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Email information-  Click here!  Leading Colleges in India  CAREER PAGE Beauty | Mehendi | Recipes | Careers & Jobs | Matrimonial | | Horoscope | Personal Problems |Sex Education | Doctor Online | |E-Greetings | E-Shopping | Yoga | Destination India | India Virtual Tour | Kids Corner | Baby Names | Jokes | Indian Universities & Colleges | Contests |Weather | News |World Guide | World Time |Currency Converter |  http://hindustanlink.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to Remember Your Speech without Memorizing We all fear that moment when we speak to audiences. You look out on a sea of faces and your mind goes blank. You can't remember your next point and you wish you could disappear with your memory. You can avoid blanking out when you know how to maximize your mind. These tips will help you achieve total recall of your talk: Rehearse out loud. You'll remember more when you hear your own voice. Tape it and play it back. Listen to it in the car or as you fall asleep. 2. Practice the 3x5, 3x5 Rules. Avoid one lengthy rehearsal. Instead, take short chunks and practice them 3 to 5 times a day for 3 to 5 days. Frequency of repetition aids memory. 3. Create key words and phrases. The idea is to memorize concepts-not words. The more verbiage, the more difficult to remember. Bullet points allow you to talk about your points and not read your slides. 4. Exaggerate the visual. For each concept or bullet, take the key word and turn it upside down, enlarge it, color code it, change the font. Exaggeration makes the concept more memorable and aids retention.  (Of course, this is done during rehearsal and not for the eyes of the audience.) 5. Use pictures. The mind thinks in pictures-not in words. Use icons, graphics, and symbols as prompts and you'll be amazed at how easily you remember your content. 6. Tell your story. People learn better and retain more when you tell stories. A situation that you experienced has a natural sequence to help you recall events. Stories don't have to be touchy feely. Reveal an interesting experience as a case study or tell a before and after success scenario. 7. Engage other senses. This is called synesthesia. Your recall increases as you intensity your experience. For example, if you're talking about a financial downturn in the market, imagine hearing a warning siren or feel what it's like to be in a torrential downpour. 8. Associate. Take your concepts and create an acronym. To recall the process of managing question and answer periods I use the word CRAM-concentrate, repeat, answer, move on. Comedians use this technique. They assign each story or "bit" with a key word. They take the first letter of the key word from each story and form an acronym. This keeps them on track and they can easily access the segments in correct sequence for a one hour monologue without notes! 9. Make complex data concrete. Use analogies and demonstrations to make the data come alive. The audience will understand it better and you will recall it more easily. 10. Get physical. By acting out parts of the presentation you maximize your memory. Walk to one side of the room , When you are talking about past history. Then move the opposite side when you're making future projections. You'll trigger your memory when you physically change your position. And the audience will be anchored to hear your message. 11. Recover with grace.  If you do forget, pause and give yourself time to remember. Or use humor. But have a fall back exercise. Ask the audience to repeat your last three points. Put them in pairs and have them talk to their partner for one minute about an important point. This give you time to recall and recover. When it comes to remembering your speech, you can blank out. But, you can achieve Total Recall with above practices regularly.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ten Ways to Strengthen Your Reading Habit Most people wish they read more.  It is an activity that is both fun and enlightening.  It can help us be more knowledgeable and successful.  However, it is an activity that many people don't engage in very much.  According to the 1999 National Household Education Survey, 50% of the U.S. population aged 25 and over read a newspaper at least once a week, read one or more magazines regularly, and had read a book in the past 6 months.  What does this mean?  It means that 50% of the population hasn't read a book in the last six months!  Looking at the other end of the spectrum, research shows that if you read ten books a year, you are in the top few percent of all people as readers.  Simply stated, it doesn't take much to be well read, but we do need to know how to get started.  The following are ten suggestions to help you strengthen your reading habit ? ways to find and make more time for reading. 1. Always have a book around.  Don't go anywhere without reading material.  Keep magazines or short stories in your bathroom.  Always have something in your briefcase to read.  Keep a book(s) by your bed.  Having things available makes it easier for you to steal otherwise lost moments. 2. Set a reading goal.  Determine how much time you want to spend reading, or how many books you want to read over time.  Your goal might be a book a month, one per week, or it might be to read 30 minutes a day.  Start out with something attainable but still a stretch. As your habit builds, you might set higher goals. Setting a goal is the first step towards reading more.  3. Keep a log.  Keep a list of the books you have read, or keep track of how much time you read each day.  You might keep these lists in your journal or your day planner.  My son's log is on our refrigerator.  My list and log are kept on my computer.  It doesn't matter where you keep it, just do it. 4. Keep a list.  Make a list of things you want to read in the future.  Ask your friends and colleagues what they are reading.  Watch for recommendations in the newspaper and magazines.  Once you start looking for good books, you'll find them everywhere. This is a great way to keep your enthusiasm up.  By knowing what great stuff you want to read, you will reinforce your reading habit. 5. Turn off the television.  Many people say they just don't have enough time.  Television is one of our major time consumers.  Make your television watching more conscious and less habitual.  There is nothing wrong with watching television shows you really enjoy.  Where the time gets lost is turning it on, and scanning to find "something to watch."  Those are the times to turn it off and pick up your book! 6. Listen when you can't read.  Use your commute and other time spent in the car to listen!  There are great audio versions of all sorts of books.  Whether you want to "read" fiction, the latest self-help or diet book, it is probably available on tape. Don't get locked into the idea that you have to read it ? listening to the book still gives you the experience, ideas, and imagination that reading a book can. 7. Join a reading group or book club.  Reading groups typically meet once a month to discuss a book they have all decided to read.  Committing to the group provides a bit more impetus to finish the book, and gives you a great forum for discussion and socialization around the book's themes. 8. Visit the library or bookstore often.  You have your list, right?  So you'll have some ideas of what you are looking for when you walk in.  But there is more to be gained by walking through places where books reside than just to make a transaction.  Take time to browse!  Let your eyes find things of interest.  Let serendipity happen.  Browsing will feed your mental need to read, and give you plenty of new things to read. 9. Build your own strategy.  Decide when reading fits your schedule.  Some people read first thing in the morning, some before bed.  Some decide to read as they eat their lunch.  And there is more to your strategy than just timing.  Make your own decisions about reading. It is ok to be reading more than one book at once.  It is ok to stop reading something before you finish if it isn't holding your interest.  It is ok to skim the book, getting what you want or need, without reading every page.  Determine what works best for you, develop your own beliefs and ideas-then make them work for you. 10. Drop Everything and Read.  My son's fourth grade class has DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time.  When the teacher calls for it, that's just what they do.  They read now.  That is my last piece of advice for you.  Do it.  Just get started.  Make it DEAR time.  Now. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Presentation skills and tactics The Secret Language of Money At a number of business seminars and presentations, I passed out an index card and asked each person in the audience to write anonymously a single answer to each of three questions. The three questions are: Just Say No to PowerPoint: Enough is enough! Have you ever been slide swiped?  You walk into a meeting and once everyone has arrived, the lights are often dimmed and the show begins. The presenter clicks the mouse again and again, showing you slide after slide until you can take no more. Exasperated, you shut your eyes and doze off. You have just been slide swiped! After the Speech Usually the emphasis on making an effective speech is what you do in preparation before the presentation begins.  But if you speak very much, what you do after the speech can help you become a more effective speaker.  As soon as possible after the speech, write down impressions of how you felt the speech went.  Answer at least two questions about the speech:  What was the best part of the speech? What part of the speech can be improved the next time?    Some of your best ideas will come to you as you are speaking.  Write them down as soon as the speech is over so you can be prepared to use those lines or ideas the next time you speak.    Think about the peaks and valleys in the speech.  Consider when the audience seemed to listen best and when the audience seemed restless and disinterested.  Write down your reactions while they are fresh on your mind.    Talk to someone about the speech within the first day after your presentation.  You'll remember best what you talked about and you might discover a better way of telling a story or making a point as you summarize your speech to a friend or colleague.  Keep track of stories you tell and case studies you include so you'll not repeat yourself if you speak to that audience again.  In addition, keep records of how long you spoke, what you wore, key people you met, and anything unusual about the speaking context.  Occasionally look back over your records of individual speeches and look for trends in your speaking that you are unaware of.  When you speak to this group again, this information will be the basis for your audience analysis.  This is especially important if you speak frequently within your company and your audience will be made up of listeners who have heard you before.  You don't want to develop a reputation for telling the same stories over and over. If the group has speaker evaluations, ask that a copy of the summary be sent to you.  Look for any pattern in the comments as you analyze the summary.  If one person said you talked too slowly, it may be a personal preference and you don't need to give much consideration to the critique. If four or five people make that comment, however, then you might want to consider changing the pace of your speaking for the next speech.    Certainly your main concern should be with your preparation before the speech.  However, don't underestimate the effort of what you do in analyzing the speech after the audience has left the room.  Incorporate Humor in Your Next Speech Some speakers say I could never use humor in my speech; I just don’t feel comfortable with it.?   I believe that anyone can use humor and that it is a valuable tool in speaking.  Appropriate humor relaxes an audience and makes it feel more comfortable with you as the speaker; humor can bring attention to the point you are making; and humor will help the audience better remember your point.  It can break down barriers so that the audience is more receptive to your ideas.    First, let me make it easy for you to use humor.  The best and most comfortable place to find humor for a speech is from your own personal experience.  Think back on an embarrassing moment that you might have thought not funny at the time.  Now that you can laugh at the experience, you understand the old adage "Humor is simply tragedy separated by time and space."  Or think of a conversation that was funny.  Remember the punch line and use it in your speech.  Probably the least risky use of humor is a cartoon.  The cartoon is separate from you and if people don't laugh, you don't feel responsible.  (Be sure to secure permission to use it.)  You're not trying to be a comedian; you just want to make it easy for people to pay attention and to help them remember your point.  Here are some suggestions on using humor to make your next speech have more impact.  Make sure the humor is funny to you.  If you don’t laugh or smile at the cartoon, joke, pun, one-liner, story, or other forms of humor, then you certainly cannot expect an audience to do so.  A key to using humor is only using humor that makes you laugh or smile. Before using humor in your speech, try it out with small groups of people.   Do they seem to enjoy it?    Even if your experimental group does not laugh or smile initially, don’t give up on the humor, because the problem might be in the way you are delivering the joke or quip.     I often use this line in talking about the importance of listening.        We are geared to a talk society.  Someone said, the only reason we listen is so we can talk next!'?        When I first tried that line, people did not smile; but I worked on the timing so that I paused and smiled after listen and that seemed to work.          I was rushing through the punch line and did not give people time to be prepared for the humorous part.         It took practice to get comfortable with the piece of humor.             Only use humor in a speech after you are comfortable telling it from memory and have tested it.  Make sure the humor relates to the point you are making.          Do not use humor that is simply there to make the audience laugh.          The humor should tie in with some aspect of your speech.             For example, I tell about my experience of getting braces at age 46 and how difficult it was for me to get used to the wires and rubber bands in my mouth.         After I tell the story I make the point that you may have not had the braces problem I had, but we all have challenges in communicating well, and what we want to look at today are ways of making it easier for us to be more effective in speaking.                   The audience enjoys the story but also remembers the point that I'm making.               If you don’t tie your humor to your presentation, the audience may like the humor, but will wonder what point you are attempting to make.    Begin with something short.  A starting point might be to summarize a cartoon and give the caption as your humor.                A thought-provoking yet clever line about a point you are making is another way to get started.               For example, when I talk about creativity and getting out of your comfort zone, a line I found that worked well was,  Eralokkumar did not have a pilots license.?            In your reading, look for lines that make you smile; consider how they might be used in your next speech.                Be careful about launching into a long humorous story--audiences are quick to forgive a single line that may not be funny, but they do not have much patience with a long anecdote that isn’t worth the time.             So start out with brief bits of humor.  When possible, choose humor that comes from people you interact with.  You do not have to worry about people having heard it before, and you will feel more comfortable with what has happened to you.  Find such experiences by looking for a humorous line or situation.  For example, I was making a bank deposit recently at a drive-in window.  When I asked to make a second deposit, the teller said solemnly, I am sorry, sir, but you’ll have to go around the bank a second time to make a second deposit?  We both laughed and I may have a line to work into a speech.  If you have small children, listen for something they say that might be funny to an audience as well.  Art Link letter made a great living on the notion that Kids say the darndest things?    Don’t preview by saying, Let me tell you a funny story.  Let the audience decide for themselves.  Look pleasant and smile as you launch into your funny line, but if no one smiles or laughs then just move on as though you meant for it to be serious.  This approach takes the pressure off as you relate the humor.  Remember you are not a comedian entertaining the audience; you are a serious speaker seeking to help the audience remember and pay attention by using humor as a tool.  Humor is simply another way of making a point with your audience, and it can help you be a more effective speaker.  Look at humor as a tool in improving your speech in the manner of attention devices, smooth transitions, and solid structure.  Remember, a smile is a curve that straightens out a lot of things.  Super Preparation- Keys to Getting a Great Start to Every Presentation 8 Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills Top 5 Sales Presentation Tips When its time to give your next sales presentation, here are my favorite tips for delivering powerful, charismatic, and engaging sales presentations. #1 - PLANT YOUR FEET SQUARELY ON THE FLOOR How to Attract New Business THE LITTLE-KNOWN SPEECHWRITING SECRETS THAT WON GEORGE W. BUSH THE US ELECTION Being Real From the Platform  Let it be known, no person, thing, or situation can validate you. You validate yourself by realizing who you are.? Mark Tosoni Creating a Powerful Sales Presentation The quality of your sales presentation will often determine whether a prospect buys from you or one of your competitors. However, experience has taught me that most presentations lack pizzazz and are seldom compelling enough to motivate the other person to make a buying decision. Here are seven strategies that will help you create a presentation that will differentiate you from your competition. PowerPoint Sales Presentations Are Boring - Stop It! As the meeting began, the project manager of the buying committee told me that the key decision-maker would miss the first 20 minutes or so of my presentation. This was a very competitive sale that I was working on at the time. There were about a dozen or so business-people from the prospect company that I was selling to in this meeting. The presentation was scheduled to last about 90 minutes. During the first 20 minutes I had planned to cover my "persuasive arguments" (that is my company and product benefits). Fading into Sameness: How Too Many Slides Can Ruin Your Presentation I have a love/hate relationship with PowerPoint. In the right hands, it's a great presentation tool. In the wrong hands (and unfortunately, most usage falls into this category) we are cloning generations of boring slide shows narrated by speakers we barely notice." - Debbie Bailey Trade Show Victory! So you're going to have a booth at a trade show. How exciting - or how terrifying - depending on your state of mind! Wow! Is That ME? - Creating a Powerful One-Page Bio First of all, what is a bio sheet and why do you need one? A bio sheet is a one page description of who you are--your background and achievements. Your bio is an important part of how you present yourself to potential clients. You may include it in your media kit, in proposals to clients, and anywhere you want to establish your credibility and expert reputation. How Storytelling Can Grow Your Business People love stories. We love to hear about other people, and stories help us to learn, remember and put to use new concepts. Aesop knew this. His fables help us to learn life lessons through tales about others, without having to learn them the hard way. Rise Above Cattiness Cattiness is something no one ever wants to be accused of doing. But the reality is, at one time or another you've probably engaged in it, and most likely, you'll do it again. This trait can include any number of unfortunate behaviors from not saying what we really intend to say, to saying things in a harsh tone of voice. It also includes gossiping, cynical remarks, and on a grander scale, outright rudeness. Cattiness can stand in the way of marketing your business since what you say and how you say it is critical in building rapport with potential clients and customers. Think about how you come across to the people you interact with on a daily basis. Check in with your attitude and behavior to make sure you are coming from your best place at all times. Tips to Temper Speaking Anxiety People take it for granted that leaders have achieved some skill in public speaking. Yet anxiety persists because leaders face very challenging situations and have a great risk of embarrassment. Here are some tips for tempering those anxieties.  Keep Knockout Presentations: How to Deliver Your Message with Power, Punch, and Pizzazz. To subscribe to Impact Player, a free online newsletter visit http://www.diresta.com Ten Ways to Sell Your Ideas to Anyone You have a great idea you know is a winner. All you need is support from some key people. You prepare your material, get some PowerPoint slides together and make your presentation, Phut! No interest. No questions. No support. What went wrong? These are the ten commonest mistakes presenters make and how to correct them. 1. You didn't take time to define your audience clearly and address them personally. Your audience has one question in their minds all the time: "What's in this for me?" If you don't answer it obviously, they tune out. Be clear about your audience and aim your pitch solely at them. Anyone else is a bonus. 2. You opened your presentation with the idea itself. Wrong! Always lead with the clearest, most powerful benefit to that specific group. Which would you listen to first? "I'm going to talk to you about some new ideas in presentation technique." "Here's a simple way to make your audience eager to buy into your ideas." You must get people to pay attention. What grabs them? A sure-fire solution a problem they know they have. Not an idea they can't see how to use yet. 3. You took too long to get to the point and gave too much detailed explanation. People's attention span is short. You either catch them fast or you don't catch them at all. Don't work up to the key issues. Get to the point. Forget explanations until you have their interest. Once hooked, they'll listen. Until then, they won't. 4. You didn't get all your key points in quickly and people lost interest. List your key points at the start, right after you've caught their attention with big, specific benefits. Present your points starting with the most important. Always begin with the essentials. If people get bored, they'll still have heard the most important points. 5. You were wordy, you didn't sound confident and you went off at tangents. Brevity breathes authority. Don't waste your audience's attention on anything that isn't essential. Less is nearly always more. Cut it to the minimum. If people have unanswered questions, give time for them at the end. You can end on a high note, not the typical embarrassed wait for someone--anyone--to ask something. 6. You didn't stick to a single message. Every additional message causes an earlier one to be forgotten. What do you want the audience to hear? Say it clearly and with confidence...then shut up. 7. You didn't work on building a fan base first. It's easier to present with fans in the audience to support you. Brief them in advance and encourage them to come along as supporters. Nothing convinces people as much as seeing others already convinced. 8. You didn't practice enough. If you're not presentation perfect in practice conditions, performance stress will make you into an idiot. If you're using technology, assume it's going to break down or mess up. People who aren't properly prepared easily get anxious and nervous people aren't convincing. 9. You got the timing wrong. Don't schedule your presentation when key people have something else on their minds. Don't hold it on Monday morning (they're dreading what they'll find on their desks) or Friday afternoon (what are you planning for the weekend?). 10. You didn't give them time to grasp your idea. How fast can they take it in? Who else will they want to consult? Catch their attention, explain only what you have to explain, remind them of the big benefits, then sit down and let them think about it. Never push for a decision unless you're sure it's the one you want. As long as the decision is open, you can make another attempt. Follow this advice and next time you'll have an audience that will be right behind you. Adrian W. Savage writes for people who want help with the daily dilemmas they face at work. He has contributed more than 25 articles to leading British and American publications and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Chicago Tribune. Visit his blog on the ups and downs of business life. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Plan Your Success In Seven Ways Many businesses lose money yearly because they don't think creatively about the future.  They run their businesses doing what they think they should: dealing with customers, dealing with problems, ordering for their business, and paying their expenses. They act like their business is a job. They are surviving and that's it. They are not looking at the big picture. They need to use their business as a stepping stone to success. Picturing themselves as a successful business person, and setting up a plan to succeed. Many of the businesses today are started by people who have been downsized or laid off. They are used to showing up for a job and getting paid, and this is how they are operating their business. The first thing you must do is to find out what you are really good at. Many people want to know, "How can I make more money?" Unfortunately too many business people never ask themselves, "What am I good at?" They need to do so, and then ask it again every time they want to do something new. This is one of the biggest reasons businesses fail. The owners did not focus on what they were good at and did best. This does not mean you can't try something different. What it does mean that it is best to go with the skills and experience you already have. The second thing you need to do is take an objective look at yourself. Take a piece of paper and write down what you can and can't do. Picture yourself hiring you. Would you hire yourself?  Would you be impressed? What do you know best? What are your hobbies? Can you turn that hobby into a business? Remember you work best at something you enjoy. I was an exceptional secretary, so I started a word processing business. I loved typing and taking dictation by telephone, writing up letters, proposals and setting up identity packages. However, I hated having to drive around town to pick up and deliver projects, and cold calling for business. So after losing money, I shut down the business. A couple of years later I started another business where I was the assistant to businesses, but worked from my home. I got to do all the secretarial aspects, but out of a home office. All I had to do was send flyers and mailers to independent contractors. I also worked with answering services for referrals and gave them business, plus a cut of my fee. What this means is you need to discover what your likes and dislikes are. People like to work at things they do well. They enjoy themselves more. A test for you is to think back over the last couple of days. Then make a list of the things you enjoyed doing. Think about when you were the happiest and what you were doing. The third thing you need to think about and be able to recognize is: What your competitive edge is.  After you do the above test and find out what your strengths are, you will find that some of these strengths give you an advantage over your competition. Do your particular strengths and abilities help you provide exceptional customer service? Can you do something or produce something that others can't? If you already have an edge over others, put it to use. Make your customers aware of your unique qualities. The way to accomplish this is to be sure any advertising or promotional campaign you employ highlights your unique selling points. The fourth thing you need to do is to plan ahead. While your business concept or product might be unique now, as we know people love to copy what is successful. So you need to plan for the long run. You need to be aware of what your competition is doing and keep your customers coming back. The fifth thing is that just because there are things you don't like about your business, doesn't mean you give up. Yes, there are going to be certain things you like better than others. Every business person feels this way. However, if you don't like anything about what you are doing, then you might want to start a new business. Be sure before you do so, you give yourself the above test. The sixth thing is sometimes you just need to make some changes in your business. See if there are certain things you can cut out of your business, a product or service, which you might not enjoy and it is not a profit center for you. Then drop it, and concentrate on those things that are generating a profit. Maybe you need to make changes to make your job easier, such as buying new software, or a new computer system. Maybe hiring someone on a part time basis could take some of the workload off your shoulders, and allow you to concentrate on other business matters. And last but not least is to be sure you take what you've learned about yourself, and set up a plan for your business for the future. Don't forget to write down what you're good at and ways that you can apply your skills to making money. You can take this information about your skills and put it in your promotional materials. Be sure you always have a notebook (or a voice recorder) with you to joint down notes to yourself, new business ideas to try. You want to be sure when you do write these things down that you also put a date next to them to implement that idea or strategy. This will give you goals to work for. Be sure to put these goals in a prominent place in your office. I put my goals on index cards and then put the index cards on my desk, on my calendar, and on my bulletin board. By having your goals visible to you, it will help you to stay on track. And, that is what it is all about? Keeping your business growing and prospering. Writing Information Be Your Own Literary Agent and Get Published So you're one of 20 million Americans who want to write a book. If you've already written a manuscript, chances are you're looking for agent representation. In the past few years, as an editor and literary consultant for www.TheOmnibus.org, I've had the opportunity to read more than 1,000 book proposals. Most, I'm sad to report, were inadequate because the author did not follow a few, very simple guidelines. How to Catch the Writing Bug ----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included. ---------------------------------------------------------- Keys to Characterisation Far too many inexperienced writers create flat, stereotypical characters: the brave fireman, the damsel in distress, the strict schoolmistress. The best characters are those who evoke emotions within the reader ? fear, admiration, affection, laughter, horror? If the writer fails to make us care about the characters, no matter how ingenious the plot, we will toss the story aside without a second thought. Balance Your Life Balance your life -----------------------   Writing is a solitary task. Writing needs concentration and quiet.  Writing requires absolute commitment.  Are all there scary statements true? What is more, is it possible to balance your writing career and family without turning yourself into a zombie?  Everything is feasible; I am the living example of it.  There is only one secret:  TIME PLAN. This is step one for the aspiring writer's success.  Without it, nothing can be achieved.  How can you do it?  Simply make a rough plan of the time allowed to your writing project every day.  It is highly important for the writer to know exactly WHEN he /she is going to settle down and write, feeling free of all the other responsibilities that he has.  I have made a simple schedule.  You can work out yours according to your family needs. Every morning just after breakfast, and as soon as the family have gone, I allow myself to work on my PC for one to two hours, depending on the workload of the day.  Then I go on with the house chores and all the rest of the family tasks till noon.  At 2 o' clock everybody is back so I serve lunch, but after that I have 2-3 hours free to work on my morning assignment.  Thus, there is plenty of time to care for the family, while in the afternoons I still have time to go to my part time job in time , feeling satisfied I have worked at home on my project.   In the evening I sometimes find an hour or so , when the family watch TV .  This time I sit with them in the living room, having pre arranged to do the easiest tasks for my writing job, such as note taking or layout planning of new stories or articles.  I use pen to paper and I don't bother if I make mistakes.  Next morning, there is plenty of time to revise them and complete them. If this plan has been working perfectly for me, why not for you as well? You only have to calculate when and how long you need to write every day.  Of course , you must stick to your plan and never give it up , apart from very urgent cases.  Remember that your work is also urgent, so never skip it. If you respect your writing job, the others will do so too.  What is more, they won't feel neglected as you will give them your care and attention at the time they are around. Furthermore, your house chores will be done in time and you won't feel overworked.  " A little every day" is my motto, and, in the long run, everything is done and everybody is happy.  Keeping your writing and family under control will make you feel satisfied and everyone, including you, will be happy.   Also, keep in mind that there is nothing odd if you work in unconventional places. I sometimes find it stimulating to work in the living room with all the family around.  Noise does not bother me ,on the contrary,  it brings me more ideas.  This article was outlined last evening while we were all watching a football match.  Well, the truth is I did not watch much of it!  I was absorbed in my new article, but that's how this idea sprang out.  I can perfectly work in a chatty setting.  Have you tried it?  You may come up with fresh ideas and great articles. Finally, who says that writing can turn you into a zombie?  Shatter the myth!  It's up to you to enjoy both your family and your writing career.  Simply make a time plan!  Ends 622 Want to start a publishing revolution? Calling all publishers, editors, journalists and freelance writers. It's time to breathe more life into your copy. Turn your articles into living pieces that spark measurable debate, get closer to your readers and engage their mind andsoul - we're talking revolution. Writing about Writing What am I going to write about? Which topic is the best? Who is going to be interested in my article? Hunting for Markets over the Holidays Chances are, you'll be busy over the next several weeks. Between preparing for, celebrating, and unwinding from the holidays it may be difficult to maintain your regular writing routine. And if researching potential homes for your work is part of that routine-as it is for many of us who regularly submit stories, essays, poems, articles, and reviews for publication-you may be worried about falling behind. Boost Your Income With Trade Journals Why would anyone want to write for trade journals? Aren?t the topics are dry? Don?t they require specialized knowledge? Not necessarily. You may want to consider trade journals to increase the potential market for your articles ? and for the money. Trade publications make up a significant portion of the hidden source of funds for professional writers. Breaking in can be surprisingly easy ? when you know the tricks. Recipe for a Style Guide Wired Online has recently announced its plans to drop capitalization in internet, web, and net, but Wired Magazine continues to capitalize these words. Which should you do? For the most part, it's up to you. To ensure consistency on such tricky words, most editors will have a style guide. Applying KISS Principle in Writing I have added a new word to my vocabulary. Logorrhea. We've all been touched by it. What is it? The Word Spy defines it, "excessive verbosity and long-windedness. Also know as verbal diarrhea." 10 Tips To Help You Pack More Power Into Your Business Writing 1. Before you write anything down define not what you want to say, but what your message must achieve. Keep that firmly in focus at all times and use it as the main goal for everything you write. Ask yourself "does this concept/approach /clever headline/earnest mission statement/ really help the message achieve its objectives?" If the honest answer is no, alter it or rethink it completely. How To Be A Published (Non-Fiction) Author 1. Turning your idea into a book How to Write More Powerful Reports There is one key difference between reports and most other forms of business writing, and we get a hint of that in the word, "report." Whereas with many other forms of written comms you can be a little creative and put your own slant on your words, in a report you must not. Not in theory, anyway. Five Golden Rules for Writers Regardless of what sort of writer you are and how much you love to write, there are probably days when you'd rather clean ditches than face another blank page. Article Writing Information Top 10 Benefits Of Submitting Articles To E-zines When I started Ezine-In-A-Box I wanted to help people publish their own email newsletter without writing a single word. However, there are many benefits to writing articles and submitting them to other ezines. Below is 10 good reasons you should be writing and submitting articles to ezines. Exposing Your Expertise Writing and leveraging articles is my most successful strategy for promoting my Website and my speaking and consulting services. Visitors to your site from targeted articles tend to be higher quality leads than those from search engines, and potential buyers like to see that you're published in many credible outlets. Energize Your Mind With Inspirational Writing Exercises Feeling uninspired? Like you're stuck in a rut with your writing? Stimulate Your Writing With Some Creative Exercises Abandon your frustrations and get a fresh start by trying some writing activities to spark your creativity. Whats YOUR Angle? So how can you make your article worth reading? Giving Yourself the Right to Write "But I've only been on the Internet 3 months! How can Iwrite an article?? That was my reaction back in 1999 when Ibegan my online career and heard that writing articles wasthe key to bringing targeted visitors to my website. 10 Tips For Getting More Traffic From Your Articles Here's a depressing fact if you sell anything on the web:the #1 reason people go online is not to buy things but tofind free information. Article Syndication for Better Search Engine Position If you're sick of being #987 for your best Google keywordphrase, here are simple-to-implement changes that canskyrocket your listing (and they don't have anything to dowith what is ON your page!) Top Seven Tips for Writing Articles on the Internet Online readers love information, but be sure your information is crisp, clean, clear and concise. Top Ten Ways to Format and Leverage your Articles Success - Part 1 You want your business to be noticed by thousands daily. Online ezine publishers and webmasters are constantly looking for new, original content. They want and need your articles. This is a promotion marriage made in heaven. But you will have a much better chance of being chosen if you write an article that solves a problem for your audience. Give each article an angle. Top Ten Ways to Format and Leverage your Articles Success - Part 2 You want your business to be noticed by thousands daily. Online ezine publishers and webmasters are constantly looking for new, original content. They want and need your articles. This is a promotion marriage made in heaven. But you will have a much better chance of being chosen if you write an article that solves a problem for your audience. Give each article an angle. How To Edit Your Articles As You Write Increase your ezine subscribers by submitting articles once or twice a week to the opt-in ezines. Read by thousands, even hundreds of thousands, you get 10-25 new subscribers for each submission. Your articles also bring people to your Web site to buy your products. Use this checklist to edit your own work. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copywriting Information 11 Things You MUST Know Before Hiring a Copywriter! If you're considering hiring copywriting help for your next brochure, Web site, or marketing project. Congratulations! You should get great results if you hire a pro to do it right. Kick-Start Your Juices Listen, consider this scenario. Can Honest Copywriting Succeed? I confess--I'm a marketing heretic! I've built my career on breaking all the rules--and one of the rules I break is that I don't hype. 3 Reasons why Content is Still King Back in the late nineties, the phrase? Content is King? Was repeated and repeated and repeated by site owners and marketers alike. The belief was that the more content you had, the greater the number of visitors you would attract. Of course, the content had to be well written, relevant and easy to find. Many sites built very successful businesses as a result. Fill Your Readers with Confidence Site visitors generally stay with you for as long as they feel confident that they will succeed in achieving their goal. The Write Way To Grow Your Business Hone your writing skills to project a more professional business image. Step One for Copywriters: Understand WHAT to Say Find a passage of poorly written copy, and chances are you will have found a copywriter who never figured out what it was that he or she was trying to say. Welcome Informed Criticism of Your Work When you come to 'know' something, there is a temptation to stop thinking about it. You put it in a box as 'known' and are happy to argue with anyone who disagrees. Dont Be Satisfied With Your First Draft Sometimes it's a struggle to figure out what's the best thing to say. Four Things Every Web Site Headline Must Do As you know, I?m constantly making the point that the text on web sites is not given enough attention. Which is unfortunate, because the headlines on site pages make huge demands on the skills of any writer. 3 Ways to Increase Conversion Rates In a previous article I talked about a few similarities between writing direct mail packages and writing web sites. In short, I concluded that as online writers we could learn a lot from direct marketers. How to Write Profitable Ads Regardless of how you look at it, the most important aspect ofany successful business is its advertising. In fact,the success of any business is largely dependent on good advertising. 10 Keys to Copy That Sells! Whether you?re selling a product or service, the 10 tips below are your keys to writing great copy that communicates and persuades ... to get results! These guidelines can apply to most any form of consumer marketing communications: sales letters, brochures, web copy, or direct mail. As long as your goal is to elicit a reaction from your reader, you?ve come to the right place. Be reader-centered, not writer-centered. Many ads, brochures, and Web sites we see talk endlessly on and on about how great their products and companies are. Hello? Customer, anyone? Think of your reader thinking, ?What?s in it for me?? If you can, talk with some of your current customers and ask them 1) why they chose you, and 2) what they get out of your product or service. TIP: To instantly make your copy more reader-focused, insert the word ?you? often. Focus on the benefits ? not just the features. The fact that your product or service offers a lot of neat features is great, but what do they DO for your customer? Do they save her time or money? Give her peace of mind? Raise her image to a certain status? Here?s an example: If you go buy a pair of Gucci sunglasses, you?re not just looking for good UV protection. You?re buying the sleek, stylish Gucci look. So that?s what Gucci sells. You don?t see their ads talk about how well made their sunglasses are. Think end results. Now, what does an insurance broker sell? Policies? No ? peace of mind. (See? You?ve got it.) Draw them in with a killer headline. The first thing your reader sees can mean the difference between success and failure. Today?s ads are chock full of clever headlines that play on words. They?re cute, but most of them aren?t effective. There are many ways to get attention in a headline, but it?s safest to appeal to your reader?s interests and concerns. And again, remember to make it reader centered ? no one gives a hoot about your company. Bad: ?SuccessCorp Creates Amazing New Financial Program? Better: ?Turn Your Finances Around in 30 Days!? Use engaging subheads. Like mini-headlines, subheads help readers quickly understand your main points by making the copy ?skimmable.? Because subheads catch readers? eyes, you should use them to your benefit! Read through your copy for your main promotional points, then summarize the ideas as subheads. To make your subheads engaging, it?s important to include action or selling elements. Bad: ?Our Department?s Successes.? Better: ?Meet Five Clients Who Saved $10K With Us.? Be conversational. Write to your customers like you?d talk to them. Don?t be afraid of using conversational phrases such as ?So what?s next?? or ?Here?s how do we do this.? Avoid formality and use short, easy words. Why? Even if you think it can?t possibly be misunderstood, a few people still won?t get it. Nix the jargon. Avoid industry jargon and buzzwords ? stick to the facts and the benefits. An easy way to weed out jargon is to think of dear old Mom reading your copy. Would she get it? If not, clarify and simplify. (This rule, of course, varies, depending on who your target audience is. For a business audience, you should upscale your words to what they?re used to. In these cases buzzwords are often crucial. Just make sure your points don?t get muddled in them!) Keep it brief and digestible. No one has time to weed through lengthy prose these days. The faster you convey your product or service?s benefits to the reader, the more likely you?ll keep her reading. Fire your ?biggest gun? first by beginning with your biggest benefit ? if you put it toward the end of your copy, you risk losing the reader before she gets to it. Aim for sentence lengths of less than 20 words. When possible, break up copy with subheads (see no. 4), bullets, numbers, or em dashes (like the one following this phrase) ? these make your points easy to digest. Use testimonials when possible. Let your prospects know they won?t be the first to try you. Give results-oriented testimonials from customers who have benefited immensely from your product or service. Oh, and never give people?s initials only ? it reminds me of those ads in the back of magazines with headlines like ?Lose 50 Pounds in Three Days!? Give people?s full names with their titles and companies (or towns and states of residence) ? and be sure to get their permission first. Ask for the order! Tell your reader what you want her to do ? don?t leave her hanging. Do you want her to call you or e-mail you for more information? Order now? Call to schedule a free consultation? Complete a brief survey? Think about what you?d most like her to do, and then ask her. It?s amazing how many marketing materials I come across every day that don?t make it clear what the reader should do. If you wrote interesting copy, your reader may forget you?re trying to sell something. Tell her what to do, and she?ll be more likely to do it. Have your copy proofread! Good. Now have it proofread again. Don?t risk printing any typos, misspellings, or grammatical mistakes that will represent your company as amateurish. Hire a professional editor/proofreader to clean up your work and double-check your grammar. Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impession! Oops ? *impression*. Help, Help, Help, Sell Here's a fundamental difference between copywriting offline and copywriting for the web... Writing Online In Two Syllables or Less About once a month I fly off somewhere to give a a one-day workshop on writing for the web.   Web Design Information Making Good Websites that Stand Out Websites, there?s literally billions of them out there in cyber-space. How many of them do you go to and just think this is boring, bland, or hard to use? It seems like too many to mention. So what makes a good website? I reckon it?s about interaction. You?ve got to make the visitor interested. You?ve got to grab their attention. Many sites use plenty of bright and shiny gimmicks to attract you, but once you make it through to the content of the site it?s just not worthy. A good site uses easy navigation, relevant content, and interactive media like comments and message boards. If you?re fortunate, whoever builds your site may even have a few tricks up their sleeves to make it really fun with sound, video, and other interactive fun stuff. How To Create A Stunning Drop Capital Effect On Your Web Pages Drop Capitals are frequently used in many newspapers, books and magazines in the offline world.  You will frequently see the large capital letter sinking down into the first paragraph of articles, stories and chapters in the majority of publications you come across. Graphic Design Using Color Color is everywhere and conveys a message even if we don?t realize it. While this message can vary by culture it pays to know what colors ?say? in your own corner of the universe, and even what color means to your target market. The Monster Garage of eLearning Sales Versus Customer Oriented Websites Should Generating Revenue From A Website Be The Prime Motivator? How To Set Up A Professional Website On Your Own Using Web Templates To create professional websites is not an easy task by any means. There are many things that you got to take into consideration like easy navigation, strategic links, clean coding, professional layout, easy downloading, scanability, usability and so on. These are the elements that differentiate a professional website from a mediocre one. So in a way it?s not designing the website that counts but how the website is designed. A Website Checklist If you've just finished building your new website (or revamping your old one), how can you be sure it's "ready for prime time"? Or maybe your site's been around for awhile and you think it may be due for a makeover. Because Web technologies, techniques and standards change so rapidly, even a website that seems "cutting edge" when it's built can look obsolete a year later. Or maybe you started out with a barebones website and finally have the time and/or money to take it to the next level. If you'd to give your website the once over, here are ten aspects you should consider: Ten Steps to a Winning Home Page There's no doubt about it - the first page your site visitors see is the most important page of your website. If your home page isn't appealing, chances are the rest of your pages will never even be seen by your visitors. It helps to think of your home page as the "front door" to your online business. Will it invite people to come in and look around, or persuade them to take their dollars elsewhere? Here are ten tips for making your home page a winner: Web Design for Dictators No question about it, web design is an art. Website Basics The Basics Building Your Website to Save You Money Does your website make you any money? Does it SAVE you any money?Websites are more than just marketing tools, out there in Cyber-Land effortlessly promoting you and your products. While that's great, why not use that same website to save yourself some money?How? Well, while I don't know your particular situation, I can provide you with some thought-provoking ideas that you can take back to your web designer for more input.Reduce your support costs.It is often cheaper, easier, and more effective to support customers over the Internet than through more tradiditonal methods such as telephone and direct mail. Services such as instant messaging and Get1on1 (www.get1on1.com) provide immediate chat facilities to current and potential customers.Corporations can support their employees and business partners over their corporate intranets, keeping them informed and soliciting their feedback. Providing documentation for perusal saves time and reduces labor on your email server.Providing a map to your location can save your receptionist valuable minutes on the phone explaining turns and streets, freeing her up for more important tasks.Including a forum on your site can bring people of a common industry or interest together to discuss upcoming events, current problems, and other interesting ideas and thoughts. These forums can grow very large very quickly. And, in the meantime, your website traffic increases. Stick an ad on the forum and bring in more sales from people that you already know have expressed interest in your industry.Interested in reading more ways to increase your sales and save money?Visit http://techlh.com/why_web.htm and read our full storynow! Ten Design Mistakes to Avoid Avoid these mistakes and your site will be steps ahead of your competition. Design Matters in our Visual Culture FIRST IMPRESSIONS. Do-It-Yourself or Hire a Professional Designer Remember your vision for your company and the brand or statement you want to make when any of your current or potential customers come in contact with you. You have to impress them in all the ways you connect with them. Long Copy Sales Letters on the Web: Hype or Not? I have written before about long sales copy on the web. But I have more to say on the subject. Personal Technology Information Are You Putting Off Productivity? I recently took a good look at what was keeping me from accomplishing what I needed to do. After all, I had my goals. I had them written down. I read my affirmations daily. And still, I was not achieving what I wanted to do. Protect Your PC from Viruses, Worms & Trojans Each of the items in the checklist below is part of a broad and easy to implement security policy. Windows Task Manager in English You use Ctrl+Alt+Del to see what?s running on your PC, to close crashed programs and processes, and to check performance. You probably avoid a few processes whose names mean nothing to you, but they?re essential to Windows. svchost.exe sure likes to appear all the time and multiple times at that. What?s taskmgr.exe? Oh yeah, it?s the window you?re looking at right now. ctfmon? Is he related to Pokemon? navapsvc.exe? Navy? Napa Valley? Navel? NOTA (none of the above). How To Search Your PC With Google Desktop In this era of Internet, most people are frequent users of computers. Many of us use computers through out the day, accumulating morasses of information in various formats, which include email, digital photo, word document, spreadsheet, presentation file, ebook, article, other downloaded files, music, visited web pages, and many others. We stuff them in multiple folders in our PC. Before we know it, our hard drives become a storeroom of misplaced items. As a result, finding a needed file of information some times become a daunting task! A Peek Into the Near Future of Electronics Technology How long do you think DVDs have around? 20 years? 10 years? Actually, they have only been around for about seven years, but it seems like they have been around much longer. Many of us can hardly remember life before DVDs. That can be attributed to how rapidly we can become acclimated to some innovations in electronics technology. I believe there are other electronics technologies, either just getting ready to take off, not widely available yet, or just around the corner, that are going to become adopted just as quickly in the near future. Toshiba Wins Hollywood Support for the HD DVD format What led them to this choice, as all four studios stated separately, is better performance for the price and copyright protection. The Many Benefits of Owning a DVR Has This Ever Happened To You? OK.. it's Friday night, the kids are asleep, and a movie you've been waiting for is on Pay-Per-View for the first time. You buy the movie, grab a bag of popcorn, get all comfy on the couch, and ten minutes into the movie "RINGGGG" it's the _______ phone!!! (you fill in the blank). Buying a Home Theater Receiver Buying a receiver is one of the most important decisions you're going to have to make when building your home theater. The receiver has a number of functions including; connecting and switching audio sources; connecting and switching video sources; decoding surround sound formats; amplifying an audio signal and sending it to your speakers; tuning in to radio stations; and acting as the interface between you and your home theater. Passwords and the Human Factor Passwords have a strange dual nature. The stronger and safer the password the more likely it will be undermined by human weakness. Looking For an MP3 Player? If you don?t have an mp3 player, and even if you do, you should check out all the new stuff that?s going on. I?m hoping this article will give you some idea of what kind of mp3 player you want and some tips on what to look for in an mp3 player. Computer Geeks and Garden Gnomes First and foremost before I begin my ranting it is worth mentioning that there are many very helpful and considerate people out there in the cyber wilderness who devote much of their time to providing open source and free scripts of all variations from PHP, CGI and Java to name but a few. They provide dedicated support, do not insist on payment, and spend much of their free time helping you avoid having to part with your hard earned cash to get free programs and scripts up and running on your websites. How To Safeguard Your Computer? The following practice, if done regularly, may help you to safeguard your computer to some extent. Password Nightmares Good Morning Mr. Sampson. Please type in you Personal Identification Number Are You Well Protected? Winter?the official start of the cold and flu season. Though, technically speaking, things got started a little early. Close to a million computers, mostly home PC users, have been infected. Basic Problem in a PC I have a p3 500MHz PC with 128MB RAM, 10.2 GB HDD Sony CD ROM 48x with window ME edition operating system. I have a problem- when I insert my audio cd, it shows the error message: ?window cannot access the specified device path or file. You may not have appropriate permission the access the item.? Please tell me the solution of this error how can we configure the Yahoo! Account in outlook express. What is the pop mail and SMTP address of the Yahoo! Mail? Software Information Troubleshoot Windows with Task Manager Task Manager is a Windows system utility that displays thetasks or processes currently running on your computer. Toopen Task Manager, press Ctrl+Alt+Del. The Applcations tablists the applications currently running on your computer.A single application may actually consist of several runningprocesses, and many programs that run in the background arenot listed (you can see icons for some of these programs inthe System Tray). Microsoft Great Plains Upgrade ? Version 8.0 Overview for IT Director/Controller If you have Microsoft Great Plains as main accounting and ERP system you need to know some technical details on Great Plains version upgrade and what is going on behind the scenes, which options do you have in case of Dexterity, VBA, SQL customizations, ctree/Pervasive migration to MS SQL/MSDE.  As of right now it is reasonable to upgrade to Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 Is upgrade required?  Not actually, but you have to consider these factors  ? Technical Support discontinuation - the old version may not be supported - currently if you are on version 6.0 - support is already discontinued.  You can not have Microsoft Business Solutions help you, but obviously you have MBS partners who can still help you.  If you are on Ctree or Pervasive SQL, then your support expires December, 31 2004.  ? Tax Updates/Magnetic media expiration - if you have US Payroll module and depend on it with W2 and other forms - you must stay with the version, which is supported and has tax updates.  If you are on Ctree or Pervasive SQL - then you will not have tax updates for these platforms at the end of 2004 and your W2s maybe inaccurate.  If you have a lot of employees - you may have issues with government.? Following the Technology and Microsoft rules  - Microsoft wants you to be on the newest platform and provides you the best support when you follow this rule? If you do have heavy customization - we recommend you to skip one version, for example if you are on version 7.5 - do not upgrade to 8.0 and wait for the next version What is upgrade in the language of technology?  Upgrade has server and client sides.  ? Server side - upgrade converts tables from old format to the new one.  In general words - Microsoft Business Solutions developers may change table structure, append additional fields to add new functionality, things like that.  Upgrade copies the table with changes to temporary table, then drops original table, recreates it with new structure and copies all the data from temp table to the newly created one.  ? Workstation side - workstation is written in Great Plains Dexterity and has Dynamics.exe - engine and DYNAMICS.DIC - dictionary.  These two plus all the additional files will be replaced with the new ones.  Other dictionaries, such us REPORTS.DIC and FORMS.DIC should be also upgraded and upgrade will try to deal with them automatically.  In some cases modified reports (in REPORTS.DIC) could not be upgraded and need to be recreated in the new version.  What is customization upgrade?  You should consider different types of customizations: Dexterity,  VBA/Modifier, SQL, ReportWriter, Crystal Reports? Dexterity Customization - being very short - Dexterity may have so called Custom Forms - these do not need upgrade - they should work as is.  Then Dexterity may alter existing Great Plains forms (so-called Alternate Great Plains forms) - in this case Dexterity customization should be redone for these forms/screens.  Plus additional consideration should be given to Dexterity triggers, shadow tables, etc.  ? VBA/Modifier customization - Modifier allows you to modify existing Great Plains windows - it creates so called modified Great Plains windows, stored in FORMS.DIC.  Usually modification is placing new buttons or fields, which in turn will be given VBA scripts (stored in DYNAMICS.VBA).  VBA scripts may call something nice, like Crystal Report, or have some data access logic.  Usually the old version of DYNAMICS.VBA workds with the new version.  You may need to rearrange buttons on the modified form.? SQL - you may have some stored procs for data integration, EDI or the like - if the addressed tables will be changed in the new version then you need to analyze your SQL code.  The good news is - Microsoft Business Solution doesn't make a lot of changes since version 7.0, because Microsoft is now trying to merge the products it owns: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta - and so has different priorities? ReportWriter - MBS doesn't change tables, but it keeps changing Dexterity formulas used in ReportWriter original reports - this is the problem in so-called Modified Reports upgrade - usually you have these reports modified: SOP Blank Invoice form, SOP Blank Picking ticket, etc.   If report can not be upgraded - it should be redone in the new version with some exceptions.? Crystal Reports - the nice thing about Crystal Report - id doesn't need to be upgraded (if the fields in the tables exist in the new version - which is usually true statement)What is upgrade for third-party modules?  Your Great Plains may have so-called third party modules: Mekorma, Kampdata, Horyzon, Wennsoft, Avalara, Truepay, Trinity, Intellisol to name a fewThird party modules may have their own utility for upgrade.  You just need to know that your third-party is ready for the new Great Plains version - if not - you just wait and stay on the old version. What is migration from Ctree/Pervasive.SQL 2000 to MS SQL/MSDE?  MBS has migration tool.  You need first to install Great Plains on SQL Server with exactly the same account/segments structure and then install migration tool (it is Dexterity chunk) on your ctree/Pervasive workstation - then, when you integrate the chunk - you will map it to target SQL-based Great Plains Company, select all system and company tables, click the button and it will move all your tables one-by-one.  In the case when your Great Plains ctree/Pervasive has third parties - you need to check if the vendor has migration tool - otherwise you have to do manual move, use SQL Linked server to your legacy data Do I need consultant?  It is probably good idea to have consultant to do the upgrade.  We strongly recommend you to use consultant in the following cases? You have Dexterity customization? You are doing migration from Pervasive/Ctree to Microsoft SQL Server/MSDE, especially when you have third-parties without migration tools? You have a lot or ReportWriter Modified Great Plains Reports? You have old version of Great Plains: Dynamics or eEnterprise 6.0 or prior - in this case you can not appeal to Microsoft Technical Support - it is discontinued ? Your Great Plains has more than 20 users and you have to have upgrade done over the weekend - if it fails - you have business problems? You don't have support - in this case you have to select your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner and pay for the annual support/enhancement plan - you will get new registration key and will be ready for the upgrade  Good luck with upgrade and if you have issues or concerns ? we are here to help!  If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com Instant Messaging is a Sweet Way to Communicate MSN messenger is a pretty cool invention. I mean I?m not really into serious discussions on the email, answers to questions can often take a few days to arrive because people are so busy these days. I?ve just been ?hooked up? into Messenger and it?s really a different kind of communication, quick, simplistic and even humorous with the capability to express your feelings with ?emotion? cartoons. With Messenger you can communicate with a group of close friends or business partners instantly whenever they are at their computer. When a message is received you are informed instantly on your desktop, you don?t have to be at an email site. A little box appears flashing the name of the sender, you read the message and send a reply when you?ve got a second free.  There?s a contact list and when you go on-line, it automatically tells you who of your connections are on and off-line at that moment. If someone goes on-line after you?ve already been at your computer, a small box appears on your screen to tell you who are now also instantly message able. It?s like the spontaneity of a telephone call but you don?t even have to dial any numbers! Just log in your password and you?re connected. The huge array of smiley faces and other ?emotional? icons add another dimension to the conversations. Some of the smiley faces actually move (sticking their tongues out etc.) and there are many other symbols to express the moment. E.g.: Show a little sun when it?s sunny in your neighborhood, flash a wilted rose when your love life isn?t going to well, put up a black sheep when you?re feeling disconnected from society. How about expressing your dream of a holiday by flashing up the tropical island icon when you?re stuck in dreary office working hard on a cloudy day. They say a picture speaks a thousand words? Well I certainly don?t work for Microsoft but I guess Bill Gates and his buddies have made a few bucks because they?ve had a couple of good ideas. They?re helping the world with their knowledge, and I reckon their MSN Messenger is another step forward in bringing the Earth together into one world. Besides the normal email format you can also have web cam and audio conversations, as well as sending files and photos instantly. It?s as sweet as that first time you kissed your honey bunny, well maybe not that sweet. Reduce TCO: The Java Database Way TCO (Total Cost Ownership) is the buzzword in today?s business world. This metric helps enterprise managers assess direct and indirect costs and benefits derived from their investment on IT components and services. A vital component of overall TCO is database management. All information-centric applications need databases for data storage. Also, the storage demands of small and mid-sized companies are growing rapidly, as more emphasis is given on data backup and long-term archival of data disaster recovery. Embedded databases have arrived in this scenario as a major cost-cutting tool. They help organizations in managing the growing storage requirements by providing a cost-effective and reliable solution for data backup, file storage and archiving, thereby assuring a lower cost of ownership for small to medium sized business organizations. The remainder of this article will focus on the database server that I am most familiar with (Daffodil DB) and how it helps in the reduction of TCO. Though the example has some nuances specific to Daffodil DB, I am sure that readers will be able to extrapolate the theme to better understand the role of a database in TCO reduction.Let?s begin with Development and Deployment Costs. Gone are the days when applications had to be tested extensively for all underlying platforms. Now, one can shrink the cost and time required to develop and setup solutions on multiple platforms by using a Java database. A separate deployment for different platform implementations of a large application is a major expense that an enterprise can do without. Administration Costs are a major concern for many-a-company. Logically, database administration costs are a significant component of TCO. When embedded with an application, a compact Java database can be made practically invisible to the user, since it (the database) requires no administration and runs on the same Java virtual machine (JVM) as does the application. Its simple performance tuning process helps in optimizing database performance and vastly reduces database administration costs. Now let?s move on to Compatibility Cost. Java databases, being platform independent, are compatible with all operating systems and application servers. This feature helps developers in choosing their own range of effective and economical solutions. For example, with Daffodil DB the developer can use Open Source tools like JBOSS application server for reducing overall TCO. Last, but certainly not the least, let?s get to Licensing Costs. Pardon me if I seem to evangelize Daffodil DB, but that?s one area where I can ?preach? with confidence. As Daffodil DB can be used / embedded with a wide array of applications, flexible licensing policies have been developed to accommodate the diverse needs of the development community without restricting the same to just one standard license. Each application development organization may pick the right combination of licenses that best meets its needs. The organizations may also acquire additional licenses or upgrade their licenses. Do I hear someone shout ?What about Open Source?? Microsoft Great Plains Implementation ? Overview for IT Director/Controller What is installation in the language of technology?  Installation has server and client sides.  Server side - Installation creates security environment (logins) on MS SQL Server or MSDE, creates system database - DYNAMICS and then company databases.  All these tasks are performed by Microsoft Great Plains Utilities  Workstation side - workstation installation copies the client side application, installs current version of MDAC (we need SQL ODBC driver - please check documentation on ODBC DSN setup), registers the application.  If you plan to run Great Plains Utilities from the workstation to create server side (see above) - you need to check Install Client and Server ComponentsWhat is following implementation?  Implementation requires combination of technological and accounting skillsSystem Setup - you should refer to GP documentation.  In general setup consists of Company information, General GL/AR/AP/Payroll setup, User classes, Customer/Vendor/Employee classes to name a fewMaster Records - you should either use integration tools, such as Integration Manager, SQL queries or have users to type in all your GL Accounts, Customers, Vendors, Employees .Beginning Balances - this is recommended approach - you place aside the old accounting application for querying the historical data and enter beginning balances  in Great Plains GL, AR, AP, SOP, POP, Payroll.  When you have balances in the system you are ready to use it in productionHistorical Data conversion - this is optional, in order to do historical data conversion you need to know basic Great Plains tables structure (Setup->Tools->Resource Description->Tables Structure).  This is similar to surgery - so you probably need outside consultant to help you.  If the volume of historical data is small - you can deploy Great Plains Integration Manager and then post the records in the modules.User Training - we are just listing this item - it is up to you to decide on the way to train your usersUsing Two Systems in Parallel - this is recommended.  You should print the reports from both systems during this test period and compare the resultsCustomization - typical areas of customizations: Invoice form, Crystal Reports, pulling info from multiple databases, including Great Plains database, Great Plains forms modification with Modifier/VBA, Great Plains Dexterity forms and logic customization, integration with CRM, RMS and other business systems, web publishing from Great Plains tables, EDI with your suppliers, SQL Data Transformation packagesDo I need consultant?  We strongly recommend you to use consultant in the following casesYou have identified the need for Great Plains Dexterity customizationYou are doing migration from Pervasive/Ctree to Microsoft SQL Server/MSDE, especially when you have third-parties without migration toolsYou are doing migration from Great Plains Accounting to Microsoft Great PlainsYou have to create a lot or ReportWriter Modified Great Plains ReportsYou have old version of Great Plains: Dynamics or eEnterprise 6.0 or prior - in this case you can not appeal to Microsoft Technical Support - it is discontinued Your Great Plains has more than 20 users in this case the mistake may lead to serious business problemsYou don't have support for your old Great Plains - then you have to select your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner and pay for the annual support/enhancement plan - you will get new registration key and will be ready for the upgrade Good luck with installation,  implementation, upgrade and if you have issues or concerns ? we are here to help!  If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com Software Companies: Generate New Revenue Streams and Decrease Costs with Custom e-Learning Content It?s no secret that software companies operate in a very competitive space where rivalry is increasingly fierce and where profit margins can be razor thin. New, smaller software companies are sprouting up each month and the leading software companies continually make strong advancements forward leveraging massive cash flow reserves. This cycle makes it difficult for the mid-sized software company to compete because (a) they don?t typically have the cash flow necessary to take giant leaps forward in the industry and (b) because they need to continually move forward to stay ahead of the smaller software companies that are vying for their slot in the marketplace. Consequently, making the jump from an unknown to a mainstream brand can prove to be very difficult for the mid-sized software company. Cisco CCNA Certification: Becoming A Truly Valuable CCNA. I've been active in the Cisco Certification track for four years, working my way from the CCNA to the coveted Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert title, and during that time I've conducted job interviews and casual conversations with hundreds of CCNAs and CCNA candidates. Software Piracy We regularly hear reports about the cost to the software industry of software piracy, but are the claims to be taken at face value? Statistics are notoriously biased towards what the author is trying to say. Microsoft Great Plains Integration with Microsoft Access ? Overview for Developer  Microsoft Business Solutions stakes on Microsoft Great Plains as main Accounting/ERP application for US market.  At the same time it seems to be staking on Navision in Europe and has Axapta as high end large corporation market competitor to Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, IBM.  This article is brief review of Microsoft Great Plains integration with Microsoft Access.  This is also applicable to Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology ? Great Plains Dexterity dictionary - DYNAMICS.DIC and runtime DYNAMICS.EXE) and Great Plains Standard on MSDE  or MS SQL Server.If you are developer who is asked: how do we implement  Great Plains integration/interface  with your MS Access-based  system ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.Great Plains Integration Manager - this is rather end-user tool - it is very intuitive, it validates 100% of business logic, brings in/updates master records (accounts, employees, customers, vendors. etc.) brings in transactions into work tables.  The limitation of Integration Manager - it does use GP windows behind the scenes without showing them - so it is relatively slow - you can bring 100 records - but when you are talking about thousands - it is not a good option.  By the way you can program Integration Manager with VBA.  Microsoft Access is ODBC compliant and so you can do direct Integration Manager query to MS Access eConnect ? it is type of Software Development Kit with samples in VB.Net.  Obviously the development environment should be Visual Studio.Net.  eConnect will allow you to integrate master records - such as new customers, vendors, employees, etc., plus you can bring transactions into so called Great Plains work tables (eConnect doesn't allow you to bring open or historical records - you need to post work records in Great Plains, the same limitation applies to Integration Manager above)  eConnect is rather for ongoing integration.  It was initially created for eCommerce application integration to Great Plains. SQL Stored Procedures.  Obviously you have unlimited control and possibilities with SQL queries.  You need to know Great Plains tables structure and data flow.  Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables.  Find the table in the proper series.  If you are looking for the customers ? it should be RM00101 ? customer master file.  If you need historical Sales Order Processing documents ? they are in SOP30200 ? Sales History Header file, etc.   Do not change existing tables - do not create new fields, etc.  Also you need to realize that each GP table has DEX_ROW_ID - identity column.  Sometimes it is good idea to use inbound/outbound XML in the parameters - then you can deploy web service as a middle party between two systems. Data Transformation Services (DTS) ? Good tool for importing your third party data into staging tables in GP - then you can pull them in using either stored procs of Integration Manager.  You can also deploy this tool for EDI export/import.  You can have DTS working with Linked Server - SQL Server Construction for linking to Microsoft Access Great Plains Dexterity Custom Screens.  Sometimes users prefer to have seamlessly integrated into GP interface custom screens - for parameters settings and initiating integration.  Dexterity is a good option, however remember - it is always better to create new custom screen versus customizing existing one - due to the future upgrade issues.  Also - Dexterity is in phasing our by Microsoft Business Solutions. Modifier/VBA custom buttons on the existing screens -  alternative to Dexterity is you are comfortable with VBA and ADO. SQL Linked Servers ? you can do direct SQL queries to other ODBC compliant platform via SQL Linked Server (including Microsoft Access) - you may need to familiarize yourself with OPENROWSET command in Transact SQL.  This is also good option if you need cross-platform Crystal Report - pulling data from SQL Server and third party databases on the same report. Warning - do not place existing GP tables into Replication! - you will have upgrade issues.Happy integrating!  if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com Microsoft Great Plains Reporting ? Overview for Developer Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it.  Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele.  Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology ? Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations.  There are several reporting tools available and you definitely need to know which one to use for different types of reports.If you are developer who is asked: how do we create report for Microsoft Great Plains ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.Great Plains Report Writer (ReportWriter) ? this is built-in reporting tool.  All the original report in Great Plains are written in ReportWriter.  ReportWriter itself is Dexterity module.  You should use this tool if you would like to modify existing Great Plains reports, such as Blank Invoice Form - here you can place your company logo, change the positioning, fonts, colors, etc.  ReportWriter will allow you also do new  reports - simple option  if you want to export all the records from one Great Plains table - use it.  New report, however doesn't have interface where you would enter parameters - so it is not useful for real custom reports.  Another limitation of ReportWriter - you can not do cross-modules report - when you need sales and purchasing info on the same report for example. FRx.  This is excellent tool when deal with financial reporting - it works on the General Ledger level (Balance sheet, P&L, Cash Flow Statement, etc.).  It also allows you to do multiple companies consolidation - when you do consolidated Balance Sheet (with inter-companies transactions elimination). Smart List - Export to Excel ? this is nice feature in Great Plains - you could create a list with simple criteria and then export it to Excel. Crystal Reports.  It gives you unlimited functionality.  Obviously flexibility requires you to know Great Plains table structure:  Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables.  Find the table in the proper series.  If you are looking for the customers ? it should be RM00101 ? customer master file.  If you need historical Sales Order Processing documents ? they are in SOP30200 ? Sales History Header file, etc.  Create ODBC connection to GP Company database.  Use the same technique as when you create standard ODBC connection for GP workstation ? but change default database to targeted company database.  Create SQL Query to probe the data ? we always recommend tuning your query and see that you are getting adequate results ? in any case ? Crystal Report is just a nice tool to show the results of your query. Direct Web Publishing off Great Plains databases ? yes - it is easy now with Visual Studio.Net and you can hire good programmers.  This is good - Microsoft Business Solutions products: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta will be integrated into so called Microsoft Business Portal - which will have web interface - you can get the idea if you look at Microsoft CRM web client - so direct web publishing is good taste. SQL Queries.  If you have SQL background - this is great field for you.  You know - with properly formatted SQL query you can realize simple EDI export/import for the integration with legacy systems.Happy designing!  if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com Crystal Reports for Microsoft Great Plains ? Overview for Developer Microsoft Great Plains is main accounting / ERP application from Microsoft Business Solutions, targeted to the US market.  It serves the whole of vertical and horizontal market: most of the industries and company sizes.  Crystal Reports on the other hand is the leader in the reporting software industry and Microsoft is willing to use Crystal as main reporting tool for Great Plains, Solomon, Microsoft CRM, .Net platform, etc.If you are developer who is asked: how do we extend Great Plains ReportWriter with somewhat more sophisticated ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.Great Plains Tables Structure ? first of all you need to know the tables to link.  Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables.  Find the table in the proper series.  If you are looking for the customers ? it should be RM00101 ? customer master file.  If you need historical Sales Order Processing documents ? they are in SOP30200 ? Sales History Header file, etc. Create ODBC connection to GP Company database.  Use the same technique as when you create standard ODBC connection for GP workstation ? but change default database to targeted company database. Consider SQL Views ? if you don?t want complex links in Crystal Report itself or if you need unionization from several companies ? SQL view is the answer. Consider SQL Stored Procedures.  Sometimes you can not pull the data in one view ? you need temporary tables to be created and the final query should be based on these temp tables ? this is when you need stored procedure. Call Crystal Report from GP Screens via VBA/Modifier ? if the user wants to call Crystal report for example - printing Invoices in GP and do it from SOP Entry window ? you can use Modifier and VBA to call Crystal Reports engine. Create SQL Query to probe the data ? we always recommend tuning your query and see that you are getting adequate results ? in any case ? Crystal Report is just a nice tool to show the results of your query.Happy customizing, querying and designing! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com How to Upgrade Dexterity Customization ? Tips for IT Manager If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it for your company and have light or heavy Great Plains customization, written in Dexterity ? you need to know your options in upgrading Great Plains or migrating it from ctree/Pervasive to MS SQL/MSDE.Great Plains Dexterity is proprietary programming language/environment, which was created in early 1990-th to provide platform / database / graphical interface independence for Mac and Windows based Great Plains Dynamics.  Today it is legacy and Microsoft Business Solutions is phasing Dexterity out.However Great Plains 7.5 and even 8.0 is Dexterity based application, so you have to deal with it and it?s customization. Good news.  Prior to version 7.0 Great Plains had plans on expanding GP functionality and so was changing tables structure ? forcing Dexterity customization to be analyzed and partially rewritten with each upgrade.  Not any more ? GP structure stays the same ? Microsoft is doing new modules acquisition and unifying it?s graphical interface to move all it?s ERP packages: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta to web-based Microsoft Business Portal. Still pain.  Dexterity has possibility to customize existing Great Plains screens, so called Alternative Great Plains forms.  This was upgrade problem in the past and it stays now ? there is no way to do it in house (until you are willing to pay for full-time internal developer ? who is usually in the learning curve).  You got to bring in consultant.Recommended approach.  You should have the strategy to migrate Dexterity customization to SQL, Crystal Reports, custom web publishing ? Visual Studio.net and slowly abandon Dexterity customizationSQL Stored procedures - performance improvement.  Consider replacing dexterity data manipulation with SQL stored procedures.  Dexterity is cursor-driven language and it is not efficient when processing huge datasets. Crystal Reports.  Take advantage of open and leading technology.  Crystal Reports will eliminate the need in the future for painstaking Dexterity reports upgrade.  Base you Crystal report on the SQL view or stored proc Do direct web publishing off your GP database.  Use Visual Studio ? it is easy to find specialists and have them in staff.  We are in the World when web publishing is very easy.Good luck and if you have issues or concerns ? we are here to help! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com IT Department Skills to Support Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM Microsoft Great Plains as ERP and Microsoft CRM as Client Relation Management system is very robust combination and could serve midsize to large corporation as Business System.  Being VP IT or IT Director you need to foresee the positions to have in your IT department to do internal MS Great Plains and MS CRM support.Let us give you the directions, based on our research and consulting practice.Microsoft SQL Server Specialist ? we specially do not name this position as MS SQL DBA, because both Great Plains and MS CRM are not very complex from the database administration side, they do not use indexes optimization, referential integrity, probably do not require complex transaction log backup/recovery scenarios.  On the other hand this position requires Great Plains and Microsoft CRM tables structure analysis and some primary Great Plains data fixing skills via SQL queries, described in MBS Customer source techknowledge database.  The best candidate should have some accounting background - to be able to address ongoing issues to MBS technical support. Network Administrator with good Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory skills.  Microsoft CRM uses all the newest Microsoft technologies, and Exchange is a workhorse here.  In order to install and upgrade MS CRM this guy needs to understand the under-laying Microsoft technology.  In the best case - she/he should know Exchange security structure and probably program Exchange handlers, due to the fact that CRM/Exchange connector is not a perfect tool yet. C# or VB.Net programmer with excellent SQL Skills? if you are midsize or large company - you should have this position - you will need web publishing and MS CRM customization and its support.  Currently Microsoft CRM SDK has C# examples - so C# programmer would be the best fit, it may have more VB code in the future, so the C# - VB balance maybe restored. Crystal Reports Designer/Programmer - Crystal Reports is the best tool available on the market to address both Great Plains and MS CRM reporting needs.  This position maybe merged with one of the above.These people should be probably cross-trained in both Great Plains, Microsoft CRM, Crystal Reports, SQL and C# programming, so you do not depend on the unique skills of one person.  In our opinion, which is based on our long term consulting practice - these skills will allow you to keep the cost of IT support reasonably low and avoid paying high consulting price to your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner.Happy hiring and training! But in any case you need to select Microsoft Business Solutions Partner/Var/Reseller to be your official representative.  This is how MBS has its channel working - it assures that Microsoft Business Solutions products are properly implemented.  If you want us to be your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com SQL: Querying Microsoft Great Plains ? Overview for Database Administrator/Developer Microsoft CRM Custom Design & Development: SDK, C#, SQL, Exchange, Integration, Crystal Reports Microsoft CRM is new player on the CRM software market.  The whole conception behind CRM seems to be different.  In case of traditional CRM software (Siebel, Oracle) - the application was designed with platform independence in mind.  Microsoft CRM is dedicated to Microsoft technology and so deploys all the Microsoft tools: Windows Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000, SQL Server, Crystal Reports Enterprise, Biztalk server, Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Great Plains as backend, etc.If you are software developer, database administrator or web designer who is asked: how do we customize Microsoft CRM ? we are giving you directions in this article.Microsoft CRM SDK ? this is software development kit with C# and partly VB.net code samples ? it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions technical support.  It is based on web service calls, if you are C# .NET developer ? you are excellently positioned to do this type of customizations.  This is the preferred modification scenario and this should be easily upgradeable customization.  VB.Net examples will be available soon. Legacy SQL Data integration.  This is also easy and safe.  If you have SQL database, sitting on the same or linked SQL Server ? you can create ASPX .Net application and simply integrate it into CRM.  You can place it on the navigation bar or menu in isv.config ? please refer to MS CRM SDK Legacy ASP integration ? this is somewhat more sophisticated.  You have to deploy HTTP handler to be a middle party between CRM which is .Net based and ASP which is legacy IIS.  The trick is ? you have to have INI file with security settings to penetrate into MS CRM with proper credentials, calling web service. Microsoft Exchange Programming.  Microsoft CRM has Exchange connector ? which moves CRM incoming email to MS if it has GUID in its subject.  You can alter this logic (for instance - move email to CRM if it doesn?t have GUID but it is from the sender who is contact or account in MS CRM).  Refer to MS Exchange SDK onsyncsave event handling.  Then simply apply some MS CRM SDK programming - you need some COM+ objects creation and VB programming experience. Direct SQL touch ? in #4 above I described you the scenario with MS Exchange handlers ? this would be ideal world if MS CRM SDK does the job.  But ? in real world this is not always true ? you have to do direct flags correction in CRM database (like making Activity closed, moving email attachments/octet streams, etc).  This is not supported by MBS technical support ? but you can rescue to this technique if you have to get job done. MS CRM Customization tool ?  this is rather end-user tool and we don?t describe it here ? read the manual.  We?ve described above the options to use when this tool doesn?t do the job Crystal Reports - feel free to create Crystal report - tables and views structure is self explanatory.  Try to avoid the temptation to create your own SQL view or stored procedure in MS CRM database, instead - create custom database and place your view and stored proc in it. Happy modifying! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com Top Ten Tips for Online Publishing Success Use the checklist below to make sure your article, tip, or book excerpt will get published and make you a household name on the Internet. 1.  Does the title grab you and include a benefit? Make sure it is clear, but clever and clear is great. 2.  Does the opening grab your attention? How? You need a hook in your short 1-3 sentence introduction. A shocking fact, drama, or question about where your audience is, their challenge. 3.  Avoid starting sentences with "This is, there is, She is/was." Avoid passive construction such as: have, is, was, seems, appears. Replace "Judy is a book coach" with Book coach, Judy Cullins, digs her client's buried treasure (their words) up to make their books saleable gems. Aim for only 2-4% passives. Use strong, action verbs instead. 4.   Punch up those sentences. Instead of "people who are assertive are willing to stand up for themselves," say, "Assertive people stand up for themselves." 5.   Reduce general words. Replace them with specifics that are more compelling to the reader. Instead of "saves you time," use "saves you 10 hours a week, so you can finally take that vacation to that Caribbean island." 6.   Shorten all sentences for Online reading. Did you know that 15-17 words per sentence is standard?  Over that number the sentence is "difficult?"  We write differently for Online because we are busy people who want information fast! 7.   Use the present or past tense instead of "would have" and other passive forms. These verb forms help your article's clarity and give punch to it. 8.   Show, don't tell. Instead of saying this book helps you to a healthy life, say after you read my book, you will have "leap out of bed energy." 9.   Reduce the use of adjectives and adverbs. Avoid all -ly adverbs. Make your nouns and verbs describe. Use the senses of sight, sound, emotions, touch. Instead of "Suddenly, she yelled at Tom," just say," She opened the front door and yelled at Tom." 10. Discuss only one point per article to help you write focused, compelling copy for the rest. Check out your article's thesis. What question does your article answer? Remember, for opt-in ezine publishers to take your article and spread the good word about you, you need to submit a quality, well-edited article that will wow them. Judy Cullins, 20-year book and Internet Marketing Coach, Author of 10 eBooks including "Write your eBook Fast," and "How to Market your Business on the Internet," she offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, The Book Coach Says...and Business Tip of the Month at http://www.bookcoaching.com/opt-in.shtml and over 140 free articles. Email her at mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com eBook Solutions Free Information Products inundate the web these days. eBook performance denotes miraculous sales and marketing procedures abound. Procedural documentation of a marketing article can be referred back to an eBook sold on your website. While most entrepreneurs may be seeking positions working at jobs online, others are actually seeking independent careers they can start working from home. An eBook representing a new method of business development, touting an ingenious financially beneficial business one can start on a shoestring, and proclaiming vast amounts of dollar success will sell well on any site, promotes well as a marketing article, and reprints well on other people's websites as a loss leader to bring traffic back to your site with a reference and signature ad. What does it cost to bring traffic to your website? Can you make a dedicated profit by giving away an eBook that cost you only the time to create it? Some interesting suggestions for marketing your eBook include: 1. Promote portions of your eBook as marketing articles with your signature and a reference back to your whole eBook. (Remember not to give away the secret of your book in the articles.) 2. Encourage publication of portions and excerpts from your eBook along with your special signature referring buyers back to your eBook and website. 3. Make extra profit selling updated versions of your eBook after you publish the FREE eBook online for readers to read. Be sure to include examples of excerpts from the updated version to encourage them to purchase your book. 4. Promote your eBook as a buy in for other web developers to promote their websites. Encourage them to give it away, as you give it away. Encourage readers to also purchase the updated version of your eBook. 5. Locate other people's eBooks and promote them on your website. Buy rights to eBooks for sale on your website. Create packets using a collection of similar titles to sell eBooks on your website as part of your content and product. 6. Create saleable reports from the data used to create eBook. Sell reports through advertising spots on your website promoting FREE reports. Use portions of your eBook to promote your monthly newsletter. Use portions of your eBook IN the monthly newsletter. 7. Show prospective clients sample pages of your eBook. Sample pages create interest, offer basic information about what is found in the eBook, and promote sale of reports. 8. Develop a "come back theory" to encourage return traffic to your site. Build a market people will come back to purchase or review later. 9. Make your eBook available off line. Use your eBook to create multiple high earning income streams, promote your website, develop your clientele, and balance your on line business. By writing several eBooks serving your topic, and introducing your clients to your way of doing business, promoting your values and work style, you increase your own popularity and visibility online. This process defines your brand and brings you back to the homes of your clients. Once they begin to recognize and understand your business brand, you become more visible and highly competitive with any other source they have for any given product. Jan Verhoeff combines 27 years of service in the Free Enterprise domain and a lifetime of education in business development to bring expertise and understanding of basic business principles to new business owners. An expert in the field of business development, Jan presents conceptual information through publications, live presentations, and Power Launch, a weekly live conference chat for business developers. For more information see her site at: http://makemoneyhere.blogspot.com Top Quick Tips 7 Reasons You Want Referral Business and How to Get Them Studies have proven that there is one reason why people don't do more referral business: they don't ask. There are two reasons why, they forget or they don't have a strong enough relationship with their clients, so they don't feel comfortable Top 10 Ways Websites Makes Me Suffer I believe some people create and publish websites for the sole purpose of tormenting their visitors. Browsing various websites and navigating the Web can often be like trying to read on an airplane while a kid kicks the back of your seat and the baby next to you alternates between screaming, crying and drooling on you. There are some excellent websites out there to be sure, but there are also a lot of dreadful ones too. The latter are the bane of so many people?s existence, especially those who use the Web regularly. Business Profitability - 10 Ways To Boost 10 Ways to Boost your Profitability Wealth Building Scams I have some good news and I have some bad news. First the good news. The number of infomercials on television is decreasing. Seven Questions to Improve Your Business, Your Relationships, and Your Life Seven Questions to Improve Your Business, Your Relationships, and Your Life Ten Ways to Strengthen Your Reading Habit Most people wish they read more.  It is an activity that is both fun and enlightening.  It can help us be more knowledgeable and successful.  However, it is an activity that many people don?t engage in very much.  According to the 1999 National Household Education Survey, 50% of the U.S. population aged 25 and over read a newspaper at least once a week, read one or more magazines regularly, and had read a book in the past 6 months.  What does this mean?  It means that 50% of the population hasn?t read a book in the last six months!  Ten Tips for Cross Cultural Communication Here are some simple tips to help you improve your cross cultural communication skills: 7 Reasons Why Training Doesn?t Produce the Desired Results and What You Can Do To Seven Reasons Why Training Doesn?t Produce the Desired Results and What You Can Do To Improve Your Results Your Leadership Shopping List ?Tis the season to give. And finding the right gift to give the people on your team can be challenging. Oprah Winfrey once said, ?It doesn?t matter what the thing is; what matters is how much of yourself goes into the giving, so that when the gift is gone, the spirit of you lingers.? This is especially true for leaders. When you give of yourself you build character and credibility both for you and your organization. Top Seven Reasons to Publicize your Business with Articles Do you want to be #1-10 on Google and other search engines? Do you want quadruple your Web sales in five months? Promote your business to the top with these 7 reasons to write and submit how-to articles. Top Ten Tips for Online Publishing Success Use the checklist below to make sure your article, tip, or book excerpt will get published and make you a household name on the Internet. Top Ten Things to Do to Make your Signature File Sell Always include a powerful signature on every email you send out, even to friends. It's even more important when you send out articles to opt-in ezines (no spam) and top web sites in your field--more important than your article's message. The Top Ten Ways to Attract Buyers, Not Just Visitors to your Web Site Have you put a lot of effort, time, and money into your site and are frustrated with low sales? Plan Your Success In Seven Ways Many businesses lose money yearly because they don?t think creatively about the future.  They run their businesses doing what they think they should: dealing with customers, dealing with problems, ordering for their business, and paying their expenses. They act like their business is a job. They are surviving and that?s it. They are not looking at the big picture. They need to use their business as a stepping stone to success. Picturing themselves as a successful business person, and setting up a plan to succeed. Want a Web Site that Turns Lookie Loos into Buyers? Seven Passion Copywriting Tips Web Site Blues? Need one, don't know where to start? Got one, but aren't getting enough sales? Top Quick Tips Reminders For Running A Better Business The following tips are from an article we contributed to Compute magazine. These are ideas that we all should know, but many times forget. It constantly amazes us how quickly a basic tenent of business can be shoved by the wayside in the heat of daily transactions. 1 Step Program to Achieve All of Your Goals In Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen's original "Chicken Soup for the Soul," I am reminded of the short story titled "Another Check Mark On the List." This is a story about a 15-year-old boy named John who, on one rainy day, when it was too wet outside to play, he decided to write a list of goals. John continued writing until he had 127 goals. These goals included exploring the Nile River, climbing high mountain peaks around the world and learning 3 foreign languages. He also wanted to be featured in a Rose Bowl Parade and play several musical instruments. 5 Things You Must Do Well When Buying a Business to Not Get Burned Are you not sure what Business to buy? Need to know what is a fair deal? Tips to Starting your Own Busniess The 9-to-5 grind can make you feel like a just another cog in the corporate machine, constantly punching the clock for someone else?s vision.  One day, while dreaming of the world outside the cubicle, you have your big ?Eureka!? moment?you?ve come across an idea so perfect that you need to start your own business around it.   The Lazy Person Secrets To Overnight Wealth And Fame There are so many simple, yet really sure-fire ways of acquiring wealth, it's a wonder everybody with even the least bit of ambition isn't already rich. When you come right down to it, the only things needed for anyone to make bundles of money are the long-range vision and the energy to put a money-making plan into force. How To Make $20.00 For Every $1.00 Invested It has been said you can lift the Rock of Gibraltar if you have a fulcrum point and long enough lever. When we refer to "financial leverage" we are talking about the same principle. If you buy a business building for $100,000 with $5,000 down, this is using leverage of 20 to 1. For a mere 1/20th of the purchase price, you actually own and control property that is 20 times more valuable than your cash investment. The Benefits Of Helping An Online Business Newbie Do your remember when you first ventured out in the online business world? You probably had questions and problems along the way. Wouldn't it have been easier if you had help? When a newbie asks for your advice, educate them; answer their questions and help them solve their online business problems. If you do not have the knowledge to help them out, point them in the right direction. You'll get many benefits from helping online business newbies. Below are eight possible benefits you could receive: Bookkeeping Techniques For Morons Please don't think I am calling you a "moron" to hurt your feelings in any way. I was a moron when I first started setting up my files. You have to force yourself to do it NOW -- right at the beginning! Many of a business has collapsed simply because they lacked organization in their basic accounting business practices. Don't be one of them! How To Make Money With Your Junk Mail The term "junk mail" is a well-known term. To the common guy or gal on the street, "junk mail" to them is advertising flyers from the local grocery store and pizza shop that arrive in their mail every day. To the mail order dealer, it means something totally opposite because a mail order dealer in St Paul MN is not going to get a pizza ad for a shop in Jackson MS. How To Eliminate Your Competition Without Bloodshed So how do you eliminate your competition without bloodshed? You must create a niche for your business. A niche is something that makes your business different from your competitors. To compete with other businesses nowadays (especially online) you need something that nobody else can copy. One of a kind! How To Use Bartering To Gain An Advantage Over Your Competition If you have a business on the Internet you should be bartering goods and services with other businesses. You should always try to trade for something before you buy it. Barter deals usually require no money. Although sometimes you may need money to offset the value of the goods or services being traded. Shaking Your Money Tree: Seven Ways to Make Quick Cash Does your business have a money tree you can shake when a little extra cash is needed? Every business should have one! Get Your Mailing Noticed - Seven Tips for Effective Direct Mail Pieces When sending mail to clients and potential clients, make your mailing stand out from the stacks of "junk mail" they receive. Here are a few easy ways to get their attention. Top 7 Reasons You Should Back Up Your Data Online! How much is your data worth to you? In this modern electronic-age we rely more than ever on our computers to supply us with the information we need. Chances are every piece of data you might ever rely on to make an important decision has been reduced to a digital format and resides somewhere on your computer's hard drive. Improved functionality and productivity are the benefits, however, on the flipside, one wrong click, one nasty virus, one untimely power surge or unhappy employee and that data is gone forever! 7 Tips on How To Prepare for Business Events Are you scratching your head after business events wonderingwhy you aren't finding prospects? Whether it?s your firstor 100th event, here are some tips on how to prepare foryour next event that can make the difference betweenscratching and smiling. These tips will help you save time,money, create memorable impressions, and increaseconnections. Top Quick Tips #1 Key To Select Right Business Partner Having business partner or planning to start a business with partnership is a always a win-loose factor. Know one knows the partners inner instinct to deal business in several different circumstances and this is why we see the n number of broken partnerships. Famous Business Strategies Either simply a looker-on or a player in the world of business, you see millions piling into the accounts of world's most famous businessmen and naturally the question pops "How?", wondering what is the alchemy they've discovered? Yet, there is no magic here - it's mostly pure strategy. And what it takes to spot it and make it real. Ten Ways to Manage a Rapidly Growing Business While some new business owners face the issue of not enough customers, others face the issue of too many customers/clients. Both are serious issues and must be dealt with carefully. There are many lists on how to find new customers/clients. Here is a list of 10 ways to deal with a rapid influx of new customers. The goal is a steady flow of just the right customers/clients. 10 Tips for Effective Proofreading Proofreading may not be terribly fun, but it's one of the most important parts of writing. Top 7 Tips For Writing Your Marketing Plan A lot of people are at a loss when it comes to deciding how to approach the marketing plan process and how to stay within time and budget constraints. To make for a less stressful marketing plan process, keep these 7 tips in mind: Top Seven Questions for Starting Projects More Effectively We all are project managers. Some of us manage projects like vacations or reunions, while others run implementations of new software systems, consolidation divisions of companies, launch new products, or build buildings. While the scale changes for different kinds of projects, and complexity changes as more people are affected and involved; at the core there are questions you can answer to help get any project off to a better start. Media Training: Seven Ways to Instantly Improve Your Media Interviewing Skills Imagine if you were going to address a stadium full of people. You?d probably spend hours (if not days or weeks) agonizing over every word you were going to say. You?d practice your gestures in the mirror. You?d carefully select your clothing. You might even rehearse with your family. How to Apply the 12 Steps for Managment Conflict and Resolution 1. Admit there is a problem. 10 Incredibly important business basics EVERYONE needs to know BEFORE they start a business! In my career, I have had a total of 3 businesses myself and a few others where I am in partnerships. Each time you start a business the basics are pretty well the same. Here are 10 things I believe are really important for anyone starting up a business.... The Hidden Power Of Understanding: A Secret To Building Massive Momentum In Your Business You're busy with your business today, aren't you? Why Clarity Is Essential To Building Massive Momentum In Your Business Clarity is an absolutely essential ingredient for you to achieve your full potential in business. Napolean Hill, in his classic book Think & Grow Rich, said "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." He goes on to explain why having a clear definition of what you want to achieve is a critical factor in your success. How To Use The Power Of Focus To Build Massive Momentum In Your Business Getting focused on what you want to achieve and creating an action plan for making it happen are critical skills for you to master. How To Take Daily Big Rock Actions To Jumpstart Your Business Into Massive Momentum Do you know exactly what actions you need to do today to be on track to reaching your big, long-term goals? How To Finally Unlock Your True Potential And Discover The Secret To Lasting Success Did you know that there is one critical difference between average businesses and super-successful businesses? Seven Keys to Get Out of a Rut They say a rut is a shallow grave with two open ends. The good news (good news?!) is that the ends ARE still open, which means if you act fast, you just might out of it. How do we get into these ruts anyway? Who would voluntarily lie down in that grave, shallow or otherwise? More Articles from Top Quick Tips: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

RELATED ARTICLES Present Statistics In Context "I didn't have 3000 pairs of shoes. I had only 1600 pairs." Imelda Marcos Four Different Ways People Process Your Information There are four different ways that audience members assimilate information. They are: visual, auditory, auditory digital, and kinesthetic. While all members of the audience will process information utilizing all four of these approaches at different times, each audience member will individually will individually tend to rely on one of these approaches more than the other three. How to Teach: Lecture vs. Discussion WHEN ONLY A LECTURE WILL DO: Under certain circumstances, of course, the lecture is the only workable format. For instance, when it is necessary to reach a large audience in a short time frame, or when the attendees have no knowledge of the subject whatsoever, there is really no choice. But whenever possible, alternative methods should be investigated. If you choose to rely solely on lectures, be aware that you do so for your own convenience and comfort, rather than for the effectiveness of the training. Abandoning the lecture format for that of group discussion requires that the trainer step back from leadership and take up the role of facilitator - a position much closer to that of the participant. If this method of training is one that you would like to explore, it is first necessary to examine potential problems which make group discussions difficult for some trainers. Writing The Query Letter The query letter is simply a business letter that serves a dualpurpose. It is an introduction of you to an agent, and an inquiryas to whether the agent would be interested in seeing a particularpiece of your work. The query letter is the first "picture" an agentwill have of you and your work; and is perhaps your strongestselling tool. Rise Above Cattiness Cattiness is something no one ever wants to be accused of doing. But the reality is, at one time or another you've probably engaged in it, and most likely, you'll do it again. This trait can include any number of unfortunate behaviors from not saying what we really intend to say, to saying things in a harsh tone of voice. It also includes gossiping, cynical remarks, and on a grander scale, outright rudeness. Cattiness can stand in the way of marketing your business since what you say and how you say it is critical in building rapport with potential clients and customers. Think about how you come across to the people you interact with on a daily basis. Check in with your attitude and behavior to make sure you are coming from your best place at all times. Tips to Temper Speaking Anxiety People take it for granted that leaders have achieved some skill in public speaking. Yet anxiety persists because leaders face very challenging situations and have a great risk of embarrassment. Here are some tips for tempering those anxieties. Cell Phone Dos And Dont During A Meeting What would we do without our cell phones? Wow, there's a scary question. It's hard to imagine a world without them. But cell phones, connected as they may keep us, seem to have an amazing power to disturb and trump face to face interaction. For example, why is it that during a meal or a meeting, people insist on taking every call? Even worse, just let the phone ring? They forget all about the person across the table as if they were invisible! Creating Your Presentation Success With a Positive ?I CAN? Attitude According to the Lamalle Report on Top Executives of the 1990s, one of the most important factors in determining financial success by those earning over $250,000 is being enthusiastic and having a positive attitude (46%). Apparently, successful people never underestimate the power of positive thinking. Cross Cultural Presentations The international flavour of many people's jobs naturally means that there is greater interaction between people from different cultures. Within the business environment, understanding and coping with intercultural differences between people is critical to ensuring that interpersonal communication is successful. Ancient PowerPoint Secrets: Ask Your Grandma! Yes, there are ancient PowerPoint secrets...secrets your grandmother knows and is probably willing to pass down to you. Top Ten Tips For Better Business Presentations To Asian Audiences Audiences around the world are all different. Cultural, social and religious differences impact on how people learn, take in information and interact with presenters. Presentation Power Does Not Come From PowerPoint You speak before a group. You present your message. You might be selling your product, service or yourself. How do you present yourself with power? Ten Fun Ways to Liven up Any Presentation Most of us would agree that having humor in our lives increases rapport, strengthens our relationships and overcomes communication barriers. People who work in a positive, often playful environment are more likely to stay. Productivity and creativity increase while stress is reduced. We just feel better after a good laugh. Think funny! Your Unique Point of View I had a chance to go to one of those big positive thinking rallies recently. I am one of those positive personal growth people that really enjoy that kind of thing. Throughout the day, I heard presentation after presentation from some of the best professional speakers in the business; General Tommy Franks, Mayor Rudy Guiliani, legendary Comedian Jerry Lewis and my hero, Zig Ziglar. They presented and spoke amazingly well. They were original. Handling Questions with Authority At some point in your presentation you will be expected to answer questions from your audience. They might have some burning questions that need to be answered before they buy into your message. Handling their questions with authority can make the difference for you between a successful presentation and a waste of time. This is the opportunity for the audience to test your knowledge on the topic and commitment to your message. How to Begin a Lesson Plan DEVELOPING LESSON PLANS: In developing lesson plan formats, two things are paramount: extraordinarily careful documentation and room left for possible changes. Sloppy accounting of the direction your class will be going is worse than none. And documentation that doesn't have leeway for change is almost instantly obsolete. The types of plan formats generally used are the: outline, sentence outline, narrative outline, narrative. The primary difference is in the amount of information and narrative in the body of the presentation. Your plan for a presentation should be at least a sentence outline or preferably a narrative outline. Why You Need a Lesson Plan LESSON PLAN DEVELOPMENT: Lesson plans, believe it or not, are a lot like the maps you have in the back seat of your car. They're probably not covered with the ketchup and pencil marks that your maps are, but they are directional guides. You need some way of checking to see if you are on the right road in your classroom or on the highway. A lesson plan is really nothing more than a map of where you and your students will be heading for the time you are together. To paraphrase the American Express Card commercial, "Lesson plans -- don't leave home without them." Polishing Your Sales Presentation Summer is here! It's time to bring out your summer attire, take a vacation and reflect upon your achievements thus far this year. Look back at the past few months of your sales production . . . are you on target for all your sales goals for 2005? Are you making the sales from all your sales presentations? How To Run Your Greatest Conference Ever Like most good achievements, a magnificent meeting depends on planning and preparation. These are essential to a good conference and this article explains the basics of what you need to do. The Relationship between Information Sender and Receiver: The Art of Communication For communication to take place, a message must be transmitted by a communicator and correctly received by a listener. If the message is not understood, there is no communication. There is only noise. Between the transmission and reception of a message, much can go wrong. Communication, by definition, involves at least two individuals, the sender and the receiver. There are certain filters or barriers which determine whether or not the message is actually transmitted or received.

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