The Content Hoarder

I was conducting my “Building Your Consulting Business” seminar at UCLA Extension last weekend when an enthusiastic participant rushed up to me and exclaimed: “I wish I had taken this class, years ago!”

Of course I thanked him and then, I hope without missing a single beat, I asked: “May I quote you on that?”

At first, he didn’t process the question.

“May I use what you just said, ‘I wish I had taken this class years ago’ in my promotional materials?”

“Sure, of course!” he beamed, perhaps even honored at my request.

I’ve learned, over the years, to be a fisher of compliments, references, and testimonials.

They’re worth their weight in gold, and you know how well gold has been doing lately, right?

When you don’t even have to bait your hook for one and it leaps into your hands all by itself, well, what are you going to do, let it slip away or throw it back?

I hope not!

Harvest every single positive statement. Instead of letting it fade into the acoustical void, seize it, repeat it, and then immediately write it down. Be like a good reporter, and confirm the quote with its source before you do, and then you’ll be assured of having something incredibly useful.

It doesn’t matter if you sell Caterpillar tractors or seminars, consulting, and keynote speeches, as I do; if you ask “May I share what you just said with other customers and prospects?” you’ll be on your way to building a treasury of persuasive testimonials.

And you can never have too many!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of http://www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations from Santa Monica to South Africa. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

For information about coaching, consulting, training, books, videos and audios, please go to http://www.customersatisfaction.com

If you are buying several different gifts for Christmas hoping that the person will like them, then this article is for you. You could learn how to get them a gift that they want, or you could simply get them a gift card, thus allowing you to just spend the rest of the day with the person you care about.

Christmas gets more over-blown and expensive with each passing year. Everyone says that Christmas will be different next year but it will be the same boring holiday. Sure it was fun to get gifts when we were kids; but now that we’re adults do we need to continue the crazy mall shopping every year?

No one can ever know what everyone else knows. The theory seems to be that if you just buy a lot of stuff for a person you will please them because you increased the odds. Do some research prior to choosing a person to date. Check with people who know what they want and need. Ask the person a few probing questions throughout the year so when gift time comes you will have something to go on. This information should help you resist buying them unneeded trinkets and gadgets. When these ideas fail, there is nothing wrong with gift cards. You can make this personal in any number of ways. How about adding home made biscuits, or a card with a personal message that means something uniquely to them? The gift of getting to spend time with family and friends is way greater than any gift can give you.

Many say that gift cards are impersonal, but think about it, isn’t buying someone something they don’t need or want impersonal too? When you cannot determine the perfect gift through any means, gift cards are the ideal solution. Most of the time people don’t know what they want, or won’t answer if they do. Don’t worry, you’ll find plenty of ways to keep this group happy. Here is a great site for some unique gifts for everyone.

If you are having difficulty knowing what to charge, then check out your competition and find out what they’re doing. Find out if they post prices or fees on their website or if they have “packages” or deals. Do they have payment options?
While you are researching, keep in mind just because your competition is charging one way it is not necessarily how you should be charging.

One of my clients is a business and life coach. Most coaches charge for a set number of scheduled phone meetings, which seems to be a standard for “the coaching industry,” but that doesn’t mean it’s the best way.

I encourage my clients to charge fees that match who their clients are and what they are trying to accomplish. It’s very refreshing to do what works for you and not necessarily follow the “industry standard.” If you don’t feel comfortable with the way your industry charges, by all means change it. Just because the industry’s doing it doesn’t mean that it’s right.

Another client of mine, Shelly, is a wedding planner. When we first began working together she had three “wedding packages” because that’s what “everyone else does.” She ran into problems with pricing because most of her potential clients didn’t fit into the standard package and therefore Shelly had a long list of “upgrades” and additional items. She also had to charge more for weddings above a certain number of guests and weddings with over a specific number of attendants in the wedding party.

Potential clients became fixated on the package fees and felt ripped off when Shelly began adding additional charges all over the place. The packages were supposed to make things easier for Shelly’s, but they actually created more problems than they solved.

Shelly was so relieved when she realized she didn’t have to use the standard pricing packages most wedding planners used. She never felt good about them, but didn’t trust her own instincts on how to charge. We worked on making a pricing structure that wasn’t based on hours or packages but on the value to the client. She was able to quickly raise her fees and increase her client base simply based on her fee changes.

Are you charging your clients based on the value you are providing them or based on the “industry standard”? Is the industry standard an effective way to charge or is just what everyone else is doing?

Take a good look at the way you set your fees and handle client charges. Is it right for you?

Kirstin Carey is the author of “Starving Artist No More: Hearty Business Strategies for Creative Folks”. Kirstin knows that most creative professionals hate sales, contracts and discussing money. She consults creative folks on the business side of creativity so they make more money, attract better clients, and love what they do. Get proven strategies and insider secrets to help creative types like you get the business help you need at www.MyCreativeBiz.com

Overseas property specialists Property Index sell a range of properties such as apartments and villas.

Regardless the fact that the Property Index service is only a rather young syndicate, (they were set up in March 2007), they have advanced to expert status very quickly. As a matter of fact, they are a unbelievably uncomplicated syndicate focusing on offering informed instructions to everyone who is meaning to sell, buy, rent, etc. property in a wide selection of areas across the globe. They avow to be of assistance to you to discover precisely what’s looked for swiftly not to mention unproblematically. Real estate can easily be found in many parts of the world presently, undoubtedly the swankiest area being property you can purchase in Spain. It’s easy as one-two-three to list some of the phenomenal real property available in Spain, one motive for selecting properties here being property available and the mega cool option of being able to live amid this passionate population.

It is one of the most sought after markets presently, and considering the scenic splendor and agreeable sunshine that surrounds you round the clock, how could you conceivably go wrong! Real estate in Spain is steeped in history, art and culture, this realm of the world is home to a good number of indigenous nations. Some twenty years ago you would find merely a trickle of English people who are looking for real property in Spain. Ask any person who has removed to Spain and they’re likely to tell you the same. Well, some would tag it a trend and others tag it a more or less a fixation… The people that are keen on migrating to this area range from young working couples who are looking for a perspective to the elderly who want to take it easy.

There might be hitches when buying real property abroad — you’ll want to cope with a hundred actions to take up when budgeting, surveying or finalizing the deal. Even if one minor action is missed it may well engender wide-reaching hitches as well as, even more important, a financial hammering. Obviously, as can be assumed with this popular place, real property might well be dear in this place and that’s simply a consequence of the broad market pressure. Yet, buyers indeed are spoilt for choice in such a region determined by smiling environment and tremendous view. It can offer the lot just about anyone may desire and lots more.

Yes, it really happens. Now you might find it hard to believe but
you will understand after I explain.

Prior to late 2004, Google undisputedly ruled the search engine
world. During the second half of the year things took a dramatic
turn when Yahoo and MSN decided to challenge the Big G for some
of their lucrative market share.

Search engines are a big source of revenue especially when it
comes to advertising and for many this is their bread and butter.
With the emerging prominence of both Yahoo and MSN, advertisers
have more channels through which to advertise their goods and
services.

What marks Google apart from it’s two big rivals in this area is
the way they display their ads. They deliver their ads through a
system called Adwords which is unobtrusive to viewers. The ads
are placed to the right to clearly distinguish them from the
search results. Occasionally they will place ads above the SERPS.

Overture is the company which handles the placement of ads for
both Yahoo and MSN. Now if you should search for a popular
keyword in either of them, you will notice that the ads are above
the results, to your right and at the bottom of the page just
above the Next button. This is where it gets interesting.

Having the privilege of working in a public computer lab, I
decided to run some experiments. When customers came in and
requested information on various topics I instructed them to use
Yahoo or MSN for their search enquiries. The first one looked for
“bridal gowns” and another looked for “tourism in Jamaica”. In
both cases they click on the first available information which of
course is the relevant ads displayed.

I continued my experiment for a week and came to a decisive
conclusion. Some search engines are selling our traffic right
under our noses! The only time I observed the top ranking
websites getting regular click through was when the keywords are
not that competitive to involve ad placement.

This leads me to question the quality of traffic one receives
from Yahoo and MSN. For every visitor you receive what is the
ratio for that which you lose to a sponsored result? And what is
the use of optimizing your website for them?

Now mind you, I enjoy a few good rankings on both Yahoo and MSN
but they are for keywords that are not that too competitive. For
these I enjoy consistent traffic flow but I think that the
quality is something to take another look at.

I didn’t write this to bash these guys on how they choose to do
their business particularly how they choose to place their ads.
My aim is to point out to you that while you may enjoy a top ten
result on Yahoo and MSN, chances are you are not getting the
amount of visitors you should and could receive.

© Oceanroc Web Publishing

Nicholas Dixon is a Jamaican webmaster, writer and affiliate
marketer. Visit my blog for feature articles from select
article writers at http://WWW.Oceanroc.Blogspot.com

Contrary to the claims of high-priced SEO firms, optimizing your
web site for search engines is not brain surgery. But you
must first accept the fact that “spiders” - the search engine
programs that read web pages - run away from non-HTML code.
This is why the first thing any SEO expert does - before
researching keywords or rewriting your copy - is look at your
web site code.

If your web pages are full of Javascript, graphical navigation
buttons, Flash animation, and other glitzy stuff, your odds
of ranking high in the search engines sink like a stone.
The spiders may never even find your site, let alone start
adding your pages to their search results.

You say you just can’t give up those cool Javascript menus
or that glitzy Flash intro? Then be prepared to get shunned
by the search engines. Spiders are good at only two things:
reading basic HTML and finding text. If your sites throw
obstacles in their path, resign yourself to obscurity
- and poverty!

The most important SEO secret you will ever grasp is
incredibly simple. Your web site must be built so spiders
can read your text. The text is where the gold is.
This means no Flash animations. Your HTML must be plain
and clean. Your graphics must be kept to a minimum.
And links should always be text - not Javascript buttons
or drop-down menus.

Millions of dollars are wasted trying to outfox the
search engines. People everywhere scramble from gimmick to
gimmick to be #1 for a general search term like “weight loss.”
Sometimes they even manage to do it - for about 10 minutes.
Then one little tweak by Google … and they’re back to #8,734.

The lesson? Neither you, nor any analytical tool,
nor any automatic site submission service, nor any SEO guru,
can manipulate Google for long! Google employs too many
brilliant engineers. Their minds collectively focus on one
task - to make Google results as relevant as possible.
These people invent Google’s algorithm - a mathematical formula
that decides your rank.

The algorithm is impartial. The algorithm is complex.
The algorithm - not a human being - decides your page rank.
Given the millions of web sites on “weight loss,”
your odds of outsmarting the algorithm to get a #1 spot
are ludicrously small. So instead of spending money on
SEO gimmicks, invest in educating yourself so you can work
harmoniously WITH the search engines.

Instead of trying to manipulate the search engines, build a site
that doesn’t FIGHT them. Avoid questionable gimmicks, but
embrace search engine friendly techniques to get yourself ranked
high for almost any keyword you wish. For more information
visit
DominateSearchEngines.
Focus on strategies that help you save time, add real value
to your site, and are designed to work hand in hand with
the search engines.

Don’t try to outsmart the search engines. Work WITH them,
not against them.

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Kusuma Widjaja is President of Yahoo Cyber Technology, CV., based in Surabaya. He has over 2 years experience in Internet Marketing Arena, Custom Web Site Design and Graphic Design Services. For more information go to http://www.whycity.net or you can reach us at +62-8315-838474.

The thought of a safari will probably stir up the visualisations of excitement and the location of Africa. South African safaris have been well accepted in Zambia for decades and have become famous with the UK holiday tourists due to the magnificent weather and the magnificent wildlife that will often be explored.

The greatest time to visit Africa for a marvellous walking safari is around November as the weather is marvellous. The number of Scottish tourists who travel over to Africa for a walking safari has increased in the last four years due to the strong pound and also due to the increased attention of South Africa. Discover the same area Andy Rouse takes his photography.

The wildlife that you will probably happen upon is big, you might see cheetahs and eagles all up close. Zambia is ideal for folk who want to come and investigate the animals and also wish for a romantic holiday. The African safaris are not too strenuous that you cannot go back to your astonishing hotel in the evening for a romantic evening. That is why safaris in South Africa might be perfect for a honeymoon. Africa has some of the best privately owned lodges and walking safaris in the country and should be experienced by everyone at least once.

1) He or she is never late for a workout session. Chances are good that your dog lives with you and has a reasonable clear schedule. He will be ready to go at the drop of a hat (or the clip of a leash).

2) Your dog will never try to weasel out of exercising. How many workout partners have you had who actually want to go for a run in a blizzard?

3) Your dog doesn’t care what you’re wearing or how much tuna salad or garlic you just ate. You can exercise and have fun with your dog without ever feeling self-conscious.

4) The enthusiasm of your dog is contagious. If you’ve ever watched your dog run full tilt around a field with wild eyes, tongue flapping around and a look of unbridled joy on her face, it’s time to join her! Your dog will love the company.

5) Dogs thrive on exercise, just like people. Regular exercise makes both dogs and people happier, healthier and stronger.

6) Dogs don’t waste time talking. They don’t want to stop and chat in the middle of an exercise session. They don’t care who said what to whom. At most, they just want to know who peed on what and when.

7) A dog doesn’t need to change into its exercise fur. They feature a multipurpose, all-weather coat that doesn’t take 20 minutes to change into before they can start.

Dogs know the value of good, solid relaxation after exercise. and before exercise!

9) You don’t need to buy the latest in fashionable exercise cloths, shoes, or equipment for your dog.

10) Running + dog + sudden rabbit sighting = TURBO BURST

Copyright © 2002 BetterU, Inc. All rights reserved

Walking is one of the very best exercises for both you and your dog, especially if you are new to exercising. Walking is a great low-impact, calorie-burning exercise as well as being the most convenient of all the various exercises we will discuss here.

Here are some ways to increase the effectiveness of walking for you and your
dog:

Strive to take your dog on longer walks as much as possible. You
may not be able to do this during the workweek or in the mornings or evenings but, as a rule, the further you walk your dog, the more calories you’ll burn.

Try to keep a fairly brisk pace. While a leisurely walk is still
exercise, you will get better results by keeping up a faster pace (allowing for the occasional sniffing and bathroom breaks, of course).

Go for the hills. Walking up hills will increase the workload,
also increasing the intensity of the exercise, which will in turn, help increase your results.

Try to keep moving consistently. This can be difficult with a dog that is constantly stopping to sniff everything. To remedy this, try using a long lead, such as a 16-foot flexi lead. This allows your dog to trail behind you somewhat, to sniff things. As they get closer to the end of the lead, give them a signal such as a whistle or a tongue click, to let them know that their time is running out and that they had better keep moving. It may take a few light tugs to get them to learn this but they will learn it. Of course, some smells are extra special and require more attention!

Make sure you stay well hydrated, well rested and you are eating a health diet to get the most out of your workout. This same advice goes for your dog as well. When appropriate supplements may help optimize the benefits of fitness. You can kill two birds with one stone by shopping at www.healthforpeopleandpets.com . They offer both pet supply and nutrition supplements for people.

Health for People and Pets offers cheap priced nutrition supplements including ginseng, vitamins, protein and pet supply products from pet food to dog multi vitamins.

Past life regression, aka PLR, will discover the reasons why we have problems with friends in our current life or why we are concerned of certain situations. You have friends around you in your current lifetime that you will have remarkably met with before, now just imagine being capable to unearth what happened and what your relationship was to them at that time and destroy blocks that plague you in your current lifetime and even locate talents and bring them into your current time. Past lifetime regression is mind-blowing.

When you are having a past lifetime regression session you would go back to the lifetime you will most need to know about in your present lifetime. This is awesome and could describe a considerable deal about your current life and help you will to move forward with a greater understanding of yourself, your life and the people around you. Unearth the issues in your present life with Past Life with AnneJirsch.com.

You may also identify why you are the person that you are, now that is superb. If you enjoy nature maybe you were once a farmer, if you like to travel maybe you were a gypsy. Instead of forgetting our strengths we should acknowledge them.

Every single experience is superb and unique. Others have visited places they had lived in before and just knew where to go.

There is no other time of year that I like better then the Fall. The kids all go back to school, I get my house cleaned out the way that I want it, and the colors inside and out just warm my spirit. This is also the time of year when I put away all the popping summertime colors in the house and bring out my old time pottery. I love the transition in our house and I love the general feel that the colors and earthenware add to the season. I think that this is the best time of year and my house is a cozy place to get ready for winter.

I ran a simple search on the internet for old time pottery and there was so much more information out there than I ever imagined. I thought that I would learn all about the different civilizations that had and created pieces but now it seems like this medium is a large retail sector in the modern world. There are entire chain stores specifically designed to sell home decor made out or replicated based on the pottery of yesterday and the original designs. Who knew that it would make such a profound comeback and bring the world full circle in regards to art and function.