the public but you will need a completely professional image and marketing strategy to land the corporate accounts.
Creating a website and filling it with a lot of useful content will land you a high ranking in the search engines and provide you with a powerful marketing tool to help promote your business. Be sure to include a link to this website in all of your e-mails and correspondence as a cheap but effective way of driving traffic to your site. Finally, use direct mail campaigns to local businesses that include some kind of promotion or discount for using your services.
Financing sources:

Learning how to become a party and event planner takes years of experience and a knack for organization but it does not require a lot of start-up capital. This is very fortunate because most banks are not going to loan you the money anyway if you are a brand new business. But, if you already own a catering business and are merely seeking to diversify your services, then your local bank is definitely an option. For everyone else, consider your friends and family if you do not already own a computer or have the cash.
Income Potential:

The income potential of learning for an event planner is only limited by your ability to sell yourself and your services to the clients. With over $500 billion dollars out there up for grabs, there is no reason why you cannot see six figures within the first three years. Like any business, however, you will only be successful if you deliver unparalleled service time and time again. But, if you love planning an event and seeing people happy, then becoming a party and event planner is for you and a way towards financial independence.
© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

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By Randy Wilson

Randy has dozens of home based business articles such as Medical Billing Business. You can also sign up for Randy's free newsletter and 8 different FREE e-courses: Profitable Home Business Newsletter.