Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Top 10 Tools to Get Blogging
Great tips for you who will want to become a professional blogger. You should follow these top ten tools for your blogs.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Top 10 reasons a website Fails To Perform in web industry
We find the following article which is so important to you.
A website is a tool and can be of significant help to your business. It can cut a lot of time you put into giving information to customers. It can answer questions and perform tasks for you. Find out where websites fail to perform and how you can figure out where to make it better.
1. Undefined Website Objectives
Some sites try to do way too much at once, or worse, they have no definable purpose. Many provide no clear objective. A site can do more than look good and flashy and have your contact information.
Websites can be informational, storing content and articles based on a topic. Sites can run eCommerce solutions that help you with your sales process. It can also generate leads, asking customers to fill out forms with their information and interests. It can also be a hybrid site, with mixed purposes, like offering a free ebook or free access to information (informational) in return for contact information (lead generation).
Defining the purpose of your website gives a clear direction to your customers. Where should customers arrive when they find your website? Where do you want them to end up? Using a clear path and clear objectives, you can lead them through your site, your products, and your information, depending on how you need to sell your products. Not all products or services can be sold directly in an eCommerce situation. Maybe you prefer just getting to know your customer a bit more, and being able to forward marketing materials, so a lead generation type of site might be more suitable.
Assign a secondary objective. Maybe after visitors sign up for free access, or an ebook, they are encourage to ask more by contacting your sales reps, or perhaps they can make a direct purchase online. Use a clearly definable call to action. "Email for more information." "Clíck here to sign up." Tell visitors where to go.
2. Unidentified Target Audience
Demographics have been used in marketing for generations. Marketers use the information because it works. Knowing who your audience is defines the purpose to your website and calls out those who qualify and would be interested in your products. Marketing is the one area where discrimination is actually a good thing! You don't want to waste the marketing dollars that draw people to your site who won't need your products in the first place.
3. Building for the Wrong Audience
Your site can have a purpose and a select audience, but if it doesn't appeal to audiences, they tend to go elsewhere. Finding preferences is only the first step. Once you figure out what your demographic is, it is time to find out what appeals to them, and use that to your advantage. It could be something as simple as site colors and images, to where and how they prefer to use navigation systems and the type of content presented.
Maybe you need simple content, easy to read and understand for younger audiences. Perhaps you need something a bit more technical for professionals. You can even see if you need to add features for those who are visually impaired. Paying attention to your demographic and their preferences can mean building your website around their likes and getting more responses.
4. Oblivious to Web Traffic Sources
A link on a Harry Potter fan club forum to your website can bring in traffic, but does it really bring in the right customers? If you're not directing traffic from sites relevant to yours or where a matching market exists, you might end up with empty hits to your website. It looks pretty on stat pages but it doesn't really do anything.
Refocus your efforts on search engine optimization and focus on keywords that do fit, not just what might be popular. You can plan the sort of traffic you want and focus your outreach efforts on that. Planning your search engine campaigns can make them more effective, bringing the right customers to you. You don't need 1,000 random visitors a day, when 100 qualified visitors will do.
5. Underestimating the Competition
Who says you can't grab ideas from your competition? Find out what they are lacking and draw customers to your site by adding more features and information. Your target audience is searching the web for your product. Don't let your competition become more appealing.
Understand your competition by observing their sites. Where are your competitors linking? Where aren't they? What designs do they use on their site? Does your target audience like that type of design or do they want something better? Figure out how to improve your site and make it better than your competition.
6. Poor Site Communication and Inconsistency
If you're building a website, is one page orange and another blue? Does one page have your logo and another doesn't? People love consistency.
Does your content and images display the right message? Your website might have pretty pictures of your children, or a fun story about what happened to you last Christmas, but is it really what your customers want to know?
Skip the personal info, unless it's relevant and your audience wants to hear about it. You also need to make sure you present your brand in its best light, and consistently give visitors the same presentation every time and on every page. Let your brand stand out.
7. Outdated and Antiquated Site Features
Out with the old. Check your site for old content and images and delete them. Remove old links that go nowhere too. Forget pop ups and old methods of keeping visitors around. Content is great, but if it's so old that it's irrelevant, you'll lose respectability and your expert status.
Stick to new information. Don't be afraid to get rid of old articles and delete old images. Do an update on your site features, like navigation systems and contact forms.
8. Poor Overall Site Performance
You've plastered all there is to know about you on a few pages. Is this the right way to do it? Maybe not. Yes, you've given them something to look at, but you have to remember, your time to impress people on the Internet is limited to just a few seconds. Long passages of text, lengthy forms, even poorly constructed or confusing navigation can slow people down, which leads to people leaving.
Making your website flow is all about making your site easy to read, easy to browse and easy to find what you're looking for. Include a search function, highlight popular pages, and make it simple for people to give you their information. Start with short forms, only the essentials, and a few simple questions. You can get more info later.
9. Lack of Commitment
When was the last time you updated additional information to your website?
Remember those "Website Under Construction" images from the early years of the Internet? Over time, people have learned those images are pointless. Your website is ever evolving, ever needing updating. Your website is isn't ever finished.
You must make a commitment to update information and to improve interest in your site from visitors. It could be as simple as updating a blog once or twice a week, or updating about sales and special events. Give visitors something to come back to, and let them turn into regular guests.
10. Not using an Experienced Web Firm
You do a good job with what you do, and a good business and website owner knows when to call for help. Maybe you're okay with writing content, but you need help with creating navigation and setting up forms. It's okay to ask someone else for help, either with a few pages, or for the entire site design, and leave it to a professional.
It also saves money and time getting someone else to do the complicated things for you. Are you spending weeks on figuring out a web page design set up when it takes a professional a few hours to produce? When you're in business, you consult with professionals who will help you build a better website, develop methods of search engine marketing strategies, and find out how to appeal to your target audience. You save tíme, money, and plenty of headaches.
About The Author
Gary Klingsheim is the Vice President of Moonrise Design. Moonrise is a San Diego web design company specializing in flash web site design and custom web application development. Visit us online today or call us at 415.887.9240 to discuss how we can help you make the most of your online presence.
Friday, March 7, 2008
World's top 10 billionaires, Buffet is the richest
The magazine estimated Buffett's worth at $62 billion in its annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people.
Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim came in second with an estimated worth of $60 billion, pushing Gates to third place after 13 years of holding the No 1 spot.
The magazine estimated Gates' worth at $58 billion.
Buffett's rise to No 1 was particularly noteworthy, Forbes said, as it came at a time of great financial turmoil and as Buffett has begun to siphon off part of his fortune to charity.
"Even though he is giving away a piece of his fortune each year, the stock of Berkshire Hathaway, the source of Warren Buffet's wealth, has been rising very rapidly," Chief Executive of Forbes Magazines Steve Forbes said, noting Buffett's fortune climbed $10 billion in the last calendar year.
Buffett in June 2006 announced plans to give 85 percent of his fortune away, granting it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities. Bill Gates serves on the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway and is a long-time bridge buddy of Buffett's. Gates has also given a substantial amount of his fortune to the foundation.
Buffett, often called the Sage of Omaha, has been lauded among investors for his preference for investing in larger companies with easy-to-understand businesses, large or dominant market shares, consistent earnings, and strong management.
In the early 1960s, Buffett started to invest in Berkshire, then a struggling textile maker, and took it over in 1965. Since then, he has transformed it into a holding company for more than 50 companies, ranging from Benjamin Moore paint and Dairy Queen ice cream to Fruit of the Loom underwear and Ginsu knives.
Gates has held the No. 1 spot since 1995, when he unseated Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, a Japanese real estate tycoon. Tsutsumi fell off the billionaire's list last year after receiving a suspended prison sentence for falsifying financial statements and insider trading in 2005.
Slim, a former stock market trader, is known for buying up struggling, cheap firms and turning them into profitable cash cows. He built his fortune by privatizing former Mexican state telephone monopoly Telmex. America Movil, a Telmex spin-off, is is now Slim's flagship business and Latin America's biggest mobile phone company.
Keeping up with the Russians?
The collective net worth of the world's 1,125 billionaires soared to $4.4 trillion, the magazine said.
The list of billionaires has almost doubled in the past four years, Forbes said. There were 469 US billionaires, worth a combined $1.6 trillion, while the 656 billionaires who live outside the United States are worth $2.8 trillion.
Russia came in second place as home to 87 billionaires and Moscow is now the world's billionaire center, the magazine said. The Russian capital is now home to more billionaires than New York City.
India, China and Turkey also saw large gains in numbers of billionaires.
The world's youngest billionaire is 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, founder of social networking Web site Facebook. The magazine estimated his worth at $1.5 billion and said he is the youngest self-made billionaire to ever appear in the Forbes billionaire rankings.
Recent turmoil in the financial markets has taken its toll on the list.
James Cayne, Chairman of investment bank Bear Stearns Cos; William Pulte, who founded US home builder Pulte Homes Inc; and Howard Schultz, founder of coffee chain Starbucks all fell off the billionaire's list amid declines in their companies' stock prices.
The decline in the dollar, a trend that Buffett himself has been betting on since 2002, provided a boost to billionaires outside the United States, particularly because the Forbes list is tabulated in US dollars.
The top ten list of billionaires:
Herewith the 10 richest people in the world, according to Forbes magazine's annual list of billionaires.
Name Net Worth Source of Wealth (in billion USD)
Warren Buffett (US): 62 Berkshire Hathaway
Carlos Slim (Mexico): 60 Telecoms
Bill Gates (US): 58 Microsoft
Lakshmi Mittal (India): 45 Steel
Mukesh Ambani (India): 43 Petrochemicals
Anil Ambani (India): 42 Diversified
Ingvar Kamprad (Sweden): 31 Ikea
KP Singh (India): 30 Real estate
Oleg Deripaska (Russia) 28 Russian Aluminum
Karl Albrecht (Germany): 27 Aldi
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Top 10-step Goal Setting process for you
Discover now what goals are; what goal setting is; why most people don’t set goals; and why goal setting turns your life from running endlessly in a wheel, toward consistent life achievements.
What are Goals?
Goals are very specific life outcomes we want, that give us direction and personal aims.
What is Goal Setting?
What separates Goals from ordinary Dreams is writing them down – because this begins pre-programming your mind to find ways to make the goals happen. Goal setting means planning specific action steps to take, to achieve your goals.
Why don’t more people set Goals?
Most people don’t know how, or don’t know the value of goal setting for achieving their life ambitions. They fear failure. They think they have goals, when instead these are just ordinary dreams.
Why Goal Setting changes your life.
Goals give shape and focus to your life, the compelling “reason why”, the momentum to take action, the “How to…” make them happen. Goal setting – the art of writing down specific desired outcomes, with the planned steps you must take – “forces” your mind to look for ways to make the desired goal a success.
Here is the easiest, most powerful 10-step Goal Setting process for you.
1. Think about what you want and write it down
2. Decide EXACTLY what you want and write it down.
3. Make sure your goal is measurable.
4. Identify the specific reasons that you want to achieve this goal and write them down.
5. Establish a definite date for accomplishment of your goal and write it down.
6. Create a list of action steps that you need to take to accomplish your goal and write it down.
7. Create an action plan from your list of action steps and write it down.
8. Take Action.
9. Do something every day
10. View your goals as often as possible.
Now grab a pen and some paper, and spend 30 minutes setting the goals for your life!
Top ten FAQ in marketing and sales
Why do we need to market when we can barely staff the work we have?
What is the difference between “marketing” and “selling?”
Can I expect a marketer to generate new business leads?
How should sales and marketing functions be aligned?
What does a marketing person do?
How can I tell if our firm needs an in-house marketing person?
What level of marketer does my firm need?
To whom should the marketer report?
When can we expect to see marketing results?
How might marketing’s cultural changes affect my firm?
Top ten learning about web hosting
you can learn about web hosting by following tips below-
Web Hosting Instructions
Web domains. Hosting. Content. These are the three top priorities for any webmaster, regardless of how experienced they are. Unfortunately, these three essentials often leave people in the dark, as there are dozens of companies offering the “same” packages for different prices.
Web Hosting Guide
Trying to identify a web host can be a very daunting task especially when there are so many available nowadays and all of them promise one thing or another because looking for and buying a reliable web hosting solution is an imperative decision.
Finding The Best Web Hosting Service
Finding the best hosting service for your website can be complicated. The best way to select a quality web host is to take the selection process one step at a time.
Dedicated Servers
If you are currently engaged in any facet of ecommerce, even service sectors, a website makes up a great deal of your business. Therefore, it is a safe assumption that you pay for hosting your website in some fashion.
Hosting Overseas
All top hosting contenders do meet standard requirements for standard hosting services, and overseas companies often will meet these needs for a lower price than US or Europe based competitors, but should hosting be outsourced overseas?
How to Choose the Best Web Hosting Service
Choosing the right kind of web hosting service can be a very daunting task at times as there are some very important features that you need to make sure of. Here you can find what exactly to look for when choosing the best web hosting service.
A Soundry of Options for Web Hosting
Web hosting, one of the most important functions in the website process, allows website owners to put up their creative masterpieces. Although people assume that there is only one type of package, this article clearly shows how wrong the myth can be.
How to Make Money with Web Hosting
Dying to make extra cash? Surprisingly, web hosting can actually help with your bills. In a few simple steps, you will be on your way to a richer lifestyle.
Which Web Hosting is Right for You
Websites are one of the most popular forms of entertainment. While making a website is essential, the majority of beginners do not realize that web hosting is even more important.
Why Reliable Web Hosting
In today's competitive world reliable web hosting is very critical especially for the success of online businesses. You need to seek a web hosting company that can provide you with these critical components and much more.
Top ten tips to start a business
1. Do your homework. You may think your idea is fantastic and your friends and family have probably told you it is great too, but what do other people think? Test out your idea on your potential customers before you start.
2. Work out your costs. You must be able to have enough money coming into the business to cover what your product or service costs you to make. If you don’t, you’re in danger of not making any money out of your business.
3. Think of free ways to promote your business. Let’s face it you’ve got enough to spend your money on without spending it on marketing. Think about where your potential customers go (i.e. if your customers are mums, they’ll go to schools, post office, doctor’s surgeries etc) and go where they go.
4. Don’t spend a fortune on a website. Believe me you’ll want to change your website after a few months when you get to know what you’re doing. Spend the money on your website then and get it done cheaply at first.
5. Write a business plan. Too many businesses don’t write a plan and 90% of them will fail during the first 18 months. If you write a business plan, 90% of businesses are still going after the same period. What would you prefer?
6. Be passionate. Your business idea should be something you would happily get out bed in a morning for without being paid. Your passion will come across to customers and everyone you meet and will help you get started.
7. Don’t worry about getting a ‘niche’. Listen, all of us would like to find the perfect idea that no-one else has thought of, but then you’ll need to work hard at telling people what it is because they won’t have heard about it. Competition is good! Your ‘niche’ is all about you – it’s what you’re passionate about that makes you stand out.
8. Forget about other people. Countless new businesses are worried about telling people in case their idea is stolen. But remember 60% of people are sat in businesses right now wanting to start their own business – but, only 3% actually do it. So, even if people think it’s a great idea, chances are they won’t actually set up. Bite the bullet and tell people!
9. Go for it! We’re all a nation of “what ifs” and “it won’t work”. If you’ve done your homework and believe in your idea, go for it! Also, remember that everyone is an expert, even if they’ve never run a business before. Trust your instinct – not theirs.
10. Go on a start-up course (well I would say that wouldn’t I?). But, a start-up course is run by experts who will give you the real answers – not rumours that your friends and family have heard. Our next 3-day start-up course, costing just £99 will be held on the 18th, 19th and 20th February and then every 3rd Monday to Wednesday of each month in Cheltenham. Have a look in our profile to book on.
Top 10 Marketing Podcasts
Here’s a collection of podcasts about marketing from Marketing Voices, a weekly podcast that discusses how social media is affecting marketing strategy and practices, by my buddy Jennifer Jones. There’s lots of great information for entrepreneurs and small-business owners in these podcasts.
1.
Seth Godin, marketing expert, author. States that small is the new big. People need to target audiences of 4 not 400. Told marketers he feels they have the biggest opportunity in at least thirty years to make an impact given social media.
2.
Robert Scoble, blogger and vice president of media development for PodTech. Talks about how blogging has evolved and why it is important for corporations to blog today.
3.
Peter Rojas, co-founder and editor of Engadget, one of the most popular blogs on technology today. Discusses the publication, its strategy and how to best contact editors for the publication.
4.
Phillip Bodzenta, director of global communications for Coke. Describes how Coke used bloggers to build audience during the World Cup. Shows pictures of bloggers at the World Cup.
5.
Sharon Wienbar, managing director, Scale Venture Partners (formerly BA Venture Partners) on what is hot/ not in social media venture investing.
6.
Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer of Nielsen Buzzmetrics, talks about how to measure social media.
7.
Steve Rubel, senior vice president of Edelman Public Relations. Speaks to how social media is impacting the practice of public relations.
8.
Dick Costello, chief executive officer of Feedburner. He speaks about how to get blogging and podcasting content is found and distributed.
9.
Bill Kircos, head of consumer and enterprise media for Intel. Describes how Intel implements social media programs, most specifically, podcasting.
10.
Kelly Wagman, head of customer relationship marketing for Juniper Networks. Talks about how Juniper used social media to build a community.
Top ten tips for network business
The speed networking ones (my favourite type of networking) are usually held over a buffet lunch. You’ll be seated opposite another business person and each of you will have 1-2 minutes to tell each other what you do.
Once your time is up, you’ll move to the next business person and so on. Some speed networking events allow you to meet everyone in the room; others don’t, but all in all they’re great fun.
The evening ones I won’t go into that much detail about these ones, suffice to say they are very similar to the lunchtime networking events, apart from they’re held in the evening.
How to make the most of your networking experience o First, make sure you bring the following items to every networking event you go to:
1) Plenty of business cards (more than you think you’ll need) – the amount of times I’ve been to an event where people have run out of cards. Nothing is more unprofessional than writing your contact details on a slip of paper.
2) A diary – if you have a diary with you and the person you’ve met wants to meet up afterwards, you can arrange a date there and then. It’s far harder (trust me on this) to make the call after the event.
3) A pen – how else are you going to jot down what people do on the back of their cards.
Later on, as you get more experience of networking, it’s well worth getting hold of a plastic name badge holder for yourself. If they don’t provide name badges at the event, put your business card in one of these so that people can easily find out who you are.
1.Try to arrive early at the event and this is especially important if you’re nervous about going. Why? Well, when you arrive, chances are that they’ll be very few other people there. All of them will be hanging around on their own waiting for the event to start. It’s much easier to go up and talk to someone on their own rather than to go up to people in groups. Later on, I’ll give you a few more tips on finding people who are standing on their own too.
2. Make sure (at all costs) you grab a copy of the attendee list. It’s going to be very difficult to follow-up with people after the event if you don’t.
3. Wear your name badge on your right lapel and not your left. Why? Since most people are right handed, when they shake your hand to meet you, their eye will naturally travel to your right lapel, making it far easier to see who you are.
4. If there are two or more of you from the same company, split up at the event. I know it’s hard if you’re nervous and you haven’t been to many events before, but if you split up you can meet twice as many people. Similarly, if it’s a sit-down event, don’t sit at the same table.
5. When you’re talking to other people, you will be asked the question “So, what do you do?” Keep your answers as short as possible. Nothing is worse than hearing another person ramble on and believe me they’ll quickly be making an excuse to get away from you as quickly as possible. Try to get onto natural conversation as soon as possible and find out more about that person instead of talking about your business.
6. Also, when you’re explaining what you do, try to keep to one thing even if you do lots of different activities. If you start explaining that you’re a life coach, do a bit of PR, interviewing skills and are a training company in your spare time, people will not know what you do and will get confused. How can they refer people to you, if they are not sure what you do? You can always give them a different message next time they see you.
7. Act confident, even if you don’t feel it. The more you act confident, the more you’ll be confident. Go up to people on their own – you can find them around the edges of the room or by the buffet table – and have a chat. Or, interrupt groups of two. Stay away from groups of three or four because they’ll be enough people in the group, but nine times out of 10, the group of two will have had enough of chatting to each other anyway and be looking for an excuse to move on and they’ll welcome the relief.
8. What to do with your business cards? Wear a jacket with pockets. Most networking events are a business dress code anyway and ladies if you don’t think you have any pockets in your jacket think again. Most of the time, they’ve been sewn up by the manufacturer and if you look in the pocket, you’ll find a small hole where you can unpick the stitching. Put your business cards in your left hand pocket and any business cards you collect in your right hand pocket. That way, they’ll be easy to find and you won’t get them mixed up.
9. Oh and my excuses for getting away from people when you’ve had enough of talking to them – try “Oh I was just going to grab a drink”; “Do you know where the loos are around here?” or “Oh I must just speak to…”. Don’t be offended if people make these excuses to you. The whole point of networking is that you should be looking to get around as many people as possible.
10. Remember to follow-up afterwards. It’s been said time and time again that very little business happens at the actual event; it’s what you do afterwards that counts, but how many people actually follow-up? Make sure you do and you’re chances of getting business will increase significantly.
All in all though, remember that networking is not about having fun. It’s about getting you known out there and getting business. And if you’re not achieving that objective from networking events, you should be looking at doing different activities to increase your marketing. Set targets at the events for how many people you’d like to meet and how many potential contacts you’d like to get out of the event and try to achieve that at each event you go to. That is the way to make sure networking works for you.
Top 10 Questions That Will Help You in marketing
One of the greatest challenges many new businesses face when they start up is creating a viable marketing plan that works for their unique talents. One-person micro companies, often called "solo-preneurs," usually understand their business own models, yet may not have the traditional marketing background to distill that knowledge into a cohesive marketing plan or communicate it effectively to others. If you're in that position, these questions will help you develop a very basic understanding of what it will take to create a marketing plan that works for your business.
1. Who is the person (my ideal customer) who wants what I have for sale?
Identifying your ideal customer is the first step toward understanding what you need to do to market your business. What you are looking to do is to define the key characteristics of the person who would most want what you have to offer. Hint: Not everybody will want what you've got to offer. Unless you've got an exclusive on oxygen or water, if you think the whole world would want your product or service, you're making a rookie mistake.
2. What does my ideal customer really want when purchasing my product, information or service?
No matter what you're selling, be it your time, expertise, or the greatest mousetrap ever invented, people buy for wants rather than needs, and those wants are not always immediately obvious. Take me, for example: As a marketing coach, I help people develop systems and tools for marketing themselves with integrity and ease. But guess what? People don't care about the process or tools I offer, they care about the results of our work, which is why when people ask me what I do, I tell them that I help small businesses attract more clients. My clients need help marketing because what they want are more clients. Very subtle distinction, yet it speaks to my target audience because it focuses on the results (what they get), rather than the process.
3. What else do I know about my ideal customer?
You want to get inside the mind of the customer to really understand what's driving the buying decision, as well as where and how to find your customer. What behaviors distinguish your ideal customer? Is the need for your product or service seasonal (sparked by weather or events at a certain time of year), or constant? The more you know about your ideal customer, the better chance you have of speaking directly to their wants in a way that is compelling.
4. Where can I find my ideal customer to communicate my message?
Does your ideal customer get information from magazines, newspapers, web sites or friends? Is your ideal client thinking about purchasing your product or service in a store or at home? Unless your ideal customer is a treasure hunter, you'll have to find a means to communicate with him or her that is within his or her daily communication threads. For example, if you were selling ultra-premium ice cream, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to advertise in a magazine for diabetics.
5. What do I have to say to capture my ideal customers' attention and interest?
This is the tricky part for so many entrepreneurs. Just like question number two, think wants (benefits) not needs (features). If your ideal customer identifies with being part of an exclusive group, perhaps your message would include something about your product not being for everyone, only for people who are ready for or up to the challenge of what your product offers. Many products and services effectively appeal to what people want to be, rather than what they want to have. That's why models get so much work in commercials; they represent the fantasy existence that people want when purchasing that product, be it a car, underpants, or a burrito.
6. If money were no object, what means would I use to get my ideal customers' attention?
Think BIG! Let the ideas just flow. The purpose of this question is not to frustrate you, but to surface possibilities that can be turned into opportunities. For example, if money were no object, maybe you'd like to advertise in a national magazine for people who fit your ideal customer profile. But since money is an issue, advertising may not be an option. But perhaps renting that magazine's subscriber list is within your means, if a direct mail campaign is the way you'd like to go. Or perhaps a product review or article about you/your service or product would be of interest to that magazine. If you don't censor yourself, you may find lots of related and relatively inexpensive opportunities that you wouldn't have allowed yourself to consider because of cost.
7. Since money is an issue, what can I do to get my ideal customers' attention?
Here's the place to be very practical. If you only have a limited budget, how do you get the most bang for your buck? Most people find that a combination of several low-cost tactics works far better than blowing the entire budget on a one-shot ad, because people generally don't respond to just one message received about a new product or service.
8. When am I going to do what I have to do to get my ideal customers' attention?
The hardest thing for many entrepreneurs to face is that in order to make the sale, they have to actually do something. And usually they are going to have to do it not just once, but over and over and over again. Entrepreneurs are often creative people, and the thought of repetition makes them shudder. Having a calendar of specific tactics for three months at a time is one way to schedule the tasks so that they don't seem endless. At the three-month mark, a review of what's worked and what hasn't will help you determine what needs to be done in the next quarter, and so on, until you're a millionaire.
9. How will I get my product, service or information into my ideal customers' hands?
If you have a product, chances are you will need some sort of distribution system. That means setting up relationships with retailers or distributors if you're selling into a channel such as retail stores, or a fulfillment process if you're selling direct to your customers. If you're selling a service or information, you'll need to consider whether you need an office, or if you can deliver the service to your customers' home or work locations, or even if you can provide your service electronically via the web or by phone.
10. How will I know when I've reached my goals?
Working without specific goals is the best way to ensure burnout and frustration that I know of. Set your goals, be they in number of units sold, or hours of service delivered, and keep an eye on how you're doing on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Having specific goals to work toward will help keep you motivated and on track, and will also provide you with valuable information about what's working for you, as well as what needs to be adjusted.
OK, so you've answered all these questions honestly and completely but you still need help, so now what? Call me for a free chat about what it will take to get you where you want to be. You can reach me at 360-882-1298. And pat yourself on the back; if you've answered all these questions, you are head-and-shoulders above the rest of the crowd of entrepreneurs, and well on your way to success!
Top 10 marketing resolutions for 2008
As you’ve probably got ideas of things you want to achieve in your business in 2008, I thought that some top 10 marketing resolutions would be of benefit, so here goes…
1. Listen. If you’re not committed to doing some marketing and doing marketing constantly in 2008, it’s never going to happen. You need to decide whether you’re going to spend at least half a day a week, each and every week to achieve your goals or not. If so, great…carry on reading the rest of my tips. If not, that’s fine too – give me a call (or using another marketing person) and we’ll do it for you. At least then, it will get done and you won’t have to worry about it.
2. If you are committed to doing some marketing, decide what your goal is for each activity you do. In other words, if you’re attending a networking, decide that you want to meet at least 2 people who are interested in discussing your product or service in more detail after the event. Then measure how well you did against your targets. If you’re meeting or exceeding your targets, carry on with that marketing activity. If not, drop that activity and try something else.
3. Team up with a friend or colleague and have a challenge of who can get the most amount of business by the end of June. Meet on a regular basis to see how you’re getting on and help each other.
4. Make it your priority to keep your eyes open for new marketing opportunities. Opportunities are all around us and sometimes we just need to pay attention. For instance, just before Christmas, the local radio station ran an auction allowing you to donate an item and receive 1 hour’s free publicity on the radio during the day. Try to find 1 new marketing opportunity a month and get involved with it.
5. Your current customer database is the easiest place to go if you want quick marketing hits. Why not call or email all your past contacts to see how things are going for them. You never know what might turn up.
6. Look back at where you got your previous customers from to see what marketing activities have worked for you in the past. Be specific – if the customer came from a referral, who sent it over to you? If they came from a networking event – which one? Once you know which marketing activities are working, go and do them again.
7. 2008 should be the year of building relationships. If you want your contacts to send you referrals or the press to publish your stories, don’t expect to meet with that person once and have done with it. You wouldn’t refer to someone you didn’t know, so you can’t expect them to. Think of ways to build your relationships with people i.e. swapping website links; doing some marketing together; referring someone over to them – if you do something for them, you’re likely to get it back ten-fold.
8. Have a strategy to follow-up with each and every single person you come into contact with. You don’t know how interested they are in your product or service until you ask them. Having an effective follow-up strategy improved my marketing significantly and it can do the same for you if you spend some time putting one in place.
9. Why not come up with one new marketing activity per week? Get a bit creative and have some fun with it. The inspiration of two heads is often better than one, so get together with contacts you know and see how many different activities you can come up with.
10. If you achieve your targets, make sure that you reward yourself. Too often, small business owners are excellent at celebrating failure – why not turn it around and write down 10 things that have gone right each day. It can really help keep you motivated.I hope you’ve found these ideas useful. Here’s to a prosperous 2008
Top ten marketing tips
1. Become a student of your business. Study your customer, competitors and the industry trends. Make it one of your goals to become an ‘expert’ in your business, so much so that you know how your customers think. The more you know, the easier you will find it to get customers and give them compelling messages that convince them to buy your product or service.
2. Sit down with a friend or business contact and get them to put themselves in your customer’s shoes. Try to come up with ten new ways to market and promote your business. It’s really difficult to come up with these ideas yourself as sometimes you can get too close to your business, but someone else can often give you fresh ideas.
3. Remember that not everything you do to market your business will get you clients. Some things you do will be better for building your reputation or getting awareness of your business (PR for instance is very good at getting people to recognise your business is out there) than getting you clients. You need to have a good mixture of marketing activities designed to build your reputation, get awareness of your business and actually get your customers in order to market your business. Check out my 50 ideas for promoting your business by clicking www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk
4. If you hate a particular aspect of marketing your business, don’t do it! For instance, if you hate cold calling, why push yourself to do it? There are loads of methods that you might like doing more AND don’t cost a great deal to do. Click www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk to get my 50 ideas for promoting your business.
5. Do marketing!! Most small business owners don’t like marketing. It’s another activity that eats into their time. And on top of that, it’s not much fun. Ideally though, you should be spending 2 half days a week on marketing (at the very least), so choose something from my list of 50 ideas and do it!!
6. Decide what is a marketing activity for you – marketing for me is any activity where I spend time getting new or looking after existing customers (bar working on their projects). So, marketing could be emailing 5 customers a week to see how they’re getting on; writing a proposal; going to a networking event; seeing a potential new customer etc. Why is defining what marketing is important? Well, once you start doing this, you will realise that you are doing some marketing…then it becomes easier to do more.
7. Stretch your comfort zone – write down what activities you’re comfortable with and also write down which ones you’re not comfortable with. Then choose one activity you don’t really like doing every month and get on with it!!
8. Most of us are very good at following up if we need to. For example, if I said to you “Here is a potential customer” you would probably contact them. But, how many of us follow up without a real reason? Try this exercise – next time you go to a networking event, get the list of attendees (usually available when you sign in) and then contact all those you haven’t met by email asking if they would mind spending 15 minutes on the phone with you so you can find out a bit more about each other. This is excellent for building relationships and may even get you clients too!!
9. Remember marketing is like riding a bike. Most people start off by peddling really hard (doing lots of marketing) and when they get busy and don’t market their business, they can coast for a while. But, if they don’t start to market their business again soon, their bike will stop and believe me, it’s hard work to start peddling again. So, you need to keep marketing all the time.
10. We’ve created a new e-course called “Survive your first year in business”, where you’ll receive a workbook every month direct to your PC that helps you address issues such as getting more customers, keeping motivated, managing your finances and making the most of your time. As well as this, you’ll receive 12 months of unlimited e-mail support and coaching whenever you need it, all for just £25+VAT per month.
Top ten Internet marketing Strategies for your website
Internet marketing can attract more people to your website, increase customers for your business, and enhance branding of your company and products. If you are just beginning your online marketing strategy the top 10 list below will get you started on a plan that has worked for many.
1. Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy.
2. Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques.
3. Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively.
4. Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs.
5. Request an analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant.
6. Build a responsive opt-in email list.
7. Publish articles or get listed in news stories.
8. Write and publish online press releases.
9. Facilitate and run contests and giveaways via your web site.
10. Blog and interact with your visitors.
By following the above tips you'll be on your way to creating a concrete internet marketing strategy that could boost your business substantially.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Top 10 Avantgarde Head Guard
The Latest from TOP TEN! The world famous head guard in a modern, new design. Like the Classic TOP TEN Olympic head guards, this new head guard is made of "Bayflex", the patented exclusive TOP TEN material that is more durable and shock absorbent than anything else available.
Guide for the security strap.
Rounded contour around the eyes in order to further prevent eye cuts.
9 different openings around the head for better cooling and ventilation of the head during combat.
A stronger ear guard than the Olympian Model
Extra padding on the forehead to provide even more protection against frontal attacks.
Retail Price: $109.95
Top 10 tech related news of the past 10 years
1.
1995: The IPO that started it all
More than any other stock, Netscape Communications' initial public offering defined the arrival of the Internet as an economic force. With just $16 million in revenues at the time it went public in August 1995, the seminal Web browser company was valued at more than $2 billion. More important than any specific numbers, Netscape's "moonshot" IPO created the frenzy of day trading and venture capitalist investments that would become a hallmark of the dot-com era.
2.
1996: Free speech on the Internet
The Supreme Court's rejection of the Communications Decency Act, a much-disputed provision of the historic Telecommunications Act of 1996, defined the Internet as we know it today. Until that ruling, no one knew if the medium would be a limitless, unfiltered universe or a government-regulated entity like television and radio.
3.
1997: Steve Jobs and the rebirth of Apple
In dramatic fashion, Apple Computer was saved from the brink of death by the return of its charismatic and controversial cofounder. Despite repeated early denials that he would return to the role of CEO, Steve Jobs went on to do just that and eventually returned the company to its former glory. Although the deal that brought him back took place in the final days of the previous year, Jobs would reshape Apple throughout 1997 and the next decade.
4.
1998: The people vs. Microsoft
In one of the most significant antitrust actions of the century, attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia joined the Justice Department in federal lawsuits against the world's most powerful software company. The case, which would go on for the next several years, was a pivotal juncture for the technology industry, the legal community, the stock market, and just about anyone who used a personal computer or the Internet.
5.
1999: Y2K and the cost of fear
The doomsday scenarios were rampant: Computer systems everywhere would fail to recognize 2000 because the vast majority of programs recognized only the last two digits of a given year. But it all turned out to be much ado about relatively little--prompting skeptics to wonder whether the barrage of "millennium bug" warnings were convenient excuses for poor earnings or sales pitches for so-called corrective software that no one really needed.
6.
2000: A phenomenon called Napster
What began as an obscure file-sharing program quickly grew into a global network used to trade digital music for free. Within the music industry, however, it became as notorious as it was popular with its followers and eventually was the target of multiple lawsuits charging copyright violation on an unprecedented scale. Although only a shadow of its former self, Napster's influence continues to pervade much of the Internet today.
7.
2001: Death of the New Economy
The carnage from the dot-com meltdown was far worse than anyone had imagined. Summing it up best was this News.com report on the ensuing blame game, whose participants were described as "day traders who gambled on obscure companies, midlevel engineers who cashed in stock options and retired at 29, Wall Street analysts who preached 'eyeballs,' 'stickiness,' and 'price-to-sales ratios,' forecasting companies that predicted exponential growth, and business publications that canonized the rich and gave others hope of striking similar fortunes."
8.
2002: Adware, spyware, and PC invasions
It began as a seemingly innocuous marketing tool, but spyware soon became one of the most pernicious problems the Internet has ever faced. Whether through pop-ups, privacy invasion, or drained computer power, practically anyone who has used the Internet has been victimized by this trend. The issue, which continues in full force today, has been increasingly scrutinized by the courts and legislators.
9.
2003: The wireless revolution
Many of us take it for granted now, but wireless computer networks were virtually nonexistent to the public at large only a few years ago. At work or at home, the technology has seen one of the fastest adoption rates in recent memory. With its growth, however, have come rising concerns about security that persist today.
10.
2004: Offshoring: A political firestorm
Long before it became the center of international controversy, the practice of offshore outsourcing could be traced to the technology sector. As a result, many looked to Silicon Valley as the topic rose to political prominence in last year's presidential election, during which both George Bush and John Kerry included the trend in their platforms. But beyond the immediate labor issues, the technology industry has been more concerned with the competitive and security risks in offshoring intellectual property.
Top 10 youtube videos
Top 10 videos in Youtube:
1 2 and three ( baby persoan lads and excersize vid http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=...
4 and 5 Happy valentited day mom and world ad dance ( comdy http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=...
6. how my family celte brated chrismas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdymxP5Kq...
7.world worst xmas vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73OcXl6Bg...
8. codl day at zoo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlEHgGruW...
9. poop at zoo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57J3PZEgq...
10. dancing cow at game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzBLMXo8_...
Top 10 paranormal fiction books
1. The Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. Her latest "Grave" book was actually pretty good too. I didn't care for the first one, but this one introduced a hint of romance (slightly incestuous, but so what) that I liked.
2. Sunshine by Robin McKinley. I will be among those mobbing her if she doesn't write a sequel. Not enough sex or romance, but the hint was pretty tantalizing. And that aside it was just quite a jolly good book.
3. Lori Handeland writes a series about werewolves - there are several of them and I think she's going off in a new direction with her next book.
4. Patricia Briggs is good. I've been enjoying her Mercedes Thompson series and look forward to the next one. This series is about a shifter, werewolves, vampires, fairies...
5. Kay Hooper her series is about psychics.
6. Victoria Laurie. She writes two series - one is an intuitive investigator and the other is a ghostbuster. Both are winners in my book!
7. Keri Arthur. Highly-sexed werewolves.
8. Karen Chance. A three book series about Cassandra Palmer, a clairvoyant who was raised by vampires and is now queen of the seers.
9. Kelley Armstrong. Werewolves, etc.
10. Kim Harrison - witches, vamps, etc.
Top 10 Dance songs ever in History
According to a VH1 poll;
19.1% Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
17.9% Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive
16.7% The Village People - Y.M.C.A.
16.5% Madonna - Vogue10.7%
C & C Music Factory - Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)
5.0% Chubby Checker - The Twist
4.8% Donna Summer - Last Dance
3.6% Thelma Houston - Don't Leave Me This Way
3.3% Sister Sledge - We Are Family
2.4% Van McCoy - The Hustle
According to Rollingstone Mag 10 greatest SLOW dance songs;
1. “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing,” Aerosmith
2. “Unchained Melody,” The Righteous Brothers
3. “Crazy For You,” Madonna
4. “Take My Breath Away,” Berlin
5. “I Only Have Eyes for You,” The Flamingos
6. “Never Tear Us Apart,” INXS
7. “In Your Eyes” Peter Gabriel
8. “Love Song,” The Cure
9. “Eternal Flame,” The Bangles
10. “I’ll Be There,” The Jackson 5
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Top 10 tips for blogging
1) Stay on topic
Opinions are generally accepted but the content of the items in the blog should all relate to a general theme. Unless you have an uncanny knack for wit, humor or cynicism, the majority of your readers will be interested in the content that relates to a specific defined theme or loosely defined area of interest. Most readers won't care that you eat Cheerios for breakfast. They may, however, be interested in the fact that vinegar takes out stains and that toilet paper rolls make great wreaths. Define a topic and stick to it. This will ensure that you create a loyal following of interested readers.
2) Be informative
If you are attempting to create the impression that you are knowledgeable about a specific industry or sector, be sure that you stay current on news. If you are endorsing a product or voicing an opinion, be sure to check your facts; your reputation is at stake. If you are offering an opinion, be sure to qualify your post, making it clear that the content is intended as an editorial.
3) Old news is not news
While blogging every day can be a drain, it is important that the information presented is current and accurate, writing an article or blurb about something that happened 6 months ago, will not be of interest to many. Telling your audience that Martha Stewart was convicted and will be going to prison, after her sentence is completed will make people question the value of your columns.
4) Adhere to a schedule
Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don't create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver. An occasional lapse or holiday is generally understood but readers returning to find stale, out-dated content are going to find another blog with similar content. New blogs and RSS feeds are popping up on a daily basis. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and a community you don't want to lose them due to lack of communication.
5) Clarity and simplicity
Keep your posts and blog entries clear and easy to understand. Remember, the web is global and expressions, idioms and acronyms don't always translate. Sometimes a little explanation goes a long way.
6) Keyword-rich
If the goal of your blog is to increase your visibility, include related keywords in the title of the blog. Use the title as a headline to attract interest. Each item post should have a title that will attract attention but still be relevant to the post. The title should be no longer than 10-12 words.
7) Quantity matters
In order to attract the attention of search engines, you will need to develop content and substance. A headline or simple sentence is not going to generate the interest of readers or help with search engine ranking. Be sure to archive old blog posts to develop a large portal of similarly-themed content.
8) Frequency
If your blog content is updated frequently, search engines will tend to spider the pages at regular intervals.
9) Spell checking and proof-reading
It only takes a few extra moments and can save you from having to make embarrassing explanations. Remember that whatever you publish on the Internet can be found and archived. Think carefully about what you post before doing so.
10) RSS
RSS will increase your blog's reach. It is important that you include your blog's content in an RSS feed to increase readership and distribution.
Most weblog audiences are small, but with time and regular updates audiences grow. Bloggers may never have more than a few hundred readers, but the people who return to regularly are generally interested in what you have to say.
Top 10 Qualities of Barack Obama
1. Style and Integrity
Barack Obama presents a view of governing that is inclusive and relies on Americans to work with their government. Throughout his speeches and debates, Obama is the one candidate that consistently, naturally, talks in terms of we. His rallying cry is "Yes We Can!"
Barack is also a good role model, personifying the concept of a servant leader — someone that lets us hide the cynic inside, that inner cynic that has been created in all of us by years of listening to politicians and their lies — despite years of disappointment, you just know that Obama is really a good guy, that he is going to serve America honorably during the many trials and tribulations that are surely in store for us in the next four years.
2. Timing
It feels like the right time for America to elect Barack Obama as our president. Andrew Sullivan in the Atlantic considers an Obama presidency transformational:
At its best, the Obama candidacy is about ending a war — not so much the war in Iraq, which now has a momentum that will propel the occupation into the next decade, but the war within America that has prevailed since Vietnam and that shows dangerous signs of intensifying, a nonviolent civil war that has crippled America at the very time the world needs it most. It is a war about war — and about culture and about religion and about race. And in that war, Obama — and Obama alone — offers the possibility of a truce.
3. Religious Stance
Barack Obama's religion (or lack thereof) is appealing, knowing that we won't have an atheist in the White House anytime soon. He's the kind of religious that I can tolerate, which is spiritual without being evangelizing or judgmental.
Obama is cagey, in a lawyerly way, about the supernatural claims of religion. Recounting a conversation about death that he had with one of his two young daughters, he wrote, "I wondered whether I should have told her the truth, that I wasn't sure what happens when we die, any more than I was sure of where the soul resides or what existed before the big bang." So I think we can take it that he doesn't believe - or doesn't exactly believe - in the afterlife or the creation.
His conversion to Wright's brand of Christianity was "a choice and not an epiphany", born of his admiration for "communities of faith" and the shape and purpose they give to the lives of their congregants. "Americans want a narrative arc to their lives. They are looking to relieve a chronic loneliness"; "They are not just destined to travel down that long highway towards nothingness". As for himself, and his enlistment at Trinity United: "Without a vessel for my beliefs, without a commitment to a particular community of faith, at some level I would always remain apart, and alone." It's typical of Obama that such a cautiously footnoted profession of faith rings sympathetically to both atheists and true believers.
4. Political Talent and Ability (and yes, Experience)
This article by Charles Peters in the Washington Times sums it up pretty nicely:
Consider a bill into which Obama clearly put his heart and soul. The problem he wanted to address was that too many confessions, rather than being voluntary, were coerced — by beating the daylights out of the accused.
Obama proposed requiring that interrogations and confessions be videotaped.
This seemed likely to stop the beatings, but the bill itself aroused immediate opposition. There were Republicans who were automatically tough on crime and Democrats who feared being thought soft on crime. There were death penalty abolitionists, some of whom worried that Obama's bill, by preventing the execution of innocents, would deprive them of their best argument. Vigorous opposition came from the police, too many of whom had become accustomed to using muscle to "solve" crimes. And the incoming governor, Rod Blagojevich, announced that he was against it.
Obama had his work cut out for him.
He responded with an all-out campaign of cajolery. It had not been easy for a Harvard man to become a regular guy to his colleagues. Obama had managed to do so by playing basketball and poker with them and, most of all, by listening to their concerns. Even Republicans came to respect him. One Republican state senator, Kirk Dillard, has said that "Barack had a way both intellectually and in demeanor that defused skeptics."
The police proved to be Obamas toughest opponent. Legislators tend to quail when cops say things like, "This means we won't be able to protect your children." The police tried to limit the videotaping to confessions, but Obama, knowing that the beatings were most likely to occur during questioning, fought -- successfully -- to keep interrogations included in the required videotaping.
By showing officers that he shared many of their concerns, even going so far as to help pass other legislation they wanted, he was able to quiet the fears of many.
Obama proved persuasive enough that the bill passed both houses of the legislature, the Senate by an incredible 35 to 0. Then he talked Blagojevich into signing the bill, making Illinois the first state to require such videotaping.
Obama didn't stop there. He played a major role in passing many other bills, including the state's first earned-income tax credit to help the working poor and the first ethics and campaign finance law in 25 years (a law a Post story said made Illinois "one of the best in the nation on campaign finance disclosure"). Obama's commitment to ethics continued in the U.S. Senate, where he co-authored the new lobbying reform law that, among its hard-to-sell provisions, requires lawmakers to disclose the names of lobbyists who "bundle" contributions for them.
Taken together, these accomplishments demonstrate that Obama has what Dillard, the Republican state senator, calls a "unique" ability "to deal with extremely complex issues, to reach across the aisle and to deal with diverse people." In other words, Obama's campaign claim that he can persuade us to rise above what divides us is not just rhetoric.
5. Talent to Inspire
If you've seen Barack Obama speak and have been moved to tears the way that I have, and that so many others have as well, then this moment in the N.H. Dem debate rang true loud and clear:
“Words are not action and as beautifully presented and as passionately felt as they are, they are not action,” Mrs. Clinton said. “What we’ve got to do is translate talk into action, and feeling into reality; I have a long record of doing that.”
But Mr. Obama came back at her.
“The truth is, actually, words do inspire,” Mr. Obama said. “Words do help people get involved.”
Despite how busy we are, today my friends and I at Hashrocket will spend at least an hour, probably more, making phone calls to fellow Americans, encouraging them to go out and exercise their freedom to vote — freedom to help choose the leadership of this great country of ours, and infuse life into our democracy. I really wonder if there will be any other politician in my lifetime that will inspire us so strongly. I wonder if this is how our parents felt about JFK.
6. Not a Clinton
In trying to keep things positive, the only negative thing I'm going to say about Hillary Clinton is that she represents the past. Now is not the time to go back to the past and alienate this new generation of voters and citizens feeling empowered by democracy for the first time in our lives. Please Hillary, get out of the way of the future. I know it's a tough pill to swallow, but please, live up to your rhetoric and put the good of the nation ahead of your own quest for power.
Clintons: You are not change agents, you are royalty of the status quo, standing before us in despicable ugliness of corruption, starting with your chief campaign advisor Mark Penn.
7. Bi-Partisanship
I've voted Republican in the past, although lately that party is so repugnant that I can't even consider having anything to do with them. Despite that, I do think that cooperation with the other side will yield better results for the country, because it will be on Democratic terms. Obama's talking about allowing moderate republicans to join him at the table, but the table is going to implement Obama's plans not the GOP's.
Obama coming out early and strong to say "I'm not going to take that 'my way or the highway' attitude" speaks great volumes about the content of his character. It's not a weakness. Saying with confidence "If I have power, I will not abuse it" is a true testament of strength.
"I think the American people are hungry for something different and can be mobilized around big changes, not incremental changes, not small changes," Obama said Saturday night. "I think that there are a whole host of Republicans, and certainly independents, who have lost trust in their government, who don't believe anybody is listening to them, who are staggering under rising costs of health care, college education, don't believe what politicians say. And we can draw those independents and some Republicans into a working coalition, a working majority for change." Quoted in the Washington Times.
8. Understanding and Views About Technology
As a technologist, Obama's views on technology and how it can improve all of our lives is of a lot of importance to me:
Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age. Let's set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed. Let's recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability. Let's make college more affordable, and let's invest in scientific research, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.
Of particular interest is Obama's goals towards opening up government via the internet to achieve greater transparency and spur citizen participation. The Bush Administration has been one of the most secretive, closed administrations in American history. If we're going to keep any semblance of freedom going forward, strong medicine is needed.
Among other things, Barack Obama has promised to appoint the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century. The CTO will ensure the safety of our networks and will lead an interagency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices.
9. A Strong, Black Role Model
As an American of hispanic origin, I understand some of the problems inherent in being a minority in this country. I won't say that I've experience overt racism, not anytime recently anyway — elementary school was a different story — but I know that there are additional obstacles for people of color to get ahead.
There's also the matter of Barack Obama as the ultimate positive role model for young blacks. I moved out of my urban neighborhood in Atlanta in no small part due to being robbed and assaulted at gunpoint by four young black men, right in front of my residence, in the middle of the afternoon on an otherwise pleasant day in November. Desi still carries a scar on her face from being pistol-whipped by one of them, and my poor sister, who had the bad luck of being out to lunch with us that day, suffered a miscarriage shortly thereafter.
Everytime I see a thug, or wannabe gangsta, with his pants hanging down under his ass, and talking shit about "popping a cap in someone", that's when I hope and wish hardest for someone, anyone, to rise up and give young blacks a completely different, more positive sort of inspiration. Call me idealistic, call me an idiot for saying it in public, but I think Barack Obama could really make a difference in that regard.
10. Intelligence
Finally, we can't take it for granted anymore that our political leaders are actually intelligent. George 'Dubya' Bush, our first monkey president, established that new reality, for now and for the ages. Barack Obama, in stark contrast, is an actual scholar and extremely intelligent man. He can think and verbalize those thoughts on the fly, in a coherent fashion — yet not resort to highly-polished, well-pollling sound bites.
I think you will find some new information about him. Take a serious look at him and make him US president.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Top 10 proxy related articles in 2008
In those countries many schools and colleges block some popular sites during study period. So many students dont browse in those sites. They need proxy to unlock their desired sites. Here I publish top ten proxy related articles which are very popular and in this articles, you will find some brand new proxy for Myspace, Youtube, Bebo, facebook etc.
Top ten Proxy articles:
Brand new proxy sites for Myspace.com
Bebo proxy for USA students
Why needs proxy for Myspace in 2008
Myspace proxy, basic info. and new year lists
Youtube proxy needs not only Thailand but also USA
Myspace proxy servers, fast and free
A brand new proxy list for facebook
Blogspot portal for myspace proxy
Proxy sites, badly needed for USA students
Facebook allowed to run its application to other sites
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Top 10 Reasons to Put RSS on Your blog
RSS and Blogs are the topics of the moment. Seems like everyone is talking about it. Granted, there is too much hype about RSS and Blogs.
If you need convincing - here are top 10 reasons why you should put RSS on your site:
1. It's easy and fast! Not to mention Free! You can use a free service like eBlogger and publish your Blog and RSS feed within minutes. You can even place or publish your Blog/RSS Feed on your own site without knowing 'html' or 'xml'. It's all done for you!
Repeat - it's simple to use and very convenient. Publishing your blog is only a few clicks away. (If you need help - just use the link at the end of this article.)
2. Syndicate Your Content. RSS stands for 'really simple syndication' and it's just another way of passing along your information. With the popularity of 'MyYahoo' and the 'Firefox'
browser (which has a built-in RSS feed reader) increasing - syndicating your content has gotten even simpler.
The next version of Windows is reportly scheduled to have an RSS feature. If this happens - RSS will explode.
3. Get Your Content Indexed. Using blogs to publish your content is a neat way of side stepping the regular indexing procedure. It gets your content indexed very quickly in most of the search engines.
Search Engines are constantly on the lookout for 'fresh content' - these 'link rich' blogs are a good source of his content. Because blogs are on specific topics - they have a concentrated source of good quality informational material to serve out!
4. Instant Contact. Blogs give you instant contact with your readers or viewers. We live in an 'instant' society - we want everything five minutes ago. Blogs provide this instant gratification. Readers or viewers using MyYahoo have an instant link to your information or postings.
RSS Feeds will instantly spread your information to all interested parties - bringing in targeted traffic.
5. Building Your List. People who pick up your RSS feed or add you to their MyYahoo site - become your subscribers. You are really building your contact list. Have a popular
blog or RSS Feed and you can build a large targeted contact list very quickly.
Might not replace your old opt-in email list - but it can be a lucrative addition to it! Take advantage of all those targeted contacts.
6. Link Building. Blogs are link heavens! Build your links thru blogs. All these links will boost your link popularity and increase your search engine rankings.
Plus, by giving viewers/readers a way of adding your RSS Feed creates targeted links to your site. This reason alone is why your site should have RSS!
7. Viewer/Subscriber Feedback. Instant feedback from your subscribers or viewers is easy with blogs. Creating trust and credibility is so much easier when there is immediate communication between the two parties.
8. Keyword Content Building. Blogs are especially good for building 'keyword targeted content' for your site. All these links will boost your keyword rankings in the search engines. Google places a high value on 'anchor text' and blogs are a good place to put all those links.
You can also start different blogs targeted at specific related keywords covering the major topics of your site. Again, search engines love related keyword linking so you can boost your site's rankings by using blogs.
9. Monetize Your Content. Blogs are an excellent way of monetizing your content. Blog sites like Eblogger (owned by Google) even encourages you to use the 'adsense code' in your blogs. If you have a popular blog - this may bring in extra income.
Plus, publishing your ezine or newsletter in a blog can bring in revenue for months if not years to come. All those affiliate links and product promotions get indexed by the search engines and become accessible to a wider audience, i.e. market.
10. Because Everyone Else is Doing It! Might sound a bit 'Jonesish' but you do have to keep up with whatother web sites are doing. To remain competitive - you must put RSS on your site.
Sites without the 'AddtoMyYahoo' link or the 'xml' button will be the exception rather than the rule in just a few years - if not months. It's simply another way of getting your information 'out there'. It's an opportunity and advantage that you cannot afford to miss.