The Content Hoarder

Jack Welsh, the recently retired CEO of General Electric, presents a rare glimpse into how to build a successful organization in his book, “Straight from the Gut.” His honesty and openness is refreshing and reaffirms that success is sometimes built from failure, but more often from calculated planning and the willingness to take risks.

From explaining “false kindness” to developing a high performing workplace, Welsh demonstrates that good business behavior and high values separate the successful companies from the not so successful ones.

Many business experts such as Noel Tichey cite Welsh for his leadership skills. However, this book transcends leadership and is really about performance for both individuals and organizations. Without fancy performance models, Welsh knew from “his gut” what individuals needed to continually strive to reach their potential. He shared these simple strategies and how GE translated potential into performance.

When Jack Welsh was asked what business he was in, he simply replied “the people business.” The greatest resource for any company is their people. However, in today’s fast paced global workplace usually the people are the most under utilized resource. For those CEO’s, managers, business owners and even educators who wish to improve their outcomes, this book is a must read.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S. President of ADVANCED SYSTEMS, is the Process Specialist. With over 25 years of business and education experience, she builds peace and abundance by connecting the 3P’s of Passion, Purpose and Performance through process improvement. Her ROI driven process solutions affect sustainable change in 4 key areas: financials, leadership, relationships and growth & innovation with a variety of industries. She aligns the strategies, systems and people to develop loyal internal customers that lead to external customers. As co-author of M.A.G.I.C.A.L. Potential:Living an Amazing Life Beyond Purpose to Achievement due for June 2005 release, Leanne speaks nationally to a variety of audiences. Please call Leanne a call at 219.759.5601 or leanne@processspecialist.com if you are seeking amazing results.

Copyright 2005(c) Leanne Hoagland-Smith, http://www.processspecialist.com

Permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way (grammatical corrections accepted).

Gardening is a year-round hobby, which requires specific tasks at certain times of the year - often planning for several months ahead. In order to be ready to plant in your garden during next spring, you need to start preparing the soil sometime in the fall.

To prepare your garden for planting next spring, one of the most important things is to spread and till compost or peat moss over your garden, especially if it is a new garden. Adding fertilizers and nutrients several months ahead of the actual planting will help to ensure healthier plants.

Apart from preparing the soil, the winter months can also be used for removing of leaves and other debris and disposing of any dead plants. Some gardening experts recommend creating a calendar of planting dates so when spring is here you will know when to plant each variety.

Once spring arrives, your planting timetable will depend on where you live, your soil type and your local climate. Even though spring officially begins around March 20 th , you may have several more weeks of winter weather. Plants and vegetables that thrive in warm weather should not be planted until after the date that you can realistically expect no further frost. After that date, you can also safely remove any protective winter covers from plants.

Many varieties of annual flower seeds and vegetable seeds should be planted in March or April for best results. Try to sow seeds on a warm dry day as the soil may still be damp during this time of the year, thus causing the seeds to rot.

One tip for spring planting is to plant different varieties of crops and flowers in different parts of the garden than they were previously planted. Crop rotation helps to improve the health of the soil as well as preventing soil disease from spreading.

And before you even start planting, early spring is also a good time of year to perform basic outdoor maintenance tasks such as repairing fences or trellises, sharpening and cleaning tools. Spring is also the time to cut back unruly growth on most shrubs, before leaves begin to grow again.

About the Author:

Written by Joe Castro for GardenJunkie.com For more articles, auctions, blogs, forums & more visit http://www.gardenjunkie.com

Here’s the challenge for today’s authors: The number of books published each year is increasing (195,000 titles in 2004 alone), books sales are decreasing, and only brand-name authors are getting the necessary support to market their books. The unfortunate result is that most authors aren’t going to see even modest book sales.

The solution for authors is the Internet. With today’s sophisticated targeting capabilities of the web, an author can promote his or her book directly to readers who are interested in the subject matter or genre of that book. And readers are responsive to discovering new books online because they are increasingly using the Internet to help them decide what book to buy next.

The growth of the Internet has created an enormous variety of websites that attract highly specific audiences. For instance, there is a website dedicated to the history of corrective horseshoes. If your book is about corrective horseshoes or specialty horseshoes or even simply horseshoes you better be promoting your book on that website because you’re not likely to find such a concentration of likely buyers anywhere else. This is an extreme and overly-focused example (except for the author with such a book), but this highlights the power of the Internet - reaching out to the smallest of niche markets that are related to your book and letting that audience know your book is one they would value owning.

Authors can use the power of the Internet to break through. The writer Natasha Munson did it with amazing success for her book, Life Lessons for My Black Girls. She sent a carefully crafted email to friends announcing the book and asked that the email be forwarded to others. More importantly, she bought well-placed advertisements online to let her target audience learn more about the book. Natasha achieved great sales success on the Internet without even working with a traditional publisher. The book was first published by the print-on-demand (POD) firm, iUniverse, and did so well that Hyperion Books offered her a contract to publish the book. Many self-published and POD authors who hit the 2,000 mark in book sales are approached by traditional publishing houses. Some take it while others do not (the reasons why is another article).

My online book marketing firm, Book Premieres, used the Internet to reinvigorate the sales of a book that had already been on the market for 21 months. The book, No Regrets: A Ten-Step Program for Living in the Present and Leaving the Past Behind by Dr. Hamilton Beazley (Wiley & Sons, 2004), jumped from an Amazon.com sales ranking of over 100,000 to a high of 8,115 only three weeks after the campaign launched in September 2005. Preliminary estimates indicate that - at a minimum - there was of a 20 percent increase in sales during the month of the campaign.

Book Premieres promoted No Regrets online to targeted readers, which were defined as people seeking their own path to letting go of regrets and finding forgiveness. More specifically, these were people interested in self-improvement and looking to get the most out of each day. The campaign included a custom-designed website, paid placements on Yahoo! and Google, and ads in online marketplaces. In addition, graphical banner ads were placed on the home page of a website that attracted people similar to those who would be interested in reading No Regrets.

With time, some technical-savvy, and the willingness to learn, authors can create a marketing-oriented website, launch a targeted marketing campaign, and do online promotions for their book. Authors who would rather have experts design and execute their book’s online marketing campaign can utilize the services of firms that specialize in marketing books to targeted readers via the Internet. Regardless of how you implement an online marketing campaign, get started releasing the power of the Internet for your book. Not every book will breakthrough, but it’s worth knowing how far your book will go.

David Tortorelli
President and founder of Book Premieres, LLC
http://www.BookPremieres.com
An author services firm specializing in effective online book marketing campaigns. David is an expert of Internet strategies that help others create new opportunities online. He has also been recognized for his review of manuscripts that became works published by Wiley & Sons, Inc. and Hazelden, Inc.

Ever heard any of this advice?

• Content Is King - so Search Engines
  and Visitors will Love your Site
• Make Your Site Sticky - so Visitors
  will Return
• Add New Content Regularly - so Search
  Engines will Rank your Site Higher

Are they true statements?

Yes.

Getting fresh, new content on your site on a regular basis is a must but you MUST do it right to get the results you want?

Now let me ask you, did you read the code you added to your site? Did the code contain something that looked like:

Well if it did then the search engines can’t see you’re adding fresh, new content regularly because search engines can’t read JavaScript. You don’t have to take my word for it. Read what Google has to say.

“Use a text browser
such as Lynx to examine your site, because most search engine
spiders see your site much as Lynx would. If fancy features such
as JavaScript, cookies, session IDs, frames, DHTML, or Flash
keep you from seeing all of your site in a text browser, then
search engine spiders may have trouble crawling your site.”

Google Information for Webmasters at:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

Having fresh new content on your site can be a real benefit for
getting more traffic but beware of using free JavaScript code
because it may not be helping as much as you think.

Susan Carroll owner of http://www.friendswhocare.us
has formed a global community of online business people through her weekly
newsletter.

Susan recently finished a free report about adding automatic content to your website that search engines can see. It’s available at:
http://www.friendswhocare.us/content.htm

You have permission to publish this article electronically
or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are
included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be
appreciated.

Win big at all the top sports book wagering games, online here.

Relate two of everybody’s predominating pursuits and you have got is a vogue named a web based sportsbook. Truly, what could be more original? If you envision a crowd of men cheering over a given favored sports club, and often lays will be proclaimed in addition to the tumult. Aspiring to get a bit of the exhilaration, bystanders will generally try to presage who is the likeliest to prevail the impending struggle. In the end, this all eventually develops into a sociable little struggle termed web based sportsbook.

If you want to bet, you should look up a web based sportsbook, i.e. a place that proffers web based sportsbook. In the U.S., there’s currently a total of four states where people can go for sports gambling in a lawful manner, but informally you may attempt it just about anywhere assuming you can pin down a bookie AND you happen to be of legal age. Amongst the sporting contests you have a choice of betting on are pro added to college basketball and football, professional baseball, professional hockey, added to horse and dog racing. You’ll have a choice of wagering on the comprehensive results of a fight or game, on what round a given contester will be defeated, and even if a coin toss in a fight or game comes down heads or tails.

There’ll be innumerable varieties of bets- straight, parlays, teasers, which are equivalent to to parlays, the difference being that you can subtract or, if you prefer, add points from the likelihood to hedge your antes, and, of course, over-unders, the straight bets, where you have to quote the competitor which you guess is the likeliest to win or take a licking being the most typical in sports gambling.

So do run a test or two, and have lots of fun at the same time? But remember to ensure that you won’t get too enthusiastic and exhaust your total retirement income on a conceit. For you’ll probably end up full of regrets till the end of your days.

Of all the material used to coat and cover a sink, metal is considered to be the most durable material to use. Metal is easy to clean and there are several different metal types to choose from. The most popular metal coated sink is stainless steal.

Metal coated sinks are durable and will not get damaged easily due to everyday use. There are several different types of material that can be used to coat your sink, you can get your standard metal coating or have one costume made.

You will want to choose the metal that serves the best feel and function of your sink. Metal coated sinks are easy to maintain and can be cleaned with most household cleaning products. You can find the sink you would like within the budget you are looking for.

Metal coated sinks can be purchased online. You can find the products and the looks and design that you are going for online. Enjoy the look and feel of metal coated sinks. The prices are reasonable. Your metal coated sink can be lined with stainless steal, copper or nickel. These sinks are highly durable and damage is difficult. Some stainless steal metal coated sinks can show dents, that is if they do not have a protective cover.

The ancient civilizations of the Chinese, Egyptians, Hindus and Persians used massage therapy as a principal treatment for many an ailment. Now, the fact that Americans spend 6 billion dollars annually on massage therapy gives an idea of its popularity in treating a wide range of disorders.

It is important to clearly differentiate massage therapy from sensual massage, as the word ‘massage’ calls to mind massage parlors, which were used to peddle sex. Today, health professionals who are well trained, certified and insured give the therapy in a clinical and comfortable atmosphere.

Massage is part art and part science. Hands manipulate the skin, muscles, soft tissues, joints, tendons and ligaments. The therapist strokes, kneads, squeezes, presses or taps to achieve the aim of treatment. The patient is made comfortable, and some lubricants like oil, cream, jelly or lotion are applied. The therapist keeps the patient covered and exposes only the area that he is working on. A typical massage session lasts about an hour.

The massage relaxes the muscles and soft tissues, improves circulation, stimulates the lymphatic system and calms the nerves. There are a wide range of mental and physical disorders for which massage therapy is very beneficial. It eases tension, knots, cramps and spasms in the muscles. Massage therapy is a prime component of most relaxation therapies and stress management. As stress is perceived to be the root cause of many problems like cardiac diseases, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorder and hypertension, stress management via massage therapy is an excellent supporting treatment for these disorders. There are quite a variety of massages - some for general purpose and some others targeting a specific problem. Some of the popular ones are Swedish massage, sports massage, shiatsu, acupressure, aromatherapy, neuromuscular therapy and prenatal pregnancy massage.

Today’s therapists are trained in professional schools, both in theory and practice. They need to pass a board examination and many states have certification standards. Therapists are registered with their professional associations. These associations like the National Certified Board for Therapeutic Massage and Body Work (NCTMB), Associated Massage and Body Work Professional (AMBP) and American massage therapy Association (AMTA) set a high standard of professional ethics and competency.

This is a treatment well suited to hectic modern lifestyles even without any illness, and has no comparative competition in relaxing the body and mind, and relieving stress.

Massage Therapy provides detailed information on Massage Therapy, Massage Therapy Schools, Massage Therapy Jobs, Massage Therapy Training and more. Massage Therapy is affiliated with Massage Therapy.

Property Index sell a range of villas and apartments, take a look at their site if you are looking for overseas property investment, click here to view the properties.

Notwithstanding the Property Index is generally viewed as a new kid on the block firm, they were registered in March 2007, they were quick to establish expert reputation. De facto, they are a extremely hassle free firm exclusively focused on offering guidance to any individual dedicated to buy, sell, rent etc. land across the world. Their guarantee: to assist you laser target just what you crave very swiftly and, as well, easily. Real property can be found in most areas of the world presently, possibly the most exclusive area being properties you can purchase in Spain. It should really be an easy job to catalogue the mega cool property for sale in Spain, the argument for picking properties here is the houses and apartments available for sale and the wonderful opportunity of being able to live among such a high-spirited people.

It’s one of the most popular markets presently, and with the gorgeous landscape and agreeable climate surrounding you, how could you go wrong.? Real property in Spain is steeped in history, art and culture, this area of the world has a long tradition as a home to a number of sophisticated nations. Just 25 years ago you would find a mere dribble of British people keen on property in Spain. Just ask any individual who has chosen to remove to Spain and they will confirm it. Well, some would tend to see it as a basically irrelevant rage and others tend to see it as a virtually a fetish! People keen on repairing here range from young yuppie couples looking for a perspective to pensioners who intend to enjoy themselves and settle down.

Note, however, that you might hit on some problems when attempting to buy property in a foreign country - you’ll want to cope with a hundred disparate actions be it when scheduling, popping in or signing the documents. Even if just a single minor procedure is missed this could generate great problems not to forget, critically, money loss. Naturally, as can be expected with this trendy region, property might well be extremely high-priced in this destination and that is merely caused by the growing demand. Yet, the buyer is very spoilt in such a place so full of fabulous surroundings. It patently has the whole ball of wax a buyer could possibly fancy and then some.

Be a slumlord? Okay, I got your attention, now the truth. I really don’t recommend that anyone endanger their renters with unsafe housing. Much of what people call slumlording though, is simply providing reasonable housing for those with low incomes. It is of benefit to the renter AND the landlord.

Why Do People Rent Dumps?

People rent not-so-nice places because they can afford to. A house that needs paint, has old rusty hinges on the doors, and a dirt driveway - this is a house that cost less to buy, and therefore can be rented for less. Anything major that the landlord does to improve it will result in higher rents, and possibly drive the renter away.

In fact, this often happens. A few years ago my own town enacted its first rental regulations. The fifteen pages of new rules included many non-safety-related requirements, like a minimum of windows, to allow natural lighting, bedroom square-footage requirements, and no peeling paint.

These things are done in the name of low income renters, and yet the result is always the same: higher rent. With that and the regulations against mobiles homes, low income families are moving further away from town and jobs. I mention all this to let you know that if you offer an ugly, but safe and affordable rental, you are providing a real service.

Why Invest In Low Income Housing?

If a nice two bedroom house in a small town costs $130,000 and rents for $800, an old mobile home on a lot will probably cost $45,000 and rent for $500. Notice that the house costs almost three times as much, but the rent you get isn’t even doubled. This means the mobile gives you MORE CASH FLOW. That is why old houses and mobile homes (on land) are such good investments.

It’s important to note that you’ll have more risk and management problems with low income housing. Repairs come up more often, and rent will be late more often, on average. This is why you deserve a higher rate of return. Otherwise, who would want to provide low-cost rentals?

Treat your renters well, and make your places safe. Do these things, and you can enjoy a good return on your investment - even if some want to call you a slumlord.

Steve Gillman has invested real estate for years. To learn more, and to see a photo of a beautiful house he and his wife bought for $17,500, visit http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com

If you are doing your own investing in the stock market, what would be the first question you would ask yourself before you make any trade or investment? If your answer is how fundamentally sound the stock is, or whether the stock just broke out of a trading range on a chart, or the fact that the stock has gone down 50% in the last 6 months, or whether the volatility is low now so it is a good time to buy or sell, then you are probably on the road to ruin. These strategies have nothing in common with each other and there are all kinds of different criteria that I did not mention that have nothing in common with each other. However no matter what type of strategy you use to make your investment decisions, there is only one crucial question that must be asked before you pull the trigger and make the trade. That is, what is my risk and what is my reward on this trade. Even if you are going to buy a stock and hold it for a long time, you still have to be aware of your risk and your reward. Why? Because the entire stock market may be here for the rest of your life, any one stock might not be. You think, that is okay I diversified a lot so I don’t need to know risk and reward. Wrong.

Diversification is great, but you should still be aware of the risk and reward because even indexes of the entire market have a risk and a reward, depending on the length of time invested. Point of entrance, exit, stops, and diversification, are all important things, but they by themselves are not risk and reward. You have to ask yourself how much am I risking, and what my potential reward is. How much are the important words

Okay how do I do that? Well first you must define your investment strategy. If you want to buy and hold what exactly does that mean. Hold for 5 years, 10 years, or forever? What is forever? If you are 20 years old forever is different than if you are 55. Also if you are buy and holding, is forever when you stop investing or is it when you start withdrawing money? These are important questions that must be answered specifically. You might say it doesn’t matter because I will be diversified with index funds for the next 15 years. Okay let me ask these questions. Are you 100% invested at all times? Do you know the maximum drawdown (the largest loss from the index high and low in any 15 year period) for the index you invested in? Are you able to financially withstand that kind of drawdown? Alright, I know these are a lot of questions and all you want to do is invest in an index mutual fund for the next 15 years and forget about it.

Well I am going to say right now that if you think you are taking very little risk on 15 years you are wrong. If you bought the S&P 500 in a 100% position in 1965 and needed the money in 1980 you would have made no return on investment and had a 40% drawdown from 1969 to 1975. If you look at the period of 1930 to 1955, a 25 year period it is even worse. I know it’s the great depression and things are different today. Don’t assume anything. I am not saying that you should not invest. I am just saying that there is a risk and a reward. Every time you trade whether it is once a week or once every 15 years, that trade has a chance of winning and a chance of losing. Also, when you buy a managed mutual fund for 15 years you are not buying and holding. You are buying and selling but you are paying a professional to do it for you. He or she will have draw downs in the fund and hopefully he or she will be looking at risk and reward for you. Even an index fund held for 15 years is not truly buy and hold because the indexes change on a yearly basis. Some stocks come in the index and some stocks go out of the index. The longer the time span, say 40-55 years, the bigger the risk but the bigger the reward. Also the longer the time span, the longer you can withstand a large drawdown if it comes.

Now what if you are trading stocks with an entry and an exit point already predefined; that is where do I get in and where do I get out. That strategy might be good but that is not risk and reward. The most important question is how much am I invested and how much do I get out. What is the % of risk on each stock position in the portfolio and what is the risk to the total portfolio. Let’s take an example. You bought 100 shares IBM @50 for $5000 in a total portfolio of $200.000. You put a sell stop loss to sell all 100 shares if IBM goes to $40 / share. That means your risk on IBM is $10 / share or $1000. But your real risk to your portfolio is .5% or $1000 divided by $200,000. If you have a sell exit point of $100 then your reward on the stock would be 100% and the reward to your total portfolio was 2.5%. So your total risk to reward was 5 to 1. You could crunch numbers all day to make up formulas to fit your strategy, but the most important part is how much are you risking. Here are some general rules when it comes to risk:

Don’t risk more than 2% on any given trade or idea. That doesn’t matter if your strategy is technical or fundamental or discretionary. Risking 1% would be safer. Most large fund managers risk much less.

Diversify. Buying 1% risk on IBM and 1% on Dell and 1% on Hewlard Packard is a 3% risk because they all sell the same products

Don’t risk more than 20% of your portfolio at any one time, 10% would be better. You have to have a way to quantify the greed factor or it might consume you and all your money at the same time.

In my own portfolios I try not to risk more than 7% on an initial portfolio position.

Initial risk and on going risk can be two different risks. As a trade becomes profitable the amount of at risk at any moment in time can be a variable not a constant. That would allow for letting profits run while cutting losses short. However, making your initial risk a variable in most cases would be a disaster. Once initial risk is conceived it should never be increased. Greed may become the primary factor in increasing initial risk and that is always a fast track to increasing losses.

I hope that risk and reward become the primary strategy concern in your future investing and trading.

About The Author

John McKeon- pivate placement fund manager and owner of buypanic.com, an investment newsletter. I also have over 25 years experience in trading with a specialization in stock index trend following.

info@buypanic.com