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Gmail Cloud Computing Benefits Your Small Medium Business

2008-08-22T09:32:00.001-04:00

Difficult these days to garnet any peace-of-mind when it comes to managing your office environment in a distributed fashion - on your PC, on your laptop and on your PDA. The constant threat from viruses, spam, spoofing, fishing and other security annoyances is stressful enough.

But what happens when your mobile device is lost or stolen?
What about all that data and emails on the unit?
How do I protect it? How do I recreate it?

Calm yourself and ease your mind with Office on Demand, Software as a Service. FREE!

Called cloud computing, any business small, medium or large, especially those requiring remote or mobile data access, should look at what Google Mail, Gmail, can offer. (Read More about the Benefits of Gmail...)

Simple Personal Finance Checklist - Consider Yourself as a Business

2008-02-18T16:03:00.000-05:00

Why would you not consider yourself a business of ONE person? Or your family as a business of 3 or more people? Well that is exactly what you are - "Me Incorporated", "I Inc", "We Incorporated". You truly must consider yourself a small family business. Like any business you have ongoing expenses (mortgage, rent, utilities, groceries), revenue (salary and other income) and major capital expenditures (house, vehicle, vacations, renovations).

Like any good 'household business', you need to do some planning. Set out a budget for the year, track your expenditures and retained earnings (savings). Yes, all of this looks, feels and is exactly like a well run business. On My Gosh! Don't rush out and buy an accounting package to run your household. And no need to take a crash course on accounting or bookkeeping. You can accomplish all your financial tracking and planning requirements with some paper or by using a simple template with your favorite spreadsheet package - Microsoft Excel or even with Open Office.

Just like a well run business, your household budget and tracking your spending is best served using a visible record of events; namely, financial records, bank or check register. It is just like tracking your road trip progress using a map. If you know where you are now, then you will have some idea when you will arrive at your destination. In life, money or finances allows you to get to your personal destinations or dreams. A visible financial roadmap of your 'Me Incorporated' finances, mapping your progress, seems logical.

Running your 'Household Business', like corporate business, requires a few processes to keep track of your finances:

1) Establish a yearly and monthly household budget. Consider all your expenses - weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly outlays of money. You will be surprised at the length of this list and all the places you spend your money.

2) Track monthly your actually spending and income against the budget you established in step 1. This will help you see the 'peaks and valleys' of spending or seasonality aspect of your expenses. Over time, you will come to know these expense 'peaks and valleys' and this will help you maintain a positive cash flow. Bottom line: have money in the bank to pay all your expenses and still have some left over (retained earnings). Your single biggest challenge in running any household (or business) is always having enough money in the bank to pay the bills; especially, the unexpected ones. Having a buffer of savings will help with these 'peaks' in expenses.

3) Track all your bank account activity. Track and enter in your Bank or Check Register every deposit, every electronic (ATM, web, PayPal, debit machine) transaction and every analog (check, money order) withdrawal. And reconcile your bank statement every month. Know exactly how much money you have available in your bank account(s).

4) Especially track your spending through credit cards and lines of credit. These are potentially the 'run away' expenses. Remember only once a month do you see the visible record of your credit card spending. Compound that with the fact that most people have more than one credit card. This can easily result in multiple 'spending surprises' each month. Be diligent in tracking your use of credit card transactions. Breakdown the credit card expenses into their respective budget items - gas, groceries, clothing, entertainment, etc. This will help you separate normal household expenditures from other shopping incidentals. You will come to see your spending patterns and can now make adjustments. Just like your bank account, reconcile your credit card statement every month.

All this personal bookkeeping every month can be done with pen and paper or set up a personal finance and budgeting template using your favorite spreadsheet software. Using an electronic spreadsheet allows for all of the mundane calculations to be processed automatically, reducing monthly reconciliations to a simple 5-10 minute endeavour. Whether you choose an analog or digital approach to your personal finance bookkeeping, these visible records are the most effective way to plan and control your personal finances and reduce one of the major stress points in your life - Your Financial Health.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Carl Chesal is a business and channel development consultant, trainer, internet marketer and professional photographer. He operates BizFare Enterprise Inc, providing business development, training and marketing services. Bizfare Enterprise also operates a number of secure on-line shopping sites.

Incentives Spiffs and Bonuses- A Thoughtful and Deliberate Sales Program

2008-01-12T13:06:00.000-05:00

Incentives, including bonuses, can be a very effective tool for driving positive and lasting behavior toward achieving clear goals or objectives. Handle with care! My experience in corporate management, both private and public sector over the last thirty-something years, has clarified the power of effectively deployed incentives and bonus programs. My experience has also seen scars of team destruction when incentives are ill conceived and deployed in healthy organizations.

Historically, when incentives are introduced in an organization, top management ranks, tend not to thoughtfully and diligently consider or monitor the overall impact on human behavior and ultimately Corporate Values and Corporate Culture. Human resources is rarely invited to these incentive creation sessions. Why not? The tragedy: once incentives cause people, especially executives, to only focus on those areas 'that pay' the ugly side of competition and greed can take hold. If unchecked, again especially at the executive level, this can escalate into self-serving actions and maybe even deceit and collusion. Remember corporate disasters like Enron, WorldCom, Nortel?

Some things to consider when deploying incentives in an organization:
1. Who should be entitled to incentives - Executives, Management, Staff? Only those taking the front line risk? Who will not receive this incentive and what impact can be realized?
2. What specific goal(s) or objective(s) do you wish to achieve. What is an appropriate incentive - money, prizes, gifts, etc?
3. Where in the organization is the most appropriate place to introduce the incentive - sales and/or non-sales, management and/or non-management, group or individual level incentives?
4. When should each incentive be introduced, its duration, ongoing review of payouts, milestones and termination?
5. Why is there a need for an incentive? Are there other ways to accomplish the goals without incentives?

How will the incentives be administered? Announced? Monitored? Measured for ROI or Success? Will awards be publicly broadcast or privately awarded? How will the incentive(s) be received by those that are eligible and those that are not eligible?

Incentives that cause individuals to have a myopic self-serving focus which could result in little regard for preservation of corporate values, team effectiveness and good work ethic can be organizationally destructive. Badly executed incentives could even cause permanent damage to corporate culture.

Incentives typically deliver a promise of an improved financial gain for individuals involved. This carries an impact beyond any other motivational incentive. Always consider the effect such financial incentives could have across the entire organization. Passing over the support areas of the organization when considering incentives may create cross-functional distaste and team erosion. The ultimate goal is to increase and improve customer presence (sales) and satisfaction (returning customers). Everyone in your organization has a part to play in selling solutions to your customers. For those not directly touching your customers, but supporting your field teams, consider team or group incentives. Team or group incentives will often have a more positive long-term effect of building stronger local and regional teams. Certainly all management studies and teachings indicate that healthy teams are most effective. Personally, I would recommend to first introduce team oriented incentives and recognition programs before considering individual achievement awards.

For No Person is an island. Go Team GO !

About the Author:

Carl Chesal is a business and channel development consultant, trainer, internet marketer and professional photographer. He operates BizFare Enterprise Inc, providing business development, marketing, and internet marketing services. Bizfare Enterprise also operates a number of secure on-line shopping sites.

Link Exchange Strategies – Tips to ensure a WIN-WIN Link Strategy for your Website

2007-09-04T10:55:00.000-04:00

Building Link relationships, websites that link to your website, is an important element in Search Engine Optimization. Link Popularity is analyzed by Google and other search engines that determines your page ranking. Page ranking is an important factor that determines the relative page placement of your weblink resulting from a Google search request. Google calculates page rank (PR) based on a number of factors including relevant url links, number of inbound or one-way links, and page ranking of inbound links.

Remember Google weighs the number of inbound, one-way links to your website as more significant than reciprocal or two-way links exchanges. A reciprocal link is one where you establish a link to a site and in return they link back to your website. However, do not underestimate the importance of establishing 2-way links. The fascination of creating one-way inbound links has lead to the creation of some suspect link strategies by would-be link exchange companies.

I've seen a flurry of emails from link exchange parties spouting off about the virtues of 3-way links which emulate one-way links. What these link exchange people do is set up a new an separate domain that is effectively a quick-and-dirty directory. These directories have no relevant affiliation with their own eCommerce website(s). These ineffective directories have nothing but URL link information (usually grouped by category) to hundreds of eCommerce sites like yours. Their Win-Lose strategy is:
- they set up a link to your website on this self-serving directory
- in return, they ask for a link from your website to another eCommerce website

This establishes a three-way link: Your website to another Relevant website and their non-relevant, self-serving directory to your website.

Be wary of such 3-way link exchange schemes – WHY?

1) directories carry less impact on Google page ranking (no relevancy for most directories)

2) most times these self-serving directories have ZERO page rank (PR) (Always check a sites page rank before exchanging links)

3) such 3-way links provides a WIN for them (they get your website with a good PR to link to their website) and a LOSE for you (you just get a link from a ZERO PR directory)

What are some simple strategies to increase one-way and two-way links:

1) continue to establish reciprocal 2-way link exchanges with relevant websites that have or will have a PR2 or better. Continue to add these 2-way links on a regular basis. These links will establish and improve your PR quicker than posting your URL information on the thousands of little directories.

2) consider 3-way links only if A) the inbound link is an legitimate, relevant eCommerce site with PR2 or better or B) you see that the inbound directory has relevancy and a PR 4 or better

3) consider Article Marketing, i.e. BLOGS, eZines and Press Releases to increase your one-way inbound links to your website. Article Marketing (like this very article) is the best way to establish your credentials and trust as a knowledge broker and establish Hyperlinks to your website – a 1-way inbound link to your website!

All the major search engines – Google, Yahoo and MSN search and catalog articles posted to popular eZine and BLOG sites. It is all about providing people with the best information in response to a keyword search request.

In business, attracting and retaining customers starts with building trust. Give your website a personality, a trusting personality. There is no better way than by deploying article marketing to build this trust and, at the same time, increase the one-way links to your website(s).

About the Author:
Carl Chesal is a business and channel development consultant, trainer, internet marketer and professional photographer. He operates BizFare Enterprise Inc, providing business development, marketing, and internet marketing services. Bizfare Enterprise also operates a number of secure on-line shopping sites.

Ubuntu Linux is Prime Time for your Notebook and Desktop – The Case for Deploying Linux across Your Business

2007-08-11T17:24:00.000-04:00

As a business consultant, web designer and photographer my technical know-how around doing system administration on my Microsoft desktop is limited and sometimes I do require the assistant of my computer engineering son to get it right. In a Microsoft Environment, keeping updated with respect to potential security breaches and patches is a constant vigil. The rigor of keeping current with OS updates, Norton updates and Spyware updates is time consuming. Valuable business hours each week are spend and lost on this task of self-administration dictated by the Microsoft Operating Environment.

So with the purchase of an IBM T40 (a tough notebook), increasing system administration time was not an option. This alone forced an serious consideration of Linux as an alternative operating environment. That was five years ago. Now an established Linux user, I can clearly profess the capabilities and benefits of Linux for small and large businesses, especially, when it comes to notebook deployment.

What Linux variant is best for small business and notebook deployment in your company?

As a small and medium business development manager with Sun Microsystems, exposure to Linux and the debate around its viability was a daily event. Questioning and challenging the virtues of Open Source (FREE) Linux versus Licensed Linux versions like Red Hat and Novell SuSE continues to this day . After years of personal use of Open Source (Free) Linux, I can never go back to running the Microsoft Operating Environment on my notebook. And once you can get Linux versions of Quick books, Quick Tax and Picasa (now available on Linux), there is no reason to stay in that perpetual administrative nightmare world of Microsoft.

Having successfully deployed two Open Source Linux variants on my IBM T40 notebook over the last 5 years, a compelling comparison can be made between Fedora and Ubuntu. Fedora, the Open Source version of Red Hat, required the installation expertise of some Linux gurus from Belleville Ontario. It worked fine, but required some Linux ninja system administration every 6-9 months. Administration items applied during these visits included upgrades to Open Office (the open source version of Star Office), Linux OS fixes and new peripheral drivers. This, again, turned out to be a drain on my scarce time for doing real business.

Now the Linux called Ubuntu is installed on my notebook. Ubuntu by Canonical is a full Open Source Linux based on Debian Linux. Ubuntu is now available on Dell systems and Federal Governments are adding this Linux operating environment to their list of standard available OS's for all desktop and notebook computers.

Right out of the gate, Ubuntu was simple to install. You could even bring down a trial copy to experience exactly how it would behave on your notebook before downloading and committing the Ubuntu OS environment to your machine. But the best part is that Ubuntu continuously keeps on top of OS and all related application software updates. Ubuntu has an Update Manager that magically appears in desktop tool bar. And with a simple click (and password) you are kept current on the latest versions of Ubuntu patches, any Linux application software you have installed from Canonical and Open Office upgrades.
With Linux rebooting your machine after an update is nearly non-existent.

Oh, as an added treat with Ubuntu, Ubuntu boots up on your machine in less than a minute. I still go get a coffee when my Microsoft desktop is booting up. An additional benefit of Ubuntu: there is no requirement for installing ant-virus and anti-spyware software. Ubuntu inherently repels these vial scourges of the internet.

With Ubuntu your system administration life will become simple and painless. You can spend more quality business hours selling and marketing.

Want to cut hidden costs in your organization that manifest themselves as Microsoft self-administration by your end users?
Ubuntu is a must for you or your IT folks to consider. Seriously consider, test and deploy.

About the Author:
Carl Chesal is a business and channel development consultant, trainer, internet marketer and professional photographer. He operates BizFare Enterprise Inc, providing business development, marketing, and internet marketing services. Bizfare Enterprise also operates a number of secure on-line shopping sites.

Responding to Customer Problem Situations – How to Handle Customer Complaints as part of your web-based business

2007-08-07T11:40:00.000-04:00

It doesn't always work out. You have provided your customer with a number of merchandising offers and pricing options that seem favorable and fair. But no matter what you feel is a great offer, there are times when a customer wants to just return your product. There are other customers that will have a complaint about delays in shipping or product appropriateness.

No matter how clear your return policy is defined on your website, customers feel that they should return it with a complete refund. No questions asked. The mega retailers have created this no-haggle return policy, because they have other avenues to resell these items; namely, through their discount outlets. But for the small boutique online retailer, who employs a drop-shipper, returns are usually charged a restocking fee. That fee is borne by the online retailer. It is then understandable and reasonable that a customer re-stocking fee is necessary to recover some or all of the re-stocking and credit card costs that you bear as the retailer on the initial customer purchase transaction.

When you are in the Customer Business, inevitably, you will be required to address a Customer Problem Situation. So how do you respond to these unavoidable yet regrettable customer problem situations? What is the best way to respond in writing to these customers?

These Eight time-tested tips have helped me write effectively to Customer Complaint Response Situations over and over again:

1) Write your response as if your words will ultimately be posted on the internet. It could appear, in whole or in part, on someone's BLOG, visible to all the web world to read and discuss. Remember problem situations are opportunities to further market your company's trusted image and extend customer goodwill.

2) These emails or letters addressing problem situations should never tell the customer what they did wrong; instead, tell your customer exactly what they need to do to make the situation right. Detail the steps the customer must execute to realize the solution. This "BE POSITIVE"approach was applied many times over the 30 years when I was a software support manager for both Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems.

3) Use your written word to further develop and grow your trust with your customer. "Active Listening" applies to the written word as much as it applies to conversation. First strive to understand, confirm that understanding and then proceed to a proposed solution.

4) Be fair in your solution proposal, but don't "give away the farm" as part of your problem resolution. Think Win-Win. Ask yourself the question: With what you are offering as a solution, is this likely to keep this customer as a repeat customer?

5) Break your 'fix-it' offer into two parts, a current fix and a future buy offer. Apply some common sense toward fixing the present situation (partial refund, item exchange or return). Then entice the customer to come back and buy again with an offer against future purchases (like an additional 5% discount or free shipping).

6) For a product replacement situation, this could be an opportunity to "sell up" your customer to a better product or service.

7) Have a clearly defined Returns Policy Page on your website. Don't hide the fact that you charge a re-stocking fee. Always be transparent with your Return Policy, Shipping Information and Privacy Policy. Nothing hidden in these areas but rather openly disclosed will build customer trust in your website and company.

8) Accept that there will be times when you will lose the customer. Forever! Sometimes it just doesn't work and you will not be able to save a customer. Be gracious in your closure - "We had hoped we could make this mutually beneficial offer work " and then Let it go. No guilt – No Regret.

In your journey to continuously maintain high customer satisfaction, you will discover that "All Customers ARE NOT Created Equal" and "The Customer IS NOT always right". Both the Seller and the Consumer have responsibilities toward ensuring the sales transaction is mutually beneficial. Encourage your customers to ask questions and get answers before they buy. Strive for a Win-Win sales experience.

About the Author:

Carl Chesal is a business and channel development consultant, trainer, internet marketer and professional photographer. He operates BizFare Enterprise Inc, providing business, marketing, and internet marketing consulting services. Bizfare Enterprise also operates a number of secure on-line Professional Services and Retail websites, like Communicate Innovate.

Simple Accounting for the Small Business - Synoptic Journal Bookkeeping using a Simple Accounting Spreadsheet Template

2007-07-16T09:30:00.000-04:00

Starting a small business out of your home, offering products or services like business consulting, photography, selling on the web or a MLM? You are now faced with tracking all your expenses and revenues for your business and you certainly don't have the money yet to engage a bookkeeper or accountant. If your business is a sole proprietorship, whether it be a Canadian Proprietorship or a US-based Proprietorship, you do not require an accountant to submit your company financials (books) to the IRS (USA) or Revenue Canada). Your business revenue and losses are reported as part of your annual personal income tax. For this small business start-up, you won't need to buy fancy accounting software, like Quick Books or AccPac to track your business.

Only as part of incorporating Bizfare Enterprise Inc in 2005 was it a requirement to engage an accountant. My accountant did insist on using Quick Books software for my business accounting. Up until then using a simple spreadsheet template served my business accounting needs for over ten years. This simple spreadsheet accounting stood the test of multiple audits by Revenue Canada (CRA and Revenue Canada Goods and Services Tax. Both the hardcopy columnar pad and an electronic spreadsheet version of my financial books were accepted by Revenue Canada. (BTW the audits disclosed more ways for me to claim back additional taxes for the previous three years! Now that's my type of audit!)

In your new start-up business venture, you likely will generate somewhere between 10 to 30 accounting transactions per month. These transactions would be items like Expense, Revenue (sales), Liability (Loan) type transactions and Sales Tax (Federal + State/Provincial) Collection/Deductions. These transactions are further broken down into various Business Accounts. All the Accounts you set up for your business is called a Chart of Accounts. Recording your business financial transactions (Journal Entries) can be executed with pen and ink on an accounting columnar pad or electronically with your computer using a spreadsheet program (MS Excel, Open Office, Star Office).

Whether you employ electronic or hardcopy media, you need to develop a simple Journal template to create your Business Synoptic Journal. This Synoptic Journal format has the advantage of allowing you a complete view of all your individual journal entry transactions against all your various Business Accounts. Creating this Synoptic Journal is easier to do than you think and requires no prior accounting or bookkeeping knowledge.

TIP #1: You could further reduce the accounting line items (Journal Entries) by consolidating like items such as 'all the Sales for the month' and 'all parking receipts for the month' into one totaled line item for the month.

Where do you start to identify the various Business Accounts required for your Synoptic Journal?

If you currently work for a company or government, secure of one of their employee expense forms. Look at each of the areas identified as expenses - meals, mileage, hotel accommodations, taxi, car rental, telephone & cell phone, air fare, office supplies, etc. This is an excellent place to identify the various Business Expense Accounts you need to set up for your business accounting books. To complete your business Chart of Accounts, include a Business Bank Account, Sales, COGS (Cost of Goods Sold), Sales Tax Collection, Marketing Expense and others as required. Each of these Accounts will be a listed as a title across the top of each column of your Synoptic Journal. Each row (line item) will be the individual journal transactions entered by you. The journal transactions are grouped and summarized for each business month; usually, January through December.

So your Synoptic Journal would look something like this Sample Synoptic Journal at http://picasaweb.google.com/carl.chesal/BookkeepingTemplate.

The column headings might be in this order (from left to right):

DATE | DESCRIPTION | BANK DEPOSITS | BANK WITHDRAWALS | SALES REVENUE | COGS | SALES TAX COLLECTED & REMITTED | OFFICE SUPPLIES EXPENSE | EXPENSE #2 | EXPENSE #3 | ETC

TIP #2: Unless your business is Incorporated or an LLC, you don't need to go through the expense of opening a business account with your bank. Usually Business accounts charge a higher monthly fee, charge for printing checks (cheques) and don't offer any interest on your monthly account balance. Instead, open a separate personal bank account (maybe savings). This will show the 'taxman' that you are keeping the business separate from your personal banking. Remember you are a sole proprietor and all your business income (and losses) are to be applied directly to your personal income tax submission ( a s per IRS and CRA).

To save you time and make is very simple, I have already created a simple spreadsheet Synoptic Journal template that performs all the calculations for each month and rolls up the 12 business months so it can easily be included in your annual personal income tax preparation. This Synoptic Journal template has Debit/Credit checks and balances, tracks sales taxes, mileage and totals each account for your entire fiscal year. If you want this FREE Bookkeeping template, you can get it at Communicate Innovate. With a few key strokes, which will help identify yourself, I will gladly send you this FREE Synoptic Journal Template and also any future Small Business Tips.

TIP #3: One Rule of Accounting is that every time you record a journal entry (line item which applies the transaction against the appropriate business accounts) the Debits and Credits MUST REMAIN EQUAL at ALL Times. This Debit Equals Credit calculator is built into this FREE Bookkeeping Template. When you have completed entering a line item (journal transaction), check to ensure that the amount the the Debit cell equals the amount in the Credit cell. If they are not equal, you have not entered the amounts properly in your journal transaction. Correct the problem before entering your next journal entry.

You are now equipped to capture your business financial books with some simple accounting software. Happy bookkeeping! And Happy Selling!

About the Author:

Carl Chesal is a business and channel development consultant, trainer, internet marketer and professional photographer. He operates BizFare Enterprise Inc, providing business, marketing, and internet marketing consulting services. Bizfare Enterprise also operates a number of secure on-line Professional Services sites, like Communicate Innovate.

Contributing to Life By Parent-like Actions - Parenting by Learning, Growing and Applying

2007-07-12T17:19:00.000-04:00

Is it miraculous or maturity that, as a newbie grandparent, the meaning of life seems clearer than ever?

This new and wondrous child, our granddaughter Ellie, has jumped Grandma (Baba) and Grandpa into a new chapter of our lives. After some over-fifty reflection, the notion of making a name for yourself in the corporate or political realm now appears to sit more toward the “all about me” end of the “lifetime achievement” scale. Being a positive contributor to the world is really the ultimate goal of life - moving up the 'Scale of Lifetime Achievement' toward the more selfless “all about you” end of the scale.

This personal aspiration of growing global goodness can be somewhat formidable. So maybe applying a more localized focus for your personal earthly contributions is the best way to positively impact this world. Goodness in bite size pieces! It is the small individual acts of goodness, when aggregated with others people's small positive contributions, that really make this world a better place for everyone.

MEANING OF LIFE #1: Contributing to Life, even through the smallest action, is the meaning of life itself.

Life and my upbringing has taught me one thing: The best way to make this a better world is to focus on your local world, starting with your immediate family and then your community. “Keep your own backyard in order”, my parents used to say.

Think about your earthly role and responsibilities from the aspect of a sibling, a life partner or a friend. It may allow you to identify ways you can make a material difference to those closest to you. After all, this is your circle of influence, where you should responsibly provide the greatest and most profound impact on human behavior. Think of this. If our life's accomplishments and contributions created a positive force on our immediate Circle of Influence, this world would continue to grow and prosper into a much better place for us and future generations.

Scientists and Psychologists have long said that our whole human personality blueprint is determined in the first 10 years of our lives – our formative years. By the age of 10 years 90% of our Life Values are solidly established in each individual. Think of this! In the first 10 years of our lives, the way we think, the way we think of ourselves and others is defined and imprinted as our psychological makeup. Our Value System is now defined - the course of HOW we grow and interface with our earthly surroundings. The only way this personal value course or mindset can be altered would be through some significant emotional event: some impactful event that 'stops us in our tracks' and forces us to consider a alternate path from this point forward.

With such lifelong impact associated with our formative years, it stands to reason that Parenting is a major determination of a child's ultimate adult human behavior. It is our role as parents that garners the single most important impact on life. There can be no greater vocation in life than raising children to become productive, positive and additive to the goodness in this world.

Parenting, at a minimum, requires that a child's need for basics, like Food, Shelter and Safety, be met. It is the higher needs of Affection, building self-esteem and self-actualization that truly define the areas that are affected by parenting or early childhood development.

MEANING OF LIFE #2: Being a committed Father or Mother to all your children!

Provide your children with a solid foundation so they may be the Best That They Can Be as an adult. Be committed to all levels of child and adolescent development. Across the entire range of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:
- Physiological
- Safety
- Love, Affection and Belonging
- Self- Esteem and Esteem received from others
- Self-Actualization (a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do”)

There is nothing more important than being a parent! The foundation for a person's adult life is influenced, molded and formed in those formative years of life. The parent has the ability and responsibility to create the best environment for learning and enforcing social, self-confidence, attitude and leadership skills.

Like any area of expertise, parenting (and in a support role grand-parenting and teachers) requires continuous study, discussion and exercise to improve and perfect the craft.

MEANING OF LIFE #3: Life is all about learning, growing and applying (Ask Listen Try) to create an even better world.

Let's expand the traditional definition of parenting. Being parent-like could also include responsible parenting to those children of the global community called our friends, our colleagues and our neighbors. Expand the idea of Parenting or Grand-parenting to include any adult responsible for some aspect of a child's upbringing or development or education. Now with even more committed and responsible parents ensuring a healthy childhood environment, won't this be a much more supportive and tolerant world?

I must get back to being a grandfather. I truly enjoy this part of my life!

About the Author:

Carl Chesal is a business and channel development consultant, trainer, internet marketer and professional photographer. He operates BizFare Enterprise Inc, providing business, marketing, and internet marketing consulting services. Bizfare Enterprise also operates a number of secure on-line Professional Services sites, like Communicate Innovate.

Fix Your Chronic Tardiness Problem - Your Personal Challenge on Respecting Time Commitments

2007-05-30T10:05:00.000-04:00

Whether intentional or by misfortune, being late for a meeting is, in itself, a visible sign of disrespect for other people's time. Think about the fact that your tardiness usually affects not just your own productivity. Your being late has a infectious multiplying factor because tardiness impacts the productivity of those many that are kept waiting. The impact in real dollar cost associated with productivity loss related to lateness are staggering.

Bottom line: 10 minutes/day of lateness equates to $90 Billion/year in lost productivity or 1% of the US GDP

Recent studies have shown that chronic tardiness affects 20% of the US population, Yes, 20% are consistently late. In 2006 Corporate CEOs show being late 8 out of 10 meetings. This alarming trend of Chronic CEO tardiness has actually worsened since 2002, when a study by management consulting firm Proudfoot, highlighted CEOs were late six in 10 meetings.

All good studies wouldn't be complete unless they categorized the types of latecomers. According to an ABC News report in March 2007, there are 4 types of chronic tardiness people:

1) Rationalizer type: Blames outside factors

2) Absent-minded Professor type: forgetful or disorganized

3) Deadline or Producer Type: Adrenaline addicted junkie. Gets a psychological high on having a jammed schedule

4) Rebel type: Defies authority and gets a high in keeping people waiting. Feel so important that feel people are willing to wait.

Diana DeLonzor, in her book “Never Be Late Again”, has chronic lateness types further defined into seven categories.

Bottom line: Whether it is a thrill or habit, there are steps you can take to reduce and eliminate your chronic tardiness problem.

How do you respect and effectively utilize the universally shared commodity of time?

Balancing your time with those around you is an ongoing challenge. Be vigilant about effectively using your time and anyone sharing your time. Your calendar, your day timer (or PDA) and the clock are intrinsic tools of the business trade. Learn to tell time, use timers and challenge yourself to get there on time.

There are mental mind-sets and effective meeting processes that can help you kick the tardiness problem (they helped me).

Consider your scheduled meeting times as just a center point of your overall meeting time. It is usually the informal meetings or contact before and after the formal session where most of the business or decisions are solidified. Always allow time for this informal contact:

1) Allow yourself 15 minutes before each scheduled meeting or event to:
- get your thoughts or agenda together at the location for the meeting
- have a quick meeting with the main person to review the agenda
- chat with the person who is setting up the meeting room to get information on the attendees. Executive Assistants and Administrative Assistants can be an invaluable source of information. Build trust with this individual.
- socialize and introduce yourself to the attendees prior to the formal meeting. You are likely to pick-up on the temperament of key individuals attending your meeting.

2) Allow 15 minutes after each scheduled meeting or event to:
- review how effective the meeting was perceived by your key customer (coach) or by an attending colleague.
- Take time with the key person (key influencer) to review the outcome of the meeting and strategize next steps
- Test the water and ask for the business. You might actually get the order. Alllow time for that too

3) Give yourself the 15/15 minute buffer before and after each scheduled meeting to allow for unexpected things. Plus you will less likely impact on subsequent meeting times. Early is always better than late. Arriving on-time is the most visible sign of disrespect toward the other people involved. For first time meetings, being on-time is one of the major positive impacts on 'first and lasting impressions'. Add to your good reputation – be on-time.

Including this “15/15 Time Wrapper” around each of your scheduled appointments and meetings will afford you more time to prepare/strategize (before)and then assess/close(afterwards). Reduce stress on both yourself and those around you. Your respect for other people's time is a measure of your own self-respect. Being respectful is an honorable trait - a trait that can only add to your glowing reputation.

About the Author:

Carl Chesal is a business and channel development consultant, trainer, internet marketer and professional photographer. He operates BizFare Enterprise Inc, providing business development, marketing, and internet marketing services. Bizfare Enterprise also operates a number of secure on-line shopping sites.

Reality Internet Marketing: XML Sitemap in 4 Steps Ensures Page Indexing in Google Yahoo and MSN Search Engines

2007-05-25T10:43:00.000-04:00

Is an XML Sitemap effective in getting your website Page Indexed on Google? Or indexed on any other Search Engines?

Creating and XML-based Sitemap and FTP'ing this XML Sitemap to the lowest directory on your website does alert the Google spider robot to review your website. It is an effective way to get more of your web pages indexed for your website. It is also effective, when you add new pages/content to your website, to:

1) regenerate a new XML Sitemap file, FTP it to your website
2) alert Google Site Maps to look at your site AGAIN NOW.

And now XML Sitemaps have just become even more important!

Google, Yahoo and MSN have announced that by January 2007, they will also standardize on the use of one common XML Sitemap file to index your website! All three mega search engines will now use the same XML Sitemap file to index your website.

So what are the steps in creating and getting the Google XML Sitemap file to your website directory?

These 4 Steps will get your XML sitemap file created and registered with Google:

(1) use a software tool to create the sitemap in Google's designated XML format. You can create a Google Sitemap for FREE (maximum 750 pages per website) at >Sitemap Generator. Be patient with this FREE XML Sitemap file generator. It sometimes reports URL breaks (likely timeouts) when there are none. I found using it off peak hours (late at nite) generates cleaner files.

ADDED BENEFIT: The Sitemap Generator also creates HTML, ROR and Text Sitemap Files, which are used by thousands of other search engines and web crawlers to index your website.

(2) upload the XML file (and HTML, ROR and text files) to your website. You want to FTP the XML sitemap File created in step (1) to the lowest level directory on your website. There are many FREE FTP programs our there. Download the latest version of Filezilla. It is one of the easier FTP programs to use.

(3) Verification - notify Google of the existence of the XML sitemap file. This is done by registering at Google Webmaster Tools. Follow the steps at Google Sitemap to Verify your website by FTP'ing the Google Verification file to your website and then requesting Site Verification. You need only do this verification step once. Under the Webmaster Tools Dashboard you will see a check mark for each of your sites that have been verified.

(4) Submit XML file – once Verification is confirmed by Google Webmaster Tools click on the appropriate listing under the Sitemap heading. Highlight the box next to sitemap.xml and then click on Resubmit Selected button. Your sitemap.xml file will now be submitted to Google for indexing.

From this point forward, whenever you change/add/delete links or add/delete pages on your website you will repeat steps 1, 2 and 4 so that the Google, Yahoo and MSN bots can re-index your website.

While you're at it, create a specific HTML Sitemap Page on your website to be used by other search engines and directories. This will help their BOTS and Web Crawlers migrate through your website. This Sitemap Page also acts as an index for your customers helping them migrate your website. Here is a sample Sitemap Pag e.

Bottom line: XML Sitemap files are an important ingredient in getting your webpages indexed in Google as well as Yahoo and MSN. It is equally important as the top two SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies, Keywords and Inbound Links. No excuse now. Just Do it.

About the Author:

Carl Chesal is a business and channel development consultant, trainer, internet marketer and professional photographer. He operates BizFare Enterprise Inc, providing business, marketing, and internet marketing consulting services. Bizfare Enterprise also operates a number of secure on-line shopping sites, like Home and Body How To Plans Recipes Hobbies and Collectibles.

Laughing Keeps You Healthy - Laughter is the Best Medicine – Keeping Laughter in Your Life

2007-05-25T10:41:00.000-04:00

An infant's smile or a child's laugh is magical. Receiving a smile from an infant or child elicits an automatic smile from any adult. Parents, grandparents and adults alike will perform varying degrees of happy face antics in the hope of getting a baby to smile. Medical studies have determined that laughing is both contagious and healthy.

I it's most demure mode, laughing will manifest itself visually as a smile maybe coupled with some wide eye contact. At the other extreme end of the laughing scale, you will realize Visual, Kinesthetic, and Auditory displays – leg slapping, belly shaking, body contorting laughter! Just thinking about this 'Laugh Attack' brings a smile to your face. Remembering or thinking about laughter itself physically and mentally emotes all the positive effects of actually laughing.

The beautiful thing about laughter is that it is contagious. It matters not whether you initiate laughing or it comes from some other source, the health benefits of laughing have been studied and documented.
Laughter is the BEST MEDICINE!

Yet, laughter is still one of the least understood of human behaviors and one that is just now a serious study by scientists. Science has been able to determine three parts of the brain are activated during a good laugh: 1) a thinking or cognitive area for understanding the joke, 2) a movement or kinesthetic part for initiating muscle movement, and 3) an emotional region that derives the “giddy” feeling. Why do people laugh at jokes delivered while others laugh at incongruities like pain inflicted or a threatening situations? Is laughter a signal indicating a action is meant “in fun”? These things are still being studied.

Laughter makes us (and others) feel better.

Studies have identified a number of areas, where applying laughter, will be a positive and healthy experience. Feel better by laughing:

1) Health and laughing
A) lifts up your mood
B) is contagious and positive
C) is stress reducing
D) has proven long term connections to improved mental health

2) Learning and laughter has shown that
A) levity as a teaching style reduces fear and anxiety and opens students up to learning and absorbing
B) well-planned, appropriate, contextual humor can help students ingrain information

3) Relationships and laughing
A) help create a social lubricant that, in groups, encourages cooperation and altruistic behavior
B) is believed to be one of the earliest forms of communication; especially, emotional communication. Laughter could have preceded the spoken word and bonded groups in pre-historic society.

“By the time a child reaches nursery school, he or she will laugh about 300 times a day. Adults laugh an average of 17 times a day.” “Science of Laughter” Discovery Health

Clearly as adults we do not laugh enough. Here are ten ideas to improve and increase laughter [and fun] in your life:

1) Receive, Share and Tell Jokes - email is awesome for this and so are social gatherings. Telling jokes (and learning what jokes are appropriate) will prove to improve your social and public speaking skills.

2) Share humorous personal stories - stories about yourself will allow you to laugh at yourself. Laughing at yourself is a great way to express and learn from our mistakes and little foibles.

3) With your family and friends play group games that require group interaction (Parlour Games) - old standards and board games (like Charades, Pictionary, Balderdash, Cranium, Trivial Pursuit, Humzinger) or more organized themed events like a Murder Mystery Night. Excellent for a varied group of age and shyness. These are just FUN! Play like children!

4) Laugh out loud - not just a chuckle, a deep laugh that works the lungs and belly (maybe even brings tears to your eyes). Laughing equals Happy and Happy equals Healthy!

5) Karoke or new video games like Guitar Hero - whether at home or at a public event, singing and music are excellent and fun group situations that will help create fun and laughter!

6) Meet your group at a favorite pub or watering hole - conversation and stories will naturally make you laugh. Have fun!

7) Play Kids' Games - nothing allow you to play like a child than playing with your children or grandchildren. And nothing is more liberating than laughing with children!

8) Learn with friends - experience learning a new language or go to dance class with other people or couples. Laughing will open you up to a better learning experience.

9) Host a Party (maybe with a Fun Theme (item 3) - a casual informal gathering (BYOB, BBQ, Campfire or Dinner Party) will always give people an opportunity to meet and share. Invite fun people and you will create a fun and memorable event.

10) Do something you have never done before - with other people or friends, step out and do something new (community fair, site seeing, small airplane ride, hot air balloon, casino, a day at the track, snowmobiling, skiing). With a group you have both the benefit of increased support and protection. Have fun!

Fun and Laughter is best in a social group setting. Do Not attempt Laughter alone. It is best served with friends. Get Crackin' and Get Laughin'!

Your Personal Adamant List (PAL) Understand and Know Yourself – Help Others to Understand You Too (Getting To Know You)

2007-05-25T10:40:00.000-04:00

I am Adamant About That.

You've heard this phrase time-and-time again from individuals - from your friends, from colleagues, from family, even from your own mouth. In a group conversation, you or someone has likely ended a statement with this claim, “....... I am adamant about that!”.

This phrase seems to emphasize a strong and unmovable conviction or opinion about a particular subject. This exclamatory statement “I am adamant about that!” serves to both reinforce our personal, absolute convictions and also let's others know that this is your non-negotiable, uncompromising, don't-question-me area.

This personal claim of conviction is a perfect window (Johari Window) into your persona and helps people understand you as an individual, as a human being. This 'adamantation', as we shall call it, is a glimpse into your personal BELIEFS and VALUES. And beliefs and values are the solid foundation of our personalities.

A new approach.

Idea! Most of us presently elicit these personal 'adamantations' in a random way through one-on-one conversations and group dialogue. Maybe we should take time, regularly, to create (and re-create) a written 'Personal - I am Adamant List'. This list could explicitly identify our personal position on any number of worldly things. Some of the topic areas to consider as part of this 'Personal Adamant List' might be: the environment (maybe specifically global warming), traditions (around holidays and birthdays), relationships (love and friendship relationships), ethics, spirituality, sexuality, politics and the list grows.

A 'Personal Adamant List', or PAL, would never be a static or stagnant written list. Your 'Personal Adamant List' would, like life, be a dynamic and changing list of 'adamantations'. Over time this PAL would outline an interesting personal history of your beliefs and values mapping a revealing trail of your personal growth and maturity. A personal document more poignant than the daily ramblings of a diary or a BLOG. Your PAL, being void of personal references, would have the added benefit of being something you might openly share. Your PAL is likely to provide YOU with a greater understanding of YOURSELF. A Good Thing.

Make your 'Personal Adamant List' (PAL) a part of your toolset when you are assessing a new employer, a customer or a business associate. Use it to determine the alignment between your personal beliefs and values and their underlying beliefs and values. You could even include parts of your PAL in your bio, your blog and your profile information. Give people the opportunity to really get to KNOW YOU, really get to UNDERSTAND YOU. Understanding is the first step toward effective communication. It could result in a richer human interaction and communication experience. This is a another Good Thing.

Imagine the positive effect at a party, social soiree (swa ray), or business gathering. Much reduced 'foot-in-mouth' situations. Eliminate those embarrassing moments when you say something that, you only now realize, is diametrically opposed to somebody else's belief. And now you perform some awkward back-peddling to counter the wave of alienation you've created. In time using your PAL, you could come to develop a more adept manner of approaching topics, which will allow you to test the waters for other people's 'adamantations' before opening your mouth. More improved communication and human interaction.

It just keeps getting better.

Reality Internet Marketing -Google and DMOZ (The Open Directory Project) – The Odd Couple of Internet Directory

2007-05-25T10:35:00.001-04:00

Google and DMOZ - Organizational Dichotomies in Partnership

In one corner you have Google – analytic, automated, user interactive, driven by rules-based mathematical algorithms, digital efficiency – trusted and respected.

In the other corner you have The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) – completely people-driven, uncommunicative, no rules, no feedback, inefficient, analog – not trusted.

It is like having Herman Hollerith's punch card system feed data into today's grid and super computing environment. It just DOES NOT COMPUTE! Stone Age meets the Digital Age.

So what is the relationship between this two unlikely partners?

Google commands the Worldwide Directory of Website Registration. But you cannot just add your Website to the Google Directory. Some time ago, someone at Google decided that if your website was listed in DMOZ (The Open Directory Project) then it was worthy of possible inclusion in the Google Directory. BTW Alexa also opts for this 'good-enough-for DMOZ then-good-enough for-us' approach.

The Open Directory Project has long been chastised for its troll-like gatekeeper presence when is comes to granting DMOZ directory status that feeds key global Internet Directories, like Google and Alexa. A completely volunteer organization, The Open Directory Project has received accusations of corruption, manipulation and incompetence when it comes to determining what domains get listed in the DMOZ directory. Some websites have been listed on DMOZ one day and then days later removed – with not even a simple explanation to why or why not. This is just basically WRONG!

The article, Ineffective DMOZ by Baron Turner (circa 2005), effectively articulates the wrongs of this volunteer organization.

Why has Google never intervened by advancing DMOZ from this highly suspect environment of an “all volunteer” editorial organization to a professional, accountable, semi-automated and communicative editorial organization? One of those web mysteries.

Example: Our organization, Bizfare Enterprise, has 8 commercial websites. In the last year only two of the eight websites have had the honor of getting listed on DMOZ. Why these two got accepted and the other six were rejected is the “sixty-four thousand dollar question”. Or were they rejected? No way of knowing. DMOZ has no feedback mechanism! There is no way of knowing if:

1. a submission request was actually received by one the DMOZ volunteer editors

2. if it is in the DMOZ queue for review or

3. if it was rejected by a DMOZ editor and WHY it was rejected!

The absence of ANY type of feedback mechanism as part of the DMOZ process is simply a broken customer management system. Each and every Webmaster that submits to the Open Directory Project is a DMOZ CUSTOMER! DMOZ offends its customers by showing disrespect to these webmaster and SEO professionals.

Google represents capitalism, competitiveness and dynamic change. DMOZ is too close to a a third world Dictatorship. The topic of this unlikely partnership could be material for a new Reality TV series. Wait! Maybe the Google-DMOZ Irony is material better suited for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert.

In the 30 plus years in the High Tech Business, I have come to observe that the longer you have the same group of unaccountable people involved in a process, a process that is unchecked or not audited, then you will get laxness, arrogance and opportunity for corruption.

Maybe it is time for a Google REALITY CHECK on The Open Directory Project. Google has a responsibility to bring the now arcane processes of the DMOZ organization into the customer-centric age of Trust and Accountability.

Until then best of luck in getting listed in the The Open Directory Project.

Reality Internet Marketing: The skinny on Google PageRank Google Directory and Google Indexing

2007-05-25T10:33:00.000-04:00

What is Google PageRank? Google Directory? Google Indexing?
How do you succeed in each of these Google areas?

Google PageRank is a Google algorithm that measures the worth of EACH webpage based on the links or other webpages that reference it. Like the Voter is to the Candidate, consider each external reference (link) to your webpage as a VOTE of Importance for that specific webpage. Democratically, the more votes (links) your webpage receives the better your Google PageRank. But were it that simple. Google also measures the Importance of each Voter's webpage and weighs this in the Vote of Importance calculation. So you see, important webpages bring more importance (greater Vote Value) to your webpage!

Bottom Line: Linking, Links For Trade, Reciprocal Links and getting listed in the thousands of Directories, Blogs, and Ezines all promote Votes of Importance for your webpages. This is an ongoing lifelong endeavor by Webmasters and SEO experts.

Google Directory is where you go to get your entire website included in a Google Catalogue organized by Category or Topic. You would think that getting listed in the Google Directory would be a well defined process just like it is clearly outlined in most of the top directories:
(1) Website URL
(2) Title of Website
(3) Short Description of website and
(4) maybe keywords that best represent your website.

But not so with Google Directory! Google outsourced this critical inclusion to the Google Directory to another Directory Organization called The Open Directory Project or DMOZ. Why does Google entrust such a crucial element of Directory Cataloguing to an outside organization? You are even more perplexed by this Google outsourced function when you discover that The Open Directory Project is a organization of Volunteer Editors! Yes, a host of no-credential individuals somehow freely donate their time to apply strict and ethical editorial rules to each submitted URL. And this wonderful world of volunteers ensures a trusted process resulting in consistent, fair and quality listings in both the DMOZ and Google Directories! Believe It or Not! But my distaste for the whole DMOZ thing will be detailed in another article.

Bottom Line: You must submit to DMOZ – The Open Directory Project and IF, and I MEAN A BIG IF, you get listed in The Open Directory (months but who knows because there is NO Feedback or Status mechanism in place), then Google might also extract your DMOZ listing information and place it into the Google Directory. GOOD LUCK!

Google Webpage Indexing is the more predictable process and can be accomplished by submitting your website URL to Google. To ensure that Google Robots crawl through ALL of your webpages for your website, you must create an XML Sitemap of your entire website and let Google know it exists in your website directory where the Google Robots will use it. This XML Sitemap will get all your webpages Indexed in Google. Google even references a website that will FOR FREE generate XML Sitemaps and HTML, TXT and ROR versions of the Sitemaps as well. And Good News! By January 2007 Yahoo and MSN will also use the Google XML Sitemap file to crawl your website!

Bottom Line: Always submit and re-submit Google XML Sitemaps whenever you add new pages, products, anchor text or links to your website. Search Engine Robot Crawlers love websites that are changing, dynamic and adding new content.

A little more of Google understood.

Reality Internet Marketing: Improving Your Average Order Size With Internet Merchandising Fundamentals

2007-05-25T10:01:00.000-04:00

Having mastered the Laws of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you are now receiving good traffic (visitor numbers) on your website. Your challenge now is converting this traffic from Visitors to Buying Customers. The whole conversion exercise, among other things, requires a website that has a good design. Notice I say a “good” web design. The website does not have to be perfectly designed, with Flash or fancy scrolling effects. It has to be good – something your Visitor (Potential Customer) can navigate through easily. But moreover, your website has to offer products or services that:

1)the customer wants; products they realized as a need and the benefits of your product or service
2)are priced competitively compared to similar products or services offered on other websites

Oh, Yes! You can attract Visitors to your site and then entice them to migrate around your website with offers like Savings, Discount, and Free Shipping. But, at the end of the day, your Potential Customers will shop and compare. With comparative shopping tools like Froogle, the buying public can easily compare prices: item for item.

Having worked in a family-run grocery store, in addition to co-owning a franchise health and life style business with my wife, I know that the practice of selling and merchandising in these 'mortar and brick' businesses applies equally well to the world of online web-based shopping.

As a Merchant, your challenge is to raise the bar, eliminating the item to item price comparisons. Stop the 'onesy twosy' product comparisons and create a greater value for the customer. Here is where solid merchandising practices take effect.

In the world of retail, merchandising is the difference between selling one product and selling volume. To do this effectively, you must consider:

1) Product placement (on the website and web page rather than on the shelf or display window)
2) Product Value Bundles (the benefit of buying more or a complete set)
3) Pricing for a higher value product bundle (buy more save more)
4) Create Value Groupings around seasonal or special events (sell to emotionally charged events)

Look at your products item by item:
1) Place items in customer logical categories, then
1. create icons, buttons to easily identify the items(s) and
2. allow the customer to migrate there (easily and within three or fewer number of clicks)
2) Group individual but related products into NEW Product Bundles
3) Price these New Product bundles showing savings of 10, 15, even 25%

Follow these points when merchandising your products and you will have succeeded in
1.Increasing your average order size
2.Reducing the one-to-one price comparisons
3.Giving the customer a more valued product.

For online selling, merchandising is the key element in Retail Sales.

Reality Internet Marketing: It Does Take Time To Build Your Internet Business. Remember the Story about Magic Stone Soup

2007-05-25T09:00:00.001-04:00

You bought into the Internet Merchant Dream. You now have one or more websites selling products online that you are convinced are in great demand. Now that the entire internet world becomes your customer base, you figure that your sales will blossom your websites into a 'Wal-mart of Websites”!

Most likely you have received one or two calls per week from a number of Internet Marketing companies who promise you the glories of improving one or more of these:

Your traffic by establishing reciprocal links

Your Google Ranking through Hundreds of Directory registrations (registrations that are repeated 2 -4 times each month)

Web Traffic through writing articles for eZines and BLOGS

Traffic (up from the number of Visitors you now have – whatever that number is) using Marketing using email campaigns

Search Engine Page inclusions based on the proper selection, webpage positioning and page density of Keywords, Meta Descriptions and Meta Keywords to improve search bot sweeps of your site.

Search Engine Page Inclusions with XML and ROR sitemaps for Google and Yahoo Search Bots

Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns

Web Banner campaigns

Advertising Revenue through Affiliate Programs, Adsense, el al

Each Marketing Company will pitch you the importance of their company's offering providing you the “winning formula for the Internet Selling Bonanza”. Well almost!

Take it from me - someone who operated a “mortar and brick” business: a franchise that offered a great new way to merchandise healthy life style products and services. We all want to hear how quickly we can make thousands and thousands of dollars as a Retail Merchant. We all get convinced by a few of these “get the sales quicker” Internet Marketing Companies pitch that their product or service will vault us into Conversions (fancy name for Internet Sales) with unbelievable speed.

We entrepreneurs, each and every one of us, must first buy into the concept, the products, the vision of demand for the products and services offered. Our hope for a successful business, coupled with our zeal to quickly start our business, clouds our vision in applying the basics of building a business. Beware these purveyors of “Business Bliss”!

I am often reminded of a story we read back in elementary school called Stone Soup. It is fable about a traveling Minstrel who had devised a simply ingenious way of obtaining food at each of his stop-over destinations. The housewife invites the Minstrel into her home intrigued by the promise of a “Magic Stone” capable of turning plain boiling water into a delicious soup.

While the Minstrel is stirring the Magic Stone (free for the taking from the roadside) in a huge pot of boiling water, he begins to tell the unsuspecting housewife how wonderful the soup is going to taste. He weaves a tale of a tasty and healthy meal for her family. But then he states, “As delicious as this Magic Stone Soup will be, it would be even more delicious if we added a few carrots.” The housewife always obliged and would eagerly add diced carrots to the Magic Stone Soup.

The Minstrel would continue this charade of suggesting other vegetables to enhance an already excellent tasting Magic Stone Soup. And the housewife, or another person in the village or town, would eagerly add what vegetable the Minstrel suggested to the soup pot. At the end of the story, the soup created was a great soup, filled with vegetables donated by the towns people! This Magic Stone Soup is then shared with the lady of the house, and the whole town. Once he has had his fill of soup, the Minstrel would remove his Magic Stone and continue on his way to the next village or town. This is the technique used by many Internet Marketing Service companies – Stone Soup Selling. They start you with something simple (and free or of little value) and before you know it, you have to invest more of your money and time to make what they originally sold you work.

I will agree that a balanced approach toward applying ALL of the items above (and more) are necessary for getting people to your website. But getting them to move from Visitors (browsers) to Sales Conversions (buyers) requires good old merchandising and pricing and promotion techniques as well.

So don't buy into the Stone Soup 'Quick Fix' messages delivered by most of these Internet Marketing Companies. Like any business, whether it be Mortar 'n Brick or Internet, it takes months to years to build a loyal client base and reap your Merchant Fortunes. Be patient. Be diligent. Apply the many aspects of marketing; whether it is the

FIVE P's: People, Price, Product, Promotion, Place or

FIVE C's: Customer Solution (benefits), Customer Cost (competitive) , Convenience (right to your door), Communication (engage emotion, information).

Remember: there is no such thing as a quick road to riches (at least not morally and legally). There is no magic Stone Soup. Beware the “Minstrels of who weave a tale of Quick Money”.