11 Proven Sales Strategies to Help You Close The Deal
By Abe Cherian
Copyright c 2005

There are a number of sales closing strategies that you can
learn with different ones applied in different situations.
Each salesperson might be more comfortable with one or
another. As a business owner, you want to be certain that
you and your salespeople become exposed to a number of
different strategies so they can choose the one they prefer
depending on different situations.

First you must understand that before you can assist your
prospect in identifying the advantages of buying your
products or services, you must also instruct them of the
disadvantages.

Then you and the prospect analyze the items on your list
and identify the strengths and advantages while overcoming
the disadvantages.

The goal here is for the advantages to outweigh the
disadvantages and close the deal.

The take it with them close- This allows the prospect to
actually take the product home or try out the product. The
idea is that once this happens, the prospect will be unable
to part with the product and must have it.

There is a story about a salesmen who sold pet dogs. The
salesman said “Here, take this home and give me a call in a
week. If you don’t want it, I’ll come and get it”. Once
that dog was there and the young son fell in love with it,
there was no way that dog was going back.

Subject To Approval Close- This allows a salesperson to
actually close a sale, but do so subject to certain
contingencies. In other words, it’s up to the salesperson
at this point to really do some work when possible to
assist the prospect in removing contingencies thereby
making the sale official. .

Take Away Close- I prefer this one. It’s human nature to
want what one can’t have. The salesperson says things like,
“This product isn’t for everyone. It’s a certain kind of
person who can appreciate this service.”

The Standby Feel Close- This approach is intended to
establish empathy with your prospect’s situation in an
effort to persuade them that you or a prior customer has
actually dealt with their situation.

The Order Form Close- Sometimes the prospect might need a
little encouragement and It’s useful to actually take your
order form or contract and put it in ftont of your
prospect. Tell them to complete a section and you’ll
complete the rest.

Never say, “Sign the contract”, which has a very negative
connotation. It appears too binding and rigid to your
prospect

If they haven’t heard enough reason to buy, you then say
“”If We Do This, Will You Buy?” you must identify what it
will take for the prospect to break down and buy.

Presumptive Close- Under this method you actually go on the
assumption or presumption that the prospect has already
decided to buy. You might talk about how a prospect will
enjoy the product or service or how the benefits might be
enjoyed.

When the prospect gets in the habit of talking, feeling and
thinking like they already have the item, the sale is
almost all but completed.

Informational Close- If your products or services is such
that your prospect needs more information in order to make
up their mind, then the more relevant information you can
share the more likely the prospect is to buy.

Overcoming Objectives Close- You can identify the
prospect’s specific objections to buying and focus on ways
to overcome those objections. As you successfully
accomplish this task, the close will follow right
afterwards.

Instructional Close- If the close requires the buyer to
know how to use your products or services, it is critical
that you provide detailed instructions where applicable.

Directive Close- This is when you actually talk to your
prospect and tell them exactly what to do. Direct Them to
go over and sign up. They will respond by buying when told
to do so. It’s one of the easiest ways to make a sale.

Exclusive Close- You indicate in all the marketing you do
that your products or services are very exclusive. Lock the
doors and only allow customers and referrals to enter. Soon
you’ll find they want it because everyone wants in.
Whatever the strategies you and your employees learn and
implement, all awareness that sales strategies are
available is essential to go a long way in your business
sales efforts.

bio = Abe Cherian is the founder of Multiple Stream Media,
a company that helps online businesses find new
leads and more customers without spending a fortune.

http://www.multiplestreammktg.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

Dog Worming.

Regular worming is essential to protect your dog against internal parasites. This involves giving it preparations in liquid or tablet form. Adult dogs should be wormed at least once a year, and at least once every six months if in contact with children. Dogs showing any signs of infection should be wormed immediately and all breeding bitches should be wormed prior to mating.

Roundworms.
Several of these parasites affect dogs but the most important are the ones that belong to the Ascarid family, and live in the small intestine. Other roundworms infest the large intestine, blood vessels and respiratory tract.
Ascarids feed on digesting food in the dog’s gut, and are particularly harmful to puppies. They penetrate a puppies gut wall and pass via the blood to the liver and then to the lungs. From there they crawl up the trachea to be coughed up and swallowed, again ending up in the gut. Infected puppies may develop :-

Hepatitis, pneumonia, fits, and obstruction to the gut, so regular treatment is vital.

As the puppy gets older most of the worms travel to the muscles, where they form cysts. These lie dormant until the puppy bitch becomes pregnant. They then migrate to the puppies lungs, and this is why virtually every puppy is born with roundworm, and must be wormed regularly.

How Roundworms Affect Humans.
These worms can infect humans, and in a very low number of cases, cause disease. Good hygiene and common sense concerning children and puppies should control the problem.

Tapeworms.
The tapeworm tickle the dog’s anus and make the dog drag it’s rear end along the floor. If you see any worm segments in your dog’s faeces, treat it as soon as possible.

As a dog lover myself, I treat my own pets at least twice a year. Worming tablets can be bought cheaply at your local supermarket or petshop, so there’s no excuse for not treating your own pet on a regular basis.

Thank you for reading my article. I do hope it’s been enjoyable.
Author and animal lover – John Moore…please use my link

http://www.pet-dog-cat.com

bio = Author and pet lover John Moore

http://www.pet-dog-cat.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

A big question. I am sure that everybody on this planet would like to know the answer to that.

A few years ago, I worked for a British time share company. I am sure that right now there are many people twisting their faces: “time share? Oh. No! “. I agree – But this is not the point of this article.

While I was working there, I took some intern course in body language and “The art of sales”. Since then EVERYTHING i want to “sale”, I manage to. By saying everything, i mean business, things that I want from my wife, from my kids, from my friends and family and so on.

How do I do that, you ask? Well, here it is. You can try to use this method in every field, and I promise you it will work:

As an example, I will use my first date with my wife which eventually leaded to our marriage.

Picture this – My first date with her, nice restaurant, candle lights, wine and music (you do need to set the scene first).

She came; we said hello to each other, ordered some wine and then the “sale” started.

KISS – Which means: Keep It Simple & Stupid. This is a very important point in the whole conversation. The more info you give freely, them more they need to think about. You should give info about your self, but try to think about what you say as you can talk too much and give some info that should not be given.at least not right now.

WH questions – As the conversation roles, try to ask as many WH question as you can: why, where, how, what.You need to gather as much info about them as you can to understand who is sitting right now and talking to you, what is his/her type, what does she/he likes.Why is that so important? As I asked my future wife on that first date all the WH question, I found at that she is a “homey” type, love romance, love to coddle.If I would right away start talking about me and my “wild” life, I would probably missed her interest in me. I do not say you need to be someone else just to get their attention, but trying to “win” this meeting.

Tea or Coffee – Now you have gathered all the info you need, and it is time to start closing this deal. You are not about to close it now, but we need to get closer to the goal of our “sale”. Tea or Coffee questions are BASED on the info you got earlier and now you try to focus on the points. For example: “so what you are trying to say is that you rather be at home then go out to wild parties?” or “so. what do you prefer, Madonna or Jimmy Hendricks?” With this type of question you are now minimizing the info you got to more focused answers.

The Closing – You have now got the info, got the focused answers, it is time to “close” this ” Sale”. What you want to do is to get a yes or no answer (depends on you) from them. If you will get that answer – You have just reached you goal. Who do you do that? Very simple. Use ALL the info from the entire evening/meeting and concentrate on the particular questions you wan to get yes or no answers to. For example: “so what you are saying is that if I could make some nice dinner for you, just as you like, with candle and wine, could we meet again?” Of course, you are waiting for a “yes” here. It is EXTREMLY important to use finishing statements at the end of your questions, like: “so you do like coddling, don’t you?” Use you head to nod as you ask it..it gives a “mirror effect” on people and they can’t help not nodding back.

As I mentioned at the beginning, you can use this technique ANYWHER on EVERYBODY.trust me it works, but as everything in life, you need to practise and a lot.

Hope you can and will use it in your life.

Yair Czitrom

http://www.Jaters.com – Free Jewish singles dating service

bio = Yair Czitrom is the owner and webmaster of http://www.jaters.com – An experienced online dater that took his dating knowledge and web skills as a dater and as an IT pro to help other daters/singles in today’s cyber world. He is an expert writer on ezinearticles.com and searchwarp.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

Dial up ISP service is the cheapest choice of any of the ISPs and may be a good option for that family on a tight budget. The software upgrades have definitely increased the speed of dial up ISPs, but their speed is still slower than some other options. Dial up ISP service can be purchased from several different companies including Earthlink, AOL, Juno, and others.

One of the major issues with dial up ISP service is how long it takes to connect to the internet and disruptions in your connection. Depending upon the time of day and your company, connection can take anywhere from 30 seconds to two to three minutes or longer. Disruptions occur when you lose contact with the provider because of phone line static, storms, or problems at the providers end. This can be very irritating if you are working online or researching and have to keep reconnecting to the internet.

When choosing dial up ISP service, choose a company with a long track record and software upgrades rather than the newest, cheapest service on the market. Cheaper does not necessarily translate into better, especially in an ISP service. Read the fine print of your policies. How long can you stay online before being cut off? How many email addresses are allowed per account? Is there a limit on the number of hours a month you can be online without additional charges?

Access numbers are a necessity for dial up ISP service since you use the phone line to connect to the internet. Ensure that there are local access numbers for your use so you will not have to pay long distance charges. If you travel, do they have access numbers in a wide variety of locations or, even better, a toll free number for connection?

What comes with your dial up ISP account? Do they offer SPAM blocker or virus protection? These are important tools for your internet experience and your computer. SPAM blocker helps to block some of the unsolicited email that you get from sellers and different companies. Although it does not block all of it, it will make a large difference in your email. Virus protection is something that no computer user should be without. It scans incoming email and downloads for viruses that may harm your computer.

Dial-up ISP service is a great choice for budget minded people. Although the connection is slow and websites may be slow to load, the cost difference may be more important to some consumers. Think of it like this, if you have dial up service, then while websites load you have time to clean the house and balance your checkbook!
bio = Learn the essential information for picking the right Internet Service Provider at High Speed Internet Provider

Popularity: 2% [?]

For those of you who are interested in forex trading, you may want to start off by getting some good forex training. Forex training is a necessity for anyone with this interest. This is because a lot of money is involved in forex trading. If you don’t get some forex training, you are bound to lose a lot of money.

Some of you may not even know what forex trading is. If you don’t know this, you defiantly need some forex training. Forex stands for foreign exchange. Forex trading is basically the exchange of one countries currency for another countries currency. This is done simultaneously in hopes of gaining a profit.

You can get forex training from several different places. The first place you should get forex training from is online. There are many websites that offer free forex training. The forex training these websites offer is both reliable and accurate. The forex training on these websites often offers a free demo account to teach you how to trade without actually using any real money.

A second place to get Forex training is at your local college campus. Forex training courses at college are usually inexpensive and very thorough. The forex training courses offered should also include hands on experience with trading, to help you get the edge. You can also get some books on forex training or research forex training at your local library. The best place to get forex training is from someone who is already involved in forex trading. The forex training these individuals provide will be more realistic for you and give you different aspects of the forex trading game.

The forex training you get should first start with learning how the foreign trade market works. The trade market is always changing, so you need to understand it first. The second part of your forex training should be about risk control. You never want to invest more than you can afford. The right forex training should teach you how to cut your losses and have less risks of failure. Next, your forex training should teach you how to open and manage a forex trading account. But this should be done with a demo account. All forex training should be done this way first, before you try the real thing.

With all of this in mind, you should be able to find some good forex training. Learn the ropes of forex trading and take the time to learn it well. Be sure to try a demo forex trading account before you start a real account. With the right forex training, you will soon be on your way to a profitable way to supplement your income.

bio = Jay Moncliff is the founder of http://www.forex-center.info a blog focusing on the forex training, resources and articles. This site provides detailed information on forex training. For more info on forex training visit:http://www.forex-center.info

Popularity: 2% [?]

Question:

What is the worst thing you can do when you start your day?

Answer:

Wake up feeling lethargic and expect yourself to perform at
100% from the moment you get up in the morning; and then
compare how you are doing during the day against this
unrealistic benchmark.

There is a better way!

As you wake up in the morning take charge of your thoughts in
that early morning awareness before you fully awake.

Do this before you get up out of bed by repeating some
affirmations. Affirmations work very well WHEN you say them with
strong feelings in a state of deep relaxation.

If you have heard about affirmations before and never got the
maximum benefit from them it is because you did not know how to
take a very ordinary approach and supercharge it.

Supercharging affirmations depends on four factors:

- Phrasing affirmations in the right way
- Choosing ones that are right for you
- Saying them while in a state of deep relaxation
- Speaking them with strong feeling

At the end of this message I will tell you how to get fr*e tips
from an expert that will explain the nuts and bolts of
affirmations.

But for now…

When you use affirmations correctly their impact will last for at
least a few hours – long enough to get you started on the day
ahead.

Pay close attention now because I am going to reveal details of
some of my personal and very private habits…

I use the following affirmations to help me get up in a positive
state of mind:

- Positive thoughts bring me the benefits I desire

- Negative thoughts have no influence over me

- Everyday and in everyway I am getting better and better

To start the day with confidence…

- I am confident and charming with the people I meet

- I radiate confidence and relaxation

- I start great conversations easily and effortlessly

- I approve of myself and feel great about myself

- I have sky-high self-esteem

You can do the same.

Remember to say these affirmations with feeling and do so quietly
inside your head while in that relaxed awakening state.

Unless I use this ritual each morning I tend to feel negative
about the day ahead. The difference from feeling negative to
feeling positive is huge for the sake of those few minutes in the
morning.

You can also go one step further and imagine the day ahead
working out well. See yourself doing your best and easily dealing
with challenges. Imagine yourself feeling confident and behaving
in that way no matter who you deal with.

Imagine you will have a great day in this way and you are
directing your unconscious to make it happen in the language it
understands best – feelings and images.

Forget about will power.

Will power is a waste of time because it’s like talking to the
most powerful part of your mind in a language it does not
understand.

bio = Peter Murphy is a peak performance expert. He recently
produced a very popular free report: 10 Simple Steps to
Developing Communication Confidence. Apply now because
it is available for a limited time only at:

http://www.howtotalkwithconfidence.com/report.htm

Popularity: 2% [?]

Jump from Unknown to Widely Quoted in One Week
Dr. Lynella Grant

Start by Being Quotable
It’s tough to stand out online. With millions of experts and
websites on the Internet, what are your chances of getting
noticed? Long odds, certainly. But that’s not your biggest
challenge.

Most fail to grab attention because what they’re dishing out
is dull – rehashing what’s already been said, time and
again. Content has been over-sold. It is NOT king if it’s
mediocre. Ezine editors and webmasters are selective about
what they’ll share with their readers. They know that too
much of what’s being submitted to them isn’t worth passing
along.

First, you must have something worth saying that connects
with readers in a fresh, engaging way. People are starved
for that – it’s why they keep looking. There’s less good
stuff being written than you’d expect, given the vast sea of
Web pages.

Jettison the bland and run of the mill. Spend sufficient
time at this step because here’s where many writers drop the
ball. Write from your unique vision and real-life
experiences. Make your words so interesting and relevant
that people remember them. That’s what gets your articles
forwarded along and mentioned in passing (making you widely
quoted).

Articles can quickly blanket the Internet with your
expertise
Writing and posting articles to many websites or newsletters
rapidly spreads your message. Systematic submissions soon
brand you as a trustworthy expert.
– Focus your content to satisfy the interests of a
definable group or niche
– Develop a list of websites and ezines that reach them,
where you can submit your output

To illustrate the speed that Google responds to posted
articles, this is article #2 for my new website. It just
went up November 1 – http://www.promotewitharticles.com

Two weeks after submitting article #1, I queried Google:
“What Posting Articles Online did for my Google Page Rank
in 90 Days”. Results already showed 673 cites (many were
repeats), and that’s sure to increase. Remember, it’s a
brand-new site, so Google only learned it existed from that
article.

The fact that you’re already reading this one (submitted Day
14) demonstrates article marketing is working.

People go to the Internet to get information needed to make
decisions
Reliance on the Internet keeps growing. A Harris Interactive
consumer survey (2004) found that 73% of adults are now
online – 156 million users. That’s up from 69% eight months
before.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that most
Internet users (80%) expect that they’ll be able to find
reliable detailed information online. They will go online
first when they need information. Internet users say it
matters to them that businesses have a Web presence, even if
they intend to make purchases locally.

Other studies have found the Web is one of the most trusted
sources for making major purchases and decisions – second
only to spouses for finding referrals. Your well-placed
articles bring you to the attention of people looking for
what you have to say (wherever they are).

Get your article and message widely distributed and read

– Make it informative and useful
An article is not a sales letter. Resist the temptation to
sell. That should be confined to the signature (Sig,
resource box) at the end. That’s where you provide a link
back to your own site from every website posting your
article.

– Make it interesting
Net surfers are unforgiving. If you’re boring they’re gone.
Flat articles won’t enhance your reputation or credibility.
Your title needs to be a zinger that pulls the reader into
the topic. Most readers won’t read more than that.

– Make it relevant to specific people
Too many articles fail to connect because they’re written
too generally to hit anyone’s “bulls eye.” Attempting to
speak to “everybody” results in not speaking directly to
anybody. There’s no substitute for knowing precisely who
you’re trying to connect with, so you can address their
concerns.

– Make it as unique as you are
If you have a distinctive or quotable viewpoint, let it
shine. Expose your personality. A little wit or self-
revelation is welcomed. And if you can sustain it across
repeated articles, readers will search you out.

Better than shouting from the rooftops
Your posted articles provide your soapbox – as broad as the
Web. So make the most of that exposure, and get you voice
heard. Create a ripple of interest which you can continue to
build on about yourself, your website, your book, etc.
That’s how reputations get made.

Discover everything you need at the Article Marketing
Academy, http://www.promotewitharticles.com to find in-
depth how-to from the experts. You, too can start finding
yourself widely quoted in as little as a week.
c 2004, Lynella Grant

bio = –Dr. Lynella Grant http://www.promotewitharticles.com Use posted articles to build your business Expert in the “body language of printed materials” Author, The Business Card Book and Yellow Page Smarts grant@promotewitharticles.com (719) 395-9450

Popularity: 2% [?]

Natural remedies for perimenopause and menopause symptoms.

More and more women are seeking natural alternative treatments for symptoms of menopause, for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the most compelling reason for many is the association between conventional hormone replacement therapy and a number of serious health risks, including an increased risk of breast cancer and blood clots, although the link has by no means been proven, and the issue is currently the subject of serious debate among women’s health experts. Many women have experienced unpleasant side effects resulting from conventional HRT, including nausea, headaches and vaginal bleeding. Many women simply feel apprehensive at the thought of taking drugs which have been manufactured synthetically.

The whole notion of returning to old fashioned herbal treatments and folk remedies has a certain comforting, romantic appeal. Some of the herbal medicines which are being rediscovered have been used to treat a range of ailments for literally thousands of years. There is a commonly held belief that medicines derived from natural sources are necessarily free from the risk of negative side effects, harmful interactions and allergic reactions. This is simply not true. Whatever kind of medication you choose to take, it’s essential that you fully understand how it works, what dosage level is appropriate for you, and what objective research has been done on its effectiveness and its potential hazards. Your doctor is the best person to provide you with professional, individual advice and attention. Information you find online and in women’s health publications is a useful supplement to your doctor’s advice, and it’s wise to read as widely as you can to get an overall picture of the issues. Your health is the most important thing you have, and while you are free to make your own choices about treating menopause symptoms, it’s vital that you make these choices with your eyes open.

Most experts believe that all of the common symptoms of menopause are caused by the dramatic decline and fluctuations in the body’s levels of estrogen and to some extent progesterone, and the imbalance between them. Approaches to alleviating symptoms generally focus around restoring these hormone levels. Natural treatments are typically made from extracts of plants containing substances which are very similar to the estrogen and/or progesterone produced by the ovaries. The effectiveness of these treatments relies on the assumption that these phytoestrogens and plant progesterones have a similar effect in the body to the body’s own natural hormones. Some herbal treatments work by stimulating glands to produce natural hormones more effectively, rather than restoring the hormones artificially.

Another approach is to treat each symptom individually. There is a range of natural treatments which focus specifically on alleviating common symptoms such as hot flashes, depression, libido problems, vaginal dryness and fatigue.

Estrogen treatments.

Soy

By far the richest source of phytoestrogens (sometimes called “isoflavones”) is soybeans, and foods made from soy extracts. Soy can be consumed in the form of tofu, soy cheese, meat substitute products such as soy burgers, breads and muffins made with soy flour, and soy drinks, sometimes known as “soy milk”. Some studies have shown that consuming soy beverages or breads made with soy flour twice daily can reduce the severity or the number of hot flashes, but results have been inconclusive and inconsistent. Soy powders and pills contain much higher levels of phytoestrogens than soy foods, and may have a more significant effect in alleviating menopause symptoms than soy foods, but little is known about the potential hazards. Consuming soy extracts and soy foods may have a range of other health benefits, including reducing the risk of osteoporosis, cancer and heart disease, and lowering cholesterol. Some studies suggest that phytoestrogens may actually help to reduce the risk of breast cancer by blocking the overproduction of natural estrogen in the body.

Herbs containing phytoestrogens

Red clover has been used in Asia for thousands of years to treat skin conditions, asthma, bronchitis, kidney stones, joint disorders and breast inflammation. It is thought to work by improving circulation and stimulating urine and mucous production, or “purifying the blood”. Red clover has been recently discovered to contain high levels of phytoestrogens, and its usefulness in the treatment of menopause symptoms is being investigated. Some studies have shown the herb to be very effective in reducing hot flashes and improving bone density and strength, while others have been inconclusive.

Dong Quai is an important herb used in Chinese medicine, and has been used to treat PMS, menstrual irregularities and menopause symptoms for thousands of years, although its effectiveness has yet to be clinically verified by Western health practitioners. It is also believed to dilate blood vessels, and is used to treat high blood pressure and circulatory problems.

Black Cohosh

Black cohosh is commonly believed to contain phytoestrogens, although clinical studies to confirm this have been far from conclusive. It is a perennial plant native to North America, and is also known as black snakeroot, bugbane, rattleroot and macrotys. The plant has a long history of usefulness as a medicinal treatment, first by Native American people and more recently by alternative health practitioners, and has been used to treat a range of gynecological ailments including menopause symptoms, infertility, inflammation of the uterus and ovaries, and to induce lactation, bring on menstruation, and alleviate labor pains. It has also been used to treat rheumatism, fever, coughs and colds, hives and backache. Some studies have shown that taking pills made from black cohosh extract is very helpful in providing short term relief from a range of menopause symptoms including hot flashes, depression, mood swings and anxiety. However, little is known about the effects of taking the treatment in the long term, and some negative side effects have been reported, including headaches, stomach and gastric discomfort and weight gain.

Maca

Peruvian Maca root is believed to work by stimulating glands in the body to produce their own estrogen and testosterone. Maca has been cultivated in the Andes region for perhaps thousands of years, and has been used as a treatment to increase energy, enhance libido and increase fertility. Maca root is claimed to provide a range of benefits, including alleviating PMS symptoms, reducing depression and stress, increasing athletic ability and creating a general sense of well being. It is also claimed to be effective in treating a wide range of menopausal symptoms, including mood swings, depression, irritability, anxiety, fatigue, hot flashes, reduced libido, sleep disturbances and breast tenderness. Objective clinical research into the effectiveness and the potential hazards of taking Maca root supplements is very scant.

Progesterone treatments.

An alternative view of the causes of menopause symptoms places more emphasis on the role of progesterone, and the imbalance between progesterone and estrogen. “Estrogen dominance” is a recently identified syndrome, and is believed by a small number of doctors to be the cause of severe PMS and menstrual problems in early adulthood, and a range of severe symptoms as menopause approaches. Advocates of progesterone treatments believe them to be free from the health risks and side effects associated with estrogen based treatments.

Natural progesterone cream

Natural progesterone creams usually contain extracts from Mexican wild yam, which contains a substance which is believed to be similar to the progesterone produced in the body. The creams are applied to the parts of the body where the skin is thinner, such as the breasts, inner thighs, inner forearms or stomach, and are believed to pass through the skin and circulate through the body. Many women have found natural progesterone creams to be very effective in treating menopause symptoms, but there is no evidence to show that the creams lower the risk of breast and uterine cancer, or are free from the risk of side effects as is sometimes claimed.

Chaste tree berry

Chaste tree berry, sometimes known as Chasteberry or Vitex agnus castus has been used since ancient Greek times to treat a range of ailments. It is believed to stimulate the production of progesterone, and has been shown to be very effective in alleviating severe PMS and a range of menopausal symptoms

Natural remedies for perimenopause and menopause symptoms.

More and more women are seeking natural alternative treatments for symptoms of menopause, for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the most compelling reason for many is the association between conventional hormone replacement therapy and a number of serious health risks, including an increased risk of breast cancer and blood clots, although the link has by no means been proven, and the issue is currently the subject of serious debate among women’s health experts. Many women have experienced unpleasant side effects resulting from conventional HRT, including nausea, headaches and vaginal bleeding. Many women simply feel apprehensive at the thought of taking drugs which have been manufactured synthetically.

The whole notion of returning to old fashioned herbal treatments and folk remedies has a certain comforting, romantic appeal. Some of the herbal medicines which are being rediscovered have been used to treat a range of ailments for literally thousands of years. There is a commonly held belief that medicines derived from natural sources are necessarily free from the risk of negative side effects, harmful interactions and allergic reactions. This is simply not true. Whatever kind of medication you choose to take, it’s essential that you fully understand how it works, what dosage level is appropriate for you, and what objective research has been done on its effectiveness and its potential hazards. Your doctor is the best person to provide you with professional, individual advice and attention. Information you find online and in women’s health publications is a useful supplement to your doctor’s advice, and it’s wise to read as widely as you can to get an overall picture of the issues. Your health is the most important thing you have, and while you are free to make your own choices about treating menopause symptoms, it’s vital that you make these choices with your eyes open.

Most experts believe that all of the common symptoms of menopause are caused by the dramatic decline and fluctuations in the body’s levels of estrogen and to some extent progesterone, and the imbalance between them. Approaches to alleviating symptoms generally focus around restoring these hormone levels. Natural treatments are typically made from extracts of plants containing substances which are very similar to the estrogen and/or progesterone produced by the ovaries. The effectiveness of these treatments relies on the assumption that these phytoestrogens and plant progesterones have a similar effect in the body to the body’s own natural hormones. Some herbal treatments work by stimulating glands to produce natural hormones more effectively, rather than restoring the hormones artificially.

Another approach is to treat each symptom individually. There is a range of natural treatments which focus specifically on alleviating common symptoms such as hot flashes, depression, libido problems, vaginal dryness and fatigue.

Estrogen treatments.

Soy

By far the richest source of phytoestrogens (sometimes called “isoflavones”) is soybeans, and foods made from soy extracts. Soy can be consumed in the form of tofu, soy cheese, meat substitute products such as soy burgers, breads and muffins made with soy flour, and soy drinks, sometimes known as “soy milk”. Some studies have shown that consuming soy beverages or breads made with soy flour twice daily can reduce the severity or the number of hot flashes, but results have been inconclusive and inconsistent. Soy powders and pills contain much higher levels of phytoestrogens than soy foods, and may have a more significant effect in alleviating menopause symptoms than soy foods, but little is known about the potential hazards. Consuming soy extracts and soy foods may have a range of other health benefits, including reducing the risk of osteoporosis, cancer and heart disease, and lowering cholesterol. Some studies suggest that phytoestrogens may actually help to reduce the risk of breast cancer by blocking the overproduction of natural estrogen in the body.

Herbs containing phytoestrogens

Red clover has been used in Asia for thousands of years to treat skin conditions, asthma, bronchitis, kidney stones, joint disorders and breast inflammation. It is thought to work by improving circulation and stimulating urine and mucous production, or “purifying the blood”. Red clover has been recently discovered to contain high levels of phytoestrogens, and its usefulness in the treatment of menopause symptoms is being investigated. Some studies have shown the herb to be very effective in reducing hot flashes and improving bone density and strength, while others have been inconclusive.

Dong Quai is an important herb used in Chinese medicine, and has been used to treat PMS, menstrual irregularities and menopause symptoms for thousands of years, although its effectiveness has yet to be clinically verified by Western health practitioners. It is also believed to dilate blood vessels, and is used to treat high blood pressure and circulatory problems.

Black Cohosh

Black cohosh is commonly believed to contain phytoestrogens, although clinical studies to confirm this have been far from conclusive. It is a perennial plant native to North America, and is also known as black snakeroot, bugbane, rattleroot and macrotys. The plant has a long history of usefulness as a medicinal treatment, first by Native American people and more recently by alternative health practitioners, and has been used to treat a range of gynecological ailments including menopause symptoms, infertility, inflammation of the uterus and ovaries, and to induce lactation, bring on menstruation, and alleviate labor pains. It has also been used to treat rheumatism, fever, coughs and colds, hives and backache. Some studies have shown that taking pills made from black cohosh extract is very helpful in providing short term relief from a range of menopause symptoms including hot flashes, depression, mood swings and anxiety. However, little is known about the effects of taking the treatment in the long term, and some negative side effects have been reported, including headaches, stomach and gastric discomfort and weight gain.

Maca

Peruvian Maca root is believed to work by stimulating glands in the body to produce their own estrogen and testosterone. Maca has been cultivated in the Andes region for perhaps thousands of years, and has been used as a treatment to increase energy, enhance libido and increase fertility. Maca root is claimed to provide a range of benefits, including alleviating PMS symptoms, reducing depression and stress, increasing athletic ability and creating a general sense of well being. It is also claimed to be effective in treating a wide range of menopausal symptoms, including mood swings, depression, irritability, anxiety, fatigue, hot flashes, reduced libido, sleep disturbances and breast tenderness. Objective clinical research into the effectiveness and the potential hazards of taking Maca root supplements is very scant.

Progesterone treatments.

An alternative view of the causes of menopause symptoms places more emphasis on the role of progesterone, and the imbalance between progesterone and estrogen. “Estrogen dominance” is a recently identified syndrome, and is believed by a small number of doctors to be the cause of severe PMS and menstrual problems in early adulthood, and a range of severe symptoms as menopause approaches. Advocates of progesterone treatments believe them to be free from the health risks and side effects associated with estrogen based treatments.

Natural progesterone cream

Natural progesterone creams usually contain extracts from Mexican wild yam, which contains a substance which is believed to be similar to the progesterone produced in the body. The creams are applied to the parts of the body where the skin is thinner, such as the breasts, inner thighs, inner forearms or stomach, and are believed to pass through the skin and circulate through the body. Many women have found natural progesterone creams to be very effective in treating menopause symptoms, but there is no evidence to show that the creams lower the risk of breast and uterine cancer, or are free from the risk of side effects as is sometimes claimed.

bio = Lynn Donn is the webmaster for http://www.menopause-symptoms-perimenopause.com Her website includes helpful articles on perimenopause and menopause symptoms including hot flashes and night sweats. Site offers suggestions on how to ease symptoms of menopause and perimenopause naturally using black cohosh, soy and natural progesterone cream etc.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Let’s get something straight right out of the box. If you’re looking to buy a new digital camera, you don’t really have to be an expert in pixels and mega pixels and all that kind of stuff. If you expect to find that kind of deep technical discussion here, you’re in the wrong place.

Actually, there’s a whole lot of stuff you don’t really need to know before tackling the daunting task of choosing the right digital camera for you.

First of all, forget all the high-tech jargon. It’s mostly a lot of sales hype anyway. Choosing a good unit is pretty simple really…pretty much all you have to remember is that the higher the mega pixel rating on the front of the camera, the bigger picture you can make without it breaking up into little chunks (called pixels) and most likely the more cash it’s likely going to pry out of your pocket. Each model has an array of techno-widgets that go by different names but they all have the same basic focus, to help you take a better picture.

I have a quick (and admittedly simplistic) overview of the pixel story. The shot on the left on my web page

http://www.great-nature-photography.com/digital-cameras.html

is one I took with a high pixel rating and the one on the right was with a much lower rating. They’ve been enlarged way beyond what you would normally do, but I do have a point to make here.
If you look carefully you can see there’s a terrific difference in the way they look or, in the ‘resolution’. The image on the right has already broken up into small pieces (pixels) (I hope) you can readily see. The picture on the left was magnified several times more than the one on the right which should give you an idea of how big you can enlarge it and still retain a fairly decent result. By the way, these shots are of a very, very small piece of a picture I took of snapdragons in our front yard.

A camera with a 5.0 mega pixel rating or higher can produce a decent 16X20 print but one with a 2.0 mega pixel rating or lower should be restricted to a maximum of 4X6 prints. For the most part, you won’t be happy with pictures any larger than 4X6 from the lower rated camera.

Okay, Let’s Pick A Camera…

Well, I have my favorites and my not-so favorites.

When I looked at all the digital cameras available, I was more than a little astounded at the vast selection of available equipment. It seems that every company that’s ever heard the word “computer” has jumped on the bandwagon. It seems they lay their hands on some lenses, wrap a computerized box around them, added a few techno-widgets and bingo, instant digital camera! What can you say…it’s money in the bank!

Where did I start looking? Well, I went back to my tried and true method of buying a film camera that I talk about later. It’s always worked for me and didn’t let me down this time either.

My personal digital camera finally wound up to be an Olympus C-5050. By the way, in my opinion Olympus didn’t do themselves or their customers any favors by dumping the f1.8 lens on the C-5060.

I chose this camera for the fast f1.8 lens and ease of use. I’m lazy at best and wanted a unit that’s going to do most of the work for me while leaving me with the option of doing what I want to do when I want to do it.

This unit has all the automatic features I’ll ever need but I also have the ability to set up the camera completely manually. I can still do minimum depth-of-field work among other things. I never want to completely lose control to a mindless computer although they do have their uses at times.

The first thing I did after I opened the box was print off the user manual – all 265 pages of it! I figured I had done my duty by it and promptly ignored it.

After very quickly killing my first two sets of “high-capacity” alkaline batteries, I sprung for a couple sets of Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) rechargeables. Not only did they last longer but it was a heck of a lot cheaper than replacing the alkalines every darn time I picked up the camera.

It boils me to have to admit this but I actually had to go back to the user manual. I wasn’t getting the results I wanted and there was also some ‘stuff’ on the camera I had no clue about using. The moral of this story is that you’re gonna have to at least have a nodding acquaintance with your user manual. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is.

Back to choosing a camera…

Throughout the years I’ve learned that if a camera ‘fit’ my hand it worked well for me. It may sound a little strange at first but just think about it. If you’re handling something that feels awkward, your results are going to look like it. I had a Mamiya RB-67 for a lot of years. It was a big, ungainly unit but it was a good ‘fit’ for me and produced a great image. I also used a Hasselblad for quite a while but I much preferred the Mamiya and it gave me better results than the Hasselblad. (Don’t tell Hasselblad lovers I said this, they’ll kill me!)

So, rule of thumb…if it fits your hand nicely, if the main controls are handy to your fingers, if it has the mega pixel number you want and falls within your budget, you can be pretty confident this will do the job you want it to do. Oh yes, if it’s a brand you’ve never heard of before, be very, very wary. It may work well and it may not. If it doesn’t, there may not be any tech backup for you to be able to access.

The major camera companies spend lots of money developing new photo technologies. Although the latest techno-widgets go by different names, they all have the same goal, to make your pictures look as good as possible.

Pretty well every company in the world that has even come close to producing a good digital camera has gotten into the “SLR Wars”.

Single lens reflex cameras dominated the photo market for years until digital technology hit the market. Because of design and price limitations, SLR technology has not been widely available in the non-professional digital cameras until the last year or so.

The furious pace of technological developments has completely overtaken the market and even professional photographers are being boggled trying to keep up.

Remember the old Nikon F2? It was the major link in the Nikon chain of professional cameras for over 10 years! This was pretty much the norm until the computer hit the photographic industry big time.

Changes used to come slowly and deliberately and it wasn’t hard to keep up with the latest and greatest when major new developments came along only two or three times in a decade.
The battle now is to produce digital cameras that operate faster, can be sold cheaper and will produce a better picture. Severe competition even exists within the same corporate structure where teams of developers do their utmost to ‘outgun’ other camera designers who work in the same building as they do!

Nikon has a distinct advantage over many of the other manufacturers in that owners of some of the older series of Nikon lenses can use them with the new digital bodies, a tremendous dollar saving to the photographer.

Most of this rapid development is focused on the professional photographer. But, with technology changing as rapidly as it is, a camera technology that sells for several thousands of dollars today will undoubtedly become available to people like you and me in the next couple of years for a whole lot less money.

One of the hardest jobs a new camera buyer will have is determine which of the new techno-widgets does the best job and is the best value.

One thing to keep in mind about camera features.they all have the same job and that’s to help you take a better photo.

Picture this if you will. If you lined up 10 cameras from different manufacturers, each with similar basic features, took the same picture with each, I think even the camera manufacturers would have a tough time picking out which of the resulting photos came from their units.

Getting feedback from all kinds of users is one very excellent use of newsgroups. Serious photographers, amateur and professional both, love to talk about their latest ‘toys’. This is a good way to spend time and a good place to ask questions and (sometimes) get intelligent answers.

Don’t wait until you’ve made the investment to start doing your homework.

Another rule of thumb, if you’re happy with a particular brand name already, my suggestion is to stick with it. You’ll probably be more satisfied in the long run.

Now, having said all that, there are currently five search engine ‘favorite’ companies among the people looking for information on the Internet, Sony, Canon, Olympus, Kodak and Nikon in this order of popularity. Of this group, Sony is the only one with no prior experience in camera building before digital.

Understanding how to set your camera’s resolution is absolutely vital. There’s no shortcut and there’s no way around it. This is the core of taking a good, reproducible photograph. If, for instance, your camera is set for 240X360, you can forget making any kind of decent print above a ‘thumbnail’ size.

The low-end cameras are not a bargain if you’re looking for good photo reproduction. Labs are constantly arguing with customers who submit low resolution digital images from a cheap camera for printing and then aren’t happy with the results. They simply don’t understand why the pictures from their brand new digital camera are so lousy. Lenses and the type of digital image recording technology are also critical factors.

I won’t get into the technical details of why but I will suggest you consider spending in the $250 to $400 range if you want something that will satisfy you.

Let’s spend a few minutes on lenses. Pretty well all of the digital cameras these days have a form of zoom lens. Most of the higher-end cameras have the capability for the user to add either an external telephoto or wide-angle lens. Depending on the type of photography you want to do will determine whether or not this is of value to you.

One thing to watch out for. The higher end cameras have very good glass lenses. It’s part of what you’re paying for. The lower-end units have progressively less expensive lenses and consequently, a lower image definition.

There are both optical and digital zoom capabilities on digital cameras. The term “optical zoom” simply means you’re using the glass lenses to do the magnification. “Digital zoom” on the other hand simply increases the size of the pixels to make the image larger. For reasons of image clarity, the optical zoom is a far better way to go.

One last note – if you run across the “best deal in town” on a very low-priced name brand camera, check to make sure it isn’t badly out-dated. Buying well-priced clearance stock is okay if it isn’t too old. In this computer age, pretty well anything over a year old is considered ‘old technology’. As new technologies are developed the price keeps going down so you could actually be money ahead by investing in the ‘latest and greatest’.

Always keep in mind the old adage that ‘you usually get what you pay for.

If you go to a ‘box’ store looking for the best price, don’t expect service. The folks there simply don’t know what they’re selling. Their job is to move as much merchandise as they can as quickly as possible. It’s not to give you advice.

Go to the Internet to get the latest data directly from the manufacturers. It changes very, very quickly. When you do this, try to climb through all the sales hype to get to the ‘meat’ of what the cameras are all about. Newsgroups can also a very excellent source of advice for ‘newbies’.

Most people will be very happy to give you their personal opinion of what you should buy. Just remember, they won’t usually tell you what the downside to their purchase is. They don’t want to look less than ‘expert’ in your eyes. Do your own homework. This is an investment you probably won’t repeat for several years.

A specialty camera store on the other hand gives the buyer both service and product and usually very well. Keep in mind that the specialty store personnel are quite often very highly trained and will probably be well prepared to help you find the best equipment for you and will also give you a ‘leg-up’ in getting started using it.

We need to spend a couple of moments on storage media. Whatever size media card you stick in your camera will determine the number of pictures you can take and store. It’s like a roll of film, the bigger the roll the more pictures you can take.
Digital images are no different. The greater the number of available megabytes (Mb), the higher the number of pictures you can take.

A word of caution – never, never, never leave your media card in a photo lab. The incidence of loss is high and most labs won’t replace lost cards. Quite frankly, I don’t blame them. Far, far too many false claims have been made and labs now refuse to take any responsibility for your memory cards.

That’s it for now. Keep your film dry your lenses clean!
Gordon

bio = During Gordon’s over 30-year career, he has been a full time photographer, a full time photo finisher and lab manager and

has even installed several one-hour labs. He has shot hundreds of weddings and portraits as well as having pictures

published in newspapers and other periodicals. He has recently become involvement in digital photography and has insights

into that technology that may astound you.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Airedale Terrier is a medium 45 to 65 pound dog that usually reaches between 22″ and 24″. Known as the King of the Terriers, they are largest of the Terrier breeds recognized by the AKC. It is a compact little powerhouse that is all terrier when it comes to chasing little animals or appeasing its curiosity.

Airedale Terriers are typically tan on the ears, head, chest, undersides, legs, and sometimes on the shoulders. They are black or grizzle on the sides and upper parts of the body. Sometimes they have a red mixture on the black or white markings on the chest. Certain strains of the breed also have a small white patch on the chest. Their wiry, dense outer coat requires regular grooming.

If you are looking for a dog with plenty of stamina and energy, look no further. The Airedale Terrier is full of energy and needs daily exercise and play. Generally speaking, they do best with older well behaved children and are not ideal for homes with smaller pets as terriers have the tendency to chase small animals and vermin. They can do well with other dogs, especially if they are socialized from puppyhood. They are loyal and protective if their family. They love to learn and can be trained easily provided training is fun and not monotonous.

The breed dates itself back to 18th century England. The breed is a cross between an Otterhound and a Waterside Terrier. They were bred for hunting small game and were later used in big game hunting, police work and as an army dog in WWII. The Airedale Terrier is now considered more of a family pet than working dog. However, they do love to work and have tasks to do and still make good hunting and tracking dogs

For a family that enjoys outdoors and exercise, the Airedale Terrier is an excellent choice. Although they can work with other pets and dogs, a one pet household seems more ideal for their needs unless they grow up with other family pets. The Airedale Terrier is a great pet for the family on the go.

bio = Learn more about dogs and dog care at Dear Doggy. You can also visit our Airedale Terrier page in the dog breeds section of our website for more information.

Popularity: 2% [?]

The secret of success is knowing how to deal with your body to maintain peak health condition. The dictum Health is Wealth hold more truth in the modern context than ever before.

While medical science has progressed what one could ever imagine, in treating disorders and disease, the real challenge lies in prevention. Modern medicine has succeeded in treating major disease it has not found a perfect system for prevention of dreaded diseases like cancer and HIV.

The answer lies in looking to a system which is natural sustainable and adaptable for all conditions and all body systems.

This has now led to extensive research in Herbs as the primary preventive source and healthy herbal and organic food products now take the lead in preventive systems.

The king of Herbs as it is known in China and Celestial Herb in Japan is Ganoderma. It is also known as Lingzhi in China and Reishi in Japan.

Lingzhi is now widely researched across the globe by many universities and research institutions and sterling work has been done by China and Japan.

Revered for thousands of years and shrouded in mystery, Lingzhi however was difficult to grow. After much research in 1970 a breakthrough was achieved in commercial cultivation. Still it remains rare and cultivated in few countries like China, Japan, Malaysia and Korea to name a few.

DXN a company from Malaysia remains in the forefront of bringing the benefits of the Lingzhi to the common man. More details at http://globalhealthnetwork.tripod.com

The Magic Effects of Ganoderma

Research is still going on and scientists have discovered 252 active components beneficial and essential to the human body. It is an adaptogen which brings immense benefits to human body without any side effect.

Analysis and experiments done by various universities and pharmaceutical manufacturers have attested to its being a hemocatharsis, detoxificant,diuretic, liver protector, intestine regulator, cardiotonic, blood pressure adjuster, a cold tonic, expectorant, a tranquilizer and inhibits tumour and cancerous growth.

What is the Healing Principle of Ganoderma

Many clinical trials and experiments by doctors, especially Dr. Shigeru Yuji’s experiments has established the reasons Ganoderma is effective because of its basic functions
- Lowers cholesterol in the blood and the amount of free fat
- Reduces blood sugar levels and helps pancreatic functions
- Lowers blood lipids and stabilizes red cell membrane
- Improves the function of the cortex of the adrenal glands to maintain endocrine balance
- Elevates the natural healing ability of the body, allows the body to establish strong immune system
- Prevents tissue cell degeneration
- Prevents senility, maintaining a youthful constitution
- Lowers the side effects of antihypertensive drugs
- Prevents organ degenetation
- Prevents allergy caused by antigens, because it inhibits the histamine release by mastcells
- Relieves pain caused by cancer

While plenty of medical terminology is used to describe various effects on the body, we have avoided such references as the article is not meant as a medical prescription but mainly for use by the common man as an effective health giving food supplement.

Main Health Giving Components

While the Linghzhi mushrooms are said to contain 252 active medicinal compounds, the two main components are:

1. Germanium: Germanium can promote blood circulation, can increase oxygen absorbing capability of the body and keep sufficient oxygen in the body, improve metabolism and prevent functional degeneration.

Based on research germanium is the major component of Lingzhi. The germanium contained in Lingzhi is 4-6 times more than ginseng.
2. Poly-saccharides: The poly saccharides can increase antibody count which strengthens immunity. Poly saccharides are the most active health enhancing ingredient for the body.

No wonder the Lingzhi mushrooms are called the `Celestial Herb’ by the Japanese for its health giving properties. Modern science and cultivation methods have made this difficult to grow herb available for the past decade or two for everyone to derive the benefits.

While there are thousands of research papers available on the medicinal aspects of the Lingzhi this article primarily is to highlight the health giving aspects of this wonderful herbal remedy for ills of the modern living like stress, pollution and imbalances in food habits.

bio = R.G. Srinivasan is professional Soft Skills Trainer, Author and a Network Marketing leader. He is passionate about alternate healing therapies and writes on these subjects regularly. He is a practitioner of Bach flower therapy and Ganotherapy. You can find out more about the availability of Reishi ganoderma and articles on health and wellness at http://globalhealthnetwork.tripod.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

Before building a site there are many things that you need to take in mind. For example, how are you going to design your site, what is it going to cost you, how long will it take you to build, etc. All of these things mentioned a both are important aspects to consider when designing a site, but there is no point in doing all of this if you can’t even get visitors to your site afterwards.

So you may ask yourself, what are some of the best ways of getting visitors to my site? Well there are many ways of getting visitors to your site. The following shows you some of the best ways of doing this:

1. Adding your sites link to your signature
These can include email signatures, forum signatures, etc.

2. Writing good articles
This is probably one of the best ways to get some good quality traffic to your site. If you can write a good article, then other people are more likely to want to re-publish it on their own sites, newsletters, ezines, etc.

Some useful places for submitting articles are:

http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php – you can also reprint these articles for your own site, newsletters, ezines, etc.

http://www.goarticles.com/

http://www.zongoo.com/

http://www.articlecity.com/

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This is a big factor to consider when building and advertising any site. This is because up to 85% of visitors use search engines to find something that they are interested in before they actually look elsewhere.

To do good SEO you will have to consider many things. Some of these include the use of metatags within your site, a good use of keywords within your sites body, and exchanging links with other sites that is on the same subject as yours.

4. Exchanging links with other sites to build your PR
If you want your site to rank higher within the major search engines then exchanging links with other sites that are on the same subject as yours is a good way to go. This is because exchanging links with other sites will help to build your PR (page rank).

When exchanging links with other sites, a good approach would be to try and exchange links with sites that already has a good PR. But when exchanging links with other sites, you must also consider that you will also be getting traffic from these sites as well, which will be an added bonus.

5. Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising
This is a cost-effective and good way of receiving highly targeted traffic to your site. This is because you only pay for the visitors that you actually receive. You choose how much you want to pay per visitor by bidding against other advertisers.

If you were thinking of trying out PPC Search Engine advertising, then http://www.simplysearch4it.com/webma/ppcse/advdir.php would most probably come in useful to you as it lists a large amount of Pay Per Click Search Engines.

If you have not used PPC Search Engines to advertise your site before, then I would personally recommend that you try out the larger PPC Search Engines. This is because you are more likely to receive a higher conversion rate than what you probably would with the smaller PPC Search Engines.
bio = Jonathan White has been doing marketing on the Web for over three years now and is the Webmaster of http://www.simplysearch4it.com – a general web portal where you can play FREE online games, add free articles, search the Web and much more.

Popularity: 3% [?]

When you have a website online it is important for you to try and get new visitors to your site, but it’s also important to take care of the visitors that you actually already have. This is because you will want your existing visitors to keep returning to your site again and again.

There are many ways that you can do this. Some of these include the following:

1. Updating your Website content continuously
This is an important factor to consider if you want your visitors to keep returning to your site. This is because if you keep on updating your sites content, then every time your visitors come back to your site they will see something new every time, which should then interest them even further. If you don’t update your content on a regular basis, then your visitors will end up getting bored of your site and will then go elsewhere.

2. Making your site more sticky
Giving your site more stickiness will make it more addictive to your sites visitors, which will in return make them want to come back to your site.
This can be done by many different approaches. For example, you can add games to your site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/games/gamdir.html
You can even give free things away on your site. For example, you can give away free coupons, free scripts, free web hosting, etc. You can even offer your visitors free re-printable articles so that they can add them to their own site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php.

3. Checking your site for broken links
This is very important when having a site. If your site does not function properly, then your visitors will not even bother with it. One of the most annoying things when visiting a site is when it has continuous broken links.
If you find it hard to manually check your site for broken links, then a good piece of free software to use would be the REL Link Checker Lite, which can be downloaded from http://www.relsoftware.com/.

4. Getting other people’s opinions
When having a site, other than your own thoughts, it is also a good idea to get other people’s opinions. For example, the colours of your site, what parts people like on your site the most, what parts people dislike the most, etc. Getting opinions from your visitors like this will help you to find out what most people dislikes about your site, which means you can then improve these parts, making it better for your visitors in return.

bio = Jonathan White has been doing marketing on the Web for over three years now and is the Webmaster of http://www.simplysearch4it.com – a general web portal where you can play FREE online games, add free articles, search the Web and much more.

Popularity: 2% [?]

What are PPC Search Engines?

PPC Search Engines are search engines that allow advertisers to list their site within their search results on a pay per click basis. Advertisers bid against other advertisers for the same keywords or phrases. The highest bidder will then have their site ranked #1 in the PPC Search Engine results for a certain keyword followed by the second highest bidder for the same keyword followed by the third highest bidder for the same keyword, etc.

When a visitor then does a search in the PPC Search Engine and clicks on an advertisers bided link, the advertisers account will then get deducted for that click. This only happens once per unique visitor. So if that same visitor clicked on the same advertisers bided link twice, then the advertisers account will only get deducted for the first click.

Why is it easier to earn from PPC Search Engines than other affiliate programs?

PPC Search Engine affiliate programs are a good and easy way to earn some quick cash online. It is a lot easier to earn from PPC Search Engines than most other affiliate programs because you earn from your visitors click-thru’s to an advertisers site and not per action or sale.

Where can I find PPC Search Engines that offer affiliate programs?

There are only a few good resources on the Internet that lists a large amount of PPC Search Engines. Most of these are either outdated where they have a lot of PPC Search Engines that don’t exist anymore or only mainly gives information about a PPC Search Engines advertising offers.

If you were looking to join some PPC Search Engines that offer affiliate programs so that you can earn some quick and easy cash, then a useful resource to use would be http://www.affiliateseeking.com/ppcaff.php.

This is because it lists over 425 PPC Search Engines where you can easily compare what each PPC Search Engines affiliate program has to offer and you can even organize the PPC Search Engines results by Date Added, Minimum Payout, Earnings, etc.

I have joined a PPC Search Engine. How do I go about advertising it so that I can earn from it?

Once you have joined a PPC Search Engine, you can then easily get promotional links/material from the affiliate section of the PPC Search Engine account where you can then use them to advertise the PPC Search Engine that you have joined.

Most PPC Search Engines allow you to advertise them by using search boxes, an xml feed, text links, referral links, banners, a portal page, and more.
bio = Jonathan White has been doing affiliate marketing on the Web for over three years now and is the Webmaster of http://www.affiliateseeking.com – a categorized affiliate programs directory that lists over 800 programs and is still growing.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Affiliate marketing has been around on the Web for quite sometime now, but there are still a lot of people who doesn’t know much or even nothing about it. Most of the people that don’t know about affiliate marketing and has just discovered it normally thinks that they can make a quick buck or two. Well that’s not the case.

To do well in affiliate marketing is not just a one-day task. Affiliate marketing is like an on going assignment where you have to try different things out like different advertising techniques, different ways of adding affiliate banners and text links to your site, etc. You may even have to join a number of affiliate programs just to see which ones performs the best with the other content that you already have on your site.

Another thing is that many affiliates expect to do well from just having a list of about 20 affiliated banners on one page of their site. Well that’s not exactly true as people will see your web page and won’t even bother clicking on any of the banners to go to your affiliated sites as your web page just looks like a link farm. How people think they can make money this way, I really don’t know as affiliate marketing takes time and effort before any results can be seen.

If you are adding affiliate banners or text links to your site, then the best thing to do is for you to add affiliate links or banners to your site that is on the same topic as the other information on your web page. By doing this, you will not want to add too many affiliated banners or text links as it will just look like a page of links and will only turn your visitors away, about three affiliated links should be enough depending on how large the web page is.

Another important aspect in affiliate marketing is advertising. You can’t expect to add affiliate material to your site and expect to receive sales straight away. If you have no traffic coming to your site, then you will not get any sales. Infact, directly advertising the affiliate links or adding the affiliate links to your website and advertising that is probably one of the most important things that you will need to do to have any chance of succeeding. This is because the more you promote your affiliate link or site that contains the affiliate links, then the more clickthru’s your affiliate links are likely to receive, which is then most likely to result in more sales.

bio = Jonathan White has been doing affiliate marketing on the Web for over three years now and is the Webmaster of http://www.affiliateseeking.com – a categorized affiliate programs directory that lists over 800 programs and is still growing.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Until people understand that the internet is a new
communication vehicle and not a new entertainment medium,
success will continue to be elusive. The reason for this will
become very clear as you read through this article.

It is not too difficult to see why many internet marketers
insist that the World wide web is an entertainment medium – a
development from TV. The typical person is more interested in
the new offerings on the web that can entertain and less
excited in the details of the enhanced communications
capabilities this new phenomenon brings.

It is therefore not surprising to learn that the net is
actually the first activity in over 40 years that has been
clearly documented as something that causes people to spend
less time watching TV. No wonder most people think of it as
a substitute for TV.

But they have done this with disastrous consequences.
Even as you read this, entrepreneurs all over the world
continue to pump money into all sorts of advertising schemes
on the net. Fascinating when you consider that the same people
doing this hate to be interrupted by advertising when
they’re surfing.

I find it much more useful to think of the net as an
improvement on the telephone. Then everything makes sense
and any promotion on the net works like magic.

People hate interruptions on the phone from telemarketers.
They prefer to call and ask about a product they are interested
in and then to place an order using the same telephone.

If you look at the Internet as an enhanced telephone,
rather than try to advertise through it, you will seek to
advertise elsewhere (offline) to direct the people to
contact
you (by visiting your web site or sending for details
via email). That’s exactly the way it has worked with
the telephone for decades.

Experts have already proved that although the web has
not been a very successful advertising medium, it has
increased advertising revenue for offline mediums like
newspapers, magazines, radio and TV.

There is another very effective proven way of using this
improvement-on-the-telephone medium to promote your
business, and it works much better than advertising.
It is by cashing in on the way most people use the
internet. For years the telephone has been a valuable
instrument for getting information. People looking for
information have frequently made a few calls to get
the info that they are looking for.

Being an improved telephone, the net makes that even
easier. You use a search engine or you visit a web site
and get all the information you want. You rarely look
for information in online advertisements.

So what better way to attract attention to your offering
than to provide lots of useful free articles packed with
information that your target market may be looking for?

And the advantage of doing this online is huge. Offline
PR articles will hardly carry the full contact or address
of where the business or service being written about can
be found. Online, a resource box will not only include
contact information, but it can also have an enticing
special offer or opportunity for the reader to seek

more information via email. This way an article writing
business easily and effortlessly builds up a valuable opt
in contacts list. The list can be contacted later with
information, updates and all sorts of interesting offers.

Having realized that the quality of their content is
the key to success, web sites have been grappling for
a low cost solution to keeping their content interesting,
fresh and informative. They seem to have found the answer
in offering to post articles free on their site. More
and more web sites do that these days.

And more and more smart businesses need to take full
advantage of this to get out the word over the net
about their offerings.

One more aspect has rendered free article posting
extremely effective. It is as a result of the fact
that there is really very little well written material
around, so any well written piece will quickly enjoy
an amazing viral effect.

Here is how it happens. Most of the sites that post
these free articles target web sites and ezine
publishers who download and use these articles.
Many of the web sites that do this in turn also
allow others to download and use the same material.
All with one condition, that they do not edit the
article and that they leave the resource box intact.

The result is that a single article finds it way
around the net to dozens of sites and ends up being
seen by thousands and ultimately hundreds of thousands
of persons interested in the subject written about
and therefore very interested in the sort of products
marketed by the person who wrote the article.

That is exactly how you make full use of the power
of the net to advertise effectively online – and
it’s free.

bio = Christopher Kyalo has over 20 years experience in
marketing and creative writing. He provides a service
that dreams up brilliant article ideas, and writes and
posts them on the net thus creating tremendously
effective advertising for any business. Email him
now at ckyalo at yahoo.com to get your first article
created and written FREE with no obligations.
Or order NOW for a FREE report “How to use the
most effective advertising weapon on the net,
it’s free” by sending a blank email
to bizboom at FreeAutobot.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

I have probably had high blood pressure for a long time. This is the story of how I found out.

In hindsight, I can identify many symptoms of high blood pressure, but I either ignored them or thought they were related to other things.

The major symptom I had was headaches. Most days I would either wake up with a headache or develop one. Some of them were real “head splitters” … occasionally I would have to lie down to stop the nausea. I remember often working in front of my computer and trying very hard not to move my head to avoid feeling sharp pains.

Since being diagnosed with high blood pressure and starting medication, I have not had one headache (around nine months now). My headaches were definitely due to my high blood pressure, but back then I thought they were due to stress, or poor posture due to sitting at a computer all day … or any number of things.

THE DIAGNOSIS

I had been told for years by doctors that my blood pressure was high, but that it was probably due to the “white coat”effect. Turns out it wasn’t. I went to a new doctor, and as she took my blood pressure, she had a very worried look on her face.

My systolic blood pressure reading was over 200.

She told me to go to hospital immediately and made me promise I would not ignore her warning. At the time I did think she was over-reacting, and I pictured myself sitting in the hospital emergency waiting room for a couple of hours, waiting for a doctor to see me, giving me a couple of pills to take, and heading home.

The actual story was very different.

I arrived at emergency and was given the standard “patient detail” form to fill out. Before I was 1/3 of the way through, a nurse turned up to take my blood pressure. She also got a worried look on her face, and took me straight to one of the emergency beds. This is in a hospital system famous for making people wait hours in emergency.

I had doctors all over me … injecting things, taking blood, scanning me and god knows what else.

My clearest memory of that day was suddenly feeling very light headed.

The doctor later told me that I “liked” a drug (I think it was hydralazine) he injected into me. I say “liked” because only a doctor could think I “liked” it. In about 30 seconds I went from feeling what I then considered normal, to being drenched in sweat, head spinning and throwing up my lunch. The nurses told me later that I was as white as a ghost.

I remember asking one of the emergency nurses if she thought I would be able to go home that night. She laughed.

I ended up spending 4 days in intensive care, and 6 days in the general hospital before they let me go home.

The quality of the care, the doctors and the nurses were all amazing. We have a free hospital system in Australia which sometimes gets a bad rap, but my experience was very positive.

MEDICATION

They never found a cause … I just have high blood pressure. I take a fair bit of medication, and my blood pressure is now at normal levels.

My doctor told me to buy a blood pressure monitor and record my readings each day. Because I kept forgetting to take my readings, I wrote a software program to remind me. The software also charts the readings from my home monitor, and it is clear that my readings have been dropping over the last six months.

My readings are now around 110-120 over 70-80. Much better, but more importantly, I feel a lot better … I had no idea that high blood pressure could make you feel so unwell.

If you also have high blood pressure I wish you well! If you have not seen a doctor about it, I highly recommend it … don’t leave it as late as I did, they can help you to feel a lot better!
bio = Steve Alan is the author of a software program for Windows (free trial available), which reminds you to use your home blood pressure monitor, as well as recording and charting your readings. Email or print a report of your readings for your Doctor. For more information go to: http://www.my-blood-pressure.com

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Alaskan Malamute is a medium-large to large dog that weighs between 70-95 pounds and measures up to 25″. They are best known as sled dogs and are used to hard work. They ideal for cold climates or homes that will keep them cool and hydrated in hot summers. The Alaskan Malamute has a thick, coarse outer coat and wooly, dense undercoat. They are dressed for cold weather. If you own an Alaskan Malamute and live in a warmer climate, you need to make sure that they have a place to get out of the sun and plenty of water.

They come in a variety of colors including solid white, shadings of light to medium gray, black, sable, and red. In animals with shadings, parts of legs, feet, the underbody, and part of face markings are predominantly white. The AKC does not recognize any other solid colors than white.

Alaskan Malamutes are independent, friendly and loyal. They are more active as puppies and tend to mellow when they get older. They are chewers, diggers and explorers. If you don’t want it played with, than put it away. When your Alaskan Malamute is outside, make sure that they can’t dig out of the yard or jump over they fence. They are not good apartment, small home or city dogs. They love to be outside and need plenty of room to play. Because they are extremely playful as puppies, they would be better for older children until they become calmer. They work best with other animals and pets when they are socialized at a young age. They can be aggressive towards other dogs and can consider small animals prey. This is an ideal dog for a family home that allows plenty of outdoor time to play and explore

The breed dates back over 2000 years and is a native of Alaska. They were originally used as sled dogs by the Alaskan Malamute Eskimo tribe. In addition to a companion dog, the Alaskan Malamutes are still used as sled dogs for racing, exploration and families living in arctic regions.

As hardworking sled dogs, they are important household pets for families living in cold, snow covered areas and imperative to their way of life. If you are looking for an independent but loving companion, the Alaskan Malamute is a perfect dog for you.

bio= Learn more about dogs and dog care at Dear Doggy. You can also visit our Alaskan Malamute page in the dog breeds section of our website for more information.

Popularity: 2% [?]

How many times have you heard:

* “You’ve got to drop your price by 10% or we will have no choice but to go with your competition.”

* “You will have to make an exception to your policy if you want our business.”

* “I know that you have good quality and service, but so do your competitors. What we need to focus on here is your pricing.”

* “I agree that those special services you keep bringing up would be nice, but we simply don’t have the funds to purchase them. Could you include them at no additional cost?”

Every time you hear statements like these, you’re in the middle of a difficult sales negotiation. How you handle that negotiation will determine whether or not you close the sale and how profitable that sale will be. In order to give you a real edge every time, I have listed below some key points taken from my sales negotiation training program.

Don’t Believe Everything You See and Hear

Part of a good salesperson’s skill is to learn to read people and situations very quickly. However, when it gets down to negotiating, you have to take everything you see and hear with a grain of salt. Buyers are good negotiators, and thus they are good actors. You may be the only person who has what she needs, but everything she does and says, from body language to the words she uses, will be designed to lead you to believe that unless she gets an extra 10% off, she’s going with the competition. Be skeptical. Be suspicious. Test, probe, and see what happens.

Don’t Offer Your Bottom Line Early in the Negotiation

How many times have you been asked to “give me your best price”? Have you ever given your best price only to discover that the buyer still wanted more? You have to play the game. It’s expected. If you could drop your price by 10%, start out with 0%, or 2%, or 4%. Leave yourself room to negotiate some more. Who knows – you may get it for a 2% reduction. You might have to go all the way to 10%, but often you won’t. A little stubbornness pays big dividends.

Get Something in Return for Your Added Value

What if you discover that the buyer wants to be able to track his expenditures for your products or services in a way that is far more detailed and complex than is standard for your industry? What if your account tracking system is set up in a way that you can provide that information at essentially no cost to you? Often the salesperson’s overwhelming temptation is to jump in and say, “Oh, we can do that. That’s no problem.” Before you do, however, think about your options. You could throw it in as part of the package and try to build good will. Or you could take a deep breath and try something like, “That’s a difficult problem that will require some effort on our part, but it’s doable.” In the second case, without committing, you’ve told the buyer it is possible. You may not be able to get him to pay extra for it but you may be able to use it as a bargaining chip in resisting price concessions. Which way you choose to go will depend on who your customer is and on the situation. However, you do have options.

Sell and Negotiate Simultaneously

Think of selling and negotiating as two sides of the same coin. Sometimes one side is face up, and sometimes the other side, but they are always both there. This is particularly true in your earliest contacts with the buyer. The face the buyer sees is that of a salesperson demonstrating features and benefits. The hidden face is that of a negotiator probing and seeking out information that may be invaluable later should issues like price, terms, quality, delivery, etc. have to be negotiated.

Be Patient

Finally, and most important, be patient. Sales is a high energy, fast moving business. Patience is one commodity that is in relatively short supply, but if you’re impatient in a negotiation, you’ll lose your shirt. If I’m negotiating with you and I know that you’re impatient, I will hold out just a little longer, no matter how desperate I am to make a deal with you. As long as I know you’re in a hurry, I’ll wait. So be patient. Take the time that you need, don’t rush to give in, don’t show your anxiety, stay cool and don’t panic. Negotiation is a process and a game. Use the process and play the game. You’ll be astonished at the difference that it makes!

(c) Michael Schatzki – 2004. All rights reserved.
bio = Michael Schatzki is a master negotiator who, for over 20 years, has provided sales negotiation training and coaching for thousands of people in the U.S. and globally. More than 75% of Mike’s programs are for satisfied, repeat customers. The Negotiation Dynamics(r) system really works. Check out all of Mike’s articles at http://www.NegotiationDynamics.com. Mike can be reached at (888) 766-3530.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Public companies have 90 days from the end of their fiscal year to comply. For those with market capitalization of $75 million or more, this clock starts on Nov. 15, 2004; while all others with less than $75 million market capitalization begin July 15, 2005.

Fast Relief for Sarbanes Oxley Section 404 Compliance

Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires management to confirm the effectiveness of their IT and financial controls in an “internal control report”, which is contained within the annual report (10-K) issued to the public. But what exactly is an internal control report, and why is it important to you?

The Section 404 Internal Control Report

First, the internal control report must affirm management’s responsibility for controls and procedure, and second, it must contain an assessment of the effectiveness of the internal controls and procedures for financial reporting. Although both of these issues might at first appear difficult to solve, they are actually not as hard as you would think.

Management’s Responsibility for Controls and Procedures

Affirming management’s responsibility for controls and procedures means more than to simply say management believes in or trusts their system. The affirmation will also need to include a program for a code of ethics for senior financial officers. The program must include prompt disclosures of any changes to your ethics program. So how do you do this?

Business Ethics and Compliance Program

You can easily implement a business ethics program using a step-by-step guide for developing your firm’s business ethics and compliance program. This manual will save you time researching, writing and editing your program. It provides sample policies, surveys, forms and training session outlines that are fully editable using MS Word. And it is also fully endorsed by The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) as a tool to maintain a culture of integrity.

Internal Controls

Your internal control report must also contain an assessment of the effectiveness of your internal controls and procedures for financial reporting. In practical terms, control is equivalent to predictability. Everyday management creates forecasts and budgets to predict the future. And the further into the future you can accurately predict, then the more control you have.

Achieve More Control Over Your Forecasts And Budgets

A training class for creating well defined processes shows you how to attain more control. Real world exercises and examples explain how to increase management effectiveness, achieve process control, communicate clear procedures, and verify if your processes are working. So what about procedures?

Procedures Effectiveness

For dealing with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, you can look at products like the Management CFO Value Series that includes Accounting, Human Resources, as well as policies, procedures and forms for other departments. Such procedures will save you time researching best practices, creating a standard format, and thinking of clear and concise paragraphs to write.

Easier Section 404 Compliance

Your internal control report is the key to your Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance. You should also look at a business ethics and compliance program, attend a training class for creating well-defined processes to learn more about management effectiveness, and use a CFO Management Value Series to speed the development of your procedures. You want to achieve fast, easy, and effective relief for your Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance.

bio = Chris Anderson is co-author of policies and procedures manual products, providing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance. He is currently the Managing Director of Bizmanualz, Inc., and holds a Masters in Business Administration from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University. Visit: http://www.bizmanualz.com/accounting

Popularity: 1% [?]

People who are buying online have grown dramatically over the last few years. Consumers purchase a variety of different products, and with the trend as it is; elderly people are becoming more confident to pay for their products online as they understand money can be saved in comparison to prices in high street shops.

As any business would know, it is important to keep up to date with current market prices so products can remain competitive. The Help the Aged website seem to be selling mobility scooters at more than double the price of other online vendors. So why are the prices of the mobility scooters on the Help the Aged website so expensive?

The Help the Aged website have a section where people can come and ask questions and post answers to other peoples threads. One person challenged Help the Aged on how they justify their prices considering there are similar websites selling the same product and offering a similar service at half the price.

Peter Olsson: Help the Aged E -Commerce Marketing Manager, replied and said that Help the Aged started selling mobility scooters in February 2004 to counter act against the common “Unethical Sales Practices” of other sellers in the industry. Peter Olsson suggests that his own research shows that the prices Help the Aged sell their mobility scooters at are infact, “very competitive”. Mr Olsson states that he is aware, rock bottom rates are advertised in tabloids and other media. However, he encourages in his reply to remember “there’s a wide range of specifications available on the market so people get what they pay for”. He uses an example stating that some are sold as new although they have been refurbished.

Mr Olsson said Help the Aged would advise anyone only to deal with “Reputable vendors” in order to avoid deceptive sales tactics to prevent a disappointing purchase. “If something sounds too cheap to be true, it usually is.” Although we could agree with this statement in general, in some cases this may not be correct. So, are we understand from Mr Olsson, that the Help the Aged website is a reputable vendor to purchase Mobility Scooters but to be aware of commercial websites offering mobility scooters at cheaper prices?

Companies such as Factory Outlet Scooters, www.factoryoutletscooters.co.uk sell brand new mobility scooters at low cost prices. Are we to believe that this company is not reputable because their scooters are sold at, in some cases, half the price of Help the Aged? I don’t believe so.

In response to Mr Olsson, a gentleman posted a reply. He said he himself had worked in the industry selling mobility products for the last 15 years, and that he was “Very amused, yet saddened” at the reply Mr Olsson offered. He did not think it was appropriate for a well known charity to be involved in this commercial enterprise which by its inference gives backing to an associate company selling items for high prices which may lead a potential customer away from a competitor selling the same product at half the price. He agrees with Mr Olsson that there are bad companies around and added that they sell scooters and other aids at inflated prices, and suggests the role of Help the Aged as a charity should be to educate and guide the elderly to the best buys, the best prices and companies who are ethical.

The Office of Fair Trading have currently launched a campaign to help consumers, such as the elderly, to fend off doorstop sellers who are selling high price items, such as mobility scooters and mobility products, to deal with high-pressure sales tactics. The campaign is backed by a number of groups, including Help the Aged.

Help the Aged have their heart in the right place, and we know they do a lot of good work for the elderly, but in this case, they possibly need to be more aware of realistic prices that the elderly can make their purchases online and perhaps recognise genuine services offered by other online companies in the market industry.

bio = Nicola Bullimore has been working with people regarding personal finance for some years. For more information, visit www.debtquestions.co.uk

Popularity: 2% [?]

Your health is your responsibility. As a human being, you
have the choice to put in your stomach whatever you want. It
is YOU and only you that can choose what you want or not to
eat. In other words, it is YOU who chooses to be slim and
fit or not. That is your choice. You need to take 100%
responsibility of the way you eat. That’s the beginning of
your success.

Now, you’ll say: “I can’t, it is stronger than me” or “look
at this cake, I can’t leave it alone. It needs to be eaten.”
or “It is so good, another one please!”. The question is:
“Why do you eat?” Is it for pleasure or for fuel? After all,
food is just food, but the emotion we attach to food is so
strong that we tend to eat for pleasure or for an emotional
reward.

When you eat junk food, subconsciously you say YES! to it.
Let’s learn another word: NO!
Most of us said, “No!” quite well when we were two and we
have grown up to be people pleasers and say “YES!” all the
time. Most of us believe that saying “No” can cost us a lot
in our adult life.

NO! is a powerful word when said at appropriate moments. One
of the best moments to say that powerful NO is when you want
to eat junk food.
Dr. Bob Bodenhamer, co-developer of neuro-semantics said,
“All change in essence boils down to saying ‘No’ to what you
don’t want and ‘Yes’ to what you do want.”

If this statement is correct, each time that you say YES to
junk food, you say, subconsciously of course “I want to be
fat and don’t want to be slim and fit” even if consciously
you really want to be healthy and full of energy.

Words are power and your language is a representation of
your map. Let’s add some choice to your map. The more
choices you have, the more success you will have.

Therefore, let’s learn or re-learn to say this powerful NO!
The results of saying NO to certain foods are: you will have
a sense of control over your own body (you don’t want to be
controlled by it, don’t you?), you will feel more confident,
more self-esteem and eventually you will feel at peace. It
will reinforce your belief that you need to take 100%
responsibility for your own health and nobody will do it for
you

First, get a good strong representation of saying “No!” to
something. It doesn’t need to be related to food. You will
want to make sure that your No looks, sounds, and feels
congruent and that it truly fits with your beliefs and
values.

Second, to reinforce this powerful NO, find 4 other
situations where you said NO!. It can be as simple “NO, it’s
too late to go out now”. The most important is that it needs
to be congruent. If you are a 100% people pleasers and can’t
find any NO! situations, think of what it would be, how you
would feel and what you would hear if you had the courage to
say NO! to something or someone. This is this kind of NO!
that you need.

Third, Say No! to the junk food. Re-access the “it’s
stronger than me” feeling and once you have it, say No! Do
it congruently, intensely, and repeatedly. And you can keep
on saying No! until you begin to feel that it no longer has
any power to run your programs. Notice how the feeling
diminish and how the desire for the food is far and
disappearing.
To finish, picture yourself already slim and fit. You
already know it’s not hard to do it. Now, say a big “YES!
That’s what I want!”

As you know, you have the power of saying NO! Everybody
does. But we are trapped with some limited old thinking that
eating is for a reward or for pleasure. We are conditioned
to eat for false reasons. When you keep repeating this
pattern, you break some old belief and it comforts you: you
can change, you can do it, can’t you?

bio = Y-E-S! It is possible to change, to get slim and fit or
to live more at peace. In fact, much easier than you could
ever imagine. Discover now how you can do it in the #1
personal development plan on the net.
Click => http://www.vision-to-action.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

Joint Ventures: Helping Each Other

Look for 2 online businesses that both offer products, both offer services, or one of each and explain to them how they could combine and make their profits grow. They may already share links with each other and therefore realize the benefit of joint promotion so that’s half the battle or two offline businesses that would compliment each other such as a restaurant and a movie theater, this is already being done in many areas. Think of all of the people that eat out before or after the movie anyway- think “date night.”

If you are strapped for cash but want to create a really good website, approach a college student who is studying the computer field. Explain to him that you have a really good product but don’t want to develop the website yourself. Offer to the person a percentage of the profits in exchange for his design.

No two businesses have exactly the same customer base, advertising methods, or ideas unless they already in this kind of partnership. Why not learn from each other, share resources, and both increase sales! You may already be doing this by posting another owner’s link. Since the other person may not be familiar with your product, it is a good idea to exchange testimonials because customer satisfaction is a wonderful selling point.

If you want to approach a big business you may want to first meet with a manager of the local store and then suggest that (s)he take the information back to the district manager. It may mean more coming from that person, who is already a trusted name with the store, rather than you.

Writing the letter of intent:

* Offer a compliment on the person’s products or service.
* Explain how they were helpful to you.
* Explain what you do and what products or services you have.
* State that you would like to offer the opportunity to combine your businesses
For the purpose of increasing sales.
* Request that the person contact you to set up a meeting at a convenient time.

How I Can Help You:

1. Tell me about your business. What are the products sold? What are the services?
2. What are you already doing to in terms of a partnership? Do you have links?
3. What are some ideas you have? What else would your customers be interested in?
4. How can you combine your skills, abilities, products, and resources to benefit you?

* You don’t have to have anything but desire to make more money than you have now.

bio = I have a masters degree in counseling and have written many articles. I enjoy sharing information with others.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Distance Learning is a priority for most who have already set their lives out in one way or another in that their responsibilities have been laid out, and in quite a few cases, would not allow for regular College schedules. This is taken into consideration when looking for a place to study, and this shouldn’t mean below par education. It should mean convenience for those interested in education and furthering their portfolios.

Student Commitment
Distance Learning requires a certain amount of commitment as the student must schedule the time to study. This is also reflective in their work as they are not going to afford the time unless genuinely interested in the subject matter. The work from these students shows a clear interest in their progression, and therefore their time is not wasted on courses that they are only taking for UKAS points.

Flexibility
A high standard is reached as there is very little disruption in the pupil’s life, and therefore they find that they are able to concentrate on the subject matter fully. These courses are not as expensive as those that have to hire out a classroom, and with the ‘email’ style of assessment, the cost to complete their course assignments is inconsequential. There is no waiting for weeks for their assessments to be returned to them, and this makes it easier for the student to get on with their work at their own pace. These courses fit into lifestyles as it is usually humanly impossible to gauge when a situation will arise that takes a student away from their studies, but with the Distance Learning option, these students do not have the worry of catching up, or even having to loose out on their whole course and fee because there has been a glitch in their schedule. The course can be put aside, and picked up when the situation is eradicated. For those who travel for work, their course can be taken with them, affording them the time to continue on with their studies.

Different options for different lifestyles
This form of education is taking a front seat for those interested in continuing study after settling into a career, or starting a family. There are numerous reasons for not being able to put your life on hold to study a preferred topic, and this option is sometimes the only way people are able to get the training they need. This should not mean that these people have to put up with inferior courses, or exorbitant fees. For those who are unable to leave their homes, or not able to physically enrol on classroom taught courses, this form of education plays a paramount importance in their lives. Oxford College ODL and Oxford Distance Learning have devised a scheme for the visually impaired by designing their courses specifically for these people’s needs, and they are in the process of setting up a program to fit into those people’s lives that have difficulty in finding a course that caters for their special needs.

Grading
Distance learning courses are not easy. Because the student is not required to attend classes, it is imperative that a sound assessment of their absorption of the materials is obtained by the tutor, and this is only obtained through assignments that are usually more in depth than the usual grading process that is awarded through classroom taught courses. This takes it’s form by enabling the student into not just learning about a given subject, but also showing their understanding of each individual step in essay form which lends to their overall grade. This is particularly important to the student, as the material is not the only information that needs to be taught in a given subject. The student needs to be able to question the material, and use their own reasoning when it comes to analysing what they are asked to absorb which keeps them interested in the course work and sees that they feel more involved with the process of their learning.

In the words of Mike Tomlinson, former chief inspector of schools,

‘Too much time is spent preparing for exams which could be used for learning’.

bio = About the Author: Written by Angela Williams, Education Standards Reviewer `UK Education Today’. Distance Learning Courses can be enrolled via www.oxforddistancelearning.com. This online college has been recognised in the UK for offering the “best tutoring program to date”.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Are you frustrated by the lack of growth in your firm, or the effort required to squeeze any up-tick in performance? Are inadequate policies and procedures a root cause? To find out, take this simple self assessment to see if this may be inhibiting real growth at your company.

Q. Can you take an extended vacation without the company falling apart?

A. If you answered “no” then you have a job and not a business. A business must have a system of standard operating procedures to ensure the work gets done correctly, even in your absence.

Q. Can your company handle a ramp-up in sales and production?

A. Hidden inefficiencies are often revealed when sales and production increase. If low turns on accounts receivable and inventory, long sales or production cycles starve your cash flow, then something is wrong. Your policies and procedures should document cycle times for your critical operating metrics.

Q. Can you effectively add more people to your organization?

A. Hiring people is simple compared to ensuring they know what to do and have the resources to accomplish their job. Policies and procedures provide the framework for a management system to oversee new employees and communicate who does what by when.

Q. Does opening a new branch office, plant or facility create havoc?

A. Expanding your operations to new locations will test the limits of your policies and procedures. Did you know that franchises are four times more likely to survive than a start-up primarily because they have a well defined operations manual? Are you running your business like franchises run theirs?

Q. Is your family happy with your work life?

A. If your business demands too many hours, too much stress, and too little quality time with your family and friends, then you should do something about it. A well defined system of standard operating procedures can allow you take a vacation without worry, increase sales with ease, add people to fill demand, and open new offices without trouble. Then your family will be the happiest on the block.

bio = Chris Anderson is co-author of policies and procedures manual products, assisting in the layout, process design and implementation of the information. He is currently the Managing Director of Bizmanualz, Inc. He holds a Masters in Business Administration from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University.
mail to:chris@bizmanualz.com or sean@bizmanualz.com Visit:http://www.bizmanualz.com

Popularity: 1% [?]

A beautiful ride across cities and places named World Heritage by the Unesco, through an splendid protected natural area and ending in a surrealistic garden by artist Sir Edward James. Just keep reading…

The ride starts in Queretaro City at 5,970 ft above sea level.

Queretaro is a colonial city founded more than 500 years ago and named World Heritage by the Unesco in 1996 . It’s located in the center of the country two hours North Mexico City. Nowadays it has become one of the most dynamic cities in Mexico due to the surrounding industrial parks where many international companies are located.

The first stop is just 45 minutes away: “La Pe¤a de Bernal” (The “Rock of Bernal”). We are talking about the third biggest rock in the world and the highest in Mexico. At its feet a quaint little town were you can stop for a soda, lunch or spend the night. You can also find nice little souvenirs. Whatever you decide to do, this place is a must.

If you like rock climbing, you are in the right place too!

The road to Bernal doesn’t present any major challenge, most of the road is straight with just a few extended curves… but just after passing Bernal it starts to get fun!

Surrounded by an arid landscape due the high content of lime in the soil, you start with a very interesting section of twisties, one after another, up and down, a technical road between the mountains for about 30 miles. The landscape changes a bit as you advance and a few miles later you are in the middle of a semidesert.

After this twisty section you then continue on a straight part of the road. A few more miles down the route and you find a military checkpoint… Don’t worry about it, they are normally courteous people just looking for arm and drug smugglers.

After the control point the curves and the fun start again. As you get to “Pe¤a Blanca” (“White Rock” in English) – by the way if you need gas, this is the place to stop and fill it up – you start climbing the mountains twist after twist.

I love this part: most of the ride you can clearly see three or four turns in front of you, and as it is a low traffic road, you can enjoy yourself taking the best lines (always keeping it in the safe side if you know what I mean!).

After climbing for a while you notice how things start to change and suddenly what were rocks, sand and cactus are now pine trees. It’s beautiful.. You feel the change of temperature and then you reach “La Puerta del Cielo” (The Door of Heavens”) the highest point in this ride.

We are now at about 9200 feet above sea level… The turns continue but now you are going downhill. Remember to adjust your riding to that fact. Unfortunately I have seen more than one forgetting about it that and paying the consequences.

As you start descending you ride through a small town called Pinal the Amoles… descend, turn turn, descend turn turn, descend turn turn… I love it! About 10 miles after Pinal de Amoles, the weather starts to change again and gets warmer. The vegetation also suffers a sudden transformation.

You keep devouring the road and you cannot help but getting marveled of the landscape around you… Just remember to keep your eyes on the road! Turn, turn… You are in the middle of the Sierra Gorda protected area and home of multiple plants and animals.

You continue descending till you reach Jalpan de Serra the most important town in the Sierra Gorda and place where Father Junipero Serra built one of his most important missions in the area before heading north to build the Missions in California. These missions were also named World Heritage by the Unesco in 2003.

In Jalpan you can find a couple of simple but nice hotels and some restaurants. Another possibility to spend the night is to ride a few more miles west to a place called Conca where you ‘ll find a hotel with Spa to relax from the day’s ride and get ready for the rest of the trip.

After Jalpan our next stop and final destination is Xilitla, so you head north-east till you reach the state of San Luis Potosi.

A few miles after crossing the state limits in the middle of the mountains, at about 3,300 ft asl, in a rain forest of incredible vegetation you get to Xilitla.

This town was chosen by Sir Edward James, a surrealistic British artist – also noble and rich -, to spend the rest of his life. It is in this place he built a huge garden, a private zoo and a meditation place in the middle of the jungle. Its very difficult to describe it with words… Maybe the photos in this site can help: http://www.junglegossip.com/.

In Xilitla you can stay in the Castillo “The Castle” the house of former Sir Edward James’ right hand and friend: Plutarco Gastelum. This exclusive Bed and Breakfast is unique in its kind and you can see, feel and breath the influence of the artist everywhere.

Another possibility to spend the night is to ride a bit more to the north and stay in Ciudad Valles an important city of San Luis Potosi state where you will find all kind of hotels and restaurants, night life etc.

My recommendation… stay at the Castillo, forget about your ride and enjoy for a whole day this Mexican Shangri La.

After spending the whole day in Xilitla prepare for a long ride back to Queretaro. For this one I like to leave early in the morning and keep, if possible, a fast pace. Turn, turn…

We are talking about many miles and literally hundreds of twisties… Once my wife counted them… She stopped when she was at the 500th and we hadn’t arrived back to Queretaro City yet!

It’s so fun that the time flies and suddenly you realize it’s all over and you would like to turn around and do it again…

You know the feeling right?

Another possibility from Xilitla is to head to the famous Huasteca Potosina a zone of exuberant rivers, waterfalls and springs… But that area deserves a whole article by itself. I will be writing it in the future.

Enjoy the ride!

Daniel Levy

P.S. Below you will find a few facts about this ride.

Facts about the ride:

Difficulty: Intermediate-Advanced

Recommended time to enjoy the trip: 3-4 days

Total length of the ride: about 600 miles

Checkpoints:
Queretaro-Bernal
Bernal-Military Checkpoint
Military Checkpoint-Pinal de Amoles
Pinal de Amoles-Jalpan de Serra
Jalpan de Serra-Xilitla

Weather: normally clear and dry with the exception of the rainy season from July to September where you can find some heavy rain.

Recommended Map: Guia Roji Mexico Tourist Road Atlas. You can find it at Amazon.

bio = Daniel Levy is the owner and contributing writer of www.Japanese-Motorcycles-Only.com. He loves motorcycles and Web development. For more great info visit http://www.japanese-motorcycles-only.com.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Akita is a large dog weighing between 75 and 120 pounds and up to 28″ in height. Of the Japanese Spitz-type breeds, the Akita is the largest. Pronounced AH-ki-ta in Japan and a-KEE-ta in the western world, the Akita is a powerful, top notch watchdog and protector of his family and territory.

The AKC recognizes Akitas in any color including pinto, white or brindle. Colors are clear and brilliant. All white Akitas do not have a mask whereas other colors tend to have one. The soft, undercoat can be a different color than the outer coat. The harsh, thick outer coat requires regular grooming.

This large, energetic dog is extremely protective of family and territory. For this reason, they might be aggressive to other animal and children that they don’t know if they feel that their territory is being invaded. They do best with older, well behaved children and are not recommended for children who might mistreat or tease them. They should be kept in a fenced in yard and never allowed to roam free. The Akita can be a loving, affectionate dog when properly treated. Early training and socialization is highly recommended for this breed. They require regular exercise and love to be with their family.

The Akita is a native of Japan and dates back to the 1600s to the Island of Honshu. It is the national dog of Japan and highly revered by the Japanese. You can find statues and Akita art throughout the country. Originally used as a military dog, guard dog and hunting dog, the Akita has not lost these watchdog instincts. Helen Keller was the first person in the US to own an Akita.

A breed with such a high instincts to protect and patrol his surroundings makes for an awesome guard dog. Depending on your family dynamics, the Akita may be ideal for your pet companion needs. Those with lots of other pets or small children might want to do more research before bringing and Akita into your home.

bio= Learn more about dogs and dog care at Dear Doggy. You can also visit our Akita page in the dog breeds section of our website for more information.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Want to brew the perfect cup of coffee?

Here are 3 simple tips that will make a difference in every single cup you drink.

Tip #1 Clean Coffee Pot

A clean pot is essential and can make a world of difference in the taste of your coffee. Old oils from previous batches of coffee and soap residue left on the pot makes coffee taste bad.

Baking soda and water work well for cleaning coffee mugs and pots. Be sure to rinse extra good so no residue is left behind.

Tip #2 Clean Filtered Water

The water you use for your coffee will affect the taste more than anything. Coffee is 99% water so use clean filtered or bottled water free from chlorine and other minerals that will affect the taste of your coffee.

Using stainless steel or gold mesh filters instead of paper filters will also make your coffee taste better. Paper filters release dyes, chlorine and bleach that affect taste. If you insist on using paper filters buy the unbleached, brown paper filters.

Tip #3 Use Fresh Quality Coffee

Quality coffee costs more but will consistently produce better tasting coffee.

For the best results use quality, whole bean coffee and grind the coffee beans just prior to use. You might think it’s an inconvenience compared to ground coffee, but once you taste the difference you’ll never go back.
If you still want to use ground coffee, make sure you use a good, drip grind coffee.

Use 2 level tablespoons of coffee per 6 ounces of water. This can be adjusted for individual taste preference. Make sure to spread the grounds evenly in the coffee filter so full brewing is achieved.

Drink your fresh coffee right away for the best flavor. Coffee will break down quickly if left on a heat source. Coffee should never be reheated or microwaved.

A clean, preheated air pot or stainless steel Thermos will keep coffee hot for about an hour without hurting the flavor.

If you follow these 3 simple tips, every cup you brew will be perfect coffee.

Copyright c 2004. Perfect Coffees.Com. All rights reserved.

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This article may be re-published “as is” (unedited) as long as the author’s bio paragraph (resource box) and copyright information is included. The URLs in the resource box should be set as hyperlinks if used on a web page.
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bio = About the Author
Gary Gresham is the webmaster for http://www.perfectcoffees.com where you can purchase quality coffee, tea, cups & mugs, coffee gifts and delicious desserts online. He offers a free monthly coffee newsletter with interesting coffee articles, brewing tips, coffee trivia and recipes at http://www.perfectcoffees.com/newsletter.html

Popularity: 2% [?]

Everyone knows that computer programming is a heavily male-dominated field. I think this is unfortunate. Over the years, I’ve come to conclude that there is a great deal that women can contribute to this field.

Why is computer programming regarded as a primarily masculine discipline? I think that in part, it’s because men have a reputation for being more likely to tinker around with gadgets and gizmos. In part, it’s also because computer science is supposedly a very math-oriented field, and men are supposedly more inclined toward mathematical disciplines.

(Incidentally, I know that such generalizations would offend certain people. I’d like to emphasize that this is not my intent at all, nor do I wish to make excessively broad generalizations about either gender. However, a multitude of psychological studies do claim that men have-on the average-a greater aptitude for mathematics and mechanics than women do, whereas women tend to perform better at linguistics and communication. These tendencies coincide well with my own observations, so for now, I’ll assume that these studies are reasonable descriptions of gender differences.)

Anyway, people often claim that men make better programmers because they are more mathematically inclined. Personally, I disagree. It is true that computer science is very much mathematical in nature; however, computer programming often is not. It’s true that a software developer should understand basic concepts such as binary computations, round-off error and Boolean logic; however, for most programming tasks, there is little need for calculus, group theory or other advanced mathematical topics. For this reason, I think that the importance of a strong mathematical aptitude is largely overblown.

Indeed, I think that linguistic skill is decidedly more important. I’d say that in years past, about 90% of the programmers that I encountered produced sloppy code-software that is clumsily structured, poorly documented and difficult to understand. I’ve also noticed a strong correlation between linguistic skill and the ability to generate clean, legible code. And why not? Computer languages are, after all, just that-languages. It’s thus reasonable to expect that someone with a strong language aptitude will-on the average-produce cleaner, more understandable code than someone whose language skills are lackluster.

That is one reason why I wish more women would pursue a programming career. If it is indeed true that women have better language skills, then they are likely to perform well with computer languages as well. Again, this jibes well with my own experiences. I haven’t known many female programmers, but most of the ones that I do know have produced some rather outstanding work. (To be fair, I’ve also known some lousy female programmers; however, these individuals had little passion for their field, and only entered it for the sake of a paycheck. That’s a pretty good recipe for mediocrity, regardless of one’s gender.)

Breaking into this field may not be easy. I’m sure that many women will have to combat the prejudiced notion that software development is a man’s field, and that female programmers are mere dilettantes. Still, it is my earnest hope that more women will make their marks in this arena. If they have the right passion for this field, and if they understand their strengths, then I believe that they have much to offer.

bio = V. Berba Velasco Jr., Ph.D. is a senior electrical and software engineer at Cellular Technology Ltd (http://www.immunospot.com, http://www.elispot-analyzers.de, http://www.elispot.cn). He is proud to serve in a team where the importance of clean, high-quality programming is understood by all.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Do you know your conversion rates? Conversion rate is the number of visitors to your site that take the desired action against the total number of visitors in a particular period or time. Research has shown that 60% of websites do not know their conversion rates. Then how do you improve your site’s performance if you do not know your conversion rates? What do you take into consideration when making changes to your site’s design? What do you do when you have plenty of visitors yet very few of them take the desired action? What do you want your visitors to do? How are they going to do it? What is the next step for your visitor after taking the desired action?
These and other questions can easily be answered if some efforts are made towards tracking and calculating websites’ conversion rates.

Converting your visitor is the ultimate aim of any website. Making the visitor to take the desired action is the fulfillment of a process that started from wherever the visitor clicked to come to your site. The desired action could be;

1. Sales
2. Subscribing to your newsletter or book-marking a page.
3. Taking a survey.
4. Downloading a software or ebook
5. Clicking on a link.
6. Going through the process (that is, clicking from page to page ) before clicking on the order button.
7. Etc

Most of the time we think conversion starts when the visitor lands on our Site. But conversion actually starts from wherever the visitor first locates our site. How the site was located. What description the visitor sees before clicking to your site or what recommendation or word of mouth brought the visitor to your site. This pre-conversion state is what to a large extent, can determine whether conversion actually takes place or not. This is what I call the keyword-title-description-landing page formula. This formula is explained in my free ebook “Google Adwords Made Easy”. You can download this free ebook at home base business ideas site.

What enables conversion to take place.

A visitor landing at your site should immediately feel comfortable with your site. First impression as they say matters a lot. For conversion to take place you must hold the visitor’s attention once he lands on your site. Some of the points to note that make for easy conversion are:

1. Your website should load fast. The next site is a click away. If your site loads slowly your visitor clicks away and you have lost a potential customer. Usually, graphics, animations, are the cause of slow loading pages. Your can use some software, available free on the internet, to reduce the size of your graphics so that they load fast.
2. Your site should have a professional look about it. It should at first glance portray a quality site. This adds a little bit of credibility to the site. The site is then seen as a serious site.
3. State your case quickly. Let your visitor know what your site is about in a few words. Don’t go rambling about your achievements. That can come later. Give the visitor what he is looking for.
4. Arrange your content in an easy to understand way. Whether you are using Tables or CSS for site design, make sure your content is arranged in such a way that the visitor moves from one section of the site to another without confusion or frustration. If you are catering to different kinds of visitors, demarcate your site or page clearly showing these different sections for visitors.
5. Include your Privacy Policy, Phone Numbers, About Us information on every page of your site. This builds some element of trust. Visitors may not click to these pages but the fact that they are there builds some credibility.
6. Do not irritate your visitors with bad grammar or typos. Check and crosscheck your content. Ask somebody to read through your content and point out grammatical errors and typos. These kinds of errors portray a site as unserious and therefore suspect.
7. If you must use banners use them sparingly. Do not allow your banners to distract your visitors from the desired action to be taken. Banners are been clicked on less and less these days.

Having taken care of all of the above, your site is set to present your visitors with your carefully packaged offer. You begin by getting to know your present conversion rates. It is only logical that before any action is taken to improve conversion rates, the present conversion rates are known.

What is your website’s conversion rates.

There are many actions a site may desire a visitor to take once he lands at the site. It is the conversion rates of these desired actions that you want to calculate.
Lets look at some the typical conversion rates that need to be calculated and what can be done to improve them.

1. The SALES CONVERSION RATE. This gives you an idea of how many visitors are buying your product out of the total number of visitors that visit you site.

The sales conversion rate = number who bought / total number of visitors x 100

So if you have about 10000 visitors in the month and out of that , 350 bought your product, your conversion rate is

350 / 10000 x 100 = 3.5%

This means that for every 200 visitor that land at your site 7 will buy your product.

How to improve the sales conversion rate.

(a) Make navigation through your site to your order page so simple a ten year old can find it.

(b) Make bold call to action. Example, BUY NOW, or ORDER HERE. Put it near the top, at the middle and near the bottom of you sales page.

(c) If you offer free shipping indicate this at your home page and prominently on your sales page. Research has shown that free shipping is the second most important consideration for buyers apart from price.

(d) Your web page should load fast. Imagine a potential customer clicking to your order page with the intention to buy only to be frustrated by a slow loading page. The importance of fast loading pages cannot be over-emphasized. Some of the ways to reduce loading time are:
i. Reduce the number of graphics on your page. Apart from the number, you can also reduce the size of the graphics. There are a number of software you can use to reduce the size of your graphics.
ii. Always specify the dimensions of your graphics in your html coding. In your IMG tag be sure to specify the width and height of your graphics. This makes it easy for the web browser to load the page because it doesn’t have to figure out the dimensions of the graphics.

(e) Experiment with different colors on your pages. Measure and track the result of any little change you make. It has been reported that change in the color of a page layout increased conversion rate.

(f) Do not use Pop-ups for displaying your vital information. For example, your shipping rates. Though Pop-ups can be effective in drawing attention to vital information, it is not worth taking the chance. With all the free Popup blockers offered by most toolbars and software companies it will be counter productive to display your vital information in a Popup only to have it blocked. Displaying information in Pop-ups could seriously reduce your conversion rate. Instead use banners that will display a strong call to action.

(g) Include a progress indicator on each page to your order page so that your customer knows at what stage he is. You can number the pages or steps and clearly describe each step so that the customer can easily move back and forth through your pages.

(h) Make it automatic so that when the shipping info is same as the billing info, the customer doesn’t have to fill the same information twice.

(i) Because of credit card concerns, not all customers will want to order using credit cards. Offer other forms of payment, check, fax, phone etc

(j) Display critical information at the check out page. Information like warranties, guarantees, shipping costs, testimonials, return policies, after sales service, support service etc

(k) Develop a system whereby if a visitor abandons the checkout process for whatever reason after providing an email address, your system immediately emails the visitor offering an incentive to tell why the process was not completed. This happened to me. I abandoned purchase when the order page could not load due to my unsteady internet connection. I promptly received an email from the company. I later went back to the site to purchase the item.

(l) If you are selling tangible product use high quality pictures. Since the visitor cannot touch or smell the product, it is essential to provide a top quality picture that will look like the physical product.

(j) Include the number of days the customer will have to wait for the order. If possible provide tracking of the order. All these help to make the customer comfortable and close the sale.

2. THE SUBSCRIPTION CONVERSION RATE. This is simply calculated by dividing the number of subscriptions (subscribers) by the total number of visitors for that period and multiplying by 100. This gives the percentage of visitors that subscribed.

Example, if the total number of visitors in the month is 9000 and 300 visitors subscribed. Your conversion rate would be
300 / 9000 x 100 = 3.3 %

Getting visitors to subscribe to your newsletter or ezine depends on where the visitor had seen the offer to subscribe. If you are promoting a subscription page, then your description must be enticing enough to lure surfers to visit your page. That is, if they are coming from search engines,ads etc.
Most times people will only give their email address when they are sure they will get some quality stuff from your newsletter. If they are already at your site and it is a quality site then you may require little persuasion to get them to subscribe.

How to improve the subscription conversion rate.

(a) Make sure your privacy policy is clearly stated.

(b) Highlight the benefits of your newsletter to the subscriber. State plainly the high points of your newsletter. Direct your visitor to a good issue in your archives.

(c) Provide a valuable free gift. Example a free ebook or report.

(d) If you are providing a free ebook or report, tell the visitor what is special about your own because there are a thousand and one free ebooks and reports on the internet so why should yours be different. For me I usually get a high conversion rate from surfers seeing the articles I post at various article sites on the internet. They become interested when they see the quality of the articles.

(e) Change the position of your subscription form. From upper left to upper right. Then recalculate the conversion rate. Compare the result of the two positions. Try other positions until you get the position where conversion is highest.

3. DOWNLOAD CONVERSION RATE. This rate shows you how many of your visitors (in percentage) are downloading your software or ebook or whatever you have presented for download. It is obtained by dividing the number of downloads by the number of visitors to your download page. Example , you had 4000 visitors to your download page for the month and 300 downloaded your software your conversion rate is

300 / 4000 x 100 = 7.5%

you will need to install a script at your site to monitor the download. You can get a free download monitor script at http://www.Focalmedia.net

How to improve your download conversion rate

1. Write a compelling copy emphasizing the benefits to your visitors of whatever you are offering for download. Then make a bold call to action .example, Download Now or Start Download.
2. Download should start with the first or second click. That is do not make the download page more than two clicks away from the introductory page.
3. Make it clear to the visitor that it is a free, trial or demo download. You could list the features and benefits of the download in a Popup window. That is the popup is activated when a link is clicked and not by itself.
4. Put your download button at the top of your page with the main menu. Alternatively, you can put it at the left hand side navigation links
5. If it is a free report in PDF make the download start when the download link is clicked. It is some times frustrating when PDF download opens up in the browser.

4. CONVERSION RATE FOR CLICKING ON A LINK. Sometimes a web page is written where the main aim is for visitors to click on a particular link. The link could be an affiliate link., or a link to another page or even an email link. You have to install a script to monitor these clicks. There are many click trackers on the internet . You can get a free click tracker script at http://ww.focalmedia.net . The conversion rate is the number of clicks on the link divided by the number of visitors to the page. Example, if the total number of visitors are 6000 and the number of clicks 1500. Then the conversion rate will be

1500 / 6000 x 100 = 25%

How to improve this conversion rate.

1. One effective way to improve conversion rate for clicking on a link is to put the link in the content. This is called in content link. The text link flows with your write up. Visitors are more likely to click on such a link than one that is not in content.

2.The text link should clearly indicate to the visitor what to do or what to expect after clicking on the link. You are sure to get a more favorable response this way.

3. If the link is an affiliate link do not use the long affiliate links provided by affiliate merchants. They are often long and too obvious get clicked less times. Get a script that will shorten the affiliate link you can download a script at home business ideas. Make your links bold.

CONVERSION RATE FOR AFFILIATE SITES.

Affiliate sites need two conversion rates to succeed. One on the affiliate’s site, the other on the merchant’s site. The first is within the affiliate’s control while the second is not. So to succeed in affiliate marketing the affiliate has to choose a merchant with good conversion rates. The merchant should show proof of conversion rates. Or you can calculate how many visitors you sent to the merchant’s site and how many converted (that is, resulted into sales).

Conversion on affiliate sites largely depends on traffic. As a matter of fact, you need a lot of traffic to succeed as an affiliate. With little traffic your conversion will be almost nonexistent and there will not be enough data to show a consistent conversion rate. For example you might make a sale after 10 visitors to your site and make the next sale after 2000 visitors. This is not consistent. The first sale after 10 visitors might have been a motivated buyer. Which means you were lucky. You need more than luck to succeed in affiliate business.

How to improve conversion rates on affiliate sites.

1. Build traffic to your site.
2. Effective pre-selling. An affiliate tries to persuade a visitor to click on an affiliate link. He has to pre-sell the product properly. Emphasizing the benefits of the product to the visitor. Building on the emotions of the visitor and leading him to click. Research has shown that most buying decisions are influenced by emotions.
3. Get your visitor to subscribe to your newsletter. With the traffic you are generating you do not want to miss out on the other visitors who do not buy. Provide an opportunity for them to subscribe so that you can still pre-sell again and again through your ezine or newsletter.
4. Provide very few choices for your visitor. Do no clutter your page with all kinds of offers. This makes the visitor to be undecided and may lead to frustration. Promote one or two product per page. Write your best review of the product.
5. Own the product you promote. This way you are able to give real life experiences about the product or service. It more believable when writing reviews from experience and this increases conversion rates.

CONCLUSION: Calculating your conversion rates would be meaningless if you cannot determine whether you are improving or not. Stick to a period of test and be consistent. Example, one month, two weeks etc. Whichever is suitable for you. Calculate for that period. Compare with the previous period or the next period. Make changes to your pages and test again. By testing you will know what works.

Also if there is any industry standard conversion rate (especially for the sales conversion rate), compare your rate to the industry standard. By comparing you will know whether you are doing well or not. Or you can set objectives for yourself. Set a reasonable conversion rate that you want to attain within a certain period and go for it.

The author has been earning his living online since 2000. For comprehensive home base business ideas check out one of his sites at http://www.ebizstartups.com There you will find solid, easy-to-do strategies for building a successful home base business.

bio = The author has been earning his living online since 2000. For comprehensive home base business ideas check out one of his sites at http://www.ebizstartups.com There you will find solid, easy-to-do strategies for building a successful home base business.

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