Autor: Chatten Name

Every product has a natural life cycle and a season where it sells best: some early buyers come at the beginning, and then the mass of buyers come. Prices peak and retailers begin running out of stock. Sales slow, and trickle down to a few last-minute shoppers.

As an online seller, it’s critical you prepare for the natural retail cycles throughout the year. With some simple strategies, you can make the most of the opportunities presented by the changing seasons:

1.Keep the Flow Going
The way to maintain sales volume is to be ready for the next selling season. Phase in your new seasonal items for early shoppers while your other product line sales are winding down. You can keep the momentum going in your store and your income if you plan accordingly.

2.Make Advance Preparations
Don’t wait until the holiday is upon you to get your products lined up and ready to go. You should begin pushing your promotions two to three months ahead of time, according to Lisa Suttora of http://WhatDoISell.com. Says Suttora, “The advantage to having your products ready several months before a holiday season is you capture the early bird buyers…You’d be amazed how many people shop months in advance of a holiday.”

Another benefit of early marketing is it provides lead time for the search engines to pick up the pages for your holiday specials. Include the season or holiday name in your titles, because people are searching for those terms.

3.Use What You’ve Got
You don’t necessarily have to change your entire product line every season. Evaluate your current product line and see what can be promoted as a seasonal item. Use your imagination—create unique gift baskets and kits. Shoppers are pressed for time and are looking for solutions, so put together product bundles to solve their holiday needs.

4.Adjust Your Website
Your web store should reflect the season—feature items that work well for the approaching holiday. Put a seasonal spin on your ads and listings. “Your sales don’t have to drop,” advises Suttora. “Evaluate what you’re selling and how you want to position it—freshen up the look of your site. You’ve got a whole new group of buyers coming in [with each new season], so you want to be ready for them.”

1. Negotiate
Have you noticed that some people seem to always get the best deals? Yeah, you pay full price and think you did OK until they show up with the same thing, only they paid several hundred dollars less. It really get your goat! How do they do it? They’re not afraid to ask for an extra discount.

Yep, don’t sell yourself short because you didn’t ASK the next time your advertising rep makes an appearance! Even if you’re already getting a discount, ask for a bigger one. You have not…because you ask not.

2. Trim
Bigger is always better…or is it? When it comes to advertising, don’t be surprised if some of your short ads meet with more success than larger more expensive ads. Trimming down on the size and cost of advertising doesn’t mean you’ll be trimming the results!

3. Exploit the Freebies
What’s the difference between advertising and publicity? …who’s doing the talking. Yeah, when you sell yourself, it’s advertising. When someone else is selling you, it’s publicity…and it generates credibility and interest that you don’t want to miss out on.

Think about the different ways you can get your business in the spotlight. Do you have some news… write a press release? Write some „how to“ articles with a short byline at the end and release them to ezines, magazines, newspapers, and other publishers. Why not promote the product of a non-competitor in return for them promoting yours…think of the totally different market they affect!

Yep, there are a lot of ways out there to get free advertisement that will benefit your business. Of course you won’t be able to rely solely on the freebies, but hey, you can get a little extra for nothing!

4. Improve Your Offer
Is your deal too good to pass up? If not, you need to improve it. Hey, I’m not talking about cutting prices even more…you’ve still got to make a profit. You can make the deal sweeter just by increasing the readers knowledge of the value of the product, or adding bonuses that are perceived as valuable, but cost you little.

Motivate buyers with expirations. Yeah, an open ended offer encourages procrastination…which leads …yep, nowhere. When the customer knows he has until Saturday to purchase an item he’ll pay more for on Sunday, he’ll make it a priority to head for your shop.

Advertising doesn’t have to wipe out your bank account to be effective. When you learn to negotiate, know when smaller ads are as effective as large ads, ask for discounts, and create an irresistible offer, you’re on your way to skyrocketing profit margins!

If you are planning to become a serious player in the webdesign world, you should now what to learn and discover. Here’s a short list that gives you an overview of your needs.

1. Learn HTML
Before you start creating websites you should master HTML. This is the key element to even start publishing documents on the web. This sounds pretty obvious but there are some elements that you should understand like the label element which will add great usability to a form.

2. Master Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
I can’t stress this enough. DO NOT USE TABLES FOR YOUR LAYOUT!

Is it clear? Don’t, just don’t. Why? Because they work against you instead of for you. You can have so much more control of your layout, design and colors if you use 100% CSS.

1. CSS is easy
2. CSS is fast to create
3. CSS is lightning fast when your website loads
4. CSS is easy to modify

So forget table layouts and start using stylesheets. You will really like the things you can accomplish once you master them.

3. Learn A Server Side Language
This is needed to make dynamic websites like forums. PHP and ASP are a great example. You will need to understand what you can do with these languages and start using them.

Without a server side language your websites are really hard to maintain and will give you a hard job in creating an efficient website structure.
4. Learn A Database Language

I recommend learning MySQL since this is an open source database and is installed on most hosting providers in combination with PHP.

A database is nothing else then some tables with data. You can select data with queries like:

SELECT * FROM table WHERE ID = 3;

Now everything is selected from table when the ID equals three. It’s not hard to understand SQL, you just need to know how it works. PHPMyAdmin can help you a lot when you are creating your database.
So, start with step 1, and stick with CSS as long as you don’t master it. CSS is huge, and you will love it once you know how it works.

For application development you can’t do without a language like PHP and a database like MySQL.

Michael J. Homan is a Reiki Master and studies natural healthing methods such as Acupressure, Electro-Acupuncture, Reflexology, Crystal Therapy, Chinese Magnetic Cupping, has his own e-Book called 4 Steps To A Pain-FREE Back!, and has a health related web site devoted to health issues and natural healing techniques.

I have studied and taken courses in acupressure. Studied some on chiropractic. I also have looked into psychological issues to do with pain and medical problems. And I am also a Reiki Master.

So now that you have a little about my background, and what fuels my writing… let’s get to the real content.

I am going to condense this article for convenience since it is a combination of four major studies in themselves, but you can get my e-book or read my full articles at my web site, which is healthgrowhealthier.com.

I have found that 4 major things play an important part in your spines health.

First, there is posture. I know this is not the first time you have heard this, but it needs to be said again and again.
Posture should be noted in sitting, standing, and sleeping. Start taking note of your posture at all times. If it is not straight, then start working on fixing it.

If you sleep in a position like I have in the past, with both hands under your pillow while you lay on your side, you can pinch a nerve in your neck if your shoulder of the arm that’s up starts to relax and leans in toward your head or neck. It would be better to lay your arm of your upper hand down on your leg while one hand is under your pillow.
And if you can, buy a few different thickness pillows for throughout the night. I do not know about you, but I can not have a high, fluffy pillow when I lay on my back. But a thin pillow gives me neck ache when I lay on my side.

The second thing on our list is the flexibility of your back.

What you want to do when you notice your back goes out a lot and you experience pinched nerves, is in getting your spine back into alignment and having it flexible.

Of course if you feel a chiropractor is your best choice, by all means seek one. But think about your progress if you could align your own back when ever you needed to. It’s not all that hard!

If you are in pain at the present, put ice or heat on the spot until the pain seems to lessen.

Do NOT, under any circumstances exercise while any of your nerves are inflamed or swollen!

To get your back more flexible you might want to learn kundalini yoga. Not all yoga styles are like those you may have seen on television, where they twist themselves up. Kundalini yoga has very good and useful spinal exercises developed to help flexibility. Kundalini Yoga is also a spiritual tool to help before meditation as well.

It is very important to strengthen your back and the surrounding muscles. This is the third step to a healthy back.
Doing sit-ups is one such exercise, You do not have to do many sit-ups until you feel you can… step by step.
Take all of these things slow and at the pace of your body. Your body will let you know what it is feeling. Pain is a warning sign.
Just remember… taking pain pills is okay when you really need them. But also remember that they do not heal the problem, they only mask the warning sign, they simply stop the warning sign, but not the underlying problem.
Health is more than just eating right. One has to consider mental health, environmental, and many other factors. It is not all that easy for a doctor to diagnose the complete problem and cure it, especially if it has roots in psychological issues and has gone a long time unchecked, and became a physical problem.

The fourth and last step in back health is to start a daily stretching routine. You have
seen cats and dogs stretch when they get up, try it for yourself!

The key to back health is in keeping it actively flexible and strong, or well supported by the stomach and back muscles. You may have to find that happy medium in between like I have, being too much strength in one area will pull out another.
Each person is uniquely different in many areas. So never think what worked for someone else is going to work for you. You may have to build on someone else’s information and work it into your own, personal program.

I recommend you learn a little about acupressure as well to maintain your pain when it flares up.
I have found that I can manage pain by using acupressure, simply by putting pressure on certain areas of the body. But that is something I suggest you seek a professional for help, or look for someone who does acupuncture, or take a course in acupressure like I did.

Real estate investing is always good and sometimes it’s red hot. When it’s hot dozens of real estate seminars begin rolling across the country and thousands of people spend thousands of dollars for investing education.

It’s startling to learn that of all those thousands of eager folks who attend these seminars only about 5% buy even one investment house. Why? The real estate gurus sell the „sizzle“ and make profiting from real estate sound easy. The truth is that it’s simple, but not easy.

Here’s a quick plan that will enable anyone to begin building financial independence.

There are basically four steps to investing in single family homes:

1. Buy homes below full market value. Yes, people really do sell homes for less than the home’s full value. The key is to understand that most home owners will only consider a purchase offer that is all cash and within 5% to 10% of their asking price.

The successful investor learns to find financially distressed home owners who have no choice but to sell for less than market value. They have lost their job or been suddenly transferred; they are divorcing; they been living beyond their income; the family has been overwhelmed with medical bills and, not uncommonly these days, their money has gone to support a drug habit.

Those are examples of motivated sellers. They have to sell and they will accept something other than a conventional, all cash offer.

2. How do you find motivated sellers? You work at it! Like any business it is important to develop a little marketing plan. One that is simple, yet very effective, is the one that was proven 75 years ago by the Fuller Brush company; door to door sales.

You are selling your skill as a home buyer to people who must sell. Your are there when they need you and you have the skill to help them solve at least part of their problem. With door to door prospecting you will learn more and buy more homes quicker than any other method. However, most people just won’t walk door to door for three or four hours per week. OK, there are other ways.

You can watch public notices for the announcement of foreclosure sales. Meeting with a home owner right after they’ve received a notice that they are about to lose their home allows you to deal with a very motivated seller. Other public notices that provide buying opportunities include probate, divorce and bankruptcy. You can follow the Homes For Sale listings in your local newspaper or Internet site.

You can telephone the names found in these notices or, and this is the least time consuming, send a postcard expressing your interest in buying their property. It will produce buying opportunities, just not as many as personal contact.

3. After you’ve found a motivated seller you must understand how to frame offers that provide benefits for both you and for the home owner. A good real estate investor quickly learns that this is not a business of stealing property, but of solving problems in a way that benefits the seller.

The home owner is in a tight spot of some kind and you can save them from public embarrassment and, in most cases, give them at least a little cash to get a new start.

No investor can afford to leave cash in every deal. No one but Bill Gates has that much available money. You must use creative techniques like, leases, option and taking over mortgage payments. Little or no cash is needed for those deals. You can find plenty of reasonable priced educational material on those subjects in book stores or on EBay. The same education that seminars sell for thousands of dollars.

4. You make your profit when you buy! Never make a purchase until you’ve carefully determined exactly how you will get to your profit. If you hold it as a long term investment will the monthly rental income more than cover the monthly mortgage payment? Will you sell the deal to another investor for fast cash? Will you do some fix-up and sell the property for full value? Will you quickly trade it for a more desirable property? Have a plan before you buy.

There you have four steps that even a part-time investor can execute in three to four hours per week. What’s the missing ingredient? Your determination and perseverance. If you will unfailingly follow the plan for a few months you will be well on your way to financial independence.

Self-sabotaging behaviors prevent you from conditioning yourself for success. And changing those long, established behavior patterns like self-sabotage is as difficult as recognizing and understanding them.

How, then, can you eliminate sabotaging beliefs and emotions? First, understand and accept yourself before attempting to understand and accept others. You have to take a journey within for personal evaluation. This means looking inside yourself and listening to your inner dialogue or self-talk. Remain open minded to what you see and hear when understanding your beliefs. This is essential when making constructive changes in your behaviors. Deciding how far and deep you want to go before introspection is your decision. However, you can take your life to a new level when you discover empowering insights to eliminate damaging self-talk and undermining behaviors.

Deciding to let go of self-sabotaging behaviors that prevent you from changing takes courage and a personal commitment to develop more effective actions. Before you go around believing you can change the beliefs and behavior of others, you have to first change yourself. This means overcoming resistances and sabotaging behaviors that have prevented you from experiencing an optimistic attitude. No matter what obstacles you face, developing an optimistic attitude, and changing unrewarding behaviors and beliefs, will awaken you to eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors.

What specific actions can you now take to become aware of and overcome your sabotaging beliefs and self-defeating emotions?

1. Recognize that you are at the crossroads where your decisions and choices are yours and yours alone.

2. realize that you’re the one making the conscious decision to change your damaging self talk and undermining beliefs and behaviors. No one else can do it for you.

3. Change “I can’t” or “I won’t” to “I Can, I Will” on a consistent basis. Pay attention to the emotional changes going on within you. Be prepared to physically describe your changes and write them down. Repeat the process of writing down your changing feelings and behaviors and compare your notes every day. Measure your progress by the visible reoccurrences of positive self-talk and healthy behaviors. Continual negative self-talk will create resentments and disempowering beliefs. Self-resentment is the seed that grows into self-sabotaging behaviors.

4. Plant the seeds that produce positive, empowering beliefs and actions. Ask yourself, “Are my actions linked to pleasure-producing situations or to pain-producing situations?” Take the road that gives you pleasure, not grief. The personal growth experienced from facing a fearful or painful event, or adversity, is important for self-improvement. However, don’t make a steady diet of it. You can grow and change by cultivating positive emotions such as joy, excitement, and happiness.

You hear it al the time if you have been involved or are involved in the home business or internet business industry:

“You need a system to succeed.”

I like to take this a step further. You not only need a “system”, but in order to get the most out of your home business opportunity, you need to have an Automated System. To take that even one step further, your Automated System must hit your prospects from EVERY angle in order to achieve the highest levels of prosperity.

Here are four techniques that if used on all of your prospects WILL increase your earnings with ANY home or internet business opportunity.

Step 1: Create a “capture” or “squeeze” page.

Even if you have no idea what this is, you have almost certainly seen a capture page and even been “captured by one. A capture page is simply a page that is set up to give some brief information about a product or service, but then requires the prospect to enter their info to get the full details. It is often a teaser or hyped up page to get the prospect to want to know more. The most effective capture pages touch on the prospects personal or financial needs compelling them to find out more by filling in their information. Once they do, you own their information for life and can continue to follow up with them or contact them about other offers of services you have no, or develop in the future. Capture pages are a MUST to start building your list that you will be able to promote any product or service. A great program that allows even the most novice person to create capture pages in minutes is Lead Page Generator.

Special note: NEVER LOSE YOUR LIST OF CAPTURED NAMES, ADDRESSES, EMAILS, ETC.

Those that are highly successful in any home business or internet opportunity have a list of thousands that they have built over the years. Any time they have a new product, service or opportunity to promote they send it out to their list first. This gives you a big head start and if your products, services and opportunities have been successful in the past, your list will follow you everywhere.

This all leads into the second technique to creating a totally automated system, email auto responders.

Step 2: Follow up with prospects via email

This is the easiest and most recognizable form of follow up. When creating a capture page, all you have to do is tie the information form into an auto responder. This can be done very easily using services such as aweber. Now, when a prospect fills in their information, you not only get to keep their information for your list, but now you can follow up with them daily, weekly, monthly without having to lift a finger. Of course, you have to write your email follow up messages ahead of time, but once you have them completed, you are following up with your prospects over and over while doing no additional work.

While email is a nice tool to make your system automated, it is far too often the ONLY tool people use. This is a huge mistake. Fact is, that email follow up and marketing is becoming far less effective due to spam laws and people filtering their email accounts.

In order to reach as many people as possible, you need to come at them from different angles.

Step 3: Follow up with a voice broadcasting system

Voice broadcasting gives you yet another method of following up with prospects. It is an awesome tool and as of late has been sort of the “new email.” Because email is getting caught by filters and spam control features, it is necessary to try and reach prospects using other methods. Outside of email, voice broadcasting is the easiest and least expensive means of following up. In addition, voice broadcasting can keep your system totally automated. You can record a simple message or series of messages, collect the prospects phone number on your capture page and then simply set up your voice broadcasting software to call them once, weekly, monthly or whatever you choose. There are lots of services to use out there. Goldcalling, voiceshot, probuilderplus, and protus are just a few.

Step 4: Postcard follow up

Direct mail is by far the most forgotten means of follow up, but often the most effective. Postcards are a terrific way to make sure that your prospects hear form you. By simply collecting their mailing info on your capture page, you have set yourself up to use an incredible tool that will definitely help increase your sales and income.

There are a couple of services that allow you to set up a direct mail campaign to work just like an email auto responder. The best service in my opinion is PostCardAutoresponder.com. You can input a prospects mailing address and set up a campaign that will send them a postcard once, twice, weekly, monthly, or whatever you choose. Just set it up once and forget it. You can contact a prospect for an entire year on autopilot . You can even create custom postcards for any business , service or opportunity.

If you use that simple 4 step plan to create an automated system for your business, you will definitely increase sales and income. Plus, you will not only have an automated system that works for you while you are doing the things you enjoy, but it will be one that contacts prospects from every angle so they are sure to get your message early and often. Remember, it is not always enough just to have a system. You need to have an automated system that you can plug each prospect into that will run itself while you focus on building your business.

There are a lot of people online who are trying to make money from the Internet. Anyone can have a home business of his or her own. However, making money is not as easy as a lot of people make it sound. There are certain things that you need to do in order to make easy daily cash. What are these steps that you need to know to make this a reality in your life?

First, you need to find a business opportunity that other people will want to join. It must have great products or services. The program must be something that a lot of people will want to join and start their own home business. You also need to make sure that the company behind this opportunity knows what they are doing. Here is where step two comes in.

Second, you need to find someone who is already earning easy daily cash in his or her business who can then mentor you. The person or company that you start your business with needs to have a marketing system in place that is easily duplicated by everyone who joins the business or there will be no point in trying to make your business a success. They also need to know how to train you to make the kind of money that they are.

Third, one important thing that is always overlooked by a lot of people who are trying to make money online is that you need to set up lead capture pages. When you are not capturing other people’s information you are leaving a lot of prospects and money on the table. Most people have to see an opportunity 4-7 times before they will sign up for it. By capturing their information you will be able to get them looking at your opportunity for as long as it takes them to decide to join.

Fourth, one other thing that you need to remember is to treat your business as a business and not a hobby. By treating it as the business that it is you will be setting yourself up for success. By treating it as a hobby you will be just playing around with making a little bit of money but not the daily cash that you are wanting. So take your business seriously and treat it as such.

These are four easy steps that you need to follow if you are going to make easy daily cash online. It can be done if you learn how to do it the correct way. You can have your dream of earning daily cash and finally having the financial freedom that you have always dreamed of.

Summary: Is it possible to make easy daily cash online with your own home business? Yes it is definitely possible. There are a lot of people online who are doing this on a daily basis. You just have to learn how to do it correctly.

The shoppers are on your site, they are interested in the product, but the design of your shopping cart is causing you to lose many if not most of your customers. Sound familiar? It should.

Recent research indicates that the average e-commerce site is losing near 75 percent of its shoppers during shopping cart phase of a transaction. While that statistic is probably influenced upward by a few terrible websites, the fact remains that most sites are losing huge numbers of customers by not focusing on their shopping cart. Fortunately, by taking a few relatively minor steps, you can vastly decrease your shopping cart abandonment rate.

Fewer Steps are Better

This mantra is as old as e-commerce itself. By forcing your customers to go through multiple pages you will assuredly see some attrition. You should ask yourself, is all the information I am collecting absolutely necessary? Is there another configuration that would reduce the number of steps my customers will face? Surprisingly, however, this is probably the last step that you should take. Unless your process is particularly laborious, empirical studies indicate that this will likely affect your attrition minimally for the cost and effort required. So, I am not saying not to reduce your checkout steps, but only that you should prioritize the other steps above this one.

Progress Indicators

In both e-commerce and brick and mortars, the single biggest inhibitor to conversions is uncertainty. This is certainly easy to imagine when you consider some brick and mortar examples. BestBuy stores have transitioned to a single line for all of their cashiers rather than having customers pick a cashier to line up in front of. Why? The answer is simple, uncertainty hurts conversion rates. Humans have an instinctual desire to know what is coming ahead. By including a progress indicator at each and every step of the checkout process you will see some remarkable increases in customer retention. Even if you have a 10 step checkout process, letting customers know where they are along the process will ensure a much greater number of completions.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Shoppers respond to sensory stimulation. People like to take things off the shelf and inspect them. Because that option isn’t available for e-commerce sites, you need to compensate for this deficiency as best as possible. One way to ensure better conversions is to include pictures not only in the store but also in the cart. Shoppers, especially those new to e-commerce want to verify and re-verify that they have made the correct choice. Many of these customers are lost if you force them to use their browser’s back buttons to do so. By placing a picture of the item to be purchased within the shopping cart, much of this need is alleviated, meaning lower abandonment for you.

Provide Total Cost Estimates Early

One of the most overlooked concerns of customers is their distrust of e-commerce sites when it comes to shipping. Maybe it’s the years of telemarketers selling garbage products for close to nothing and then making their profit on the shipping. Whatever the reason, it is important to allay fears of hidden costs as soon as possible by providing your users with a total cost estimate earlier rather than later. Is there something to be said for bringing the customer in with a low-ball lead price? Yes. But after the leader it is important to let customers know what they are really paying as early as possible so as to give a few moments to acclimate to the increase.

Well, by now you most likely have heard that good design, proper key word density, intuitive navigation, correct Meta tags, quality incoming links and informative content are all important to achieving top search engine placement. This is especially true when it comes to law firm sites. Legal search engine standings are one of the top competitive classifications for search engine standing optimization efforts.

For this article, I’ll assume that your legal website already excels in the areas just mentioned and your site has decent standing for your desired legal keyword phrases. But, as you are keenly aware, the Internet can generate quality clients at a far more cost effective basis compared to any other medium. So, moving your legal website to the next level should be a very wise decision.

Below I have noted some highly effective ideas to improve your search engine standings:

1. Get another legal website!

Yes, for about $53 per month for the first year, and appx. $11 per month starting in the second year, you can have a second website. Your cost the first year would be approximately $500 for the legal website creation, $10 for a new domain name registration for one year and $10 per month for good quality website hosting. The cost drops in the second year because the site creation fee drops off.

This second site should not duplicate any of your existing site’s appearance or content. Failure to abide by this could cause your site to be dropped from major search engines. Your sites should be about your firm but each emphasizing a different practice area. Plus, both your sites should be hyperlinked together.

2. Select a URL

Your new website needs a web address. Select a URL for your new legal website that incorporates some of your keywords. Which site do you think would generate more search engine hits: www.sandiegolawyerforyou.com or www.smith-smithandklein.com?

Even if you have great name recognition in your local neighborhood, a potential client seeking a San Diego attorney will most definitely find the first site before the second. Result: Incorporating key words into your URL will increase your chances of being found in a key word search.

3. Purchase website creation software.

As web site owner, you or your assistant should know how to up-date your site by adding current content, or minor changes. Updating should be done often to keep your site relevant. With many free and low cost web site programs available, knowledge of HTML is not necessary. Personally, I would recommend Microsoft’s FrontPage as the best choice for website creation software.

4. Read a book on Search engine optimization.

Knowledge is power. Website designers are good at their website creation efforts, but usually lousy at any optimization efforts. In many cases, if they try optimization at all, they are using techniques that are way dated and in many cases could and have caused sites to actually rank well below their true potential or be desisted because of what is perceived as search engine mutilation.

Become the master of your domain not a slave to it! Read a Search engine optimization book today!

Search engine marketing can be a complex and scary topic. Endless opportunities to advertise and market, constantly changing trends and technologies, and overly complex solutions all come with the territory. So, what you don’t need when you’re evaluating or creating your search engine marketing strategy is lengthy explanations about how different techniques work. Instead, seek out advisors who can guide you with simple explanations and techniques based on real results. That’s exactly what following article is about. It’s a simple list of four things business owners can use in creating or evaluating their search engine marketing strategy.

1. Establish Your Internet Marketing Strategy Goal

Many consultants will tell you to set goals about what you want to achieve with your website. Forget it. Those are distractions from the real question you need to ask yourself, which is

„What is THE purpose of my website?“

Once you answer that question, all other aspects of search engine marketing strategy can be leveraged to help you achieve that purpose. Typically, people use their website for many different purposes. Regardless, you still need to answer this question. The focus you will get from it will help you create a more effective strategy.

Here are the top three most common answers to the question „What is THE purpose of my website?“

1. To sell things

2. To generate leads for my sales team

3. To educate my target audience

It can be this simple! Just decide which of the three answers above suits you best (or create your own) and then move on to step 2.

2. Establish a Search Engine Marketing Plan

There’s a reason why search engine marketing is so hot. It works. It consistent generates leads, sales, etc. at a lower cost-per-lead or cost-per-sale than traditional mediums like TV or direct mail advertising. It makes sense when you think about it: when people want to find something online, they go to Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc. and search for it.

Search engine marketing is all about SHOWING UP when people search for what you sell, offer, or have on your website. There is a growing body of knowledge (books, articles, etc.) on how to do this. And like anything else, it has become over analyzed and too complex. To further complicate things, some search engine marketing techniques are ethical and legitimate, while some are not. The best approach is to create a search engine marketing plan that focuses on two aspects:

1. Search engine optimization – showing up in the „free“ area of the search engine’s results

2. Pay-per click advertising – showing up in the „paid“ area of the search engine’s results

For search engine optimization, first realize there is no „silver bullet.“ There just isn’t a way to easily get ranked consistently high in the search engines. It is a combination of factors that always come down to one underlying truth: build your website according to web standards, with a focus on accessibility for all.

Just like search engine optimization, there is no „silver bullet“ for pay-per click advertising, either. Instead, the formula for PPC success is in well-placed bids (what you will pay to have your ad show up) combined with meaningful landing pages (where people go when they click on your ad).

3. Conduct Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The goal of search engine optimization is to make changes to your website to get higher rankings in search engines. Yet, search engine optimization is a confusing sector. On one hand, there are „snake oil salesmen“ ready to get you a #1 ranking with their latest trick. On the other hand, the things that actually do work are very simple, and frankly, just not very „sexy.“

The best strategy to take is a common-sense approach to SEO: develop standards for your website that ALL pages must adhere to. If you do this, and enforce it, you can then branch out to some of the other „niche“ aspects of SEO.

Here’s a sample list of SEO standards to enforce on your website:

1. Write descriptive HTML page titles that really describe the page it is on (in 255 characters or less)

2. Write a summary sentence that really describes the page it is on (in 255 characters or less)

3. Write page content that is focused on

4. Write descriptive ALT text for all images that describes the concept the image illustrates and never use images for text

5. Build all pages to comply with current web standards observed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Only once your web pages comply with the above standards should you start more advanced SEO techniques, including keyword targeting, 301 redirects, link building (getting more links to your site), RSS news feeds, blogs, and SEO-specific metrics and tracking.

4. Leverage Pay-Per Click Advertising

Pay-per click advertising helps you get more traffic from search engines through advertising in search engine results. You pick terms that people search on. You bid a price per click on your ad that you are willing to pay. You ad shows up when someone searches on that term, and, if you’re lucky, they click on your ad and come to your website.

So, pay-per click advertising really boils down to 3 components:

1. Picking keywords to advertise on (i.e. target keywords)

2. Determining what to bid for those target keywords

3. Writing copy for the ads that show up when people search

Picking keywords is all about knowing what terms your customers, clients, etc. would use when searching for your product or service. There are several tools to help you generate ideas. The best tools also check to see how many searches-per-month your target keywords receive. You typically want to find keywords that generate a lot of searches every month, but are focused enough for your business. For example, a company that sells Keen high-performance outdoor sandals probably would be best served bidding on „keen sandals“ versus „sandals“ which could include searches for the all-inclusive resort, Sandals.

Determining what to bid for your keywords can be a highly-scientific process, sometimes managed by complex software and several key metrics. To keep it simple, let a tool like Google Adwords Traffic Estimator recommend to you what to bid at first. Start there, and start small. Your best bet is to lock-in a low daily budget limit until you are comfortable with the impressions your ads are getting, the flow of traffic from the ads to your website, and what those people do once they get to your website.

Writing ad copy comes down to writing a headline that people will click on, and creating compelling copy below that headline/link that will get people to click.

Headlines are best created by following what magazine covers do: focus on getting attention through eye-catching, short phrases. Using words like best (i.e. „Best Tips for a Summer Barbeque“), ultimate (i.e. „Ultimate National Park Vacations“) and number-based lists (i.e. „Top 5 Hybrid Cars for 2006“) have all been proven to work.

Writing effective ad copy below the title/link is really about reinforcing the term(s) search for. This means using the keywords in the ad copy, and starting the copy with an action verb.

By following the approach above, you can create or evaluate your search engine marketing strategy, focus on what matters most when executing your plans, and more effectively achieve your goals.

Heartbreak is a pain like any other. It is an emotional pain so bottomless that it can feel like a physical blow. When you have a pain like this one, all you want is for the deep ache to go away. As much as I’d like to advise differently, there is no band aid for a broken heart. Though it sounds cliché, time is the remedy needed for you to truly heal from such a deep, wrenching pain. In time, this pain will go away. Between now and then, however, following a few basic tips might be able to make the difference in how you are feeling.

1. Cry: You are going to feel like rubbish for the first few weeks. Depending how emotional of a person you are, you may feel like crying for days. Go ahead. A significant change has occurred in your life; a painful change. There is no way to expect that you will feel a little sadness and be able to shut it off with a switch. It’s just not that simple. Allow yourself to grieve for your loss. But not too long! Staying in the past for too long can only hurt you. See rule number 4.
2. Talk to Someone Close: Use the shoulder of someone who cares about you to get out your feelings. This is a way to purify your soul by letting someone in to share your pain. Let them listen, comfort you, and offer advice. You don’t necessarily have to take that advice, but sharing this comfort can make you feel better. Make sure you only allow yourself to grieve and lean on someone for a time because you need to move forward.
3. Distract Yourself: Bring friends you care about back into your life. Maybe having the relationship was keeping you from spending time with your parents, or siblings. Maybe you hadn’t talked to your best friend in weeks. Surround yourself with this support network. Getting things that need to be done around the house done is a great way to get lost in a project. Go to the gym. Organize your closet. Get out and take a walk. Distracting yourself is a great stepping stone to moving on with your life. This brings us to rule number 4.
4. Look toward the Future; Forget the Past: Once you have allowed yourself the indulgence of grieving for a part of your life that is now past, look forward! There is a definite need to be able to start a new chapter in the book of your life. Now that you are past the sadness and anger, it is time for hope and renewal that will help you to move on. Take time out for yourself; get to know yourself as a single individual instead of as part of a couple. Replenish your soul by becoming you again.

Following these sometimes difficult, but necessary steps, you can begin to heal the broken pieces of your heart. You can not only become whole again, you can become whatever you wish to become. This is a chance to start fresh, and once the pain starts to ease, you will see it as such an opportunity.

Determining a profitable website is not easy especially if you are looking to flip it for higher profit within a short time frame. However, with the correct steps and procedures, it is possible even for a beginner to pick up a good site with great potential to start off.

The first step to determine if a website is worth the investment is by the number of income streams it has. Most websites have more than one income channel such as Pay-Per-Click advertisement (Google Adsense etc), Pay-Per-Action programs (AzoogleAds, ClickBank etc) or selling of own products. Basically, this step is to analyze the current profitable channels and see if you can expand or add in other sources of income. Never rely only on one income source for a website.

The second step is to find out where are the traffic coming from. Most websites should have a healthy amount of constant traffic from the search engines followed by social bookmarking sites or regular visitors. If the majority of the traffic is coming from the search engines, proceed to ask the owner what are the keywords that brought in the traffic. Try out the keywords in the search engines and check out the search engine rankings of the site.

You should also check with the owner what are the top search engines that direct the traffic to the site. With these information, check the on-page optimization effort of the site and you may have more ideas for improvements after you have bought it.

The next step is to highlight the areas of possible improvements of the site. If you can come out with at least two quick fixes to the site that can increase the value created to the visitors, the traffic to the site will increase to the next higher level eventually. For example, if you can include an online tool to calculate the financial networth of a person in a financial blog, that would most likely benefit all your readers in a long run.

The fourth step is to check for back links to the site that you are interested to purchase. It is highly recommended to use Yahoo backlink analyzer to check for backlinks since it displays almost all the pages that linked to the site. You may want to use the Yahoo powered analyzer at USESEO.com.

With the above four steps, you should have no problems choosing a profitable website that can generate a stable income for some time. You are advised to check on the seller’s history as well to know more about the seller’s background before confirming the transaction.

While you may be an avid online shopper, buy regularly on eBay, have a PayPal account and aren’t scared of buying online, contact lenses are different.

For many people, their online shopping starts with Google and ends wherever Google leads them. When buying contact lenses, that same search engine can provide you with savings on your contact lenses, if you know how to search.

Most people would open up their browser, type Google.com and then „Contact Lenses“ or „Buy Contact Lenses“ and while that might find places that sell contact lenses, that won’t necessarily find the best deals.

The reason is that when you search with a general term like „buy contact lenses“ you’re going to find Acuvue’s website, Bausch & Lomb and other manufacturers. What you find won’t are the hidden gems we’re talking about.

The hidden gems are those contact lens comparison sites. These sites take prices from all over the internet and compile the prices from a lot of sites. So essentially they are doing a lot of the shopping for you. This is just the first step.

Step one is just changing what you already do, search the internet. Instead of your generic „contact lenses“ search, try something like „contact lens comparison price“ or „comparison shopping contact lens“. Those searches should give a much better set of results that include a few sites that will allow you to view prices from different websites.

The second step shouldn’t take too long. Once you find this site, find the contact lens that you wear and check out the price. Now write down the website and price. Next, go back to Google and check another comparison site. Since not all of these sites are the same, some update prices in real-time, others update daily or weekly. To get the best price you’ll want to make sure that you’re comparing the comparison sites. That sounds confusing but you’ll get used to it. Essentially you’re comparing two different stores that are selling the same product.

There are a few things that you’ll want to watch out for. Some sites will try to trick you by selling smaller packages. So if you’re used to paying $30 per box of contact lenses and you find a site selling a „box“ for $10, you might want to check the quantity of the box. You might find that it is a sample pack and only has a few contacts.

Step three is an easy one. Once you’ve found the correct contact lens at a few different comparison sites, see what site they’re linking too. Most of these sites don’t sell directly, but they’ll send you to bigger sites. The third step in saving money online when buying contact lenses is to now check site that actually sells the contact lenses. There are times where you’ll find the best deal directly. Sometimes the price will be the same, but it’s worth the effort to take the extra step and check directly.

The fourth and final step in your contact lens shopping experience is to check directly with the manufacturer. Some manufacturers don’t sell directly to the public, but others do. If the manufacturer sells a considerable amount online, they’ll probably offer prices that are similar or better than other websites.

Just as a bonus, here is a fifth and final step. Many manufacturers want people to switch to their brand of lens that they’ll do almost anything to get you to switch. Many times this means a coupon just for you. Other times you might be able to get a free sample of their specific brand of contact lens. Some manufacturers won’t be able to offer anything, but as my mom always said, „It never hurts to ask!“

Everyone needs targeted visitors to their websites and tis could proof, at some times, to be a very tough job to do. You hear that you need to do one thing from this guru and the other guru tells you to do another. It gets confusing at one point.

Now, the one strategy that will never fail you is finding good partners. Basically even internet marketing is about the “partners” you have and find. You need link partners to gain popularity in the search engines and when you want to sell a product, effectively, you need JV partners to get this thing rolling.

Now why should I do a JV?

Well, whenever you have a product and you want to launch it, it may be wise to find websites in your niche that have lists and may be interested in selling your products. And even if they don’t have a list, just ask them if they would like to promote your product on their website.

What is in it for them?

Great question… whenever you set-up a JV, you need to be sure there is something in it FOR THEM. So depending on you focus you could offer them a commission of 50 up-to 100% on a product you sell.

So how do your determine what kind of commission you will give to your affiliates? It really depends on your focus… if you want to build a list of paying customers quickly, you set-up a JV and give as much commission as possible to your JV partners but when it is for a product that you are going to sell as your main product, you could offer them a commission anywhere between the 50 and 65% (you still need to make a living yourself).

In the first case the product doesn’t have to be extremely high priced, it is all about building that list with “paying customers”… your golden list. So something like $9,95 would be just fine and perfect to attract partners and hand you over their lists. Especially if you give-out a commission of 100%.

Now, the next thing you should do is make it as simple as possible for the JV partner. What I mean by that is that you shouldn’t let them do to much work. You should create all the messages for them(so they can send it out to their list), create a couple of banners that they can put up on their websites, text links, etc.

Now, I have shown you the basics of setting up a JV. Marc Goldmann knows a lot more about how-to set-up Joint Ventures, effectively. So if you ware truly interested, I highly recommend you to do a search on him on Google.

I want to stop by giving you step by step directions you can follow when you set-up your Joint Ventures:

#1: Have a product to sell. You need to make sure you have some kind of product your could sell before you can set-up a JV. And this doesn’t have to be your own product, just think outside the box or check out this website for more information about Joint Ventures.

#2: Set-up you website. When you set-up a JV for your own product, you need a website to promote that product. So you will need to buy hosting and a domain name. I personally get my domains at Godaddy and my hosting at Hostgator.

#3: Find JV partners. This is a very time-consuming task but very rewarding in the end. All you should do is look for websites in your niche and ask them if they want to be your JV partner. Try to call them if possible and otherwise send them a email about your affiliate program(how much they can make, other advantages for them).

#4: Set-up and prepare for launch. If you want to learn more about how to set-up a launch, you should take a look at this website. He knows everything about launches and can most surely help you set-up a launch in your own niche. I will just cover some basics.

What you need to do is make sure your follow ups are ready, that you start getting prospects before you launch and keep these prospects updated and interested about your product, Create a sense of urgency like your product is the best they can get in your niche. And it will make sure that your partners will make more money and the next time you launch something, they will be happy to help you out.

I hope this article has been useful and will help you set-up some explosive Joint Ventures in the future. Take action right now and good luck.

Do you want to download games onto PSP? Hardly anybody doubts the usefulness and many facets of the Sony PSP, but a lot of people feel that the games themselves are considerably overpriced. If you do your research, you can find the right places and methods to download games onto our PSPs, and we can even do this without breaking the law!

How to Download Games onto PSP- Step 1-
Your standard PSP games will come on disc, or UMD as they are called. As you download games onto PSP however, they will go directly on to a memory stick/card. (Although some people call them memory sticks, and others refer to them as memory cards, there is no difference between the two.) The standard PSP memory card of 32mb will just be big enough to do the job with modern games. PSP owners as a rule should get the biggest and best card within their budget. It is not difficult any more to find reasonable deals on 2 or 4 gig models on eBay and Amazon. When you have acquired your memory card, it will need to be formatted before you can use it. This will effectively wipe the card clean, and is an essential step, so don’t leave it out.

How to Download Games onto PSP-Step 2-
One of the biggest problems is finding a place to download the games from. It is not difficult to find places that will let you download games onto PSP, but so many of them are unreliable and dangerous. Apart from the risk of downloading something that will be different from what was promised, you could even find your computer infected with a virus or spyware. Not good! Make sure you find a reputable site to download PSP games from. The trustworthy ones will charge a small fee in advance, and for that you will get access to unlimited downloads.

How to Download Games onto PSP-Step-3-
As you start downloading to your computer, make sure you only download files that end in “PSP” or have “PSP” in the title, as otherwise the file will not be compatible. Sadly it will often be found that the untrustworthy sites out there will trick you with all sorts of different files as downloads, so make sure you are very careful about a file before you download it. A very good idea when downloading the games is to save them to their own folder on your desktop called “PSP Downloads”. This is the most logical place to put them!

How to Download Games onto PSP-Step 4-
Once you have quite a few games downloaded, you can then transfer therm from your PC onto the memory card of your PSP. This is not complicated, and will only need a standard USB cable to connect the two, and the PC should then accept the PSP and think of it as some form of removable drive, like a flashdrive or removable HD. When everything is connected, you need to open up the PSP using the PC and drag and drop the needed files onto the PSP memory stick, just as you would with any kind of removable drive. It is important that as you do this, you put the files into folders marked PSP, and then GAME on your memory card. You must create these files if they are not there already, and it makes sense to use all capital letters.

How to Download Games onto PSP-Step 6-
As soon as you have transferred the games to your PSP, you should be able to play them by opening up the GAME menu and choosing the game you want from the stick. You may get error massages, and these are often caused by incompatible firmware. This happens most often with downloading homebrew games. It can mean that you have to downgrade the firmware for your PSP to be able to play these homebrew games.

It really is quite easy to download games onto PSP when you have learned how to do it, the hardest part is finding a reputable download source!

As a consumer you’ve learned the importance of
establishing a good credit rating with your lenders. Whether you are shopping for a new home or auto, or searching for the best deals on insurance, your credit worthiness will be judged by your credit rating or credit score.

A bad credit history or bad credit habits will place “black marks” on your credit profile. These include things such as late payments, having an account assigned to a collection agency, and of course bankruptcy.

Establishing good credit habits and therefore a good credit rating will improve your credit worthiness. This will be reflected in potential lenders offering you substantially lower interest rates and better deals on credit offers.

Here are 4 tips to help you create a shining credit profile:

1) Pay Your Bills On Time

Lenders only have your past payment history on which to decide the type of credit risk you present to them. How you pay off your debts now indicates to them how you will pay off future debts.

2) Don’t Use Too Many or Too Few Credit Cards

How much is too much ? How little is too little ? Many credit experts and financial planners suggest two to four credit cards is just the right mix.

3) Pay At Least The Minimum Due

Always pay at least the minimum due payment, but never less. And remember, just paying the minimum payment means it will take you years and years to pay off that credit card.

Example: Paying off a $2,000 credit payment at 18% APR with a minimum monthly payment of 2% ($40 dollars or less) will take you 30 years to pay off the amount plus interest.

4) Review Your Credit Report Regularly

Monitor your credit report from all three major credit bureaus – Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax – on a regular basis. Check your credit profile at least annually. Review it carefully and make sure that any past mistakes or disputes have been corrected.

Also, if you notice an account listed that you know that you have not personally opened, contact that creditor and the credit bureaus immediately. This could be a sign that you’ve had your identity stolen. Request to have a fraud alert placed on your profile and account to protect yourself and your credit. Identity theft is the fastest growing consumer crime in America, with an estimated 1 million people victimized each year.

Establish good credit habits early in life and reap the benefits that your good credit rating will provide you for the rest of your financial future.

Let’s face it, the economy is not as strong as it could be, and while it’s struggling along, more and more people are finding themselves getting deeper and deeper into debt. The sad thing is that, most likely, none of this debt is your fault. After all, you need a place to live and food to eat, but circumstances beyond your control have now left you owing more money than you can pay back. However, consumer debt reduction may just be the silver lining you’ve been looking for.

Of course, there is more than one way to reduce your debt. Which one you choose will depend on your personality, as well as your current situation. That being said, here are some things you can do–whichever method you decide to use–to get yourself off to a strong start.

1. Know exactly where you are. It’s time for a gut check. You need to write down all of your debts, interest rates, household expenses, and any other money that is being spent. Be specific, and account for every single cent. Be sure to write down all of your income, and remember to list any liquid assets you may have that you can apply toward lowering your debt.

2. Set your priorities. You need a roof over your head, water, and food to eat, so those things should be your highest priority. Utilities and medication will also be near the top of the list for a lot of people. Next is a vehicle, especially if you live in the country, or have no other way of getting to work.

Does this mean you should give up all of the little „treats“ in your life? Not necessarily, but you need to make sure the necessities are taken care of first. After that, you can start deciding which things are more important. Because we are talking about consumer debt reduction, it makes sense that the less necessary items should be the first to go. For example, do you really need the full satellite television package, or could you live with basic TV for a few months if it meant you could get out of debt?

3. Reduce the amount you owe. Yes, you will be chipping away at your debt with each payment you make, but we’re talking about reducing it all at once. The way you do that is by talking to each of your creditors. They may be able to forgive late fees, lower interest rates, or remove other arbitrary penalties. If they won’t do any of that, then you can always consider getting a debt consolidation loan which will have the same effect.

4. Increase how much you pay. The more you can pay toward your debt, the quicker it will be paid off. Now that may sound obvious, but the reason this is so important is that it negates the effect of compound interest. Depending on how much you owe, and the current interest rate, paying double the minimum payment could allow you to pay of your debt eight times faster! How’s that for consumer debt reduction in action?

Many times we study how to do things faster and better but we skip the essential step of inspiration. When we are inspired by the Holy Spirit we have a wealth of ability with which to work. When we are empowered by Christian inspiration we “can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us” (Phil. 4:13, KJV). We read in Job: “But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.” (Job 32:8, KJV)

One of the most important things to remember as we study Christian inspiration is that when we are inspired we must use our inspiration for the glory of God and to do His will. Jesus tells us: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33, KJV) We must first seek His righteousness and His will before we will be able to use His inspiration for both His glory and our growth and benefit.

There are 4 steps to achieving success through Christian inspiration:

1. Recognize that everything we have is from God and that everything we do should be to glorify the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God gives us His Spirit and His inspiration to be used for His glory. Job says of God (the Ancient): “With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding. With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding.” (Job 12:12-13, KJV) God holds all the wisdom in the earth and only He can dispense of it.

2. Ask God for the inspiration that you need. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7:7, KJV) Before we can be given the wisdom of God and His inspiration, we must first ask Him for it. James tells us: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (James 1:5, KJV)

3. Purpose to use the wisdom and Christian inspiration He gives you for His glory and His purpose. Once we are given wisdom and inspiration, we have a tremendous responsibility to use it prudently. Jesus Himself tells us: “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” (Lk. 12:48b, KJV).

4. Practice using Christian inspiration. Once you have Christian inspiration, you must practice using it. So often we are given a gift and we do not use it. Just like any skill we might learn, Christian inspiration is most effectively used long-term when we daily accept it. When you are inspired or have an inspired thought about something you have been struggling with, write it down, or immediately put it into action. When you use the Christian inspiration you are given, you likely place yourself in an ideal position to receive future inspiration.

Now you have 4 basic steps to Christian inspiration. When you consistently apply these four steps, and spend time with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself on a daily basis, you will be able to tap into a nearly limitless supply of inspiration. Take the time to study the accompanying Bible verses in this article, and meditate on the Word of God daily.

You have my permission to reprint and distribute this article as long as it is distributed in its entirety, including all links. © Sean Mize 2006

It’s possible to learn HOW to better your health in only 4 steps and this article will show you how. Each step is a bite-sized nugget of healthy living information you can actually use.

Let’s get started…

Step 1: Nutritional Supplements

In my opinion, they are very necessary and very beneficial- especially when combined with healthy eating habits. It’s very difficult to get all the nutrients your body needs through food alone, but combining proper nutrition with nutritional supplements is very powerful.

That being said, the one supplement everyone should be taking is a good multi vitamin/mineral. Look at it as added insurance- eating well is crucial, but now that you’re also taking a multi, you can rest assured you’re getting the nutrients your body needs.

Step 2: Nutrition

Good nutrition is SO important. You are what you eat…remember that. Make a conscious effort to gradually improve your eating habits, eating more of the good foods (nuts, berries, peanut butter, olive oil, greens, chicken, whole grains, etc.) and less of the bad foods (fried food, saturated fat, fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, etc.). Reading the label of what you’re eating will tell you a lot.

You may think you lack the needed will power, but you’ll be amazed at what happens when you start to gradually improve your eating habits.

Step 3: Exercise

Exercise is the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to better health. There are so many benefits of exercising, including stronger bones and improved libido- it’s a no brainer to start doing it. Your goal should be to exercise 3-5 times a week with a combination of cardio exercises and strength training (but no more than 1 hour per workout session).

It’s been measured that if you add 3 pounds of muscle to your body, this added muscle will burn as many calories as if you ran 1 mile. Muscle burns calories!

Step 4: Stress Management and Sleep

Stress management and getting good sleep each night round out your path to better health. Until you find a way to manage your stress, it will continue to do damage to your body. Two tips you might want to implement include prioritizing your day each morning and practicing deep breathing exercises (yes, you probably already knew this, but have you tried it?).

Getting enough sleep each night is equally important when you consider your body uses this time to repair itself. You should aim for 7-9 hours each night. Two tips you might want to implement include exercising and avoiding late night eating.

Now that you have the basics, expand on this information. Step 1 research more about Nutritional Supplements, Step 2 research more about Nutrition and so on. I guarantee after the 4 steps you’ll feel more confident about reaching your health & fitness goals.

1) Reliability

This is not of moment you can fully distinguish by just looking at their website, in consequence you’ll have to obtain a works of research. It’s always a applicable idea to finish a search about the host to find any reviews from past or current clients. To do this, simply search using Google for keyword phrases using the company name. For example, Rackspace review or EV1Servers review, or you can even take a step further, by reviewing the support forums of the host if they have one. There you can easily find as much information as you need. How does this help with regards to reliability? Simple, it can show how fast they respond to complaints and issues by reviewing what past or current clients have said, and postings in the forums can show how they handle customer feedback.

2) Cost

We are all looking for a value hyped up deal. It’s wanted that we influence in style now market price when election a fired server host. Selecting a $29/month server may not be the top option if it’s backed with poor support and perhaps your server built with recycled hardware. Take note, this is not saying that cheap dedicated server hosts produce low quality service, but I’m saying that in 8 times out of 10 you do get what you pay for. Do price shopping and take note of each host’s price along with their server specs, bandwidth, network, and support guarantees. Review each and then you’ll be able to figure, which one is truly the most cost effective. Is it really worth it to have a $29/month server with only 256 MB RAM which may be slow and unresponsive if hit with a spike in traffic? It’s going to be up to you to weigh those options.

3) Support

This is toilsome for issues agnate as downtime, ddos attacks and characteristic issues dealing with your server. It is foremost that you express with the help team before purchasing a server. Why? Simply for you yearning to demur their response before investing any funds. If you would rather not send an email or call before making your purchase, if the site you’re thinking about has a support forum, you can register and post your technical question there or review the questions asked prior to get a better idea of how solid their support technicians are with regards to answering questions.

4) Longevity

This is usually not listed as a bearing as manifold startup fired server companies are solid, but it’s usually a elite risk to lane the twist of cut that a transaction has been in business. You can seal a whois of the host’s domain name to see how long a host has been in business. It can be a good indication that they’re in for the long haul if they’ve been around for awhile. This is not to discredit choosing a new company, as many solid server hosts are started regularly who go on to be huge successes. Simply use your best judgment when reviewing if to go with a host that’s been around for years instead of one that’s now getting started. I should point out here, that in some cases newer hosts will fight harder for your business and give you an overall better support in the beginning in some cases as they really treasure your business. It’s really a toss up here, that’s where your natural instincts for decision making will have to be the deciding factor.

You, like all marketers have a million and one things to do today! At the top of your priorities is marketing… finding more customers and raking in greater profits. If you’re looking for a simple, proven model to create sales content without spending hours hunched over the computer, try the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model. You’ll be amazed at how fast you can create an effective salesletter.

1. Attention
What captures a reader’s attention more than an exciting list of things that will benefit THEM? Think about the affects of starting right off with 6 of the most appealing benefits of your product or service.

A Multi Level Marketer might start a sales letter like this:

* Experience the freedom of …
* Being your own boss
* Financial independence
* Benefit 3 and so on …..

That gets their attention, and compels them to read on.

2. Interest
Here’s where we sneak in the basic facts that might otherwise be uninteresting. The nitty gritty details of the product features won’t hold the customer’s attention for long, so keep it short and sweet. Hey, it’s great that your swimming pools have filters, etc., but let’s face it… there’s not a lot of excitement going on here!

3. Desire
Whet their appetite, but give them some cold, hard logic to back up their purchase. Most consumers buy on impulse, then ask themselve whether it was the right choice. Don’t make them second guess! Preparing them to face the doubts with a solid logical reason they got the best deal for their buck might include:

* The advantages of purchasing from YOU.

* Testimonials from other satisfied customers.

* An unconditional money-back guarantee.

* A good deal!

4. Action
Order now! Hey it says move it, but it doesn’t pack the wallop of a stronger action statement like this one:

Hurry! Don’t miss out on this LIMITED TIME special offer. Call now to place an order, or visit us at www…..

Be sure to give details of how to order. Make it a part of the command… make it easy to do… provide several options.

Everyone wants to go on a nice, relaxing, and quiet vacation every once in a while, but not everyone has the kind of money that can buy a 5-star hotel stay for the weekend. In that once every few years chance that you have saved just enough for a lush weekend trip, you have the choice to go all out on a first rate hotel and have little left for going around town, or to pick a more reasonably priced 4 star hotel and still have a good budget for seeing the best that the hotel’s surroundings has to offer.

No matter what popular tourist destination you go to, there are 4-star hotels that are more than capable of competing with the first class hotels in the same town. Despite the difference in ratings, it is possible that the only disparity that counts between 4-star hotels and their 5-star counterparts is the price range, especially if you’re one customer who is only slightly particular about the kind and range of services offered in the hotel you choose to stay in. Some 4-star hotels even offer a wider range of amenities than some 5-star hotels at a lower price. Also, some 4 star hotels are considered the best in a certain region, as a 4-star rating is the highest for the hotel grading body ruling that area.

However, notice that the prices also differ according to the hotels’ respective distances from the center of the city or town; the prices reduce as the location moves farther from the center. The factor of how much of the city center you want to see should therefore play a role in planning your luxurious weekend getaway. After all, what you save in accommodations could easily turn into expenses when you need to spend more on transportation between the hotel and tourist spots you intend to visit.

Four-star hotels are also suitable for business travel, as business centers and conference halls are available in most. The business traveler can also benefit from the luxurious service a 4-star hotel offers, as the hotel can easily cater to a mix of business and pleasure. Some can even be a source of inspiration and tranquility, particularly those with extra provisions for privacy, such as soundproofed rooms, and wellness facilities, such as room massage service and a Zen garden.

Here’s a list of 4 star hotels that may be worth spending a weekend in someday: the Sofitel Paris Porte de Sevres, which also offers wireless Internet access in some rooms, 3 restaurants catering to different tastes, and the option to stay on one of its eight non-smoking floors; the Hotel Forum in Rome, with a roof-garden restaurant overlooking the Venice Square and the Colosseum; and the Elite Hotel Praha in Prague, which is located in a quiet, yet scenic part of town, and features a day bar with a small leisure garden and a grill club that showcases the best of French, Argentinian and Spanish cuisines.

Stage 1 – Style over substance
The first stage is to design a site that the chief executive officer, venture capitalists, and ad agencies like to see. There are all types of „bells and whistles“ in this design. An entire site might be a Flash animated site. Or there might be some beautiful JavaScript mouse over effects or drop-down menus in the design. It’s always a pretty design, but the message is clear – style over substance.

Stage 2 – Designing for online visibility
In Stage 2, the reality of an ineffective web design begins to hit, usually around 3-6 months after the initial launch. A site will typically get rejected by many of the major directories, not be indexed by the major search engines, or not get the traffic or sales that were projected based on the various types of marketing strategies used. Typically, that’s when companies decide that they will try to hire a professional online marketer to promote the site. Doorway page companies, in some way, shape or form, rear their ugly heads. Unfortunately, many web site owners fall for a doorway page company’s pitch because the beautifully designed site couldn’t possibly be the problem with low site traffic. Yahoo might have rejected a site, or the site might have been listed in Yahoo and the company cannot understand why they have no description next to their company name. But in no way would many ad agencies or doorway page companies want to tell potential clients the truth — they simply did not design and write an effective web site — because it would mean losing thousands of pounds in business

Stage 3 – Designing for your audience
By Stage 3, after spending an exorbitant amount of money on pretty web site designs and various marketing strategies, web site owners generally figure out that they did not design or write an effective Web site for their target audience. Typically, web site owners will bring in a usability expert to analyze potential problems and present various solutions. Bringing in a search engine marketing expert to help with search-engine friendly web designs &templates early in the design phase can save a company thousands of pounds in online marketing costs.

Stage 4 – Site redesign
After careful usability and search engine visibility analyses, web site owners finally have an effective web site. A site that is written, coded and designed for user friendliness and search engine visibility generally gets the most traffic and resulting sales because it was written, programmed, and designed for end users.

Conclusion
Web sites should always be designed with your target audience in mind, not your own personal preferences. Colours have meaning. Professional designers understand the psychology of colour and the use of white space to best project the image your audience wishes to see. (For example, try not to use the colour red on a financial site.) Understanding the products/services/information your target audience is searching for is paramount to designing and maintaining an effective web site. When you launch a site, you might have to make an educated guess as to what your target audience wants. After that, tools such as site statistics software and reporting from site searches tell you exactly what your visitors are looking for. Then content and marketing strategies can be adjusted accordingly. Unless the advanced technology clearly benefits end users, do not use it on your site. If your venture capitalists or CEO’s or lawyers like the site, ask if they are going to spend the thousands or millions of pounds to keep you in business.

They’re not. Your target audience who will ultimately determine the success or failure of your site.

Someone out there had it out for pregnant girls. As if it isn’t hard enough on them already, there is a disorder known as Pre-Eclampsia. Below, we will take a look at what this disorder is characterized by, how it effects you, and how to tell if you have it.

Pre-Eclampsia is a pregnancy disorder involving convulsions. It generally occurs after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and usually with the first child. And as I said before… someone had it out for pregnant girls, becuase if no signs or symptoms of pre-eclampsia occur, there is still possibilities of eclampsia, which can happen before, during, or after the labour process.

There is only one true way to tell if you are carrying the eclampsia disorder; Eclamptic convulsions. Eclamptic convulsions have a four stages of gruelling pain:
Stage 1 – Unless the woman is aware and watching for this stage, it is generally missed. In stage one the woman will simply roll her eyes, and simultanieously, her hand a face muscles will slightly twitch.
Stage 2 – Shortly after stage one, the teeth will clench, the arms and legs will go rigid, she can bite her tongue, and the face and hand muscles that where twitching will now be clenching. In this stage, the woman will also experiance loss of breath for approximatley 30 seconds.
Stage 3 – This is where it gets really bad. The muscles will begin to jerk violently, while frothy and slightly bloody saliva will appear. 2 minutes of this until it stops, and then there is a coma, or occasionally heart failure.
Stage 4 – If not dead, the woman will fall into a deep unconscious state. This can persist for hours, or pass quickly.

Clearly this is not anything to be letting pass by. if any of these symptoms occur, visit your doctor immediately. You could lose 2 lives if you are not properly treated or monitored.

Here are the various kinds of software that you’re not allowed to sell on eBay, and how to spot them. You should always try installing used software before you sell it, as this might give you a few clues.

1.Pirate Software.

This one is reasonably obvious, but pirate software can be hard to spot. The biggest things to look out for are auctions that don’t have pictures or only have pictures from catalogues, unrealistically low prices, and come with no manuals or documentation. Microsoft software comes with a Certificate of Authenticity, which you should check. Software that is on recordable media such as CD-RWs is usually pirated.

If you see software that offered for download only, it is often pirated but not always. Some small software developers allow download licenses for their software to be resold on sites like eBay. Type the name of the software into a search engine, and go to the manufacturer’s site to check. Remember that software you download is very unlikely to come with resale rights, though.

2.Beta Software.

Beta software is pre-release software, issued by companies for testing purposes. Companies generally do not give permission for their beta software to be sold or redistributed, as it won’t be as good as the final product. Do not buy anything that says it is beta, and return anything you receive that says beta or not for resale or distribution anywhere on the CD or during the install.

3.Academic Software.

Some companies sell special educational edition’s or student license’s for their software, which are designed to make it affordable to students and teachers. You can only sell this software if you are a licensed educational reseller for the company, and your buyers are educational users. Academic software will usually say somewhere on its CD or in its installation what it is.

4.OEM Software.

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer‘ this is software that is only supposed to be distributed with a new computer, as it came pre-installed on the computer. The licences for this software usually stop you from selling it without also selling any hardware. Look out for the message for sale with a new computer only, or similar. Note, though, that it’s usually fine to bundle any OEM software you come across with computers that you sell on eBay.

If you sell any kind of software that isn’t allowed, then eBay might shut down your auction, or your sellers might realise what they’ve bought and leave you bad feedback. It’s not really worth the risk.

You already know a lot about credit cards. You’ve heard that consumer debt in this country-particularly credit-card debt-is at an all-time high, while our savings rate is lower than ever before. You realize that the boom in online shopping, with its absolute dependence on credit cards, is further fueling their use. You are well aware that running a balance on your plastic-and paying the unconscionable interest rates that come with it-is one of our most basic and widespread financial blunders. And you suspect that the sheer volume of direct-mail credit-card solicitations with low teaser rates must be devastating the forests of northern Idaho.

Still, credit cards are a fact of 21st century life, and it only makes sense to understand how to use them wisely. While it’s probably impractical to keep all plastic out of your wallet, it is prudent to limit the number of cards you have, and, of course, to pay all balances in full every month. Indeed, having only a traditional American Express card, which doesn’t allow you to carry a balance, can be an excellent way to impose fiscal discipline on you and your family-although, as the Visa ads point out, not everyone accepts American Express. For the rest of us, who do occasionally dabble in credit-card debt, here are a few ways to keep your habit under control.

1. Take advantage of frequent-flier programs tied to credit cards, but keep in mind that interest payments on a high balance can quickly turn „free“ flights into outrageously expensive ones. At a dollar per mile, running up a debt of 25,000 may get you a plane ticket, but it will also saddle you with $4,500 in yearly interest payments, assuming an 18% annual rate.

2. Look very closely at credit-card offers before you bite. Obviously, most of those 2.99% and 3.99% rates will be in effect for only a few months. But there may be other catches as well. Making a late payment, even if it arrives only a day after it was due, may immediately trigger a permanent rate hike. Also, low initial rates sometimes apply only to transferred balances, and you could get charged a fee for making the transfer. Check, too, to see whether there is an annual fee, or charges for exceeding your credit limit or even for closing an account.

3. Avoid amazing grace-period tricks. What you’re looking for is a provision that says you’ll never be charged interest as long as you pay your bill in full by the due date. But some cards have no grace period, calculating interest from the moment you make a purchase, while others give you only a limited time after making a charge before interest is imposed. That period of 20 days or so may end before your payment is due.

4. Don’t forget to cancel cards you no longer use. If you don’t, they’ll show up on credit reports, and that could be a problem, particularly if you’re applying for a home mortgage. Your would-be lender may be reluctant to make a loan to someone who has a cumulative credit-card limit of $50,000, $100,000, or even more.

One of the fun parts of owning a computer is, of course, access to the internet. The worldwide web is chock full of useful information, readily available at your fingertips! It is also home to potentially lethal viruses, many of which can wreak havoc on your system within moments. The following four programs can help you avoid trouble; best of all they are absolutely free.

Firefox – a web browser for the ages. Okay, a web browser that beats Internet Explorer by preventing pop ups and harmful scripts from being downloaded to your computer. Lots of nifty features too, including tabbed browsing, live bookmarks, and tons of add-on features.

Spybot Search and Destroy – gets rid of adware, spyware, and malware. Blocks the installation of spyware before it occurs; works in conjunction with anti-virus software, not as a replacement for one.

AVG Antvirus – offers basic antivirus protection including scanning email attachments for viruses and scanning of all hard drives, removable drives, and external drives on your computer. A paid version does some additional tasks and includes technical support.

Zone Alarm – if you don’t have a firewall installed on your computer, you are opening yourself up to potential catastrophic security breaches. With Stealth Mode enabled you can search the internet in private, away from the intruding eyes of those who might want to steal your important information.

As with many freeware programs, “pro” or professional versions of the software are sometimes available to give computer users a maximum amount of protection, for a price. Still, all four of these programs have something to offer and are worth exploring. Your computer safety and privacy is essential, insure it today by downloading the programs that are right for you.

In this article I will be showing you four little known tips to fix scratched CD or DVD and recover the data within, Every user has had trouble with a scratched CD or DVD. The theory goes like this – A CD/DVD reader or player uses a laser beam to read the data on the disk. This laser beam crosses the protective plastic layer and reads the real recording metal layer. If the protective plastic layer is scratched, the laser will be unable to pass resulting in non-readable disc. In the case of data CDs the CD/DVD reader is unable to read the CD/DVD properly resulting in reading errors while in case of audio/video discs, the CD player skips when we play it.

If somehow we manage to re-smooth this protective layer then the laser will reach the data and read it, now there are many ways we can achieve this using common household item’s as discussed below:

1). Toothpaste – Yups! Toothpaste is our very first scratched CD/DVD fixer, you can use any non-gel based toothpaste for this, just put a very small amount of it on the scratched area and polish it gently using a cotton swab, sometimes the paste may cause new minor scratches but they are just superficial. Now just wash the cd using water.

2). If the above trick does not work try some metal polish like Brasso gently wiping with a soft cotton ball followed by application of Vaseline.

3). Baking Soda – make a small quantity of baking soda paste and apply using a soft cotton cloth buffing the bad scratch. Clean the baking soda before using the disc.

4). You can also try using some oil as a polishing agent this also works many times.

There are many daily use products that can be used to get the cd working just keep on experimenting, please note that you must take special care while using the above tips as

Does Tax Season get you down?

Here are 4 simple steps that any small business owner can take to lower your tax bill this year.

STEP #1: Understand How Serious Your Tax Problem Is

Are you aware of just how much in taxes you are paying?

Here’s how much the average family spends on various consumer categories — as a percentage of income.

You must realize that it’s not how much you spend on taxes that is important, it’s how much you spend on taxes as compared to all other major categories of spending.

Consumer Spending:

How Do You Spend Your Hard-Earned Dollars?

Taxes ———————- 32.0%
Housing ——————– 16.7%
Medical Care ————— 11.5%
Food ———————– 8.2%
Transportation ————- 7.9%
Recreation —————– 5.7%
Clothing ——————- 4.1%
Savings ——————– 1.4%
Other Miscellaneous ——– 12.5%
TOTAL ——————— 100.0%

So, if you think you are being „nailed“ by the government, you are absolutely right. You spend more on taxes than any other category of consumer spending.

In fact, you spend more on taxes than on food, clothing, and housing combined.

And it’s not just federal income taxes we’re talking about here. There’s also state and local income tax, payroll tax (Social Security and Medicare), sales tax, excise tax and property tax.

Maybe you already knew „intuitively“ that your tax bill is outrageously high. If not, the picture I’ve just painted should thoroughly convince you that you pay too much tax, period.

STEP #2: Get The Right Attitude About Your Taxes

What do I mean by this? Well, you simply must have a certain „mental attitude“ toward this whole idea of paying taxes. I’ll get right to the point — you must have an attitude about taxes that says, „Enough is enough. I’m paying way too much tax and I don’t like it. And it’s about time I did something about it — TODAY!“

After reading those numbers above, how do you feel? Doesn’t that just make you furious? If so, great, then you are on your way to solving this problem. The old cliche is true: „You can’t solve a problem until you admit you have one.“)

If you saw those numbers above and said, „Big deal. So I pay 32% in taxes. So what? So does everybody else in this country“ — well, I’m sorry, but you might as well just stop reading this article right now. You will continue to pay too much tax because you really don’t care about it.

To reduce your taxes, you must be committed to the idea of paying less taxes.

Before today is over, go get last year’s personal income tax return (Form 1040) and look at how much tax you paid.

When you have Form 1040 in front of you, do you realize where the most important number is on this form?

No, it’s not Line 71 — the refund amount.

No, it’s not Line 74 — the balance due amount.

The most important number on Form 1040 is Line 62.

It says: This is your TOTAL TAX. That is how much federal income tax you paid for all of last year. When it comes to reducing your taxes, it doesn’t matter whether you got a refund or whether you had a balance due.

What matters most is: What was your total tax liability for the year. That’s the „magic number“ that should just make your blood boil and your heart beat so fast that you can hardly stand it.

Now that I’ve got you all „riled up“ about paying so much tax, let’s move on to Step #3.

STEP #3: Realize That Reducing Taxes Is The Easiest Path Possible To Creating Wealth

Consider this simple fact: Reducing your taxes by just $4,000 per year is the easiest way possible to becoming a millionaire.

Let me elaborate.

Let’s say you implement some new tax-saving strategies that reduce your taxes by $4,000 each year. Now, if you take that $4,000 per year in tax savings and invest it over the next 30 years, assuming you earn 11.5% on your investment, you end up with $1,048,745.98 at the end of the 30 years.

And here’s the best part about this scenario: Where did you get the $4,000/year to invest? Well, you got it from money that would have gone to Uncle Sam. It’s money that you used to spend on taxes, part of the 32% of your income that goes to taxes each year.

In effect, it’s free money. It’s money that was always there — you just didn’t realize it.

Is this a good deal or what? By simply reducing your taxes, the government will finance your million-dollar retirement.

And let’s say your tax situation is such that you save $2,000/year instead of $4,000/year. Same assumptions: you invest the $2,000 each year at 11.5% for 30 years. End result: $524,372.99. Not too shabby, eh?

So all you have to do is come up with the tax-saving strategies that will put $2,000 or $4,000 in your pocket each and every year. Which brings us to Step #4.

STEP #4: Get Hold Of The Tax-Saving Strategies That Will Make You A Millionaire

You know, it doesn’t really take much information to save a bundle in taxes. It is true: just a little bit of tax knowledge goes a very long way.

Useful tax information is freely available. On the Internet, at your local library, and through your local tax professional.

The question is: Are you willing to spend some time this year learning about effective tax strategies that can save you literally thousands of dollars?

Here’s a simple goal to set for yourself: Over the next 10 weeks, set aside just an hour a week to read up on tax-reduction strategies. That’s all, just 10 hours.

Chances are you’ll find 2 or 3 strategies that reduce your tax bill by $1,000 this year.

So you spend 10 hours and, in effect, pay yourself an extra $1,000 for your time. Not a bad hourly rate, eh?

Many times, that’s all it takes to pay less tax.

Advertising a product, service, or any undertaking, such as a website for example, has always been a pain in the wallet.

I have been a follower of the free advertising mode, incidentally.

I would like to share with you two of the strategies I’ve used in getting free advertising.

The first strategy is to advertise in free but well-visited web sites.

I have published some of the best web sites that accept free advertising. You can access these free ad sites by first going to internetmarketinglearningcenter.com/classified-ads.html.

The second strategy I used to post free ads is to buy a Free Classified Ad Course.

This is actually a brief course and I had to pay Clickbank $19.95 to avail of this ad resource.

The highlight of the Free Classified Ad Course is going to the download link of a free software that you will use to post and monitor your ads.

I would like to share with you this Free Classified Ad Course FREE.

You don’t have to pay Clickbank $19.95, and you don’t have to spend hours researching for this free software.

Just go to my web site listed on the resource box below, click the link on the sidebar menu entitled 4 Simple Steps to Great Free Advertising, and you are off to posting your free ads. Free.

Enjoy your success in ad posting!

Step One: Plan for the Unexpected Big Time Bill

The first step arises from debt from a one-time large expense – something that is too large to be paid for with your monthly paycheck, or by saving for a few months.

Many of these debts are investments in either an asset that will appreciate over time, or a income stream that will be greater over time. The most common example is the purchase of a home. Very few people are able to save enough money to purchase their home outright, or pay for their entire home out of a few paychecks. We use a mortgage to pay for the home after-the-fact, and to enjoy home ownership in the meanwhile. Another example is investment in education. Many people cannot afford to pay for college tuition outright – so we take out loans, planning that our future income stream will enable us to be able to afford to pay for the education after-the-fact.

The more insidious type of one-time large expense is the expense that is not an investment. The emergency, unexpected, unplanned-for bill – extreme medical bills, disability, failure of a business, a lawsuit judgment, or long-time unemployment. These bills can put a family under – forcing them to either sell assets, move out of their home, or declare bankruptcy, because they will never be able to pay off the debt with their income.

One way to combat this danger is to set aside three to six months of your living expenses in a special savings account – an Emergency Fund — to be used for the emergency, unexpected expense. This money is sacred, only for a family emergency. The Emergency Fund will save your family from potential tragedy and help you create a secure future.

Action Step #1: Open a special savings account to be your Emergency Fund. Set aside money each paycheck or month to fund this account.

Step Two: Think Out of the Budget Box

Instead of worrying about budgets, this step is the flip side of cash flow problems – income.

We know when we have a debt problem. We may stop opening bills, stop answering the phone. We may even try to create budgets, reduce our expenses, cancel cable, live at the basic minimum, to try to stop the bleeding.

But sometimes, overspending is not the problem. It is underearning.

You may just not earn enough to afford to live your life. I’m not talking about living an extravagant lifestyle, or even a „nice“ lifestyle – but the basic necessities of life – housing, automobile, phone, insurance, groceries, gas, clothing – may add up to too much, given your income. This is especially common in expensive places to live, like the Silicon Valley.

The first step in dealing with this problem is to stop feeling guilty. You are not a bad person, who spends irresponsibly. You are someone who needs to acknowledge that you need, want, and deserve more income.

Instead of being frozen in guilt, start to take action on creating more income. You may not need to do something radical – you may just need to ramp up what you are already doing, or look for hidden treasure already in your life.

Put together a proposal for your boss, to describe how the company would be better if you got a raise. Create a new information product to generate passive income for your business. Search your basement for items you can auction on e-bay. Teach a class on scrapbooking, or changing the oil in your car. Have a garage sale to generate some quick cash, and reduce the clutter in your life.

Whatever you do, the important idea is to start today.

Action Step #2: Brainstorm 5 ways you will earn more income now – such as – ask for a raise, look for a new job, start a small business, sell a new product, auction old items on e-bay, rent out a room, teach a skill, or have a garage sale.

Step Three: Planning for the Big Stuff

This step is about the debts that sneak up on us. You may be able to pay for your bills and regular expenses each month — but what happens if the car breaks down? The property tax bill arrives? Your quarterly’s are due? Christmas? Baby announcement? Wedding invite? The family or high school reunion? The big family vacation you all deserve?

Are you able to pay for those non-monthly expenses out of your paycheck or your small business profits? Or, do those items go on a credit card?

Automobile repair, gifts, taxes, and travel are all examples of expenses that are non-monthly, but are expected. We know they are coming, but not necessarily when, or how much. These expenses should not be going on a credit card – you should save for them ahead of time, so you do not pay a bank 10-20+% a year for the privilege of paying for your expenses after-the-fact.

Go through your bills, receipts, and cards for the last year, or the last few years, and figure out how much you spend on each of these categories each year, on average. If you don’t have those records, make a realistic estimate. Divide that annual amount by 12. That’s how much you should set aside each month for your irregular expenses.

Action Step #3: Open a special savings account for at least one non-regular expense: either auto repairs, taxes, travel, or gifts. Save a fixed amount each month in that savings account, so when bills are due, you already have the money!

Step Four: Plug The Holes

Step four is about how to prevent your family from going into debt, by planning for your expenses ahead of time. This step we come to the most insidious problem, and the most difficult to conquer – overspending.

Do you know where your money goes each month? How much are all of your bills? How much are you spending on Dining Out? Drinks Out? Gas? Target & Costco? Clothes? Personal care (i.e., massage, pedicures)? Recreation – movies, golf, Netflix? Toys (both for the kids, and for yourselves)? Do you really know?

Do you spend your money in accordance to your values and priorities? Is there one, or more areas, where you are spending money not because you particularly need, or even enjoy, that product or service – but because you are not paying attention, or because you are compensating for another problem in your life by habitually spending money in that area?

Commonly, we see this in clothes, toys for kids, recreation, high-tech gadgets, and dining out – easy for relatively small expenditures, made each day or week, to add up to hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars each month. Spending without thinking will derail you from ever being able to achieve your most important life goals. Especially if you are spending more than your income, month after month.

Instead of being frozen in guilt, do something about it. Look over your habits for the last few months, and pick the most obvious problem area, where you „go“ when you are stressed, bored, or unhappy. Do you buy CDs? Shop online? Get a new pair of shoes? Start in one category, and create good habits and rules for yourself in that area – then carry those personal rules over to the rest of your expenses.

Action Step #4: Create a Cash-Only account for your problem category. Withdraw your budgeted monthly amount in cash on the first day of the month, and place the cash in an envelope – when the envelope is empty, you’re done!

Acne scars can be a major inconvenience to anybody as it gives the idea of a bad skin complexion and sometimes causes a blow to one’s self confidence. That’s why it is important to understand and know the different ways of treating and clearing up scars left by acne. Here you will understand the different methods of getting rid of acne scars. Hopefully in the end your acne scars will be a thing of the past and you may have more good news to your skin’s health.

Aside from expensive acne scars treatment method which are found to be effective but not in the financial reach of most of the population, it is important to know that there are also some natural and much cheaper remedies in getting rid of acne scars. These are acne scars treatment methods that you can use to treat your acne scars right at the convenience of your home.

Natural acne scar treatment is the best solution method especially for those who possess a sensitive skin because natural treatment doesn’t create side effects or rashes that may further destroy your sensitive skin.

1. One of the leading methods of clearing acne scars is the use of oatmeal cleanser. It helps eliminate other skin defect like blackheads and also help in the effective removal of acne scars. The oatmeal method consists of a mixture of rose water and an oatmeal powder; together they will form a paste that you can apply over the areas of your skin affected by the acne scars.

After applying it allow for about fifteen minutes to pass then afterwards rinse it with cold water, this process allows the oatmeal to close all existing skin pores and helps clear up a lot of your existing acne scars. To see the best kind of results you should do this everyday.

2. Another leading acne scar treatment option is the use of honey. Considered as one of the best natural remedy for acne scars, honey plays a great role in defeating bacteria that actually causes acnes. After cleaning your skin, you can then apply honey to the affected part of your skin. Wait after ten minutes before rinsing it with clean water.

3. Others include applying lotions and gels that are available at leading pharmacies and are highly recommended by professionals. The most important thing to remember when dealing with acne scars is that you should be patient with one kind of treatment and use it until the remnants of acne scars are completely taken care of.

4. Other well known acne scar treatment is the use of the process called laser resurfacing. It’s a process that involves a laser being applied to the affected skin and with that it will kill the bacteria that forms the acne scars. This can take from a number of minutes until an hour or so and usually takes between 2 to 10 days before the skin to heal completely.

Remember there are now a lot of ways to clear acne scars. Just be patient in looking for a method that can fit your needs.

There are a few secrets that I’d like to share with you. You may have been privy to a few of them before. Actually you may have heard of all 4, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective. I will show you how 4 simple secrets can create a powerhouse web business. This is the fourth and final part of the 4 article series.

Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing. All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence. A web business is just like an offline business. It takes hard work and resolve to succeed. However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working. These 4 secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.

Web Success Secret #4) Monetization Will Flow When All Steps Have Been Followed.

You may be a bit surprised to learn that monetization is the last of the 4 steps. Many business owners position monetization as their first goal. Everything they do from conception of the business is geared towards making money. After all, that is the point of owning your own web business, right?

When I first learned of the four step approach to making successful web businesses, I was a bit skeptical. I have never heard of such a risky business idea- think of making money as the last goal. That sounded absurd to me! In all of my small business education the emphasis was on profit charts and balance sheets and projected annual returns. Being online does change some things. One of those things is how you start and run a long term and profitable business.

Following the process of starting a web business often involved very little capital. The risk is typically much lower and the return on investment arrives in a shorter time span. Because of this you have a unique advantage to allow the natural progression of your site visitors come into play.

Let’s back up a bit and review. People search for information, not products, online. They are not looking to spend money. They type in their search query at the search engines. Your site should be on the first page. You should know how to provide a killer title and description that makes the potential visitor want to click on your site.

Once they are on your site, their objective has not changed. They still want information. So give it to them. As you provide valuable content that satisfies your visitors, you should be developing trust and positioning yourself as the expert. Make recommendations to your products or services. This is the natural progression of an online visitor. They want information, they find you, they receive answers from you, they develop trust in you and think of you as an expert. It is only when those criteria have been met that you gain customers.

Let me repeat that last line because it is the most important line in the entire 4 part series: it is only when the first three steps have been met that you earn income. The goods news is once you finish the first three steps (content, traffic, and pre-selling) you will continue to pull in hot, targeted traffic from the search engines month after month. All of this traffic is totally free! No advertising costs! Monetization naturally occurs.

There are a few things you can do to help increase your conversion rates:

– Only recommend 2-3 services or products. Having more than this makes it difficult for your visitor to decide which is best for them. It is also very difficult for you to recommend them all.

– Place graphics of your product or service on each page of your content website. This allows visitors to see your offerings more than once.

– Write a monthly newsletter and provide excellent content. Also provide a special on one of your services/products.

– Test everything- price points, graphics, sales page, etc.

As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder. If you would like additional guidance on how to effectively pre-sell on the Internet, contact me for a free ebook. Having a successful web business starts with effective content and ends naturally with monetization. If you missed any of the first three parts and would like a complimentary copy please contact me and I will forward it to you immediately.

There are a few secrets that I’d like to share with you. You may have been privy to a few of them before. Actually you may have heard of all 4, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective. I will show you how 4 simple secrets can create a powerhouse web business. This is the third part of the 4 article series.

Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing. All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence. A web business is just like an offline business. It takes hard work and resolve to succeed. However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working. These 4 secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.

Web Success Secret #3) Pre-selling is far more effective than selling.

The first two parts of this series were geared towards both the search engines and your visitors. This article focuses directly on your visitor- more specifically your relationship with your visitor. You must gently and effectively pre-sell your visitor on your goods or services.

Anyone can sell a product or service online. All it takes is a link to a payment processor such as Paypal. The difference between successful online business owners and those wishing to make a buck is in their ‘voice’. A website has a voice. The look and feel of your website gives your visitor an impression. When your visitor reads your words they should know the persona of your business and think of you as an expert.

These words, or content, should provide tons of information in small, bite-sized chunks of text. No one likes to read 8 pages of content on a website. On the flip side, no one likes to buy a product without knowing more about it. You need to find the perfect balance between no information and providing too much.

Generally speaking, 400-800 words can do the trick. It can provide content, position you as the expert and gently pre-sell your visitor on a product or service.

In addition to how much content you provide you should focus on providing specific answers to your customer’s problems or concerns. Most visitors are on your website because they want answers. They are not surfing your site to buy something. They want answers. So give them answers!

It’s how you provide your answers that matters. There is a difference between selling and pre-selling, and how you provide the answers or information your visitor wants is that difference.

Selling is cold, distant and forceful. Pre-selling is the opposite. Pre-selling can be thought of as a recommendation or side note to all the great content you provide. You want your website voice to develop trust and rapport with your visitor. During that time you are positioned as an expert. Any soft recommendation that you make will be considered by your visitor.

Forceful selling causes people to put up their defenses. It causes them to take a step back and wonder what your motives are. Pre-selling does not affect people this way. Pre-selling should lead those that are interested to your product without hesitation and those that are not interested should be led to more general content on your website- that will again attempt to gently pre-sell them.

Pre-selling and content (part 1 of this series) are closely related. You must provide information to your site visitors. You must be viewed as the expert and as a helpful friend making a recommendation. People will not feel sold by that. People will respect that you are providing answers to their problems and making a recommendation for a product that can provide even more helpful info. It’s seen as a favor instead of a hard sell.

As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder. If you would like additional guidance on how to effectively pre-sell on the Internet, contact me for a free ebook.

Having a successful web business starts with effective content. Stay tuned for part 4! If you missed Part 1 or 2 and would like a complimentary copy please contact me and I will forward it to you immediately.

There are a few secrets that I’d like to share with you. You may have been privy to a few of them before. Actually you may have heard of all 4, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective. I will show you how 4 simple secrets can create a powerhouse web business. This is the second part of the 4 article series.

Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing. All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence. A web business is just like an offline business. It takes hard work and resolve to succeed. However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working. These 4 secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.

Web Success Secret #2) Without Traffic- What’s the Point?

Part 1 of this series really got down and dirty about content. Content’s main focus is twofold- make your visitors happy and make search engines happy. This article is all about making you happy! Think of this as your starter guide to increasing traffic and building a profitable business.

Traffic can be summed up in 2 words- free and paid. I consider all PPC (pay-per-click), ezine advertising, offline advertising, and paid directory submissions a form of paying for your traffic. I also consider any project that takes up your time to be paid advertising. After all in the business world time is money. Paid advertising is not bad. It just means that you are paying to receive traffic.

Free traffic is harder to attract, but it costs you absolutely no money. Almost all free traffic is the result of surfers finding your site on the search engines. We talked about using content as your ultimate search engine ranking booster in the last article.

Here are several ways to increase traffic. Some are paid advertising options and others are totally free.

– Write articles and submit them to several niche websites. Manually submitting articles to many websites can take a long time. I use a submission service to do all my hard work. Contact me for more info.

– Post in forums. Many forums will not allow you to market your product or services. That’s totally understandable. What I recommend doing is finding a really great forum that you can participant in. When people have questions, provide top notch and comprehensive answers. No selling. Almost all forums allow you to post your website in your sig file. Take advantage of that.

– Submit each page of your website to all major search engines. Also submit each page to all major search engines whenever you make a change on that page. Be careful with this one. Each engine has very specific directions and rules about submission rules. Be sure you do not spam! Submit pages according to each engine’s guidelines. I also use a submission service that does this for me at no additional cost.

– Create joint ventures with non-competing websites. Work with a company that compliments your product or service. Also be sure the joint venture is a win-win-win for you, the other company and your customers. Joint ventures can be a pain to set up and complete, but well worth it if done correctly.

– Look into ezine advertising, web advertising and/or PPC. Each method takes an initial investment and some time to learn, but can bring back traffic. Personally I do not prefer this method to increase traffic because it’s “iffy” at best.

– Print your website name on all business correspondences. This is a simple task, but one that is simple to do. Add it to your email sig line, forum sig lines, letterhead and business cards.

– Create an atmosphere of amazing customer service. This always leads to referrals from current clients. The more referrals the more traffic!

The bottom line is without traffic your site is floating in a sea of doom. No one is seeing your content or services. Traffic is the lifeline of any business, and the rule of thumb is more traffic means more income.

This brings me to my last and final point about traffic. Once you develop a nice flow of visitors you need to know specifics. Where did those visitors come from? How did they find you? What pages are the most popular on your site? What page did they enter into your site? What page did they leave your site? What keywords did they use to find you? You must know your visitor inside and out!

As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder. Traffic analysis and search engine submissions can be very time consuming, but your hosting company should be providing most of these services to you free of charge. There are a small few that do this, but it is well worth the investigation. Contact me for further resources and information. Having a successful web business starts with effective content. Stay tuned for parts 3 and 4! If you missed Part 1 and would like a complimentary copy please contact me and I will forward it to you immediately.

There are a few secrets that I’d like to share with you. You may have been privy to a few of them before. Actually you may have heard of all 4, but I can promise that you will finish each article with a fresh perspective. I will show you how 4 simple secrets can create a powerhouse web business. This is the first part of the 4 article series.

Before I divulge the vault of successful web business secrets I must warn you of one thing. All the information in the world will not take the place of determination and persistence. A web business is just like an offline business. It takes hard work and resolve to succeed. However working smart is heads and tails better than plain old working. These 4 secrets will turn any smart working, dedicated average Joe or Jane into a successful web business owner.

Web Success Secret #1) Content is king.

Heard that before? I know I have. The thing I never knew was how to use content to my advantage. Content is useless unless it is optimized for the search engines. It must also be optimized for your reader. You have two customers- readers and search engines. You must satisfy both with the same exact content.

Content is king only if you have exact and highly specific keywords placed in correct locations. Unfortunately the hard part is determining what keywords to use. A keyword can be a single word or a phrase. It is the term that web surfers use to search for information. Place yourself in their shoes and try to discover what search terms they use. You must then evaluate the search term. How many people search using that term? How many sites already deliver information on that search term? Simple demand and supply rules. The more demand with the less supply equals more profitability.

You have several options for determining keywords and their profit potential. Search yourself, pay a company to search for you or have your hosting company do a complete keyword search for your niche or web business topic. If your hosting company does not offer this service I recommend you switch to a plan that does. This feature alone can make or break your business‘ future. If you would like my recommended hosting plan, please contact me.

Without a proper keyword search and analysis you may as well forget about becoming successful with an Internet business. Investing in this one secret is literally the start of planning your website.

Your next action step is to plan your site layout based on the 50-175 high-demand and low-supply keywords. Your site should be structured in three tiers. Tier one is your home page. Tier two is made of all of your main topics and also constitutes your navigation bar buttons. Tier three keywords are sub-topics of tier two pages. Organize your 50-175 keywords into three tiers. Doing this makes it easier for visitors to navigate through your site and it makes it easier for search engine spiders to find all of your pages.

Search engine spiders do not like to fish around for all of your pages and links. This is why many sites offer a “site map”. A site map is one page that contains links to all of the content pages. This is a fine route to take; however most people agree that pages with a lot of links on it are valued less than content pages that casually link to other content pages.

Using three tiers allows you to go from topic to sub-topic to sub-sub-topic all by natural in-content links. For example, tier 1 is the homepage on a fitness site. Tier 2 is a page all about cardio activity and its benefits. A tier three page off of that tier 2 page is about different treadmill routines. Do you see how the site visitor would like this structure? They click on “Cardio” and are given links to more specific pages about cardio topics. Search engine spiders like the three tier structure too. It means they do not have to dig through layers and levels of useless links.

There is even more to content than finding profitable keywords and structuring your site into easy-to-navigate tiers. You must optimize each and every page on your website to perform well and rank high at search engines. Many people devote their working life to optimization secrets. A full length article just on optimizing is possible. Heck, a full length book is possible. My recommendation is to use a hosting company that automatically teaches you how to optimize web pages for the engines. Doing that will cause less headache and frustration and it will keep you focused on building content.

A quick education in optimization: place your specific keyword in the file name, title, description and keyword section of your page. Then sprinkle the keyword throughout the content. Also provide a link using your specific keyword in the link text. If all of this has you spinning your head, I recommend going the hosting company I use. They literally teach you to build a website using blocks. It’s all simple and easier than you think.

There is one last piece to content. It must effectively pre-sell your product or service and position you as the expert in your field. When your website has 50-175 optimized pages for your visitors to read through it will start to position you as the expert. Your site will become known as the place for information about (insert your niche).

When visitors find your site through search engines they are seeking information about a problem or question they have. If they land on your site and you try to sell them something right away one thing is sure- they click the back button and find another site that will give them information. This is why pre-selling your product or service is paramount. Give your visitors what they want. Answer their question and in the process let them know about your services and products.

All of the information develops rapport and trust with your site visitor. It positions you as an expert. It keeps your visitor on your site longer since they are actually reading content. Search engines notice this and rank you better. How well your site can keep visitors is known as „stickiness.“ Your site must attract and keep visitors for as long as possible.

Provide content that pre-sells your products, positions you as the expert and focuses on highly profitable keywords. You cannot go wrong with your web business if you do those things. The secret to content is to satisfy both your visitor and search engines. Lose one or both and you are doomed. As I mentioned earlier, it is best to work smarter and not harder. Your hosting company should be providing most of these services to you free of charge. There are a small few that do this, but it is well worth the investigation. Contact me for further resources and information. Having a successful web business starts with effective content. Stay tuned for parts 2-4!

When you think of creating a new brand, it’s easy to think about advertising managers sitting around a conference room tossing around ideas with caffeine fueled creativity. However, often times, the most powerful branding comes from adding a little “fun” to your brand experience.

Driven by the Burger King mentality, today’s customers want to do business their way on their time. They want to make their own choices. As business people, it’s our job to make sure then when customers are ready to make their choice, our product or service is their top choice.

Below are five secrets to put some spark and imagination into your brand and create an unforgettable brand experience.

Secret #1: Tell Your Company’s Unique Brand Story

Television shows have long been a part of our culture. When viewers watch television shows, they see stories about characters that we relate to. Remember the Brady Bunch theme song? It tells the story of a lovely lady… well, you know how it goes.

Now imagine harnessing the power of storytelling for your business! By sharing your brand story, you create a powerful connection to your customers. They feel as though they know you. This brand story paints a colorful vignette of who you are, what vision you hold, and what experiences made you the company you are today. While your brand story might not be as catchy as the Brady Bunch tune, raving fans love to share stories of their favorite brands with others.

PartyLite is a direct sales company that has done a phenomenal job of weaving their brand story into their marketing message. Listen to the story of how this company got started.

“Mabel K. Baker, a young housewife, provided holiday candles for her friends. She hand-dipped candles from the wax of bayberry plants, which were plentiful on Cape Cod. From these humble beginnings, Colonial Candle of Cape Cod was established. In 1973, PartyLite was established to satisfy the desire people have for home beautification, along with the ever-increasing need for additional family income.”

Now can’t you just imagine Mabel sitting outside and turning her gaze over to the bayberry plants in her backyard! Surely a light bulb went off in her head as she picked berries off the bush and harvested the wax to make gift candles for her dearest friends. A story like this makes you feel like when you get a PartyLite candle, that you are getting more than a factory made product. Rather, you are getting a lovely crafted handmade candle. Great story and great marketing!

What’s your brand story? Do you have a wonderful story to tell about how your business was started? Was there a turning point in your company that shaped you into the organization you are today?

Secret #2: Make Your Brand a Household Name by Coining the Term

Why define your brand experience in terms we already use? Kleenex, Xerox, and Fed X are companies whose brand names have set the standards for their industry by becoming the coined terms to describe a tissue, making a copy, and overnight deliveries.

So how do you go about making your brand a household name?

Marla Cilley, aka “The FLY Lady” is an organizing super hero for moms across the county. She has turned her passion for tidiness into a nationally known brand.

How did she do it? By adding an ounce of fun with her own unique terms and philosophies. For example, The FLY Lady stands for Finally Loving Yourself.

Fans of the FLY Lady know that she lives by three rules.

1) Don’t sweat the small stuff
2) Laugh everyday. Even if it is at yourself.
3) Love like there is no tomorrow.

If you visit her website at FlyLady.net, you’ll notice that her brand is even reflected in some of the names of the navigation links: Why FLY, FLYing Lessons, FLY Zone, Time FLYs when, FLY FAQ, FLY Library, Join FlyLady Now, Ask FlyLady, and The FlyShop.

Secret #3: Add Your Unique Brand of Humor

Humor has the power to transform an ordinary product into a fun experience for the whole audience. Recently I saw a commercial for Red Stripe “The Great Jamaican Beer” that delivers an unforgettable quirky message.

The Jamaican spokesperson is dressed in a black tuxedo and says, “Red Stripe – the beer in the short stubby ugly bottle. If ugly people stand next to a Red Stripe they look beautiful.”

He speaks to a man who is sitting next to him, “You sir, would you say that you are ugly?
(Pause) You are VERY ugly!”

The man who is sitting down replies a little confused, “Well I don’t know…”

The spokesperson hands him a beer and says, “Here hold this Red Stripe.”

The man says, “Okay.”

The spokesperson says, “Look, you are beautiful!” (Obviously implying that just by holding this beer this formerly “ugly” man is transformed into being beautiful.)

Spokesperson says enthusiastically, “Red Stripe, it’s beer. Hooraaaayy Beer!”

The man cheers, „Hooray Beer.“

The spokesperson adds at the end, „…says the beautiful man.“

The point is, that although you may have never heard of Red Stripe beer before, this funny commercial really sticks in your mind. Even though we are not beer drinkers, this commercial is surely creating living room conversations in homes across the country.

That’s how a funny campaign can instantly turn a new or unknown product into a national phenomenon.

You should check out this very funny commercial online at their website here:
http://us.redstripebeer.com/media

Secret #4: Create your own Catch Phrases and Own Quotes

If you type the words “inspirational quotes” into Google, you will see that there are 1,130,000 listings. Quotes are hot! So why not tap into the power of quotes and catch phrases for your business?

Go back in your mind to the “Where’s the Beef” commercials from Wendy’s. That was a fun series of engaging commercials that had the whole country asking themselves, “Where’s the Beef?”.

And think about Donald Trump’s “Your Fired!” I’m sure that he had no idea that his show, “The Apprentice” would take off the way it did and become the “in thing.”

When you create a hot catch phrase or quote, you’ll find your words popping up on websites, in blogs, talked about in elevators, written on bathroom walls, and in the most unexpected placed.

Take a moment to step back and really look at your company’s brand. With a little imagination, you can transform buying your product or service into a fun, one-of-a-kind brand experience that your customers will never forget.

The phone rings. You hear an authoritative voice say, *Hello, I’m the producer of…Good Morning America or Oprah, or Larry King Live* or any other top talk show, you name it. This is your big moment, the break you’ve been waiting for. After you catch your breath what do you do?

Producers make an instant assessment of you in thirty seconds–or less. When you get that coveted call from a producer, you aren’t just *talking* to him: you’re auditioning. You are being screened to be accepted or eliminated as a guest on their show. How can you pass the audition?

Secret #1: Ask Before You Speak

Before you even open your mouth to start pitching yourself and your story to the producer, ask them a simple question: *Can you tell me a little bit about the kind of show you envision?* In other words, ask the producer the angle he is planning to take.

Doing so has two advantages. First, it gives you a moment to overcome the shock and to collect your thoughts.

Second, once you hear the producer’s reply, you can gear your pitch to the type of information he’s seeking. Listen closely to the angle that he’s interested in and tailor your points to it. Publicists often use this technique to get their clients booked on shows. They *get* before they *give* – so they are in a good position to tell only the most pertinent information about their client.

Secret #2: Wow the Producers with Brevity

Follow the advice of jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie: *It’s not how much you play. It’s how much you leave out.* Keep your list of talking points by the phone when you call a producer (or a producer calls you), so you’ll be succinct. You will already have rehearsed your points so that they’ll sound natural and inviting. Be prepared with several different angles or pitches, different ways to slant your information. *Nobody gets on these shows without a pre- interview,* says publicist Leslie Rossman. *Be a great interview but don’t worry about the product you want to sell them because if you’re a great guest and you make great TV, they’ll want you.*

And keep in mind the words of Robert Frost: *Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.*

Secret #3: Prove You’re Not a Nutcase

If you area nutcase on the air, the producer will lose their job. What constitutes a nutcase? You may think it’s a positive trait to be enthusiastic (and it is), but anyone who is overly zealous about his passion is considered a nut. Best-selling author and screenwriter Richard Price talks about this phenomenon as *The dangerous thrill of goodness.* He says, *What happens is you can get very excited by your own power to do good.* Don’t get carried away by this thrill.

One way to tell if you’re being too zealous is that you’re hammering your point at top speed with the energy of a locomotive pulling that toot lever non-stop. I remember a man calling me up about how he was single-handedly taking on Starbucks – who, he felt, had done him wrong. He wanted me to promote his cause. While this could have been a great David versus Goliath type story, he was long on emotion and short on facts. Some statistics or figures would have tempered his mania.

But he also never checked in with me to see if he had my interest. By talking loudly and barely pausing for a breath, he appeared to be a man who wouldn’t take direction well. His single-mindedness was off- putting, not engaging.

When you’re talking to a producer speak for 30 seconds or so and then check in by asking, *Is this the kind of information you’re looking for?* Listen for other verbal cues, such as encouraging grunts, or *uh huhs.*

Secret #4: Can You Mark *The Big Point?*

Contributors to the popular radio show *This American Life,* hosted by Ira Glass, have taken to calling the wrap-up epiphany at the end of a story, *The Big Point.* This is the moment that the narrator gives his perspective on the story in an attempt to elevate it from the mundane to the universal.

Another radio personality, Garrison Keillor, is a master at it. He tells long, rambling stories (not good advice for you), then ties up all the story strands in a coherent and satisfying way. As a great guest, you want to illuminate your story with a big standout point that helps the audience see the significance of your story in their world and the world at large. Rather than hitting them over the head with a two-by-four, you want to share your insights with a feather-like touch. By framing your story you alert the producer to the fact that you’re a thinker and can contribute great insights and clarity to a story thus increasing its appeal.

Designers especially the newbies go frantic on how to go about it. It has to be attractive, engrossing, user-friendly and functional. Thus, unraveling the secrets will definitely bind the website.

So, what are these layout secrets?

Together let us unfold them one after another…

1. Centering it all is no good. The secret is doing the contrary and not centering everything. The latter will just make the page disorganized, strewn and drab. The alignment may also seem weak and wanting.

2. The use and mastery of contrast is indispensable. Contrast is one thing that makes the page attractive. The use and mastery of it in color, value, size and weight will greatly affect the site’s appearance and edge. In fact a typeface may appear bigger with the use of contrast in color. The latter can also affect the look of organization of the page. At a glance, a page may appear organized or the exact opposite. That is the secret of contrast.

3. Apply deviations if necessary. Most of the designers practice nowadays is to develop a ‘uniform-pages’ look. They try to use same background colors and other peculiarities to establish similarities to the homepage or other pages. But the fact is that viewers can be easily bored with that scheme. Viewers always want something new and by giving them a repetitious work, they are pissed off and transfer to another site where they can feast both their eyes and mind.

Placing lines in between contents also manifests division. Instead of using these lines, use blank ‘buffer zones’. This way what are created are invisible lines to make the effect subtle.

4. Do not forget that functionality is the king of web development. Moreover, keep the content and information full, tight and pretty useful. Use the space, don’t waste. Only leave a small percentage for blank spaces. Use the space cleverly in order for the website not to look crowded at the same time loose. Multiple columns are also advisable in order to maximize space.

These four topmost secrets in page layout are so crucial that to break them may spell disaster or the end of your precious site.