WS domains

Normally when you think of "Domain Names," what comes to mind is dot.com. For example, a company called "ABC Company" may have a domain name that ends in dot (.com) If someone was to log on this domain name, they could find out what goods and services "ABC Company" has to offer. So a "domain name" is an address, or a place people can go, to obtain information about a company, a person, an organization, or a business opportunity. In addition to dot.com addresses, you will find dot.net, dot.biz, dot.org, dot.gov, dot.tv and others. The company which offers .ws domains is called Global Domains International or GDI for short.

The owners of GDI are two men of vision named, Mike Reed and Alan Ezeir. They are already self-made millionaires, who saw a unique opportunity to exploit the ever growing demand for Internet presence around the globe. They searched the world for a marketable domain suffix and found a small country called West Somoa who owned the rights to domain names ending in dot.ws. Michael and Alan, then traveled to visit the king of West Somoa, and purchased the rights to dot.ws domain names. Now dot.ws stands for website or worldsite. GDI is a solid, debt-free INC. 500 company that is over 7 years old, and very well respected among the business community. Thousands of dot.ws domain names have already been sold to major household name companies, prior to being introduced to the world of network-marketing about two years ago. Now it is possible for people like you and I, to build a huge permanent, lifelong residual income, simply by telling others about GDI.

The best part about it is, that you can actually try GDI free for seven days, and after that the cost is only $10 per month! The value for your $10 is unsurpassed. Here's what you get; your own personalized dot.ws domain name (many people simply use their name, then add .ws after it.

You also get, up to 10 email addresses with your domain. Additionally, the hosting for your domain is included. On top of that, you receive an autoresponder, as well as a very sophisticated back office, and full company support. That is a ton of value for only $10! When you consider the value of GDI and the associated business opportunity, it makes sense to get started right away. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is right now. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow is not here yet, so let's get started.

Visit www.ahmadhee.ws for more info

Affordable search engine optimization

The most important thing to remember when using a search engine optimization service is that you can do it all yourself. You are not paying for something that is beyond your ability to understand. On the contrary, the principles behind SEO are pretty easy to understand. The thing that you are paying for when you buy affordable search engine optimization is convenience. The best way to get web page optimization is by making your own content yourself, but this is so time consuming that it might not be the most practical solution. When you hire an affordable and reliable search engine optimizer, you are paying for convenience.

All this may sound obvious, but it does have some ramifications that you may not have thought about before. The thing is, when you look for affordable search engine optimization, the more convenience, the higher the price. If you only want to buy web site optimization content yourself, for example, and then implement it to increase web traffic, you do not have to pay a lot of money. It can cost less than a hundred dollars a month to get all of the affordable search engine optimization articles that you need.

On the other hand, if you are looking for affordable search engine optimization to handle every aspect of your web traffic, you will have to pay a lot more. This may save you a lot of time, and they may have a better idea of how to handle SEO optimization than you do, but it will also cost quite a bit. You need to think about how much you need from your affordable search engine optimization service. If you only have to optimize a few websites, you should probably buy the content and do the rest by yourself. The amount of money that it costs to have them optimize web content for you is just too high. If, however, you have a high traffic web design business, it might make sense to farm out all of your affordable search engine optimization needs. Otherwise, you will not have the time to do it all yourself.

The most important thing to remember about affordable search engine optimization is that it is easy to test how brilliant a job the service that you hire is doing. It is easy to monitor your web traffic, as well as your results in Google web searches. You should keep track of how well your affordable search engine optimization works. It is important to demand results!

Ebooks with resale rights

One of the things I always hear about the Internet is that there are many different ways to make money online. The Internet is a medium that is particularly suited to entrepreneurs and people who have the ability to recognize a consumer or business need and quickly rush in to fill that need. It's pretty easy to see how people like that could make huge amount of money, but I don't fit that particular profile. In all honesty, I don't have that "killer instinct" or possess a great deal of creativity, so I was worried that solid money making opportunities would just pass me by. Then I heard about how to market ebooks with resale rights, and I think I finally discovered my niche.

People are constantly in need of information. They want to learn how to do things, but they don't want to spend a lot of time on research and fact checking. Instead, they are more than willing to pay for the information, especially if it can be provided instantly and reliably. There will always be a healthy demand for accurate information, and that's precisely why ebooks with resale rights are such attractive products to marketers. These types of books will always have an audience, and I can sell them over and over again without ever running out of products of having to pay additional fees.

Electronic books are usually short manuals or guides that tell people how to do something. In fact, a significant number of these manuals contain the words "how to" in the title: How to Sell Your Home in Less Than a Month, How to Build an Online Retail Business, How to Create a Website in an Hour, etc. The text is very straightforward and doesn't contain the usual fluff can be found in traditional books produced by large publishing houses. I could immediately see how that kind of information would be valuable to people, so I figured that purchasing and marketing ebooks with resale rights could prove to be a lucrative venture.

You might be asking yourself why I would buy and sell other people's books instead of marketing my own. Well, there are several reasons for that. First, I don't really have any expertise in a marketable subject matter. Second, I neither have the time nor the know-how to sit down and compose an entire book by myself. Third, a lot of electronic book authors are known and trusted in their fields, which makes a great selling point. Overall, it's just far more convenient to purchase ebooks with resale rights than to come up with something on my own.

If a non-creative person like me can achieve financial success primarily through marketing ebooks with resale rights, then so can you. If you own a website, you already have an excellent marketing tool at your disposal. All you have to do is purchase some ebooks with resale rights and then make an order page on your site. Then you can deliver the books to customers via a download on your website, through e-mail, or on a CD-ROM sent through the postal service. Even if you don't have a website, you can still profit from ebooks with resale rights. You'll just have to find other ways to market your books, such as auctions or online bookstores.

It's true that everyone can make money on the Internet. All you have to do is find a product that people want and that you can gain access to. Ebooks with resale rights might be just the thing you're looking for in order to break into online marketing, so check out some titles today.

Internet meetings

The world today is a global village. It is no longer necessary, or even possible, for all the employees of any given organization to come together for an offline meeting when an Internet meeting is possible! Yes, you heard right. The Internet, as we know it has already changed the way we communicate and conduct business. And now, Internet meetings are not just a remote possibility – they are a reality of business today.

Imagine a major software company that has several branch offices in the US of A and elsewhere in the world. Such an organization would have scores of employees spread across the globe. Now more often than not, these employees would need to get in touch with others in a different time zone, locations or even country to discuss matters of critical importance. In such cases, an e-mail would be useless due to the time delays in responding and making oneself understood precisely. However, the miracle of video conferencing has been harness to make Internet meetings possible.

What exactly is an internet meeting? And how is it different from traditional videoconferencing that has been around for a while. Simply put, an internet meeting is a coming together of people from different locations around the world to meet in cyberspace and talk. In video conferencing, there is a lot of reliance on expensive equipment like cameras, communications lines and display devices. But in an Internet meeting, this is not the case. Internet meetings, as the name reveals, are meetings conducted like traditional video conferencing, but over the internet. With bandwidth getting better nowadays and the possibility of streaming millions of bytes of data effortlessly across the net, online video and audio conferences are distinctly possible.

Why use Internet meetings? Any organization that has its staff spread out across the globe, benefits from Internet meetings. Lets say your company has its headquarters in New York, but the financial officer is based out of Hong Kong and your clients are concentrated in Germany. Now if people from these diverse geographic locations want to discuss something, they can conveniently set up an Internet meeting. Not only will this Internet meeting enable them to talk to and see one another, it will also help them to exchange files and applications, chat with one another, share their contacts and also remotely share their desktops. That is the power of an Internet meeting for you! And in the process, your organization saves on expensive telecommunication costs, saves a lot of man-hours that would have been otherwise wasted and gets the job done. Everyone benefits from an Internet meeting.

Several large corporations have their own proprietary software for Internet Meetings. Microsoft’s Netmeeting is one such popular applications. And there are thousands of small and medium enterprise companies like Marratech, Voxwire, Skype and others who have their own version of an Internet meeting software. If you haven’t already done so, you too should experience the world of Internet meetings. Trust me, it will change the way you view meetings forever!

Promotional Gifts

If you run a company, then you know that marketing is one of the biggest challenges you're constantly faced with. You have to keep putting your product and company names in front of customers or they're likely to move on to a different brand. But at the same time, you've got a relatively small advertising budget, which greatly limits your marketing options. Newspaper ads, online spots, and billboards are probably out, so you should consider purchasing promotional business gifts instead.

Promotional business gifts are items such as pens, calendars, key chains, lanyards, mugs, mouse pads, memo pads, and other accessories that can be personalized with your company's name and logo. They are generally available at significant discounts from online distributors and, since you don't have to purchase huge quantities in order to qualify for the savings, you can usually find some type of promotional business gifts that fit your budget.

Ordering promotional business gifts from one of these websites is easy. All you have to do is browse through their catalog of available items, select a few that you like, and detail your personalization needs. If you want your company logo to appear on the promotional business gifts you order, you will need to submit your artwork to the distributor either in an electronic file or through the regular mail.

Once you've found an online distributor that can supply you with exactly what you want, you'll then be able to use your promotional business gifts in a number of ways. For example, you can hand them out to current and potential customers just as a token of appreciation. Your current customers will feel valued; while potential customers will remember the extra effort you put forth and will likely think of you the next time they need to place an order.

Another way to use promotional business gifts is to offer them as a premium attached to regular orders. For example, if you sell t-shirts, you can run a special promotion wherein you toss in a free key chain or lanyard with every purchase. You'd be surprised at how simple promotional business gifts can induce customers to act.

You can also use promotional business gifts internally as rewards for the best performers on your staff. Obviously not many employees would bother to go all out just for the chance of winning a customized pen at the end of the month, so you'll probably want to purchase some high-end promotional business gifts for this purpose. This would include such items as wallets, laptop bags, briefcases, and leather portfolios.

Overall, promotional business gifts are an excellent way to advertise your company or products when you have a limited budget to work with. Regardless of the specific kind of promotional business gifts you're looking for, chances are you will be able to find a vendor who can get you the products you want at a price you can afford.

Work at home tips

Andrew Gibbs

The co-workers are passive-aggressive back stabbers. The job politics are undermining and hypocritical. The commute is two hours each way. The taxes are absurdly devastating to the net paycheck. And the space for professional, personal, and/or interpersonal development is severely limited. So you decide there must be a better alternative to working for (and with) someone else. You decide to work as a freelancer.

The first thing you do is access some useful work at home tips, researching even before brainstorming a plan. In those work at home tips, you will likely find some helpful, empowering information. Here are some of the many work at home times I found over the first two years of researching and preparing to work as a freelance writer:

USE a MODEL

Study and read about those who blazed the trail before you. You will find numerous styles and approaches, with equally varied techniques and strategies, as told to you (in newsletters, on websites, in books, on tapes with work at home tips, specifically, etc.). Consider that which you feel and think will work best for you, your needs, your desires, and your skill sets (abilities and capabilities). Then, imitate that model, using similar steps and strategies. Do what works, according to those who have worked it!


PLAN AHEAD—FAR AHEAD

Make goals lists—short- and long-term goals lists. Make the lists complete with ideal outcomes, and as well, include things, people, and events or incidents that should be anticipated…and have a back up plan. For example, it is ideal to calculate your working seven days a week for the first five years, but it is unrealistic and therefore imperative you plan for life’s interruptions:

When the power goes out;
When the cat needs to be rushed to the vet, or worse, dies;
When the computer crashes;
When a client cancels an order an hour before deadline;
When the bank, pharmacy, grocery, or other venue doesn’t have what you need, sends you twenty miles out of your way, or is closed….

What tools will you have on hand, what back-up do you have?

HAVE SOME CAPITAL, FIRST

Do not launch without reserve fuel. I did. I had to get out of a ten-year job that was giving me migraines, making me fat, and that caused me to develop asthma—to say nothing of the political and social aberrations that were the source of these illnesses. I just stopped. Yes, I have wanted to write for a living since I was old enough to know what an adjective clause was, and yes, I knew if I did not do a kamikaze move, forcing me to work hard enough at freelancing to survive that I would stay at the destructive government job forever…. But if you are smart, and if you try any work at home tips to heart, take this one: have some money in the bank, have a sugar daddy or mama, or work a part-time job that you can tolerate while your business kicks off. (It takes, on average, 3-5 years to be sure whether your business will be a winner or a flop.)

ESTABLISH a REGIME

While one of my absolute favorite assets to working at home and for myself is that I do not have to submit to an alarm clock, I still wake up, eat breakfast, brush teeth, and dress (on good days). Normalize your workdays by acting as if…as if you still have to be at your job on time, as if you get regular and regulated breaks, as if you are a professional with clean hair, shiny teeth, and shoes that are on your feet instead of slippers.

HAVE THE SKIN of a LIZARD

Realize and embrace the fact that you are working a real job, even if it is in front of a TV set or overlooking a pond with deer and elk milling about. And convince others in the hose of the same: no one is allowed to interrupt during work hours, just as if you were at a building downtown where they would not be allowed to ask you where the ketchup is, if you would iron a shirt, or whether you minded if they blew a few joints while listening to jungle drums at 200 decibels. Discourage aberrant and invasive behavior from family members, roommates, and clients…who will also try to test you as a child does, and not pay, or email you ten times in one hour to ask you how it’s going, or who will try to get you to do unnecessary, extra, revisionary work for free.

And good luck enjoying the freedoms that really do eclipse the liabilities.

Money Saving Tips

Probably one of our greatest concerns in the modern world is capital. To keep it simple, we spend too much of it, and we don't have enough of it. This is exactly why so many us are in debt. It's our sad story. If we see some material item that we must have, but cannot purchase with cash, we simply slap it on a credit card, hence putting ourselves into greater debt. If this doesn't stop, we'll continue broke and annoyed for all eternity. From generation to generation, things will continue to get worse. That's why we need a plan. Actually, you need a plan. Your household needs some nifty and effective saving money tips.

It all starts with the necessities. What are you currently paying for every month? It's not difficult to find out. Pull out a pencil and a sheet of paper, and scribble down each of your monthly bills. Now, add them all up to see what exactly you're forking out every month. Just don't forget about gas and food. These are more like weekly expenses for most of us. Okay, you've got the bill list, now it's time to prioritize. This is the first of the saving money tips. Is there any service you pay for each month that you don't need. Maybe it's a particular cell phone plan, cable channels, or lawn service that you could do on your own. Weed out the stuff that could be erased. Now figure how much you would save if you excluded those things. On to the grocery list. There are plenty of saving money tips when it comes to your eating habits. What do you really need to purchase for the week? Plan out the meals you'll eat at home, what products you'll need to make breakfast, and what you can pack for lunch. That's right! Pack that lunch. It will save you a bundle each month. This is the epitome of saving money tips that most people overlook. Stop spending your lunch hour eating restaurant burgers. Notice that those folks always end up over-weight and out of shape. You'll be doing yourself a fitness favor by packing healthy meals.

If you're truly serious about saving money tips and cutting future costs, then I suggest you consider these ideas. There are plenty of simply things you can alter in your lifestyle in order to save some serious cash.

Difficult people

Until things got hard at work, I had always considered myself good at handling difficult people. I knew just how to deal with difficult people, in fact. I was polite with them, I did not let them get under my skin, and I walked away. Dealing with difficult men when you can't walk away, however, is something else entirely, as I was soon to find out.

Everyone at some point or another has to deal with a difficult person at work. Perhaps it is someone who always talks and has no idea how to listen. Perhaps it is someone who is always on the defensive and they think that everything that you say is targeted towards them as an attack. Whatever the difficult persons issues are, you can bet that you won't be able to avoid conflict with them.

Difficult people make causing conflict their specialty. No matter how good you are at resisting, they will find a way to get under your skin. Sometimes, the people difficult use passive aggressive techniques. I had a friend who had some difficult employees who were just like this. They made it difficult for you to point to anything that they did and tell them that it was wrong. They were difficult people because they always found subtle ways of misunderstanding what you were saying and screwing it up.

In my case, the person was extremely hostile. I have always been good at handling people with anger problems. I simply stay out of their way, and let them storm around in their own cloud of anger. This is a lot more difficult, however, when you are dealing with difficult people who are right next to you all day long. We had adjoining cubicles, and no matter what I would do, I was always getting on Rick's nerves. He would find a reason to shout at someone almost everyday, but because the boss liked him, he couldn't be fired. He was one of the most difficult people I have ever had to deal with, in fact.

Finally, I went to a business coach who told me all about handling difficult people. The key was not, as I had thought, to stay out of their way. Rather, the key was confidently facing the difficult people who have been causing your problem. Difficult people, you see, are often bullies. They thrive on making people move out of their way. If you face them, they will be quick to back down.

Consumer research

One of the hardest things for me about seeing my business grow up is keeping up with the changes in consumer research. You see, when you are a small businessman, your gut is often all you need. I never employed a consumer research firm, never tracked consumer responses to my product, never did a consumer market study, and never hired any marketing and branding consultants. I had a good idea, a good brand name, and good people working for me. That was really all I needed.

It honestly took me longer than it should have to get around to hiring a consumer research center. You see, all of my instincts were against it. After all, it was my own decisions made with my own sharp instincts that built the company this far. Surely it didn't make sense to surrender any of that autonomy to outside consultants? Still, when I saw my sales and growth starts stagnate, I knew that it was true – I needed to hire some consumer researchers and I needed to fast. Otherwise, I would let my pride limit my own success – something that I had never wanted to do.

Consumer market research is actually a much more complicated business than I ever could have anticipated. Like most people, I had always assumed the consumer research was a pretty simple affair. I assumed that all it involved was focus groups, and that these focus groups were pretty easy to design. Hiring a firm, however, I gained new respect for consumer research. They really do a very difficult job, and they do it very well. Consumer research is basically about predicting every aspect of consumer response to a product. These are serious research professionals, some of them with advanced degrees in fields relating to human psychology. They will measure how consumers will react to your brand, to specific products, to product innovations, and to changes in marketing and advertising. It is a really tough job, and they do it exceptionally well.

Of course,Selecting the right consumer research firm can be very tough. In my case, I was fortunate to have a friend who could direct me to his consumer research Corp., but many people are not as lucky. Research consumer firms are skilled at spinning things – that is one their specialties – so all of them will look good from the outside. Finding the right one for your company can be quite a difficult task.

Family business

Running a family business has its ups and downs. On the one hand, family businesses have a lot of advantages. With a family business, everyone knows that they are really in it together. You are not just helping out the business, after all, but your family. When a family company is run well,There is no force that can beat it. Everyone knows their strengths and weaknesses, knows their duties within the business family, and knows how to talk to each other. Family businesses, however, are a lot like families. They can work well or they can work not at all. If your family owns a small business and communication starts to fall apart, you will see the disastrous results.

As a business owner, my grandfather was an extremely pioneering man. When he started the families business, everyone was overjoyed. Although starting family businesses takes a lot of work, he was willing to put in the effort. He brought people over from China one by one, and everyone got to work on the family business.

Paradoxically, it doesn't seem like the business family was really hard to do until it started to succeed. Everyone knew that their survival and happiness was dependent on making the family company work, so no one questioned the need to devote their lives to this. Now, the family business has prospered in bloom, but there are new problems around. You see, the new generation doesn't really want to work anymore. Between all of my grandfather's grandchildren, there are easily a dozen of us involved in this family business now, and we all have very different ideas.

Some of my cousins actually wants to sell the family business. The problem is that there has never been a very clearly defined family business succession plan. It wasn't a problem when we were all working together, but now that we are fighting, no one knows who owns the rights to the business. We have decided to hire a family counselor. It is somewhat embarrassing to see it come down to this, but I can't see any other solution. We don't want to have to decide the fate of the family business in court. We would much rather go through family therapy and learn to treat each other with respect. I only hope that it works out. My grandfather is still alive, and it would absolutely break his heart if anything happened to the future of the family business.

History of advertising

In advertising more than in almost any other field, there is constant pressure to keep up with the times. It really is a matter of life and death if you work in marketing and advertising. Marketing advertising campaigns need to come up with constant new ways to appeal to a changing market, and this requires advertising executives to be more in touch with current popular culture than even the hippest teenager.

In many ways, this is a good thing, but it does have a bad side as well. Many advertisers, although well-read in current events, tend to be almost completely unaware of the history of advertising. They are generally required to take a class or two on the history of product advertising in school, but this is about as far as it goes. Some of them know a bit about the history of art or literature, being humanities people, but almost none of them have any knowledge about the origins of their own field.

This is a shame, if you ask me. Not only is the history of advertising interesting, but it is also useful. Advertisers tend to be very pragmatic people, and so they do not study the history of advertising, assuming it to be dry and academic. Nothing could be further from the truth, in point of fact.

You see, advertising is designed to be tuned in to popular culture. As such, it is subject to all of the constantly shifting whims and trends that pop culture experiences. Studying the history of advertising is so important because valuable advertising strategies tend to fade away almost as quickly as they are invented. Studying the history of print advertising, for example, can put you in touch with the past masters of marketing. They had to work wholly in print, and as such their word play and use of language was often much more sophisticated than that used by modern advertising executives.

By studying history of advertising, you can borrow from the strategies of the past as a way of creating the advertising campaigns of the future. That is why continuing education on the history of advertising is mandatory in our marketing firm. A lot of our competitors find our obsession with the history of advertising to be somewhat quaint, but they do not question the success that we have had in recent years. We are one of the fastest growing firms in the industry, and it is because we pay equal attention to the past and the future!

How to promote a website

There are some tried-and-true methods to how to promote a website, but I think that people rely on them too much. Everyone knows some of the standard how to promote website techniques: you want to increase hits, increase visibility, and increased traffic in any way you can. You can do this by getting a lot of keyword optimized web content, signing up for ad space on various other websites, Setting up business referral arrangements and the like.

The problem is that everyone uses this approach to . There are literally thousands upon thousands of people in whatever area you are involved in doing exactly the same thing. It is obvious why this is a problem. There are only so many people can who can rank high in any given Google search. It can be good to learn how to promote a website in this manner, but it can't be your only strategy. Unless you are very good at SEO optimized content, you need something more site-specific.

As a product promoter, I have a somewhat novel approach to how to promote a website. You see, I knew all about how to promote music before I even got involved in the Internet. I have become comfortable with it over the last couple of years, but it is certainly not my background. For me, the key is promoting a website in the real world.

You see, national coverage and national attention are very difficult to dig get for an independent band, but local coverage is comparably easy. I have many strategies for how to promote a website in a geographic area. Basically, the key is to include the URL in all of your materials and have a great street team together. If you can have some web-based giveaways, so much the better. That will get people looking at your website, and once they are looking, you have gone halfway to winning the battle.

I know that these strategies for how to promote a website are not universal. Many people will tell me – and many people already have – that my advice doesn't help them in their line of business. What they don't realize is that that is the whole point. Everyone knows the universal part of how to promote websites. It can help to study up on it of course, and to increase and optimize your hits as much as possible, but that will only get you halfway there. The key is to go beyond your competition. Think about what strategies you can employ that other people are not using. Those are the ones that will pay off most of all.

Internet traffic

You know how we redundantly complain about the traffic we encounter on the Interstate in the morning and after work? Well imagine that times 100 or maybe even a million. While we all deal with the daily pile-ups on the way home from work, it only involves who lives in our area. Imagine how terrible it would be if it involved the entire planet. Now that would be one serious traffic jam, and you can bet there would be countless fits of road rage. Well, lucky for us, we don't have to battle that kind of traffic in the physical world. Now, Internet traffic is an entirely different story.

I will be the first to admit that often Internet traffic really ticks me off. Maybe they should call that cyber-rage. Anyway, like me, you've surely been on the web at times and had difficulty maneuvering from one site to another. This may concern your actual online connection, or more likely it involves the current Internet traffic. You know, all the other web-surfers who're online with you. I typically encounter this sluggish mess when I'm checking my email. You've got to love Hotmail. Now, I really shouldn't complain, because this is a totally free service. But yet it's still annoying to get on MSN and not be able to check my email account. I will say that this overload of Internet traffic generally happens when folks are getting off work or primarily on Saturday.

Websites love tons of traffic. They want as much as they can possibly accumulate. Traffic is wonderful for them because it either means more business or more web-surfers clicking on ads. Ad clicking often means revenue earned via advertisers. If you know what you're doing with this stuff, you can really generate a chunk of change off it. So the next time you're surfing net-land and notice your computer being sluggish, you can assume it's the overload of fellow cyber nuts. Although there is room for everyone in cyberspace, things do tend to get a bit slower when we're all crammed in together. Just don't get upset and toss your expensive laptop out the window in a fit of rage. You'll need it later to check your email.

Marketing consultant

With my background in marketing and advertising, I can go basically anywhere I want to in the industry. I have worked on market research marketing, viral marketing, guerrilla marketing – you name it, I have done it. The one thing that has always held me back is that I am not a team player. I am extremely independent and driven, but I don't tend to use my skills for leading. You see, I'd rather not have to work with other people. I know what a project needs intuitively, and I can usually get it done best without outside help.

With some of the companies that I worked with, this held me back. Working as a marketing consultant, however, it has become an asset. You see, with market consulting, people want to see that you have a driven, self-directed attitude. A marketing consultant is a sort of specialist. You are supposed to come into the company, listen to their concerns, and formulate a marketing strategy custom tailored to their needs. People don't want to see you hem and haw endlessly, waiting for feedback from various committees – they want to see you come up with a decisive plan of action. Then, it is up to the company to implement it or to try their own strategy. Either way, by that point your job is done.

Of course, there are many marketing consultant agencies that work in a more corporate way than I do. Many of these consulting firms have greater brand recognition, and so can draw in some big accounts that don't notice me. Nonetheless, I do very well as a freelance marketing consultant. You see, when you are working with a business consultant, it isn't the company that they come from that matters, but the consultant him or herself. Sometimes the very fact that I am able to run the business by myself without the backing of a marketing firm actually attracts clients. They want someone self-motivated, directed, and decisive. That is exactly who I am.


Of course, marketing consultants vary greatly in their approaches. Some of them are very cautious, driven by all of the scientific data they can get their hands on. Other ones are impulsive, trusting their gut instincts above all else. Although I tend towards the latter approach, my goal has always been to combine the two. It is never a good idea to ignore data that you can use, but it is also important to trust your own instincts.

Paid online surveys

It's truly amazing how much business has converted to the Internet. And the more and more it transfers to cyberspace, the more it will continue to change/evolve. This is in no way a bad thing. It's absolutely beneficial to those who work in cyberspace. And at the same time, it doesn't seem to affect shopping malls and retail stores either. It's a win-win situation as far as I can tell. However, that's not to say that every business on the web is legit. There are plenty of scams being run on a daily basis. If you've never come across one, then you're certainly part of the minority. I can't even count how many fraudulent paid online surveys are advertised these days. It's basically a big scam.

There are plenty of us who strive to work from home. This is completely to be expected. So many people are fed-up with large corporations treating them poorly. It's not odd to feel like a cog in the machine. And this is why folks research alternative ways to make money. Possibly careers done completely from home. This is where scams such as paid online surveys come into the picture. If you search this phrase "paid online surveys" on Google, Yahoo or MSN, you'll come up with plenty of results. Now, how many of these results are legitimate? Uh, none as far as I have experienced. You see, I tested the whole "paid online surveys" waters a while back. Do you want to know what I ended up with? Well, I'm going to tell you regardless. Countless advertisements, infinite loads of junk mail and not a dime to show for it. I tried all the top websites and none were beneficial in any way. They send you through hoop after hoop. You end up passing out your email to everyone, and all they offer for your services are coupons. What a load of garbage! But the real fun begins over the next few days. Your INBOX will be literally flooded with junk mail. And I do mean JUNK MAIL. More ads and trash to weed through. Then you'll be stuck clicking the UNSUBSCRIBE link to all those junk mails. What a way to waste your valuable time!

The moral of the story is obvious. If it's too good to be true, then it probably is. When it comes to bogus paid online surveys, don't waste your time. Regardless of how intriguing they appear, they're bogus.

Online for kids

The Internet is without a doubt one of our favorite entertainment mediums. Countless individuals from all around the globe turn to this entertainment super-source for both work and play. We accomplish our shopping, banking, researching, and food ordering all on the web. Needless to say it's made life as we once knew it much easier. Not only does it save us plenty of gas and time, but it also offers infinite activities to our children. It's practically impossible to get bored now days with all the Internet fun at our fingertips. Maybe it's time you got jacked-in and explored online for kids.

There are numerous exciting websites to pick and choose from. When it comes to being online for kids, all you need to remember as the parent is their favorite TV channels. There are Nick Jr, Disney, Noggin, and Cartoon Network to name the basics. All of which offer fun games and activities online for kids. This will keep them busy for hours to come. Trust me when I tell you this. I know first-hand. I have these websites bookmarked for my 7 year old. She routinely jumps back on the computer for more fun and games. At this point her favorite website is www.kids-online.net. This particular site offers cool ninja games and oodles of fun exercises to try out. Check it out with your child today.

Clearly with any online activity comes great responsibility. There's no getting around the fact that our children love the Internet, just as we do. This is why it's imperative that you walk them through the websites and games online for kids. Set parental controls as a safety feature. The last thing you want is for them to accidentally encounter adult sites. This can happen. Almost any terminology can pull up some random adult website now days. As sad as it may sound, it's true nonetheless. And don't forget about online chat rooms and forums. If you have kids that are a bit older, they may try and delve into this world. Sadly this is not a safe realm to enter without a parent. Not for young kids and teens anyway. Supervision is the key when you're dealing with the World-Wide-Web. Enjoy those games and activities online for kids the right way.

Overcoming Shyness

Overcoming Shyness

If you are a shy person, you know how it can affect your life. There are moments and events you miss simply because you feel insecure about what you have to say. You may think that no one will want to hear your thoughts, and that perhaps you will be a burden rather than someone who might have something interesting to say. I have been rather shy my entire life, and overcoming shyness has been something that has lead to some of the most interesting moments in my life. The first shot is always the most painful, but the rewards are endless.

A few years ago I was confronted with the presence of my favorite singer. He was right there, and he knew me because I had recently attended a few of his shows. He was on his way into the hotel bar when he stopped to say hello and called me by name. The friend that was with me was not shy and she said she wanted to go into the bar to say hello to everyone. It took a lot for me, but I took a chance in overcoming shyness and walk into that bar with her. When I went in, he saw me and smiled, and waited for me to come over to talk to him. Granted, there aren’t many performers like him, but I thank God that my friend pushed me into overcoming shyness because I ended up having an amazing few hours with him, and it’s a memory I will never forget.

Overcoming shyness is not easy, and it often comes down to a once in a lifetime opportunity, like the one I had. I knew in my mind that I would be shaking when I went in to talk to him, but I also knew that this moment might never come again. He is such a nice person though, and even though I knew that, it didn’t make overcoming shyness any easier. I had to do it though, and I think perhaps he even knew it, and that is why he was so sweet and attentive to me.

If you have problems overcoming shyness, you have to remind yourself of what you are missing. You have to see your fears through to the end and decide if it is really as bad as you are imagining it to be. Run the scene through in your mind to the worst possible ending, and you might see that it’s not a matter of life and death. The worst that can happen often does not happen, though when overcoming shyness you may not see it. Give yourself a chance, and be positive. That can go a long way towards becoming a more outgoing and fun loving person.

Online birthday cards

Online birthday cards are one of my favorite parts of the Internet. They may seem very trivial to you, but to my social life, they are crucial. You see, I have little free time in my life. My friends and I are all extremely busy. Sometimes, weeks can go by before we get the chance to see each other. Although we have all agreed to take time off at the same time this year and go on vacation together, in the meantime we miss many personal events. Sometimes, we even miss each others' birthdays. Online birthday greeting card offer the best solution to this.

There are so many things to like about online birthday cards. In the first place, there is the huge selection available. You can find an online birthday card for almost anyone. I even found an online birthday card with a backgammon theme for my friend Jim who is into playing backgammon. You wouldn't believe the variety of online greeting cards if you haven't looked to find out for yourself. Basically, any idea for online birthday cards has probably been thought up already. It just waits for you to download it, or send it over e-mail.

More importantly, however, online birthday cards tend to be free and extremely convenient. Because you can send them over e-mail, you don't have to bother with the hassle of mailing them to a friend. You can get online birthday cards at the very last minute, and no one will be the wiser. On top of this, you can customize them. You can even make your own online birthday cards if you want to. Almost everyone has Photoshop, or something similar nowadays. All you have to do is import a picture, write some text, make any changes that you want, and there you have it. The perfect online birthday card!

Some people take it a little bit too far and get an online birthday gift for friends. I have always thought this was a little tacky. You should take the time to give birthday gifts yourself. An online birthday card can suffice in the meantime, but eventually you should give birthday gifts in person if possible. Nonetheless, online birthday cards will show you care even if you don't have the time to show up personally. You would be amazed how much of a difference they can make. Best of all, your friends can even get them at work. You can't beat that!

Pay Per View

No matter how many times you flip it on, you never tire of its charms. I'm referring to the television. Isn't this the true though? We are addicted to television and film. And regardless of how much we hear about exercise and good health habits, we somehow still find ourselves lounging in front of a 40 inch plasma. And if we're not doing that, we're off to the movie theater to catch the latest blockbuster. Unfortunately for most of us this routine can get a bit pricey. No worries; there are other ways to indulge in all that cinema goodness. Personally I prefer watching flicks at home anyway. Hey, it's all about the pay per view and Netflix. At this point I'd hate to live without them.

If I had to take a guess at how many movies I viewed in an average week's time, I'd have to say around 10. Now I know what you must be thinking. That's not nearly enough! Haa...just kidding. But seriously, I'll bet you watch more than you think. You may not necessarily be purchasing pay per view flicks, but I'll wager that you're at least watching plenty of television. Maybe it's "24," "Desperate Housewives," or "CSI." Do these weekly hit ring any bells? Now, I have to say that I'm partial to Netflix and pay per view over television shows. These are just more reliable sources in my opinion. When I flip it to the pay per view preview channel, I can easily select a film that I know I haven't seen before. This is ideal. It doesn't always work this way with televisions series'. Half of the time they're re-runs, and that annoys the heck out of me. I have no time for repeats.

We're flooded with great options in this day and age. If you're not renting from Blockbuster or Hollywood Video stores, you can always turn to Netflix or pay per view as an alternative. I like to take advantage of both pay per view and Netflix simply because it allows me to see all the movies I want when I want. With pay per view there's no contract or monthly fee. You only pay for a single film and watch it any time over the next 24 hours. That's a pretty sweet deal if I do say so myself. Are you on the pay per view band-wagon?

Paypal Account

Ah, the future. It holds such wondrous things. Considering all that we currently have in the present, it's hard to even fathom what's all ahead of us. Possibly cell phones the size of peanuts and SUVs as large as tractor trailers. Does that sound about right to you? Anyway, one phenomenal piece of technology that has virtually changed it all is the Internet. Take your pick from countless tasks you can now accomplish online. I love this! Ten years ago I never would have though so, but know I know so. My Mac and wireless online access make so many chores so much simpler. You won't catch me driving to the back these days or ordering a pizza on the telephone. Why should I? It's all on the internet and a breeze to access. I even have a paypal account that manages my electronic funds.

I realize that some folks are still not hip to the paypal account mania. Well let me make it simple for you. A paypal account is basically a way to pass money back and forth online. Believe it or not, some individuals actually get paid this way. If you're a grant writer working for random online clients, they can paypal you the fee when you're through. At that point you can either leave the funds in your paypal account, use them to purchase items online, or easily transfer them to your bank account. At this point you're probably thinking what I first thought. Pretty Simple! Paypal came about after EBay. Countless EBay auction lovers use their paypal accounts regularly to purchase items online. The next time you're on EBay, take a look at the paypal symbol next to most auction items. This means they accept paypal as a form of payment. Most even prefer it. When you pay with your paypal account instead of a check or money order, the funds are transferred and received instantly. All that's required by the payer is an email address.

Maybe it's time you looked into obtaining a paypal account for your future web purchases. This can indeed make shopping online so much faster. If you're curious who's affiliated with paypal, I suggest you check out their website at www.paypal.com. More and more businesses are hopping on the band-wagon.

Persuasive Speech

Using convincing, persuasive speaking has always been an important part of my job. You see, I am a business analyst. Unlike many people in my profession, I got involved in it not because of my love of explanation or social interaction, but because of my analytical skills which I wished to apply to other people's business problems. The problem is that analysis is only one part of the equation in business consulting. Sure, you need to be able to recommend the right changes in the company, but you also need to be able to recommend them in the right way. I have never been able to master persuasive speech, and it has held me back at every turn. Don't get me wrong – I still seem to make a good living, and I'm relatively happy with my job. Even so, being able to make persuasive speeches would catapult my career forward in a way like never before.

I used to think of the problem was organizing the information along the right lines. I studied persuasive essay topics online to see how the experts organized their thoughts. I would copy them, write my own, and do everything I could to mimic the style. I would even listen to people making persuasive speeches at conferences in an effort to understand their thought processes. Nevertheless, it never helped me. If anything, my persuasive speech skills just got worse. Because I was trying to speak in someone else's voice, I would be less confident than before when I tried to make a persuasive speech. It seemed like I would never get it.

Finally, one day, I finally figured out what the problem was. I had been going about my persuasive speech problem all wrong! My problem was not writing a persuasive speech, but learning how to speak to people. It seems obvious in retrospect, but at the time it came as a revelation. I could make a persuasive speech if I could just become comfortable. I took classes in becoming a confident speaker, and within a year I was much better at doing it. Although I never will be able to make a persuasive speech with the ease of a skilled salesman, I can hold my own nowadays. I have met with more success than ever before in my career, and I continue to advance. It is amazing what delivering a persuasive speech can do!

Profitable small businesses

Profitable small businesses

When you want to go into business, there are many things you have to worry about. One of the biggest things you should think about is what makes some new ideas profitable small businesses, and why others fail within a year. There are many things you can do to help get things going, but if you forget the most simple things, you are going to fail. Though you may think they are huge secrets, in reality, they are actually quite obvious. They can’t save every single business, but they can give you a leg up from the start.

Most people think about inventory, but they don’t know if they have what someone wants. The truth is, there isn’t much that anyone needs to have, not really anyway. The basics are food, clothing, shelter, and water. Everything else is just gravy. You have to find ways to make people think that they have to have your product, even if you know darn well they don’t. You have to make everyone believe their life will be better because of it, and if they pass, they are going to regret it. That might sound strange to someone selling stuffed bears or something like that, but that’s the attitude you have to have. It’s a great key to profitable small businesses.

You have to tweak this message and you have to advertise it everywhere you can. Don’t just put a few different ads in a few places, you really want to make sure everyone in your projected demographic can get the message that they need to come see you right away. Too many potentially profitable small businesses end up going bankrupt just because they didn’t bother to put enough money into advertising. You can have a great interior, amazing product, and the most highly trained staff in town, but you can’t know that you’ll have one of the most profitable small businesses unless people know where to find you and what you have to offer.

Also remember to make customers the main priority once you get them in the door. Too many business are forgetting the fine art of keeping the customer happy once they manage to get them in the door. You might think that it’s okay to brush off one person, but you might find that this has a bad chain reaction. It only takes one disgruntled and very talkative person to drive away future business.

Writing business plans

When it came to writing business plans, I thought I would have no problem. You see, I had really thought out basically every aspect of business. I knew the product I wanted to make, how to make it, how to market and advertise it, how many people I had to employ, and even how much it would cost. Nevertheless, something about putting all of these factors together was really difficult for me. I have always been an idea man, but have never found a very good person to collaborate with. For me, the part that everyone takes for granted – writing down and organizing the details – is the hardest part. Add to this the fact that I have no business experience and you have a recipe for disaster. That is why I needed to consult sample business plans.

It may seem strange to you, but having to look at a business plan example was a little bit humiliating for me. I have always been a pretty independent person, and looking at someone else's business plan template seemed to compromise the independence. I wanted to be able to do it all by myself, and having to go buy sample business plans from some company that specializes in marketing to business novices felt like admitting failure long before it was time. Yet although I am stubborn, I am also practical. I knew that the sample business plans would save me a lot of money in the long run. By not allowing my inexperience to mess with my business planning, I would be able to get things right in the first place. Looking at a simple business plan or two would show me how it was done, and make sure I didn't leave out any details.

Once I got past the feeling that I could have figured it out by myself, I actually found the sample business plans to be quite helpful. The company that I bought them from used plans from actual businesses, showing me in detail everything that needed to be written down. They even offered to help me write my own, but I did not feel like I had to avail myself of the service. The sample business plans were perfectly adequate. I knew what I needed to know, and I was ready to get going. My business now has been going for about six months, and everything seems to be coming along quite nicely, thanks to my careful planning.

Sell On The Internet

Sell On The Internet

For many people, the Internet has opened up a whole new world. The only is it a place to meet new people, find some great information, entertain yourself, and do many other things, it is also become a place to do business. Many people like to find things to sell on the Internet. This can be done through eBay, which is very common, or you can find many other ways to do this. One great ways to have your own web site, and to try to draw customers in through Internet advertising.

What you want to sell on the Internet is up to you. If you have a business in your home or in your community, you can always expand to the Internet. You can sell things online that you can sell anywhere. You will have to rely on shipping companies in order to get your product around the world, but when you sell on the Internet, you have opened up a whole new world of possibilities for yourself and your business. You don’t even have to sell things online, as you can sell many other things that do not require shipping.

The other things that you can sell on the Internet are your talents. If you are a writer or a digital photography, there are many, many people online who need your work. Web sites rely on content to draw in people, and also to provide the information that people are looking for every day. People also need photographs to go along with this content. If you want to sell on the Internet, you simply have to look for freelance opportunities. There are many out there, and if you give it enough time, you can have a great career working exclusively online.

Remember that in order to sell on the Internet, you have to have advertising just as you would if you were to sell from a retail store. Another great way to get your business noticed by the online public is to have keyword rich content on your web site. When you want to sell on the Internet you have to be creative about your advertising, and you also have to make sure your customer satisfaction is high. Complaints in a retail store may harm your business a little, but it only takes one horrible review from an Internet user to tank your business. Make sure you take care of your customer, as well as you would take care of yourself, and you should have no problem finding a market online for whatever it is that you wish to do.

Selling skills

When I first started my business, we put little thought into matters like selling strategies and sales skills. We felt like selling skill was for companies that didn't have confidence in their products. We did have confidence in what we were making. Selling skills seemed immaterial, as we are quite sure that we have the best custom computers on the market, for the lowest prices. This might sound like a sales pitch, but it really is true. I had some great people working for me, and we had some great connections to get us the parts that we needed.

Nonetheless, no matter what we did, sales would not pick up. We were making enough to stay in business, but just barely. A few of our best people were tempted to move on to other jobs, and I knew that it was the beginning of a long downhill slide unless I did something to change things. That is why decided to bring in a professional selling skills consultant. Although my employees were initially against sales skills training, they agreed to try it on a trial basis. They thought of themselves as technical professionals, not salesmen, and did not want anything to do with what they saw as a manipulative, backwards profession.

Nonetheless, the selling skills trainers did the job. It took them a long time because my workers tend to be socially awkward people, but in the long run they told them how to make a good sales pitch and close a deal. I did not want to hire sales representatives like most companies do. I have a different philosophy. You see, our companies are for high-end computer users – people who know the product very well. Selling skills is not enough. What I salesman need above all its technical knowledge. Selling skills has to come second, but it is required. By giving our computer engineers and software designers the selling skills they needed, we were able to allow them to deal with the customers in a professional yet friendly manner.

The solution selling training provided for us cannot be underestimated. Before we got a boost in selling skills, we were a backwater business that no one had heard of. Every sale was crucial for us because if we were short for one month, we would probably be forced to close. Now that we have the selling skills that we need, however, we are truly prospering.

Social Skills Lesson

As soon as I was halfway through kindergarten, I was a wreck. It was not really my fault. You see, there are two kinds of kindergarten teachers. There are kindergarten teachers who are there because they love little children, and want to make a difference in young lives. These kindergarten teachers are wonderful. Then there are the other kind – the kind who are there because they are petty tyrants who want to make children miserable. This is the kind of kindergarten teacher that I had.

I wasn't long before I became the class clown. You see, she would pick on me and bully me. She hated the fact that my handwriting was not neat, and that I couldn't color inside the lines. Soon, I began to act out. I had few friends. That's when my parents decided that social skills lessons were in order.

You may think that you have never had a social skills lesson in school, but if you have you might not have noticed. Social skills lessons are very cleverly designed, and they are taught to children at a young age. Anything that teaches kids to share, to be polite, or to work together falls under the rubric of social skills lessons. For me however, these lessons in social skills were not enough. I needed the heavy-duty classes.

My parents took me to the only social skills lessons class that they could find, but this turned out to be a terrible mistake. It was aimed towards kids with autism, and I felt very uncomfortable in there. This made me act out even more, and soon I was quite regularly getting kicked out of my social skills class. That is when one of my teachers took me under her wing.

She could see that the social skills lessons weren't working for me. You see, it wasn't my social skills that were problem. It was my self-confidence. I been so shaken up by having such a mean teacher that I had begun to lash out, trying to get attention. Of course, in some ways the social skills lessons could help, but it was much better to get to the root of the problem. My parents immediately took me out of the social skills lessons class and put me in therapy. That did wonders for my self-confidence, and although I have had my share of problems growing up, I ultimately turned in to a pretty happy, confident adult.

consumer credit counselling

Consumers are often in need of credit counseling and will reach out to experienced professionals to help them improve their credit rating and repair bad credit. Often times the credit card interest rates and loan interest along with late fee penalties can get out of control, thereby creating a deadly trap where making even the minimum payments won't be enough to get your head above the water. An experienced consumer credit counselor can help you save money and often times reduce your debt significantly.

While credit cards are considered by many as a modern day necessity, enabling convenience in making purchases, there is a downside that can strike even the most sincere of credit card holders. High interest rates can choke your credit line and create a situation of ever increasing minimum monthly payments. I know, I have been there and have been choked! A few late payments can bump up the credit card interest rate, not to mention add late fees that seem unfair. While they may be unfair, the late fees are pure profit for the credit companies and they certainly benefit from them at your expense.

To get back into financial health you can work with a consumer credit counseling service to help you negotiate a settlement where you can make smaller monthly payments to a negotiated lower debt amount. While you can contact the credit companies yourself, an experienced credit counselor will know the ins and outs of negotiating and can streamline the process to it's simplest conclusion.

The downside to negotiating debt settlements is that your line of credit will be closed and you'll possibly have a blemish on your credit report. That is why an experienced consumer credit counseling service may be a smarter alternative than repairing credit yourself because credit counselors know inside methods to reduce to negative impact on your credit rating. Often credit counselors will even suggest methods to improve your credit rating.

When I got into trouble with my credit and had more debt than incoming income I had to resort to getting more loans to bail me out. My friend was fortunate to have lots of equity in her house, but the band aid equity loans and lines of credit didn't solve the problem, but rather added to her debt crisis. A seasoned consumer credit counseling service can help you weigh the advantages of all the various methods of repairing bad credit and settling debts. They'll offer several programs that can work towards solving your debt problems and improve your credit rating at the same time.

Credit risk management and consumer debt solutions are where the consumer credit counseling service can expertly guide you towards achieving financial goals. Consumer credit counseling services can help negotiate reduced payment amounts with lower interest and monthly payments by standing behind you and reinforcing your commitment to paying off your debts.

If you are having trouble making your monthly minimum payments towards your credit, it is highly suggested you consider speaking to a consumer credit counseling service and study what debt solutions they can offer. They'll give you options for debt solutions and you will at the very least walk away with ideas how you can solve your financial problems and improve your credit rating

Start your own online business

Why not start a simple online business in the comfort
of your home?

Here are ten great reasons:

1. Ethical - it offers you a proven and tested system
to make money online and tap into a global market!

2. You can learn and earn at your own time and pace.

3. Your start up cost in US$10 only!

4. Your monthly operating cost is US$10 only!

5. Timing - millions of people worldwide are looking
for a simple, profitable and duplicatable online business.

6. Great Value - you can get a domain name, website,
e-mail accounts and a user-friendly marketing website
and support system for US$10 a month!

7. You can learn and earn and your cost to operate
this business for one year can be as low as US$120.

8. It is sustainable because usually it takes people
6 to 12 months to learn the business and when the
monthly operating cost is very low you can afford to
stay long enough to learn how to do the business.

9. It gives you great leverage because the world is
your market.

10. You can promote it easily through email marketing,
word-of-mouth, classified ads, flyers and postings on
notice board, and one on one presentations.

The Internet has taken away the three major excuses
for not doing business: High start-up Cost, high monthly
operating cost and it is difficult! Now you can own a
simple online business with very low start-up cost,
very low monthly operating cost and it is simple!

If you can surf the Internet, send an email and cut and
paste, you have the basic skills to start a simple online
business! So what is your excuse?

If you are sick and tired of working 9 to 5 and just
barely getting by and you want a better life it is your
responsibility to take action towards achieving your
dreams. There are lots of online business opportunities
and you are only a click away!

It is only wise to do your due diligence and speak to
experienced internet marketers, read an ebook or seek
advice and guidance from a friend who has been there
and done that. Internet marketing and network marketing
is truly a superb partnership

You now can leverage on the most powerful communication
tools and a reliable and solid system to create wealth and a
better life for yourself and your loved ones!

Start your simple, profitable and duplicatable online
business today!

Go to: http://www.ahmadhee.ws