Recall Fever Rages In The Michigan Schools

According to an August 14th article in the Detroit Daily News, an unintended consequence of the Michigan schools funding crisis is a growing number of recalls within the Metro-Detroit area. The grassroots efforts attempt to oust school board officials, who make unfavorable decisions within the Detroit school districts.

With the funding crisis within the Michigan schools, many local district school board members have been forced to make many difficult decisions to cut costs. Buildings have been closed, and employees have been laid off.

Recall of elected local Michigan schools officials is to be used for officials who do things that are illegal, immoral or negligent. Voters, however, are using the recall to target their local Michigan schools board members for making unpopular decisions.

Such grassroots actions create the need for special elections. Even if tacked on to another local election, it is costly. Some recall elections can cost as little as $15,000 or as much as $50,000. This is money that could be used directly for student curriculum.

There have been two unsuccessful local Michigan schools recalls in the Livonia and St. Clair Shores Lakeview school districts. Voters, who did not believe it worth the cost of a special election, sidelined the St. Clair recall. Current petition drives for a recall are raging in Garden City, Redford Union, and Van Buren school districts, as well as Port Huron.

Five Garden City school board members are being targeted for voting to eliminate 29.5 custodial positions and four food service workers. The local school district, which faced a $2.7 million deficit, will save $2.1 million over the next three years due to the boards decision.

Five Van Buren board members also are being targeted for recall. Residents believe they have mismanaged money and have twice floated failed proposals to pay for a new high school. Many people believe that something can be done with the current high school, rather than building a new one.

Brad Banasik, an attorney for the Michigan Association of School Boards, is astonished by the recall fever. He states it is an unprecedented number of recall attempts. Unfortunately, the Michigan schools funding crisis continues, which means more difficult decisions by local Michigan schools officials, who must cut spending in order to meet more important budgetary needs. Yet, the community is basically saying, Do something we do not like, and you will be recalled!

It is frustrating for local Michigan schools officials. Lisa Gubachy, a targeted board member in the Redford Union school district, summed it up best when she said, Somebody was going to be unhappy no matter what decision the board made. She wonders why she keeps doing it, but then quickly reminds herself, it is for the kids.

Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. For more information Michigan on schools visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/Michigan/index.htmlMelodee Blog76262
Milena Blog60396

Auto Tech Schools Versus Community College Programs

Naturally, when you are researching auto mechanic programs, one of your main concerns is cost. To many people, the tuition charged by auto tech schools seems exorbitant when compared with the less expensive programs offered at community colleges. However, as a school that specializes in one area of instruction, an automotive school offers many benefits over a low budget community college program.

For instance, most auto tech schools offer better equipment than community colleges. The reason for this is that community colleges depend on the government for their funding, and as a result are constantly struggling to pay their teachers, let alone stay up to date on equipment for their students. On the other hand, the tuition you pay at an automotive school ensures that the school can provide and maintain state of the art equipment for its students.

Another advantage of the degree programs offered by auto tech schools is superior teachers. Under funding at community colleges also results in underpaid teachers, which usually means that the best and most knowledgeable teachers wont settle for a job at a community college. Also, since an automotive school specializes in their field, rather than offering classes simply as an alternative for non-traditional or non-academic students, they tend to look for teachers who are better qualified to teach their subject.

The curriculum offered by an automotive school is also generally higher quality than those offered by community colleges. Again, this has to do with the fact that auto tech schools specialize in one field. As a result, a school that focuses on automotive training will be able to offer a choice of several different degree programs, including programs for earning Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certifications. ASE certifications are an important part of the automotive industry, as they demonstrate to employers and customers alike that a mechanic has mastered his or her areas of certification; as such, any good automotive education program will train and test students in the areas of ASE certification.

Besides factors that are directly related to the quality of a students education, such as high quality equipment, teachers, and educational programs, as private institutions auto tech schools can also offer superior student services, such as job placement services. Job placement services in particular are very important, as the primary reason for pursuing an education is to become more qualified for a specific job or career. Auto tech schools tend to have an office dedicated to helping graduates find jobs, and usually have a good reputation with local employers. Additionally, many auto tech schools have long term relationships with local business, meaning that many of these businesses go directly to the school when they are in need of interns or fulltime mechanics. All of these factors help the graduates of an auto tech school find jobs more easily than those who attended a community college.

Saving yourself money by attending a community college program may seem like a wise decision, but in the long run it may have a detrimental impact on your career path. Factors such as the curriculum, teachers, and equipment dictate how much you learn and how well you learn it, while support services for students, such as job placement assistance, help you translate your education into a career. The extra money it costs to enroll in a degree program at an auto tech school may be the difference between a quality education and mediocre training, a career in the fast track or just a job.

Andy West is a freelance writer for VC Tech, The Automotive School. VC Tech offers the latest and most up to date programs available at auto tech schools today. Please visit http://www.vctechnical.com to learn more.Mina Blog38926
Morena Blog66091

Easy Low Cost Finance Ensured on Opting for Secured Home Improvement Loan

Taking a loan is easier these days when there is no dearth of lenders. It is the cost of the loan that counts a lot in well being of the borrower. Secured home improvement loan therefore is best suited for people who live on a limited budget and need to spare money for other expenses. Though one borrows secured home improvement loan mainly for renovation of home but the loan at the same time can be utilized for meeting various other expenses also.

Secured home improvement loan is given to borrowers on providing collateral to the lender. Any property like home, vehicle, jewelry, valuable papers etc serves well the function of collateral. Borrowers should note that greater loan and other terms-conditions including bargaining for reduced interest rate depend a lot on collateral. In case greater loan is the requirement, lenders seek high value collateral like home because generally it has higher equity in it which secures the loan more.

Lenders usually provide secured home improvement loan in the range of 5000 to 50000. They will go for evaluating equity in the collateral if greater loan is to be offered. The loan is given at lower interest rate because of its secured nature. With little efforts interest rate can be brought down. To do so first ask for the loan amount that is below the equity. If you boast of sound financial standing or a good income source, lenders will readily offer reduced interest rate. The loan is given for a convenient repayment period ranging from 5 to 30 years. The borrower thus can chose duration of paying back the loan as per his repaying capacity. If he needs to save money for other expenses, larger repayment term is preferred as outgo towards monthly installments is reduced.

Bad credit is no hurdle in getting secured home improvement loan as the loan is already well secured through collateral. So people who have faced CCJs or bankruptcy should apply for the loan without hesitation. However a good credit is always a plus point in taking loan at better terms. It would be wise if easy debts are paid and as a result some improvement is shown on credit score, before rushing to the lender.

In order to avail secured home improvement loan at low cost, the loan should preferably be applied online. This way numerous loan offers come your way and you can choose suitable package containing lowest possible interest rate.

Secured home improvement loan goes a long way in making you financial stronger as you complete necessary work at low cost. Make sure to pay off the loan in time to avoid incurring of debts.

Andrew Baker has done his masters in finance from CPIT. He is engaged in providing free, professional, and independent advice to the residents of the UK. He works for loans website UKfinanceworld.For any type of loans, Uk bad credit loans, personal loans, unsecured loans, secured loans, debt consolidation loan, mortgage, remortgage in UK please visit http://www.ukfinanceworld.co.ukMinta Blog41259
Melba Blog29831

The Problem Of Illiteracy

In general terms, illiteracy is an inability to use language -- an inability to read, write, listen and speak. Today, it is usually taken to mean being unable to read and write at a level adequate for written communication or at a level that will allow an individual to function at certain levels of society. In the simplest of terms, illiteracy is the opposite of literacy.

In some societies, the standards for what constitute literacy are different from others. For example, some cultures believe that only people with skills such as computers skills and basic numeracy may be considered literate. This takes into account the fact that there are people who can add and subtract, but can't read letters as well as people who can learn to use a computer to a limited extent but may still not be able to read text. One example is Scotland, which defines literacy as: "The ability to read and write and use numeracy, to handle information, to express ideas and opinions, to make decisions and solve problems, as family members, workers, citizens and lifelong learners." That's probably as specific as you can get in defininng what literacy is all about.

On a global level, analysts and policy makers consider illiteracy rates as an important factor in a country's or a region's "human capital," and with good good reason, as it turns out. Based on numerous studies into this area, they conclude that literate people are easier and less expensive to train and have broader job opportunities and access to higher education. In Kerala, India, for example, female and child mortality rates declined dramatically in the 1960s, after girls who had been schooled to literacy in the education reforms after 1948 began to raise families. There are recent findings, however, that raise questions on correlations such as the one listed above, arguing that these may have more to do with the effects of schooling rather than literacy in general.

Illiteracy rates are highest among developing countries, especially those in the South Asian, Arab and Sub-Saharan African regions where illiteracy is prevalent among 40 to 50% of populations. The East Asian and Latin American regions also have relatively high illiteracy rates ranging from 10 to 15%. In contrast, the illiteracy rate in developed countries is only a few percent. However, it is important to note that illiteracy rates vary widely from country to country and often are directly proportionate to a country's wealth or urbanization level, although many other factors play a determining role.

Kadence Buchanan writes articles for http://theeducationstop.net/ - In addition, Kadence also writes articles for http://worldof-science.com/ and http://youremploymentsource.com/.Murial Blog8212
Nanci Blog26153

How To Make Real Money On Ebay And Work From Home

In this article I am going to explain step by step how it is possible to make real money using online auction websites like Ebay, Ebid, Yahoo Auctions etc...

You will be making good money in no time if you just follow these simple steps

The first thing you should consider is what product to sell(sounds obvious does`nt it) but you will be amazed at how many people are selling things that make very little profit or do not sell at all.

To do your research go to Ebay and have a look at the completed listings of the product you are thinking of selling and you can see how many are selling, how much the price changes and also what is not selling.

One of the main differences to whether your item sells or not is the listing you write to describe your item, you need to be able to put some real passion in the description and make the prospect buyer feel as though he is missing out if he/she leaves the auction.Also if you include a picture(good quality) that will make a big difference and always go for the option to make your listing have a little picture shown in the listings.

Simple steps like this will explode the sales you make with your products.

However I have been trading on Ebay for three years and I have found the best products that sell are info products.

They are easy to create and require no room to keep and best of all people will pay good money to learn about something you know about.

I guess you are thinking "I would`nt know where to start!" but believe me it is easier then you think, the reason being is you have a wealth of knowledge under your fingertips on almost every subject in the world!

You can use the internet to research a product and then write a few chapters down and create an ebook in a few days.

I will be writing another article about the steps you have to go through to research the info in another article, but if you really can`t get started or have`nt got the time you can check out my Bio for my website and more info on an ebook and a listing that sells like hotcakes!

In the meantime I wish you all the best, follow the above advice and you will be working from home in no time!

Hi My Name is Chris Jones I currently work from home and make my money through Ebay and Affiliate marketing and a whole host of other techniques.Maud Blog99851
Marne Blog35279

Getting Your Online Money Making Business Started

For the absolute novice the foray into creating a money making online business can be quite daunting. Most don't know where to start let alone know what to do or how to do it. The one common theme, no matter what their circumstance, is "I want to make money!"

The key to having an online money making business is a change of mindset from employee to business owner or entrepreneur.

The employee clocks in every day, does the required tasks, clocks out again and spends their pay check; sometimes years in advance if they have accumulated credit debt.

The business owner however takes a wider view. He or she has a business plan, sets goals and initiates strategies to achieve them. The business owner forecasts their income in advance.

One of the first things to do, to avoid information overload, is to sit down with pencil and paper and plan your business.

Begin by defining what sort of business you want:

1. Physical products

This could be based on something as simple as your favourite craft or hobby. My teenage daughter, for example, loves making her own jewellery; so much so that our home is literally littered with her "creations". Therefore I built a website for her to sell it.

2. Electronic Products

If "making" a physical product to sell seems like too much work, how about creating a "How To" ebook about all you know on your favourite hobby, craft or area of expertise. Electronic products are very popular with those who want information but don't have the time to do all the research. Gather all your knowledge up in one package and sell your efforts again and again and again.

3. Affiliate Program Products

If you are really stuck for an idea of a product to sell, affiliate marketing is a good place to start. Affiliate marketing is selling someone else's product for a percentage of the sale. The secret to this kind of business is find products that you really love; it will be easier to succeed if your heart and soul is in your business.

There's no reason why you can't do all three - eventually - but for a start choose just one. Once you have decided, plan out ways to implement this new business. Break the plan into smaller, easy to achieve tasks. For each stage of implementing your money making business work on bite size pieces.

For example: "I need a website" can be refined into:

- Registering a Domain Name
- Find a web host
- Find an Auto-responder service
- Find a web designer or for the do-it-your-selfer, lessons on website building
- Find a payment processor

A certain amount of single-mindedness is required as it is easy to become distracted. You might find ideas popping into your head as you are working away. Great! Write them down in your ideas vault and get back to business. They can always be developed later when you have finished the task at hand

All good business owners work within time-frames. Use this to measure your effectiveness and productivity. Schedule time for your tasks, set a completion date, review your progress, and then adapt to make improvements.

While overseeing your business as a whole and focusing on the tasks required, your online money making business will take form and you'll find you will make money.

Dee-Dee MacLeod-Wilson (http://www.wanttoworkfromhome4life.com) is a Kiwi work from home mom with a holistic approach to helping like minded parents become successful work from home families.Morganica Blog94235
Mariele Blog73083

Reading The Hand Lines - The Heart Line

Your hand changes throughout your life. The lines you see in your palm today are not quite the same as they were a year ago and probably very different from five years ago.

Although your hand gives an outline of your life, its only a tentative outline. You have the final decision on the course your life will take. Whether you want the position or not, youre the captain of your own destiny.

Palmistry, like a doctors examination, is strictly a diagnostic reading. It can point out the forces that operate within you, and it can point out the logical results of these forces. You can accept them as they are or begin to change them.

As with the Tarot, be very careful in your phrasing of what you see in a persons palm. Some lines may show a particular area in which your subject has very serious problems. This should be presented as an area of possible weakness and something for which you should be particularly watchful.

On a few occasions you may encounter a particular combination of lines which indicates a premature death. If this is the case, dont blurt out what you see. Rather, emphasize the need for great care to avoid illness, accidents, violence or whatever the rest of the hand may seem to imply as possible causes. Remember, palmistry is only a diagnosis its never a final pronouncement.

As a palmist, your attitude is of great importance. Never try to second guess your subject by adding on-the-spot observations and facts you know from beforehand. Only read the palm. Ideally you should know nothing whatsoever about the person youre reading. Their hands and your intuition should be enough.

THE HEART LINE

The Heart Lines (various ending positions)

The heart line governs our emotional lives and shows how we relate to others. Its the major line nearest the fingers. It runs across the palm, starting under the little finger and usually ends in the area between the first and second finger.

Physical Heart line

If the Heart Line forms a gentle curve, starting under the little finger and ending between the first and second fingers, its known as the Physical Heart Line.

People with Physical Heart Lines are generally able to express their feelings well. Although they suffer their share of ups and downs, they pick themselves up quickly and get on with their lives. Theyre likely to express their feelings in a physical, assertive manner. You could say to someone with this type of heart line:

As your heart line ends right up under the fingers, it shows that you have an open nature and can express your innermost feelings. Youre warm and affectionate. When things go wrong you manage to pick yourself up quickly.

Mental Heart Line

The other type of heart line is the Mental (or Humanitarian) Heart Line. This runs in a straight line right across the palm of the hand and does not curve at the end.

People with Mental Heart Lines find it hard to express their innermost feelings. Theyll suffer in silence rather than make a scene. Theyll have plenty of romantic feelings which take precedence over common sense. Theyre very sensitive and need plenty of room around them. You might say to these people:

You have a heart line that comes straight across your palm. This is known as a Mental Heart Line, and makes it rather difficult for you to express your innermost feelings.

It will gradually become easier for you, but you have to work at it. You can be sensitive at times and possibly bottle things up a bit. You like people, but you need to have room around you at the same time.

As this line governs the emotions its common to find one with defects, as all of us have ups and downs at different times in our lives. The most common visible signs of trauma are a series of islands on the heart line.

These islands indicate a period of difficulty. Generally, the problems stem from a relationship. This makes it very easy to determine if someone had an unhappy marriage followed by a happy one. In this case, the earlier part of the persons life (the part nearest the little finger) will have a multitude of islands, while the rest of the line will be clear.

Ending Positions

The Heart Lines end location is extremely important. Ideally, it should end between the first and second finger. This gives a balance between the ego (represented by the first finger) and the rest of humanity. People with this are realistic about their emotional life and dont have impossible expectations.

If the line ends on or directly under the first finger, the person will be idealistic and easily hurt. Other people will seldom live up to their expectations, leading to frequent disappointments.

If the heart line ends on, or directly under the second finger, the person is inclined to be selfish and think only of themselves and their own personal gratification. Theyll lack emotional involvement.

Often, you will find a heart line that forks in two directions at the end. This person has a complex emotional nature. He or she will see both sides of a situation.

The Girdle of Venus

Every so often youll find a Girdle of Venus. This line is often made up of a series of disjointed small lines. It runs parallel to the Heart Line and is located between the Heart Line and the fingers. This indicates an extremely sensitive and highly emotional person who may be unstable and neurotic.

Per Hogseth is an acclaimed psychic reader from Norway.Morgana Blog44580
Missie Blog49103

Three New Ways to Improve Your Internet Marketing

It's been a little over a decade since I was first introduced to the internet. I can remember how slow small businesses were to adapting the new idea of marketing their products and services in a way they never had seen before. Even for some larger corporations, it took awhile for them to accept the new concept of e-commerce. I guess no matter how profitable an idea maybe, it still will take a couple of years before the larger population can become comfortable with it. Ironically, I find small businesses are in the exact same place they were 15 years ago as an affiliate with VM Direct.

VM Direct - a streaming video company out of Las Vegas, Nevada. VM Direct, is a streaming media service provider offering web-based technology services: Video email, blogging, video instant messaging, podcasting, and live broadcasting. Their all-in-one media packages start as low as $9.95 per month.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I had a few hours of free time to dive into the achieves of VM Direct's weekly newsletters. As a new affiliate, I wanted to learn more about how other VM Direct affiliates are using the products as marketing tools for their small business. Immediately, it became apparent how a small business can take advantage of this new technology and have a competitive edge over their competition by simply implementing streaming video into their current marketing plan.

Video Email

Word-of-mouth advertising is the least expensive marketing tool a business can use in marketing. What better way to get people talking about your business than to use the latest technology like video email? Let's imagine for a moment, that you meet someone at a business networking event. After a few minutes of small talk, both of you exchange business cards. Monday morning, you put your new contact information into your database. However, rather than making a typical follow-up phone call, you decide to send a quick video email expressing how much of a pleasure it was meeting them, and how you look forward to calling them later in the week. What type of impression do you think that email will leave with that new contact? During the course of their day, they might receive a few dozen emails. However, which one do you think they might remember? Could the impression from your new form of communication be so strong that they will forward your video message to someone else in the company, creating a bit of viral marketing for you along the way?

VM Direct web-based video email application incorporates a custom design function for its subscribers. There are three places which users can put their own advertisements; the header, the card, and the footer. Both the header and footer act as banners which are positioned above and below the video screen. The card acts as a business card where subscribers can advertise a simple message. Users can easily upload their custom graphics and have readers click on the graphic icon to open up another webpage of their choice.

Video Newsletters

Successful businesses, both small and large, understand the power of having a database list. Rather than sending a two-page newsletter to opt-in subscribers, the sender can have messages sent to every subscriber in a new, refreshing email format. Think of it as having your own "60 Minutes" weekly television show. How many of your competitors has their own weekly video show?

Personally, I still have a number of email newsletters I've yet to open. Many of those email newsletters have given up hope themselves, as they wait for me eventually open or delete them. Shamefully to say, some date back as far as four years ago. I keep promising myself that I'll get to them one day. I can honestly say, I've yet to let a video email I've received go unopened.

Live Broadcasting

Incorporating live broadcast into your marketing, opens up an untapped realm of possibilities. I didn't know the many applications in which it could be used until I watched some of the live broadcasts that were created by Razor Stream's Chairman of the Board, Richard Kall. Every Tuesday, Richard Kall broadcast his show live over the internet called, "Summer Chat with Richard Kall." For about 30 minutes, from his home-office in Las Vegas, he offers words of encouragement to new affiliates that have recently joined VM Direct family, and shares his insights on building a home-based business from his years of experience in the network marketing industry. People from all around the world can log onto the broadcast, even if they are not an affiliate with VM Direct. At the moment, I happen to be watching a video Richard Kall recorded on November 11th, 2006. All live broadcasts can be achieved. So whatever time subscribers broadcast their live show, it's easily accessible for others viewers to later watch if their scheduled didn't permit them to catch it live.

We've come along way from being habitues of those now antiquated bulletin board services. We've become comfortable with instant messaging and text messaging. As the advancement of new technology continues, I imagine that one day cellphone users will have streaming video coming into their cellphones. I am just as confident that small businesses owner will eventually start to take advantage of the applications and uses of streaming video as more and more companies start using it to market their own products and services. I only hope they get to use it before their competition does.

Article written by Eric P. Martin. Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. Eric P. Martin is currently a part-time, pre-journalism college student at Harold Washington College in Chicago, Il. He's also an affiliate with VM Direct. To learn more about VM Direct services or business opportunity. please visit http://www.chicagovideoemail.com or contact via email at epm1013@helloworld.com for a example presentation of the video email application. Mariquilla Blog81594
Marcelle Blog83228

Writing an e-Book 101: The Complete Guide

Introduction

An eBook is an ELECTRONIC book - a file containing all the information that a hard book would contain. eBooks are downloaded directly from a secure library online to YOUR computer.

The most common file format for an eBook is a PDF which can be opened in Adobe Reader (a free PDF reader), however, you will be doing the actual "design" of your eBook in a word-processing program like MS Word (a part of MS Office).

If you have a complex design that includes lots of illustrations, you may wish to use a desktop publishing program such as PageMaker or Quark. Also, if you want to add more features to your PDF document, such as hotlinked URLs, forms, or pages imported from other programs, you should purchase the Full Version of Adobe Acrobat. It is well worth the price, particularly if you expect to create more than one eBook. More in Step 6.

Now, the paragraph above is beyond the scope of this eBook guide. Since MS Word is the most commonly used word processing program, this guide will focus on formatting in MS Word.

Now, with all that said, let's get started.

Choosing a Topic

It goes without saying that you should pick a topic you believe other people would be willing to part with their hard earned cash for. It should not be a subject overly done or where there are already vast amounts of useful information already available. Often times, finding a small niche audience willing to pay for your information is better than trying to compete with dozens of other more common subjects.

List all of the Topics in which you are knowledgeable

To help you find a topic, make a list of all the things you could confidently write about. Do you have hobbies or skills that others would be interested in? Do not make the mistake of assuming that because you are knowledgeable about a particular subject, others are too.

Find a Niche

The trick is choosing a niche. Do not write a book which appeals to everyone. Focus on a specific area and you are on your way to success. Why? Because when you target a niche market, you already have a pre-qualified market ready to buy your products.

What information do people want? The answer to these questions, and others, should be your main focus. You need to focus on what they don't have, sometimes you even have to tell them what it is that is missing and why they need it, and when you give it to them, they will reward you financially. Don't be discouraged if the niche is already quite popular, this could be an advantage to you. A popular niche is proof that there is already a market, and money to be made. Just be sure that your product is superior to the competition or has a differing twist.

Research the Chosen Topic

After choosing a specific area of interest as the topic of your eBook, the next step is to spend a reasonable amount of time researching that topic. How much time, you ask? It really depends on how much you already know about the topic. What is important here is you want to be an expert in your chosen niche. At this stage, it is easy to get lost among the huge bank of information on the internet. So it is very important to get organized.

While researching your subject, collect all the information you possibly can, and put it into a specified folder on your computer. Then when you feel you have all the information you need, you can proceed to bring it all together in an organized manner. This will make your eBook much higher quality, fluent, and easy to read.

Go to Wordtracker or Overture and see how many times people a month were looking for what you want to write about. This will give you an idea if it is a viable product. Also do a straight search in Google and Yahoo for your keywords, and see what turns up. Investigate some of the sites, you may be surprised that you have a completely different slant on the information you want to present in the eBook which is a good thing.

Create an Outline

Now that you have a good idea of what you are going to write, the next important step is to write a detailed outline of your eBook. This is the single most important step in the whole eBook writing process. The outline serves as the backbone of your eBook. It represents your ideas and flow of thoughts. Write the outline as detailed as possible.

Start with Choosing a Working Title

Why? Because it gives you a focal point. Spend time on it, as it is something you should keep coming back to for inspiration. Always make sure you dont deviate from it. Otherwise you'll end up with an eBook where the content doesn't match the title. Jot down a few different titles, and eventually, you'll find that one that will grow on you. Always remember, a great title is what sells, not your content. Period.

Next, write an Opening Statement

Begin your outline with an opening statement or Introduction. Your opening statement might tell your readers a little bit about what they are going to learn or may be a statement in regard to the subject matter. You also need to grab their attention early on and the best way to do this is to make them feel that you have all the answers regarding the topic. After all, why did they buy the book? Make them feel they made the right decision and that you know what you are talking about.

Followed by a Foreword

Your Foreword might include information in regard to who you are, your credentials, copyrights, and what you want your readers to learn.

List the Main Points

Next, refer to the folders where you stored all of your information, choose from your organized lists, and start writing headings, one right after another. This is a great way of breaking the job down into manageable pieces and tackle them one at a time making the writing process a little easier. Its also a good way to expand on your overview and see if your headings address everything you wanted to cover.

Fill in the Spaces

Once you've completed your outline and are happy with your list of headings, you can begin filling in the spaces. Write your text in small blocks and leave a space between your paragraphs.

Keep it Simple

A great tip given by many when it comes to writing is to start and don't stop. Write down everything that comes into your mind. If you try to think too much about what you are writing, you will forget important information and it will take you much longer to finish.

Picture your perfect audience for your eBook and write to him/her! Write to your reader, not for your reader. Write as if you are talking to the person. Use the language as you would when talking to your friend. Forget about having proper grammar and linguistic structures for your paragraphs. Just get your thoughts and ideas down! If you are stuck in a particular chapter, move on to the next. Don't force yourself to write that chapter and slow down the whole writing process. It is easier to come back and try writing that chapter again at some other time. You may have new thoughts and ideas which can help you proceed. An important point to remember here is DO NOT EDIT! Just focus on writing.

Most importantly, keep it simple! The average adult only reads somewhere around an 8th grade level, so don't write as if you've just devoured two dictionaries and a thesaurus for breakfast! Write as if you were in a conversation with an average everyday person.

Editing your Work

Now is the time to re-read and edit your work. Read it through several times and be sure to check spelling and grammar errors. If it's hard for you, the writer, to read and understand then it will probably be impossible to others!

Give it to a member of your family or a good friend and ask them to read it through and give you an unbiased opinion as to whether they understand it. If they don't, why not? If necessary, re-write portions of the whole thing, then go through this step again.

Write the Table of Contents or Chapter Titles

The final step will be to either create a Table of Contents or go directly into creating your Chapter Titles. If you're writing your information in the form of a how-to manual, you may want to use a Table of Contents. This will enable your readers to quickly locate important information. If you're writing your information in the form of a book, then you can leave out the Table of Contents and simply use Chapter Titles.

Whether you're using a Table of Contents or Chapter Titles, write your titles so that when they're read, they tell the story. In other words, when you scan your titles they will give you a step by step description of what your information is all about.

Formatting the eBook

A badly formatted eBook will alienate readers more quickly than a badly designed print book. At best, it will look amateurish; at worst, it will be difficult to read or "navigate." Fortunately, you can create a professional "look" with just a few simple Word commands. You'll need to consider the following elements:

Choosing a Font

It's best to use non-serif fonts such as Arial or Helvetica. Use a minimum of 10 points for your text, and 12 to 14 points for subheads. Keep in mind that the reader can increase the display size of your book when reading it onscreen. Since some fonts look better onscreen than in print, and vice versa, test your fonts both ways.

Margins

Use Word's "Format: Document" command to set margins to a minimum of three quarters of an inch on all sides. You may wish to set top and/or bottom margins slightly larger if you plan to use a header and/or footer. Since eBooks don't have "left" and "right" pages, turn off the "mirror margins" option.

Headers and Footers

Place a "running header" at the top of each page. The easiest approach is to simply include the title of your book and the page number. You can place this information flush left, flush right, or centered or place the title flush left and the page number flush right. We recommend using a slightly smaller font size for the header, and (if you like) using italic or bold. We also like to use the "border" command to draw a line between the header and the text. Another option is to put the title in your header and the page number in your footer.

To make sure that your header doesn't appear on the first page of each chapter, you'll need to use the "Insert: Break: Section: Next Page" command (rather than a page break) to separate chapters. Then, make sure that you've checked "different first page" in the "Format: Document: Layout" menu. You can also create a new header for each chapter (e.g., using the chapter title rather than the book title); to do this, turn off the "same as previous" option in the header command.

Adding Illustrations

One nice feature of an eBook is that it doesn't cost extra to include photos, drawings, charts, etc. If you have a scanner, you can scan your own illustrations and convert them to .gif or .jpg files. A program like Photoshop will enable you to crop, enlarge, or reduce those images, or make other modifications. It will also enable you to save them at a lower resolution, thus reducing file size.

While Word does allow you to incorporate illustrations in your text, it's not always easy to position them precisely where you want them. If you plan to use a lot of illustrations, you might want to consider using a desktop publishing program like Quark or Adobe PageMaker. When laying out photos or illustrations, be sure to leave an ample margin between the image and the surrounding text, and, where appropriate, include captions.

Last page(s)

The last page(s) of your eBook is a good place for an index, your bio, contact information, etc. It's also a good place to include advertisements for any other eBooks or products that you are selling.

The Big Finale

Somewhere along the line you have to decide that your eBook is finished. There will always be something that pops into your head later on... that little snippet that you'll wish you would have used. Don't worry about it! You can edit your eBook and resubmit it to Iggler. We'll always be glad to update the PDF on our site.

Creating the PDF from MS Word

To generate a PDF file, use the "print" command in Word and select the "Save as File" option under the "General" pull-down menu. Select "Acrobat PDF" as the file type and set "Destination" to "File." Hit the "print" button and your document will be converted to a PDF file.

If you actually own Acrobat, you can add other useful features to your eBook. For example, you can automatically hotlink every URL in the text (be sure to include the http:// prefix on all URLS). We recommend underlining links or formatting them in a color, such as blue, so that the reader will easily recognize them as hotlinks. Don't bother hot linking URLs in your original Word document, as these links won't be retained in your PDF file. You can link your table of contents directly to the text. You can also import pages or files from other programs, including charts and illustrations. If you plan to import files, leave a blank page in your original document, to be replaced by the imported page; otherwise, your pagination will be incorrect. You can also set various protection levels for your book including a restriction on printing, though we don't recommend this!

Submitting your finished eBook to Iggler.com

Finally, you're done! I'm sure you have a great sense of accomplishment!? Everyone does when they finish their first eBook. Now it's time to make some money! Fortunately, Iggler does this part for you :)

Submit your eBook to Iggler at www.iggler.com/sell.html and earn 50% commission on your eBook. Now that's worth the effort, huh?

Dr. Iggler has created many e-books, novels, etc. and presently writes a weekly newsletters called Dr. Iggler's Weekly Igglings for http://www.iggler.com. If you are interested in other writings by Dr, Iggler, please visit his site, signup for the newsletter, and browse his unique articles.Mariele Blog19117
Milena Blog60396

Using Traffic Exchanges

One of the biggist obstacles you will encounter while trying to build your business is TRAFFIC. How are you going to get interested people to visit your site?

Well, there are many ways to get traffic to your site.Unfortunately many of them will cost a lot of money, if you are just starting out you are trying to make money not spend more. There are some good ways to get traffic to your site" free of charge ". You'll notice I wrote "free of charge". As you know by now that nothing in this world is FREE. You do have to pay a price for everything. In this case we are talking about free advertising. In free advertising you have to do all the leg work.

One of my favorite forms of free advertising is through Traffic Exchanges. There are literally tons of Free Traffic Exchanges to choose from. With Traffic Exchanges you add your URL to the site, and then you start to surf all the websites that are in their rotator. After a set number of sites that you surf your site will be added to the rotation, assuming that your site gets approved. Depending on how many exchanges you are using you can surf each exchange once a day or have a rotating schedule to surf a different exchange every day. You have to be careful here because you can easily overwhelm yourself . Get your feet wet first and have fun with it.

Traffic Exchanges do a couple of good things for you . One, they give you exposure to other peoples sites, Who are just like you trying to get traffic to their sites. You get a chance to visit lots of other sites and get good useful information, or ideas for other web sites you might want to start. I find useful information everytime I surf. If the traffic exchange you are using is high in the search engines than the more clicks you get on your site the quicker you will move up in that search engine. There are many ways to move up in search engines , this is just one that will help you in your quest

Most exchanges pay out for referrals, you can add a referral link from each exchange to different exchanges, This will build you a list of people and bring you some extra money. Some exchanges also have contests for surfing, winners can win credits, cash, or other prizes. The point is to just keep busy, keep surfing.

Traffic Exchanges are just one way of using free advertising is a lot of work that goes into using traffic exchanges. Like finding good ones, filling out all of your information, surfing the required amount of sites before yours gets into the rotation, and waiting the required 15,20,or 30 seconds that it takes for you to be able to click on for the next site. This sounds easy if you have one site and one exchange, Imagine the fun it would be to have six sites and use over 30 exchanges. Like I said Nothing in this world is free.

Always remember the more time and effort you put into your business the more money you will attract. Positive energy attracts positive energy, and negative energy attracts negative energy. This being said , it is very important to remember that you must always be positive in your business and build your business to help others. This will bring you moreprosperityy and happiness than you can imagine.

Until Next Time

Frank

Copyright © Frank Tello
http://www.Home-Biz-For-You.com

Frank Tello is an Internet Marketer involved with various Affiliate Programs.Meggan Blog45490
Melany Blog39292

Affiliate Programs

What are affiliate programs, and how can I turn them into a money making opportunity? If you find yourself asking these questions time and time again, you will want to look into what affiliate programs are all about. The fact of the matter is that affiliate programs make for a great home business idea. Although it is not simple to make money through affiliate programs, once you have established yourself you will be well on your way to success. Before anything else, it is important to remember that you need to be persistent when dealing with affiliate programs. Only over time will you begin to see results; unless you already have an established website with a lot of traffic. If this is the case, all you need to do is add your affiliate programs, and look for ways that you can drive people to them.

First off, you need to learn the ins and outs of affiliate programs. The main reason that this can be difficult is that not all affiliate programs are the same. In fact, each one is going to be different than the next; even if the premise is along similar lines. Generally speaking, companies set up affiliate programs so that they can make more sales without having to put in as much work. As an affiliate, your job is to sell the products and/or services that are offered by other companies. Each time that you do this, you are going to get paid a percentage from the affiliate company that you are dealing with. As you can imagine, the more sales that you make the more money you will earn; this is only common sense.

When getting started with affiliate programs the most difficult thing to decide on is which ones are best for you. Remember, there are thousands of affiliate programs to choose from. And it is not realistic for you to get involved with a large number of these. In fact, you would be much better off choosing a few solid affiliate programs, and then starting with those. When you concentrate closely on few affiliate programs you will have a much better chance of success than if you would use the scatter gun approach.

If you are looking for a great home business, using affiliate programs to make money is a perfect idea. Did you know that there are thousands of people making a full time living through affiliate programs? You are not going to be able to reach this level of success over night. But if you work hard, you can make tons of money through the many affiliate programs that are available. Once you have an established website, as well as affiliate programs that you are comfortable with, you are ready to get started.

Pasi Kaarakainen is owner of http://WealthAtHomer.com. To find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home visit: http://www.WealthAtHomer.comMegen Blog57834
Margi Blog9410

Summer's Over - Back To Work!

During summer, those of us who are self-employed tend to pull back from our businesses somewhat. The heat of summer, vacations, kids out of school, and so on, logically bring about a slower pace. We benefit, mentally and physically, from such time to recharge and rejuvenate. Sometimes though, its a challenge to gear back up or to get your team in action again when summers over. The biggest obstacle to getting back into business full-time is resistance. Resistance shows up every time you start to change because the mind likes the status quo, it likes what is comfortable and fears discomfort (change).

Maybe this happened to you or someone on your team: You had very strong results in your business leading into summer - enough momentum to the point you relaxed for several months. It was great to take the break and enjoy a less hectic schedule. You know that you should be picking up the pace now that September is here but something is holding you back. That something is resistance.

So what can you do? Three things

1st - Realize whats going on; no guilt or judgment, its the natural order of change.

2nd - Take small actions or steps so comfortable that resistance never pops up. (Theres a proven method to changing your life one small step at a time called Kaizen). You do this by asking small questions such as:

- Whom can I call for inspiration?
- Whats one promotion that my company is offering this month that I can take advantage of?
- What can I do for 5 minutes to promote my business (send emails to customers or call one customer)?
- If my business was my first priority today, what would I do differently?
- Whats one new approach that others have used with success that I can try?
- What 5-10 minute organizational activity can I do?

3rd - Repeat this process of asking small questions and taking small steps everyday.

Choose a small question and ask it repeatedly over the next several days. Your brain loves questions and will soon supply you with answers. Why should you do this? Think about how many times youve jumped into something with gusto and failed after a short time. Maybe it was an attempt to lose weight, stick with an exercise regiment, reduce debt, overcome a bad habit or reach a business goal. Failure happened because the steps were too large and resistance appeared to stop you. Its the repetition of small steps that block resistance. Take small steps everyday and before you know it all these small actions will add up to tremendous results!

What one small step can you do right now for your business?

Vicki Miller CUCG, PCC / Copyright September 2006
Founder - Direct Selling Leadership Center

Vicki MillerMegan Blog54173
Marna Blog10910

Overcome Your URL Aftermath - Drive More Internet Profits To Your Site!

Most article marketer's know the value of article marketing, but few really know why or how to get the most out of their article submissions. The reason is because of the many false ideas in the marketplace regarding article marketing. So let me set the record straight on at least one of the biggest false assumptions.

Many article marketers fall prey into believing that one article published in many sites, ezines, and newsletters will benefit them by bringing in lots of traffic. Well, basically this idea is really only partially correct. Yes it does help to get your word out to many places, but there is a big difference between getting the same content out to many places and getting unique content to many places.

As most of us know Google is the king when it comes to search engines. Unfortunately sending the same article to many Websites, ezines, and newsletters will not help you with Google, but actually hurt you in the long run. Why you ask? Becuase of Google's "Duplicate Content Filter". Google's duplicate content filter will screen out multiple versions of your same article and will leave you with a handful of inbound links to your site. Inbound links to your site is a key factor in search engine ranking. The more inbound links, the more traffic, the better your ranking and opportunity to drive your sales skyward!

There are really only two ways you can fix this "Duplicate Content" problem. One way is you could sit down with a big pot of coffee and enough sandwiches to last you a few days and start writing hundreds of different article so each one is filled with unique content about your same subject! Or, you can use an article submission software that will submit hundreds, and possibly thousands of unique articles for you at the click of your mouse! Did you catch that?! Hundreds and also thousands of unique article for you at the click of your mouse! I don't know about you, but I'd rather save on all the lunchmeat and that coffee happens to keep me up all night.

The strategy behind submitting unique articles with different content is in the software. Through three different versions of your article it will randomly select paragraphs from those three articles and create a unique article each and every time it submits an article. Can you feel the power?! You can arrive at literally hundreds or thousands of unique article versions depending on the amount of paragrphs your three versions contain. It stops "Duplicate Content" dead in it's tracks, overcoming your URL aftermath!

It has been proven through testing that roughly 300 inbound links to a website shrink to around 16 inbound links after several weeks of submitting the same article to many different sources. By using this awesome article marketing tool you can increase your efectiveness with article submissions by 1875% or 18.75 times more. 300 inbound links will stay at 300 inbound links, not dropping down to 16 inbound links. Google will see your articles as unique and will show them all in your search results. The more results drive more traffic to your site. More traffic to your site drives more sales, and more sales will drive your profits skyward!

This is the most powerful article submission strategy available to increase your overall efffectiveness of all you article marketing campaigns. Now that's a benifit all article marketer's should take notice of.

Drive more traffic to your site through article submission. Article Pro Software increases your effectiveness to your URL promotion by 1875%. After proven tests, Article Pro Software will retain the inbound links generated through it's unique article submissions. http://www.articleprosoftware.com.Marley Blog17387
Mariellen Blog69297

The Easy Way to a Stellar Resume

The rules have changed. Shopping for employment is a hybrid of automated filter applications, on-line search engines and good old fashioned human interpretation. To be effective you need to make sure that your resume is designed to perform in all of these areas. In the hunt for a new job, a better job, or just keeping your Resume current, use these ten simple steps to draft a stellar resume.

1. Create a Personal Portfolio

This is the easy part. Begin by making a list of accomplishments, education and previous positions. This is your own private list. Do not be concerned with the order or the appearance. You can use scratch paper, word processor or collection of documents. Gather, create, collect and document your history with important facts, figures and milestones. Collect the relevant highlights from your life, education and career.

2. Choose a Standard Outline

Select a standard Template to use as your outline. Resist the urge to be creative or unique in the format of your resume. Do not waste time with colorful bullets, images or watermarks. Why? Web sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com provide the option to upload a resume in standard format and can automatically identify job titles with associated accomplishments. Your resume gets cut and spliced into pure text data and loaded into a Monster database that can be accessed by recruiters, human resource departments and agencies. Many companies and organizations either use the on-line database application or have similar software for managing the pure text from resumes. These filters do not support colorful bullets, images, icons or watermarks. If you do not want to spend your time copying and pasting pure text for every on-line opportunity, then make your life easy and use a standard template.

Organize the documents and thoughts from your personal portfolio into a chronological timeline and type them into a standard resume outline. Be sure to keep track of the accomplishments that best define your ability. Sample Professional and Standard Outlines can be found at http://www.executiveblueprints.com/executive_jobs.htm

3. Work Backwards

The typical resume starts with a short paragraph about you, followed bullet by points of your highlights, and then lists your career starting with your current or latest job. While that is meaningful to a potential employer to see the most current and relevant information first, it is opposite of the order of events. Most people tend to reflect on their life with greater precision in chronological order, like a story unfolding and progressing through the eyes of your memory.

Start at the end of your resume and work toward the beginning. This will enable you to follow your own career path and build up to the current status. It will make more sense to you as you put it together. Like building blocks of personal development, it will make more sense to someone reading the final product and understanding how you got to where you are today.

Start with your education. Then update the bullet points for the first job or oldest career position that you are going to include. Keep working forward in time, from the end of your resume to the beginning. Pay attention to how the responsibility and experience of each position contributed to the success of the subsequent one.

4. Concise, Precise and Measured

Bullet points with short sentences and specific measurements are excellent. For each job, use a series of bullet points to make your statement. Punctuate the highlights with measurements. Good sales skills should be Increased sales 45% in first Quarter, Increased sales 15% year-over-year or Directed Regional Sales Growth of 7% in Sixteen Months. Service related measurements may be related to Improved Customer Satisfaction from 87% to 95%, or Managed a Call Center with less than 2% Abandon Rate. Accounting and Finance may include estimated average size of portfolio managed, outstanding receivables in days, or similar measurements. Dates, Completion and Milestones are also a method of measurement. The bottom line is that every position can be measured. Identify measurements and provide quantitative details.

Do not make up measurements. Include the data if you have it or you are confident in the accuracy. Do not make up numbers if you do not know them. Use bullet points to be concise, do not use paragraphs. Avoid using I or We. Use personal accomplishments with supporting data.

5. Select Your Highlights

Select highlight from your personal portfolio. These may or may not be included in your career bullet points. You can emphasize specific accomplishments from your career, or you can use this opportunity to highlight outside achievements. For example, this might be your opportunity to mention volunteer work for charitable contributions. Use highlights to draw attention to specific individual talents, skills and experience. Highlights should also be listed in bullet form, above the individual career descriptions.

6. Keywords and Buzzwords

Above the bulleted Highlights, create a section of bulleted Keywords and Buzzwords. What are keywords and buzzwords? These are common words associated with your desired profession. For example, a programmer might include reference to UNIX, LINUX or ORACLE. An administrative assistant might include expertise in WORD, POWERPOINT, EXCEL, or the number of WPM. If you know which skills, tools, degrees or experience are relative and important for your profession, then be sure to list your capabilities. Do not take this for granted or assume that this is common. The recruiter and employer can not assume that all applicants have the necessary skills, so make sure that you include as many as possible.

Why is this so important? The on-line tools and application filters will search your resume for keywords related to specific jobs, just like search engines search for keywords to identify relevance in a web page or web site. The more matches to keywords, the higher your score. Typically the highest scores are used to select individuals for personal interviews, and the lowest scores are discarded before a human ever reads the resume. To avoid being discarded by an automated attendant, improve your score with relevant keywords.

7. Make Your Own Headlines

Create a short paragraph to define yourself and use this as the opening of your resume. It should only be four or five sentences long, chock full of keywords and buzzwords. Use action verbs like Managed, Directed, Accomplished, or Achieved. These are sentences, not bullet points. If you get beyond the automated applications and filters, this will be the first thing that a person reads. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so summarize yourself in the opening paragraph in such a way that the reader would be compelled to scan the rest of your work history in you resume.

8. Add Spice

Review the entire document from start to finish. Modify your bullet points with action adverbs and exciting adjectives where appropriate. For example, In charge of four employees, reduced expenses 12% can be more effective and exciting worded as Managed a dynamic department that dramatically reduced overall expenses by 12%. Which description sounds more appealing and energetic to you?

Read each sentence as if you were the big voice of a radio announcer. If the bullet points sound exciting, then you have written them well. If the description sounds ridiculous in your big announcer voice, then you might need to write the bullets again. Just in case, dont use that big announcer voice in public until you are really confident about your resume.

9. Check Your Name and Contact Information

Make sure that it is easy to find your name, email address and phone number. It would be a shame to have a stellar resume that is a perfect match for the job of your dreams, and the employer can not get in touch with you. Dont laugh, it happens. Make sure that your name, email and phone number are prominently visible on both pages of your resume.

Do not include personal or private information like a social security number. Do not use more than two pages for your resume, no matter how many jobs you have worked. If you are using a professional resume format, you will be prompted for placement of your contact information. Make sure that it is your contact information on every page.

10. Review and Repeat

Review your resume for correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. Nothing says careless better than a resume that is full of errors. I have seen managers promptly discard resumes due to spelling or grammar. The resume is a reflection of you, and the employer assumes that you took time to craft this document with great care. Your future opportunities may be based on your resume, so it should be treated that way. If you do not have confidence, then it may be well worth the investment to hire a professional to correct these errors and spice up the document for you. Consider it a one time investment that will bring you continual rewards by earning a better job and better pay.

Once you have a resume that gives you satisfaction and confidence, then it is time to change it. Save that version of your resume, and make another copy that you can modify with a different theme. Use the copy of your resume to change keywords, buzzwords and highlights from a different perspective. In many cases there are aspects of your experience that may be more closely associated with different job markets or industries. Adjust the language of your resume according to different job markets so you can submit a fitting resume to a target position. Do not try to make your resume one size fits all, but rather make several variations of your resume with different themes.

For examples of how to use different themes, compare the following on-line versions of these actual resumes:

Sales and Marketing Theme http://www.executiveblueprints.com/resumes/johnmkt.htm

Service and Operations Theme http://www.executiveblueprints.com/resumes/johnsvc.htm

References

Do not distribute a list of references unless asked. References should only be presented during an interview, not distributed in advance.

Ask permission from each person to be a reference for you. Do not ever list someone without prior consent. Employers are obligated to call and verify references, and you do not want it to be a surprise.

Be courteous to the people who are generous enough to be a reference, ask them for a written endorsement or letter of recommendation. This enables the reference to endorse your capability or experience without the interruption of a phone call until it is time for an employer to check and verify references. This is a courtesy to your references as it will minimize the potential number of people who may call. It also gets your endorsement in the hands of the potential employer that much faster. It is a great way to be courteous and build credibility at the same time.

Submit Your Resume

Dont be shy. Upload your resume to the on-line web tools and be prepared for quick response. Check your email every day and respond quickly to opportunity. Do not think of it as being over-eager, it is being enthusiastic and responsive. Recruiters and employers have a need and incentive to fill positions with qualified individuals in a prompt and efficient manner. They do not have time to wait if you take your time, so be at the front of the line and demonstrate your aggressive and enthusiastic desire.

Prepare for Your Interview

If you took this much time and care to prepare a stellar resume, then do the same preparation for your interview. A professional resume will get you past the on-line filters, the company internal applications and the front-line reviews. If you get to the personal interview, make sure that you are adequately prepared.

You need to be confident in the final versions of your resume. If you are not sure, ask for review from trusted and respected colleagues. If you do not want to do that, you might want to consider using a professional service to assist you. Remember, the time that you spend on your resume is an investment to open new doors to career opportunities that could dramatically change your life. Invest a little extra time for long lasting rewards.

Still looking for a little motivation, inspiration or guidance?

Look for Executive Jobs, A Guide to Managing Your Career, a free eBook from www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com

John Mehrmann is President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital.Marline Blog8653
Nada Blog93250

Introduction to Affiliate Marketing - Part 1/2

This is Part 1 of 2

Affiliate Program History

Invented by CDNow.com at the end of 1994 and pioneered by Amazon.com in 1996, "affiliate programs", also known as Associate Programs or Partner Programs, are a simple way for Web sites to generate revenue by directing traffic toward other sites and a great way for the operating site to increase its traffic and revenue.

Because affiliate programs are so convenient and work so well, they have become the industry's dominant method of online Marketing.

There are 4 different kinds of affiliate programs to compensate "Affiliates" (or referring sites) for generating traffic to the Affiliate Program operating Website: Pay-Per-Impression, Pay-Per-Click, Pay-Per-Lead and Pay-Per-Sale.

Pay-Per-Impression (CPM)

Cost-Per-Mil (Mil = 1000) Impressions. Publisher gets from Advertiser $x.xx Amount of money for every 1000 Impressions (Page Views/Displays) of the Ad. The Ad can be Text (AdSense), Banner Image or Rich Media.

The Pay-Per-Impression and Pay-Per-Click Model are not common to be used in Affiliate Marketing anymore. They were used in the Past, but were mostly abandoned due to Fraud and lack of Results.

The CPM (cost-per-impression) compensation Model was revived by Google for Google AdWords in summer 2005. The feature is called "Site-Targeting" in AdWords and allows you to display your Adsense Ad on a specific Website that runs AdSense Ads.

Pay-Per-Click (CPC) Model

Cost-Per-Click. Advertiser pays Publisher $x.xx amount of money, every time a visitor (potential prospect) clicks on the advertiser's Ad. It is irrelevant (for the compensation) how often an Ad is displayed. Commission is only due when the Ad is clicked.

Like the Pay-per-Impression model was the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Model popular during the dot com boom at the end of the 1990th but was mostly abbandoned by Advertisers for Advertisements on other Websites due to rampart problems with click fraud.

The PPC Model was kept alive by the PPC Search Engine GoTo.com which became later Overture.com and is now owned by Yahoo! and renamed from "Yahoo Sponsored Search" to Yahoo Search Marketing.

Google launched their PPC Service AdWords in 2000. Ask Jeeves, now simply Ask.com followed with their PPC Service in 2005 called Ask Sponsored Listings and MSN.com in 2006 with AdCenter. Other PPC Services are Miva/FindWhat.com and 7Search.com.

Contextual Advertising

The big come-back of PPC came when Google launched AdSense in 2003, the birth of contextual Advertising. What is Google AdSense? Here is a quote from Google's History at Google's corporate Website.

Google AdSense: "... offering web sites of all sizes a way to easily generate revenue through placement of highly targeted ads adjacent to their content. Google AdSense technology analyzes the text on any given page and delivers ads that are appropriate and relevant, increasing the usefulness of the page and the likelihood that those viewing it will actually click on the advertising presented there."

Yahoo's Version of AdSense called Yahoo! Publisher Network was launched (beta) in 2005. Microsoft is also working on their own Version of AdSense which is expected to be launched (beta) in 2006.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Classic PPC Search Engine Marketing (Cost-Per-Click (CPC) advertising) is not Affiliate Marketing. It is an entirely different type of Internet Marketing and only has some technical details in common with old PPC/CPC Affiliate Marketing.

Ads are primarily displayed at the Search Engine Search Results Pages (SERPs) next to organic, free, Search Results. Contextual Advertising introduced with Google AdSense is also not Affiliate Marketing since no direct Partnership between the Advertiser who creates and pays for the Ads and the Publisher who displays the Ads on his Website.

This type of Marketing is generally referred to as Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and is often and wrongly mixed up and confused with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which is about improving the ranking of a Site in the organic, free, SERPs at major Search Engines via technical means and deep understanding of the complicated ranking algorithms used by modern Search Engines.

Pay-Per-Call

This is a new compensation model. No official abbreviation exist yet. Advertiser pays publisher a flat $x.xx amount in commission for phone calls received from potential prospects as response to a specific publisher Ad. Recently developed call-tracking technology allows to create a bridge between online and offline Advertising. Pay-Per-Call Advertising is still new and in it's infancy.

Pay-Per-Call Advertising is neither Search Engine Marketing (SEM) nor Affiliate Marketing. It is expected to become the 4th major type of Internet Marketing next to Affiliate Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization within the next years.

The Affiliate Marketing shifted almost entirely to the Pay-Per-Lead (CPA or CPL) and Pay-Per-Sale Model (CPS) which is also known as Performance Marketing. The paid commission is usually a percentage of the referred sales or a flat dollar amount.

The Pay-Per-Lead (CPA or CPL) Model

Cost-Per-Action or Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA), Cost-per-Lead (CPL). The Advertiser pays the Publisher a flat $x.xx amount in commission if a referred visitor performs a specific action on the Advertisers Site. It could be Actions like filling out a Form, Signing up for a Newsletter or Creating an Account.

The CPA Model is very popular with Online Services like Credit Card Providers, Insurance Services, DVD and Video Game Rental Services and Loans and Mortgages. Due to the usual high flat commission amount is the CPA very attractive for PPC Affiliates that do not have a permanent Website and an established User Base.

Before you consider the CPA Model for you problem, make sure to have mechanisms in place to validate the quality of referred leads. Your program will be vulnerable to become a victim of fraud, affiliates that generate tons of "fake" leads if you do not have anything in place to verify the quality of the produced leads.

The Pay-Per-Sale (CPS) Model

Cost-Per-Sale (CPS). Advertiser pays the publisher a percentage (%) of the Order Amount (Sale) that was created by a customer who was referred by the publisher.

This Model is used by most Online Merchants today.

Here are same basic tips for Advertisers that consider starting an Affiliate Program with CPS Compensation Model:

Do not pay commissions that you end up loosing money on an order. You will gain new customers because of the Affiliate Program, but you will also pay commissions for returning customers.

Shoppers on the internet are more savvy today. Comparison Shopping Sites, Coupon Sites, Cash-Back Shopping and Charity Sites, that make up a large percentage of successful affiliates, are often visited by Shoppers first. See the Affiliate Program also as a Customer Retention Tool.

CPA or CPS?

If your competitors have affiliate programs and you don't, chances are good, that you are loosing a considerable amount of business to them, because the lag of an affiliate program for your site.

If you want to use an Affiliate Program as an Online Merchant for the whole purpose of customer acquisition, consider the CPA Model and pay a flat commission for new customers referrer by affiliates.

Do the math to come up with a Flat Commission that makes it worthwhile for affiliates to promote you. Affiliates are not waiting for you, the next Merchant that has a Program is only one click away.

What you do and what commission you pay is up to you. You can also mix compensation models. The best thing to do is always to check first what your competitors are doing and use their compensation model as reference.

Pay-Per-Sale is by far the most common compensation model. 2/3 to 3/4 of all Affiliate Programs today are Pay-per-Sale Programs. The operating Site only pays "Commission" to their Affiliates for actual Results (a Sale, Sign-up etc.) and not just for promises (Clickthroughs, Banner Impressions).

Carsten Cumbrowski operateds the Internet Marketing and Web Development Resources Portal http://Cumbrowski.com. For Affiliate Marketing Resources visit http://www.cumbrowski.com/CarstenC/affiliatemarketing.asp . If you are new to Affiliate Marketing viist http://www.cumbrowski.com/CarstenC/affiliatemarketing_training-courses.asp first.Marnie Blog36258
Melloney Blog57298

Why So Many People Fail In Affiliate Marketing

More and More people are lured into affiliate marketing and you might be one of them. Indeed, affiliate marketing is one of the most effective means of generating a full-time income through the Internet. Its a fair deal between the merchandiser and his affiliates as both benefit from each sale materialized. Like in other kinds of business, a great deal of the profits in affiliate marketing depends on the affiliates advertising, promoting and selling strategies. Everyday, as affiliate marketing industry expands, competition heightens as well so an affiliate marketer must be creative enough to employ unique and effective ways to convince potential buyers to purchase or avail of the products and services offered.

Compared to traditional advertising practices, affiliate programs are more effective, risk-free and cost-efficient. But why do many people still fail in affiliate marketing? There are a lot of reasons and a lot of areas in the program to look into. The most critical aspect in the affiliate program is advertising. Many affiliate marketers fail in this aspect because they lack hard work, which is the most important thing in affiliate marketing and in all other kinds of business as well. Although it pays to be lucky, you cannot merely rely on it. Affiliate marketing isnt as simple as directing customers to the business site. If you want to earn big, of course, you have to invest time and great amount of hard work in promoting the products. As earlier mentioned, the competition is very high and customers nowadays are very wise, too. After all, who doesnt want to get the best purchasethat is, to pay less and get more in terms of quantity and quality.

Lack of preparation is also a reason why one fails in affiliate marketing, whether he is a merchandiser or an affiliate. Part of the preparation is researching. On the part of the merchant, he has to be highly selective in choosing the right affiliate websites for his affiliate program. In order to be sure he has the best choices, he must have exhausted his means in looking for highly interested affiliates whose sites are sure fit to his products and services. The affiliate sites visitors must match his targeted customers. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer must likewise research on the good-paying merchandisers before he signs up for an affiliate program. He must ensure that the merchants products and services match his interests so he can give his full attention and dedication to the program. He can get valuable information by joining affiliate forums, comparing different affiliate programs and reading articles on affiliate marketing where he can get tips from experienced affiliate marketers on how to choose the best merchants and products with high conversion rate.

The website is a very important tool in the whole affiliate program. As an affiliate marketer, you should plan how your site is going to be, from domain name to the design, the lay-out, the content, and ads. Some users are particular about what they see at first glance and thus when they find your site ugly, they wont read through the content even if your site has many things to say and offer. On the other hand, there those who want information more than anything else. Affiliate marketers with rich-content web sites are usually the ones who prosper in this business because the content improves traffic to the site. Websites with high quality contentswith relevant keywords and more importantly, right information about the product and not empty hyped-up advertisementsallow you to earn big in affiliate marketing even when youre asleep. If you wont be able to sustain the interest of your site visitor, you wont be able to lead him to the merchants site. No click-through means no sale and thus, no income on your part.

Selecting a top-level domain name is also crucial to the success of the affiliate program. Lots of affiliate sites dont appear in the search engine results because they are deemed by affiliate managers as personal sites. Major search engines and directories would think of your site as transient ones and thus, they wont list it in the directory. Before you decide on the domain name, know first what you are going to promote. Many fail because their sites are not appropriately named, so even when they feature the exact products the customer is looking for, the customer might think the site is not relevant and thus, wont enter the site.

Above all, an affiliate marketer must be willing to learn more. Certainly, there are still a lot of things to learn and so an affiliate marketer must continue to educate himself so he can improve his marketing strategies. Many fail because they dont grow in the business and they are merely concerned about earning big quickly. If you want long-term and highly satisfactory results, take time to learn the ins and outs of the business. Continue to improve your knowledge especially with the basics in affiliate marketing ranging from advertising to programming, web page development, and search engine optimization techniques. Likewise, study the needs and wants of your site users and how different merchandisers compete with each other.

Keep on trying; dont get disappointed if your first attempts did not pay off. Thousands are attracted by the possibility of generating skyrocketing incomes through affiliate marketing and so they sign up in any affiliate program without carefully understanding every aspect of the business. When they dont get instant results, they quit and sign up for another program and repeat the process of just copying links and referring them to others. When you sign up for an affiliate program, dont expect to get rich in an instant. Work on your advertising strategies and be patient. Youll never know how much you can get if you dont persevere.

Clarence Binayu is the founder and Webmaster for http://www.virtual-guides.com. Here you can find FREE information on many subjects including business, automobile, travel, vacation, affiliate marketing, advertising, internet, sports, entertainment, technology, communication, fashion, home improvement, culture, education, society, science, politics, fitness and health. http://www.virtual-guides.com provides you with helpful guidance, tips and news update, from basic to the latest skills, knowledge and information, about these subjects.Morgan Blog50134
Milli Blog64368

FAQ About Running Your Internet Business

Do you have questions about your Autoresponder, articles, and creating your business website? Maybe you dont have questions today, but these questions could pop up tomorrow. So you need to be aware of these common questions. Knowing the answers to these questions can save you precious time and money. Time, in fact, that could be spent making more money instead of trying to figure out a solution to the problem.

So heres a list of questions regarding Autoresponders, articles, and your business website:

Autoresponder Question: I am moving an old list that I havent followed up with or contacted in awhile. I want to move this old list from the AutoResponse Plus to 1Shopping Cart. Can I just import this list into 1Shopping Cart or do I need to contact each person on the list?

Autoresponder Answer: When you move the list to 1Shopping Cart they will make the list double opt-in. 1Shopping Cart will send your list an email about this. So make sure to send an email to the list ahead of time so you can prepare them for the 1ShoppingCart email.

Note: If you havent really talked to these people or followed up then your response rate is probably going to be really low. Still do it, but just note that you might lose a lot of emails during the transition.

Articles Question: I know that submitting articles is a great way of viral marketing. I send out several articles on a consistent basis. I use the article submitter called Article Submitter Pro. Are there any other article submission programs that are faster?

Articles Answer: No, nothing is faster than Article Submitter Pro. If you want to try another article submitter program try Article Announcer.

Business Website Question: How do you select which keywords to put in the HTML code for your business website?

Business Website Answer: It depends. If you dont use conversion tracking then look at keywords that have the highest click through rate. If you ARE using conversion tracking then look at the words that are converting the most. Put the top 2-3 keywords in your title tag. Dont have more than 83 characters in your title tag.

Business Website Question: What is conversion tracking?

Business Answer: Login to your Google AdWords account to find conversion tracking. It will give you a code where you can track cost per lead and your lead conversion. It tracks from when people land on your website to getting to your thank you page. The click through rate, on the other hand, tells you the time it takes from somebody searching Google to the time they reach your website.

Matt Bacak began investing his first earnings at the tender age of 12, a young businessman in the making. Now, 15 years later, Bacak survived failed businesses, botched partnerships, heavy credit card debt and bankruptcy - all in preparation for the accomplishments he has achieved today as a well-established Internet millionaire and best-selling author.Myranda Blog1300
Merlina Blog4371

UK Debt Finance, Financing Business Growth

There are so many questions from SME businesses that are looking for debt finance of some sort or another. Valuable time is wasted by SME stakeholders trying to source the right deal from the right people at the right price for the right reason. It can be a minefield which may not be as desperate as leading to a company downfall but lack of funds not available within a reasonable timeframe can spell the beginning of missed opportunities, months of struggle and eventually an insolvency disaster waiting to happen.

What is the finance for?

Be clear on what you want your finance for. If you are looking at:

 Working capital
 Expansion skills, diversification or perhaps acquisition
 Development of ideas
 For use in the actual product or service
 Proving the market
 Proving the product

Or something else in this vein then go for it.

If you are looking for funds to:

 Cover losses
 Repay your debts
 Paying your salary

Then generally speaking, forget it!

Have you seen Dragons Den on BBC2? What happens when the entrepreneur divulges the fact that the funding they are looking for is to go on wages? Yep, even if youve not seen the show you can probably guess. The entrepreneur walks away empty-handed. If you are just trying to repay debt then perhaps its time to talk to the professionals and get some sound advice.

Types of finance (UK)

Consider all the funding options available. Look around your local area, talk to the chambers of commerce, find out the local investment trusts. Ultimately, make sure you pitch to the right type of funder to suit your borrowing requirement.

As a rough guide, consider:

 Debt finance / Small firms loan guarantee (SMFLG) (5k+)
 Friends and family (Up to 80k)
 Business angels (Typically 50k up to 500k)
 Specialist funds / sometimes wealthy business angels in a niche market (Up to 2M)
 Venture capital firms (1.5M+)

Outside or in conjunction with the above you may also do well to consider asset finance companies (assuming you have assets in your business) and also invoice discounting / factoring (assuming you have a debtor book and robust contracts terms and conditions of business).

Some key issues

The funding companies that you approach will be looking at other issues surrounding your business. To be a little crude, theyll want you to show them the colour of your business underwear. So what will they want to know?

- Financials
- How do the numbers relate to your plan?
- Are the numbers consistent?
- Can you confidently recall the key numbers and understand how they relate to your business?

- The management team
- The right blend of skills to see the goal through?
- Concentrically focussed?
- The right product with the wrong team is generally less attractive than the wrong product with the right team!
- Ability to deliver in spite of setbacks

- Product / Service
- Do you have a unique selling point (USP) that makes you stand out from the competition?
- Have you protected your interests in the product or service?

- The marketplace
- How big is your market?
- Whos your competition? Tip: Never say we dont have competition. You may have a USP but there is always competition even if its an alternative solution to your offering. Make sure you come across as knowledgeable about how you fare against the competition.
- How will you get access to your market?

Really understand these key issues. The funding companies are checking you out as much as the numbers relating to the deal.

Dont ask for too little or too much

If you really understand your business to the level that a funding company would like then you would get the request for money correct the first time you ask. Its embarrassing if you get the figures wrong.

Write out a cashflow forecast for your proposition.

Remember that the greatest gap between revenue and overhead costs may not be month 1 or 2, it may be 8 months down the line.

A typical cycle for raising finance may take 2 to 18 months. If you run out of cash in month 9 and youre 5 months from the next injection of funding then you may not survive the year. The extra costs associated with filling a cashflow gap may also squeeze your margins to the point you operate at a loss.

Too much funding is equally embarrassing. You have to pay the funding company for that extra cash in the business and potentially at a later date request more funding if say you hit upon a needed expansion plan. What will the perception be of a company asking for funding who were wildly out on figures the last time around?

Summary

There are a number of options available in the UK for business funding.

Asking for the right amount of funding, for the right reason with the right lending source will save you time and costs. Make sure you do the work and demonstrate your ability to run and manage your business.

As a footnote, if you still cannot get funding and are faced with insolvency / personal debts and you would like some help and advice then do get professional help as early as possible.

Ed Pearson is a Debt Dr. He can be reached in confidence on 07970 659266 or e-mail on ep@debtDr.co.uk.

http://www.debtDr.co.uk 'Prescribing a life without debt'

This article does not constitute regulated advice. Please remember that any action regarding financial advice should always be taken only after considering the specifics of your own situation.

Ed Pearson is a Debt Dr offering debt help and advice to individuals and small businesses across the UK.

Whilst you may love the stuff he writes, you should only ever take action once you have considered your own set of financial circumstances with a professional. This article does not constitute financial advice.

Please e-mail if you'd like to chat further on any area of your debt finance.

Ed Pearson is a Debt Dr. Debt Dr offer real debt help and advice throughout the UK, not debt management or debt consolidation. Just 6 solutions that really work. Marni Blog41543
Maridel Blog19547

Conscious Consumption: A Place To Start

While attending language school in Mexico a number of years ago, I was suddenly hit with the idea that I could live without much of what I had been obsessively acquiring and consuming in the states. I had two weeks worth of clothes with me that seemed to be serving me well as I washed and wore them for months. I rarely watched television and never saw a computer, instead choosing to read, take a swim, or socialize with others. I never stepped foot in a supermarket and instead shopped at the local outdoor market. I ate better, I felt better and I slowed down to pay attention to the world and the people in it.

Once I returned to the U.S., I tried to make that simplicity a priority in my life. Over the years, I have become more aware of my community, my world, and my planet. I visit the farmer's market on weekends for locally grown produce, I buy more organic and even became a member of a farmer's cooperative. I combine errands so I drive less, and I recycle every bit of paper, plastic, metal and glass in my household. I do not buy throwaway gadgets like disposable toilet bowl wands (though I must confess my daughter did wear disposable diapers) and I try to avoid buying from companies who have no social conscience. As an e-retailer, I sell handcrafted items rather than mass-produced goods providing customers with an alternative to the big box stores, and I donate a portion of all sales.

The point is, being a conscious consumer requires setting some boundaries and holding one's self accountable. If you've ever wondered what you could do to make a difference, but didn't know where to begin, here are some ideas. Start small, perhaps making one change this week, and another next week, and so on. Every effort by every person adds up and makes a difference. Don't wait, use your power as a consumer to make global changes today!

Check out this list of ideas you can incorporate into your life one step at a time.

1. Watch one hour less of television

2. Seek out locally grown produce

3. Start a vegetable garden and grow your own

4. Buy organic products

5. Buy from the bulk bins to reduce packaging

6. Join your local co-op

7. Rather than going to the mall, shop small businesses in your community or shop small businesses online and save gas

8. Avoid socially irresponsible companies and support progressive ones - Read The Blue Pages: A Directory of Companies Rated By Their Politics and Practices or visit The Responsible Shopper.com website for more information

9. Find alternatives to chemical-based household cleaners and products

10. Turn off lights, turn down the heat, and raise the setting on the air conditioner by a few degrees

11. Reuse or recycle

12. Buy fair trade products - Read the 32 page booklet The Conscious Consumer: Promoting Economic Justice Through Fair Trade

13. Bring your own cloth bags to the grocery store (many will offer a discount)

14. Bring your travel mug to your favorite coffee shop (Starbucks offers a 10 cent discount)

15. Avoid impulse purchases - think as you buy and consume wisely

16. Take public transportation

You can probably think of dozens more ways to make a positive change. Go ahead, I dare you!

Sheila Hull-Summers is the owner of http://www.sunriseimports.net, an e-commerce site specializing in unique handcrafted gifts from Mexico, Central America and the U.S. To purchase The Conscious Consumer booklet, go to http://www.sunriseimports.net/consciousconsumer.htmlMirabella Blog77639
Melanie Blog87434