Business Competition and Cooperation

Some of our business ancestors hаd the idea thаt making money required beіng cruel and cutthroat. We ѕtill live wіth the weeds theу sowed. They thought thеу could separate business from the softer values like compassion and cooperation. They thought thеу cоuld leave the women home as keepers of virtue аnd a warmth to whісh theу соuld return аftеr a day of slaughter. They sаw nо bеttеr waу tо live.

Take а mill owner in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the day when cotton was woven іnto cloth bу woman аnd children seated at large partially automated hand looms, the factory version of earlier looms usеd thrоughоut medieval Europe to weave woolen cloth. This mill owner knоws the woman and children work long hours. He pays them a pittance and watches thеm sicken and die оf white lung disease from thе bits оf cotton fiber they breathe. He replaces the dead wіth nеw workers who ѕeem tо have no othеr option. It's not а life hе wоuld accept fоr hіѕ оwn wife аnd children, but sоmеhow he convinces himself thаt thеsе human beings dо not matter the wаy hіs loved oneѕ do.

Yet, he knоwѕ he iѕ doіng harm. And he believes he hаs no choice. His conscience bothers him, but hе pushes it back and doeѕ hіѕ best to silence it. Each evening аftеr working mоstlу in the mill office whеre hе oversees thе ordering оf bales оf cotton from thе slave south аnd shipping оut cotton fabric tо retail markets, undеr pricing hіs competitor aсrоsѕ the river, hе drives hіѕ horse and buggy оut of thе crowded city and іntо the country wherе hіѕ family awaits him in а mansion. His groom takes thе horse and buggy оff tо the stables. He goеѕ inside tо thе world hе hаѕ created, оne wherе woman and children dо not give up thеіr health fоr а few pieces of bread а day.

There he finds hіs wife instilling intо their daughters thе values theу wіll need to kеep а home that іs a haven from the world of business, values ѕuch as nurturing and caring. It's а bring-me-my-slippers-and-pipe world, fоr him, іf not for the women. He counts on the selflessness оf thе females in his household. After all, hе supports them. It's an exchange, of sorts. But hе will send hiѕ sons off to prep school and Ivy League Colleges to toughen thеm up, to prepare them to do the callous things theу must dо tо make а living.

How to double your Gmail inbox placement rates

We all talk about the little tweaks we can do to help increase our inbox placement rates at the major ISPs like Gmail. But what if you are having trouble getting into the inbox at Gmail at all? What if we asked the question "how can I DOUBLE my inbox placement rates at Gmail"? AND, what if I further asked "why can't Loraine at our office not keep a simple Ficus tree alive?" Well it is possible to answer the first two questions, anyway. If you are willing to incorporate some personalization tactics that specifically target Gmail subscribers with their own campaign (and yes, this means doing some extra work), then you may be successful. If you aren't willing to do any extra work, then I've got a great piece of advice for you--> read someone else's blog : ).
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Double your Gmail inbox placements
If you have been paying any attention to your inbox placement rates at the ever-fickle Gmail, you have noticed a decrease which means your readers aren't reading your email anymore.
Two B2C retailers that depend on their email newsletters getting through to the inbox are ProFlowers and Shari's Berries. The Magill Report witnessed these retailers start sending out personalized emails intended just for Gmail subscribers. The subject lines of these emails were things like "Gmail Users Weekend Sales Event: 59% off a Gift Mom will Remember Forever". The results from these highly targeted campaigns were quite impressive. ProFlowers' Gmail inbox placement rate jumped from 35.9 percent to 71.8 percent (eDataSource).  And, in subsequent campaigns, the inbox rates were at 95%! Shari's Berrys also provided graphical instructions on how to report the email message as Not Spam (see the graphic below).

Click to enlarge

If you are having trouble sending to Gmail
First set up a few free Gmail test accounts to monitor what happens when your campaign are sent there and then try the below:

• Remove any subscriber from your list that has not opened/clicked one of your messages in the last 90 days
• Be sure your email service provider doesn't send your emails too quickly to Gmail.  A good ESP will know the appropriate speed.
• Use email authentication
• Use a spam check tool prior to launch to help spot problems
• Check with your ESP to ensure they participate in feedback loops*
• Check your Gmail test accounts and be sure that the emails are received, and that images are displayed.  If emails are not in the inbox, stop!  Don't send the rest of the campaign until you know what the problem is. You may be able to narrow down the problem:
• Send your campaign in small segments, dividing the content into two parts. 
• If both sections of your content fail to reach the inbox, continue dividing the content into smaller pieces and resend. Repeat this process with subsequently smaller sections of content until what content is driving the spam filtering issue. 

If your campaigns are still not reaching the inbox at Gmail, consider engaging the tools and services of inbox placement companies such as  Litmus, Email on Acid (yes!, that's actually the name of their company), Return Path, and Pivotal Veracity (IBM Unica Email Optimization).  They can help you see exactly what is happening with your emails and provide advice on what else you can do.

Read next: Gmail gives marketers a second chance
If you are still trying to send your bulk emails using Outlook, you may want to read this article

* Feedback loops are where the ESP receives the complaint list from the ISP of any recipients that clicked the Report Spam button. These subscribers should be automatically removed from your list. Gmail does not participate in feedback loops, but this is an important fact to know about your ESP.

ESP- email service provider
ISP- internet service provider

Partnerships and Cooperative Learning For the New Internet Marketer

After posting mу article, "Can yоu go it аlone learning аll thе skills аs а One Person Online Small Business?" a few points havе bесоme clear.

1. There are a number оf people verу interested in starting an Internet Business but do not feel that thеу havе the required expertise tо start оn thеіr own.

2. A fеw questions hаvе arisen аs tо what sort оf partnership саn be formed аnd how do you gо about it.

Well I am nо lawyer but from mу experience and research I will try tо answer thеѕe points. I will go іnto morе depths оn hоw to form a partnership іn а lаter article.

I waѕ іn thе ѕаmе position оf wanting to start a home based internet business but hаd оnlу the vaguest idea aѕ to how tо start. I waѕ nоt desperate fоr money but knew I would nеed tо supplement my shrinking pension bеforе too long аnd hаving worked for part оf my business career leading аnd beіng part of teams I knew thе benefits of team work, еspeciаlly whеn motivated.

Partnerships arе whеre one оr morе people get tоgether fоr the benefit or othеrwiѕe оf the whole group. They mау bе eіther formal or informal groups. Whatever type of partnership you enter into іt must bе properly structured. Partnerships ѕhould nоt bе marriages made іn hell.

Internet business training partnerships аre rеlatіvеlу new аnd mаny of them hаvе bеen rather unstructured. Times though аre changing. The mоst common form of partnership іѕ а rаthеr loose structure called а Joint Venture Partnership wherе оne оr а number оf independent individuals оr companies agree to market а product for an agreed commission. This thоugh іs not quite what wе arе talking about.

Cooperative learning partnership

From the comments I havе had, mоst people wаnt а learning partnership wherе thеу сan pool аnd share expertise tо thе benefit оf thеir оwn individual startup business or for а morе corporate venture.

The beѕt model I hаvе sо far cоme up wіth іѕ а fairly simple cooperative learning structure partnership. The learning іѕ promoted bу an аlrеady successful internet marketer. He оr ѕhе takes оn the role оf leadership to one or а number оf small groups of student marketers. It iѕ thе responsibility оf thе leader оr mentor to group the students асcоrdіng to their individual previous expertise. Under guidance of thе leader/mentor, thе group works together to learn and put intо practice what has bеen passed on by thе mentor.

The question of motivation of thе group is that thеy have all got а financial interest and common goal, hаvіng bought into the group, by product purchase in the fіrst place. The mentors motivation іs thаt he/she wіll benefit financially frоm thе success of all thе team members.

In this rаther informal partnership structure each member can benefit his/her own business frоm the corporate efforts of thе whоlе group. The mоѕt proficient mentor іs оne whо haѕ access to and makes avаilablе as much information and personal experience аs possible.

Balancing Fun and Work: Making Your Summer Marketing Efforts a Success

Personal branding benefits from your vacation 

Running a small business is one of the most exhausting jobs on the planet. When you are in charge of a small company, you are directly or indirectly responsible for every aspect of its operation. Burnout is a common problem with small business owners, especially ones trying to expand their businesses through creative marketing efforts while trying to make some time for family and friends. Fortunately, there are a variety of clever strategies you can employ to boost your marketing efforts this summer while preserving your personal life.

Make a Schedule and Stick to It

When you're your own boss, it's easy to work constantly. There's always more to be done, and many people start to feel guilty when they still have unfinished business to attend to. The problem with working constantly is that it is a recipe for burnout and failure. To keep from pushing yourself too hard, you should make a schedule and stick to it faithfully.

Write down when you are going to work and when you are going to spend time with family and friends. Give yourself some flexibility but not too much. Most small business owners don't have problems with laziness; they have problems with working excessively.

Establish a Special Place for Brainstorming

Most people, even creative business owners, assume that brainstorming is something that works equally well anywhere. Well, the truth is that the quality of a brainstorming session is highly dependent on whether or not you feel comfortable where you are brainstorming. The more comfortable you feel with your personal environment, the more creative your ideas are bound to be. If you want to come up with the best ideas possible for your marketing efforts, make sure you spend some time finding the ideal spot for brainstorming sessions.

Outsource Some of Your Marketing Efforts

Your time is best spent brainstorming marketing ideas, not personally implementing all of them. Try to always keep in mind the fact that you don't have to do everything by yourself. Effective marketing help can be obtained by outsourcing some of your marketing efforts. One of the best kept secrets of people that conduct successful telephone, email, and website marketing campaigns is that they focus on what they do best and hire others who really are experts in the area of “marketing”.  They can help specialize in your word-of-mouth marketing so you can focus on what you do best!

Plan Your Vacations Very Far in Advance

When it comes to vacations, the further ahead you plan, the better. As a busy small business owner, you can take the time for vacations, but you have to be intelligent about it. Plan all of your vacations a minimum of three months in advance. This will give you plenty of time to get ahead in your work so you can take a couple weeks off when your vacation comes.

While you are on your vacation, try to avoid the temptation to do any real work. While this may sound counterproductive, the truth is that if you don't allow yourself to have a real vacation (by continuing to work while on your "vacation") you won't feel rested at the end of your vacation. Your batteries won't be recharged.

If, on the other hand, you allow yourself to have a genuinely relaxing vacation, you will be able to work much more effectively on your return to your regular business activities. Nothing helps success like a well-placed break now and then. Give yourself time to relax on occasion, and you will reap the rewards.

Measure the Results of Your Marketing Campaigns

It may surprise you just how many business owners spend a lot of time and money marketing their products and services and never bother trying to measure the effectiveness of their marketing strategies. There are a lot of theories when it comes to marketing, but the truth is that you ultimately can only rely on the results you are getting from your campaigns. That's why it's so important to make every effort to track the results of your marketing campaigns. Good campaigns produce good results: Bad campaigns don't.

You need to find out what works for you as quickly as possible in order to leverage your results. Good marketers don't just come up with more good marketing ideas; they scrap bad marketing campaigns faster than mediocre marketers do. Pay attention to the results you are getting with your campaigns, and you will be much more likely to notice which ones are succeeding and which are failing.

Questions to Ask Yourself to Help Make the Most of Your Summer Marketing

1. Do I have a solid schedule that I can stick to?
2. Do I have a special brainstorming place?
3. Am I delegating some of my marketing tasks?
4. Am I planning my vacations and travelling far enough in advance?
5. Do I know which of my marketing campaigns is the most effective?

Attract the Wrong Customers

The Washington Post, also known as the Beijing Post for its advertising supplements for the Chinese government, provides continuous amusement for me. Most mornings I can count on a truly stupid article right on the front page. This past week was no exception. The Beijing Post published an article on the Baltimore mayor's attempts to reverse decades of population loss. Her idea is to attract immigrants both legal and illegal, excuse me, undocumented is the PC term.

The article features a twenty-four year old single mother woman, who speaks no English. She has two young children and is the target of the mayor's new program. The woman wants to get her GED and then become a teacher. With her situation, that is about as likely as my left butt cheek becoming the queen of England. Actually the odds in Las Vegas favor my butt cheek.

Only a population called Baltimorons could elect a mayor this stupid. Her plan will attract lots of people for sure and grow the population, but what type of population will she attract? She will attract lots of people, who need lots of government services and pay next to nothing in taxes. How will she pay for the expansion of government services? She'll raise taxes on the affluent.

Most affluent people don't become affluent by being stupid. When the mayor raises taxes they'll leave. The net effect of the mayor's program will be an increase in poor people and a decrease in the affluent. Before long Baltimore will be bankrupt. If you own any Baltimore muni bonds, now would be a good time to dump them.

Commercial businesses unwittingly do the same thing with customers that the mayor of Baltimore is doing with her constituents. They drive out good customers in favor of bad customers. In the insurance industry, this is called adverse selection. Please forgive me if I've used this example a few times before.

Let's say you own a life insurance company, and you decide that you don't want to discriminate against anyone in your potential customer pool. So you decide to insure anyone. Of course, you realize that to do that, you have to raise your rates as you'll be insuring terminally ill cancer customers as well as healthy young customers. You figure that the higher premiums you collect from healthy customers will offset the losses from insuring terminal cancer patients. The math all works out just fine except for one factor.

You have competition. Your competitors, who refuse to insure terminal cancer patients, will undercut your prices for healthy customers. All your healthy customers will leave for the lower premiums leaving you with only terminal cancer patients. Now your business model doesn't look so good. While this seems like an extreme example, small businesses make similar mistakes all the time. They work hard to attract exactly the wrong types of customers.

One of the mistakes is offering coupons and incentives to new customers only. To show why this is a problem, let's use my favorite business as an example, the doggie do do pickup business. I wish I owned one of these franchises. I can't imagine anything more joyous than driving to the office each morning to manage a workforce whose best career option was picking up dog feces. It must be nirvana. In an earlier post, I examined the business model behind the doggie do do pickup business. If you haven't read that one, please take a look.

Let's assume you are fortunate enough to land one of these franchises. Let's also assume you have two competitors. All three business have one hundred customers, and all three businesses provide the same great level of do do service. All three businesses also want to grow and start marketing campaigns offering discount coupons. Your two competitors offer a 10% discount to new customers only, but you go against the grain and offer a 10% discount to your returning customers as well.

Here's what happens from a Boolean logic standpoint. If you're not familiar with that term, find a sixth grade math student. Since all of you provide the same level of service, you are all competing on price. Your two competitors will each get new business by taking it from each other. However, eventually your two competitors will run out of new business to get. They have to constantly refresh their customer bases with new customers, who will then leave to get a 10% discount somewhere else. Eventually, all of the customers end up with you since you are offering your repeat customers the 10% discount to stay. You eventually steal all of your competitors' customers, who never leave you.

Your competitors were practicing adverse selection. They were trying to attract new customers with an offer that created an incentive for existing customers to leave. Early in our CPA practice, we did the same thing. We offered new client discounts through Money Mailer.

After a couple years of doing this, we learned the lesson you just learned in the doggie do do example. We were attracting new clients who were price sensitive. Most of the clients we got from the direct mail offer didn't come back the next tax season. They left for someone else's discount offer, and they had plenty to choose from.

Here's a little insight about the CPA business. We don't make much money the first year we have a client. We have to examine prior year tax returns and look for carry forward items like tax credits. We also aren't very familiar with a new client's financial affairs and have to do a lot of digging to make certain we aren't missing any potential deductions. We spend much more time each year on new client returns than on repeat clients with whom we are very familiar. First year clients are expensive to service.

Here's where adverse selection comes in. Our mailer was attracting exactly the wrong type of client for us, We were getting one and done's, our least profitable type of client. Since we aren't the brightest guys on the planet, it took a couple years for this to sink in.

Now we do something entirely different. We don't offer incentives for new clients. We offer incentives for existing clients. We give a $50 gift card for referrals from existing clients. This program accomplishes a number of really great objectives for us. First, it makes existing clients aware that we are looking for new clients. $50 isn't much of a financial motivator for our mostly affluent client base. If they don't like us, $50 isn't enough to motivate them them to give us referrals. But, it delivers the message that we value their referral efforts.

Second, and perhaps even more important, good clients refer other good clients. Our absolute best clients come from referrals. At one point, I took a look at the eventual number of clients I got from one existing client. The resulting total of referrals from other referrals totaled more than twenty from this one original client. Better yet, these clients came back year after year. Our best marketing expenditure had nothing to do with approaching new clients. We got a lot more for our marketing money by spending it on existing clients. No more adverse selection for us.

After almost a week of Redskins training camp, I am VERY disappointed with RGIII. He has yet to throw a touchdown pass in the NFL. You say, “But Frank, they haven't even played a single game yet.” I don't accept excuses. Where's Babe Laufenberg when you need him? Probably still fishing in Mexico. Long time Skins fans will get that reference.

As always for real tax and accounting advice, please visit our S&K web site at www.skcpas.com. Thanks for reading!

Pentax K-30 review

One of the benefits to photographers of Canon and Nikon being so dominant in the market is that other companies like Pentax have to think a little bit harder to offer prospective buyers something different.
In several cases this has resulted in manufacturers turning to compact system cameras (CSC) and abandoning their SLR line-up.
So after its flurry of activity in the compact system camera (CSC) market, bringing out the teeny-tiny Pentax Q and chunky K-01, it's great that Pentax is still interested in SLRs and has introduced the K-30. And with a weather-sealed body, high resolution LCD screen and a 100% viewfinder it seems like quite a compelling option sitting below the K-5 in Pentax's two camera SLR line-up.

Features

At the heart of the Pentax K-30 is an APS-C (23.7x15.7mm) format CMOS sensor with 16.28 million effective pixels.
This sensor is able to shift to correct camera shake. Pentax's Shake Reduction system functions just about whatever lens is mounted and can be set to the correct focal length if the camera cannot automatically detect the information.
In addition, when the Shake Reduction system is activated the K-30 can rotate the sensor automatically by up to 1 degree to correct the composition and avoid a sloping horizon. There's also a digital level display option for the viewfinder and LCD screen.
The same system allows image composition to be adjusted up, down or left or right by up to 1mm over 16 steps. It's hard to imagine this being used very often, but a 1mm movement at sensor level makes a reasonably significant difference, which could prove useful with critical still life or macro set-ups.

Pentax has coupled the sensor with the PRIME M processing engine that enables JPEG images to be captured at a maximum continuous shooting rate of 6fps, or 8 raw files at 3fps, and sensitivity to be set in the range ISO 100-25,600 with expansion enabled.
In addition, Full HD videos can be recorded at 30, 25 or 24fps in clips of up to 25min in length. Movies can be cut and joined together in-camera to make better footage.

Autofocusing is handled by the new SAFOX IXi+ AF module that has 11 AF points, 9 of which are cross-type. Pentax says that the system takes the lighting conditions into account when calculating the focus and there's a new select-area expansion function for tracking moving subjects.
Pentax was pretty quick to introduce automatic HDR (high dynamic range) shooting in its SLRs and the K-30 has several options available for combining three images with bracketing of up to +/-3EV.
Shadow and Highlight Correction is also available to boost the dynamic range of individual images as they are shot and there are seven digital filter effects such as Toy Camera, Retro and High Contrast that can be applied to JPEG images as they are shot.

Enthusiast photographers may prefer the 11 Custom Image options as these can be used when shooting raw or JPEG files with aspects such as saturation, hue, high/low key, contrast and sharpness being customisable.

Nokia 808 PureView review

As Nokia's Symbian hardware development comes to an end, its long awaited "Game Changer" device has finally hit the UK streets with its killer camera.
Although the Nokia N8 has long held the crown of the Finnish firm's best camera phone available, the Nokia 808 PureView has arrived with its 41MP camera.
The amount of hardware required to support its functionality causes the Nokia 808 PureView to weigh in at a hefty 169g - compared with the 140g iPhone 4S, 133g Samsung Galaxy S3 and 130g HTC One X.

As well as its weight, the Nokia 808 PureView - with its 4" AMOLED ClearBlack display - isn't exactly small measuring 123.9mm x 60.2mm x 13.9mm (expanding to 17.95mm at the camera bulge) compared with the slim iPhone 4S (9.3mm), One X (8.9mm) and S3 (8.6mm).

The Nokia 808 Pureview looks and feels like the old Nokia 5800 with a hint of the more recent Nokia Lumia 610 although both were smaller, more compact, flat-backed phones.

Although the 5800 and Lumia 610 appeared a little cheap in appearance, which was reflected in their purchase price, this is not the case for the Nokia 808 PureView with its £500 pricetag (black £519.99 or white £489.99).

The main reason for this high retail price is that none of the UK operators have decided to offer the Nokia 808 PureView, meaning that it is only available via Amazon at the SIM free, unbranded price.
Although this seems a high price to pay for a phone, when you compare it with the iPhone 4S 16GB the 808 Purview is pretty much the same, although the HTC One X weighs in 10 percent cheaper than both Nokia's and Apple's offering.

Poor credit loan no guarantor

To be able to enjoy sum via a loan deal, people need to use anything as collateral. It really is a fundamental requirement requested through the loan provider using the debtors once they require a large loan sum. But you don't have to get displeased when you really need money and you're simply not able to have it due to your poor credit rating without any arrangement of guarantor. In this horrible condition, you are able to make an application for a bad credit score loan no guarantor. It'll give you support easier to cover all essentials in an exceedingly comfortable manner where you need to do nothing tough.

A bad credit score loan no guarantor is recognized as a personal unsecured loan deal and thus, people do not have to feel uneasy to be able to borrow it. Actually, candidates aren't requested to create any salary slip, residential proof as well as other documents by fax needed facility and therefore, they acquire needed profit a brief span. These financial loans haven't any limit of finance plus they arrange you sum like every other unsecured poor credit deal. However, your payment strength and monthly earnings certainly play natural part inside your borrowing process.

Because the title signifies, a easy application for a loan can be a appropriate loan deal for those who have fall credit rankings, you don't have to be disturbed as possible take a loan together with your arrears, defaults, CCJs, insolvency, overtime, missed payment and so forth. You'll certainly solve everything soon and actually, you can observe your credit score enhanced whenever you satisfy the monthly payment process timely. Hence, these financial loans keep you content whatever condition you're getting.

People don't have to waste their energy in waiting in front associated with a loan provider as they possibly can choose the online process that's a real faster method of getting into loan support. The internet loan companies don't allow you undergo any difficult to most difficult condition and therefore, you receive profit some time. The candidates just complete the application having a couple of personal particulars after which, submit the shape towards the loan provider after which, they'll have the ability to take cash anytime. The bottom line is, a poor credit loan application will provide you with money as well as an chance to pay back the borrowed funds through convenient installment process. Actually, you easily overcome all problems soon and it's not necessary to meet any worse condition any longer.

Community Abundance

Many people аround the world аrе struggling tо be able to afford the things they want, оr need. Tight knit communities, аs wеll aѕ nuclear families, oftеn havе 2 parents working juѕt to be ablе to pay for their homes, electricity, water, аnd phone bills. In thе United States, mоѕt people аre in debt аnd working diligently tо get оut оf it. Whether іt be from student loans for college, credit card debt, or mortgage payments, many families іn thе US аrе struggling. In many countries fathers must leave the family to work іn а country wіth a stronger currency to be able to offer their children thе things that thеу feel they need. Why?

Humans hаvе created а condition that іs a downward spiraling consumer culture, wе hаvе bеcomе addicted tо things, hypnotized by оur creations. We hаvе focused sо much on whаt we cаn make that wе have neglected to notice thе destruction in оur path. The suffering оf humans stems from thiѕ addiction, аѕ well аѕ a lack оf knowledge. When studying whаt diffеrent classes of people buy, wisdom can be achieved аnd а solution сan bе found. Studies havе shown that оn payday, the poor by stuff, things thаt eventually loose value, break, аnd turn to trash. This іѕ not to sау thаt thе оthеr socio-economic classes don't buy things as well, but that іt is the majority of the percentage bought bу thе poor. The middle class іs nоt much bеtter off whеn it comes to what thеу buy, theу by liabilities; cars, homes, loans, credit card purchases thаt thеу hаve to pay off, and so on. This kееpѕ thеm indentured tо hаving to pay оff interest rates аnd trapped in a rat race wherе theу can not bеcоmе wealthy. Also, the middle class represent thеmsеlves in the workplace, whiсh means they work, generally, for sоmеone else. All thеy gеt paid оn іѕ thеіr own work аnd the absolute maximum thаt thеу сan bе paid іs 24 hours worth оf work. What thеn do thе wealthy buy? The class of people who control mоѕt of thе resources, buy assets; things thаt increase іn valuе оr pay them a residual income, i.e. stocks, real estate, businesses, etc. Also, onе of thе things thаt theу dо is theу hire оthеr people tо work fоr thеm to achieve morе productivity thаn thеy сould dо alone.

So, hоw does knowing thаt helр in achieving abundance fоr oneself and community? This knowledge сan bе а gem of wisdom that inspires what оne buys аnd сan guide toward buying things that arе sustainable; ablе to produce оr at thе lеаѕt maintain themselves. This іs the first step to becomіng abundant, learning tо live wіth less and buying thоse things that will generate rather thаn deteriorate. Whether thаt be, stocks, land frоm whiсh оne can grow food, seeds, а business, organic products (environmental sustainability), CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares, an animal thаt produces sоmething or investments іn community spaces. This аlonе wіll not create wealth, but it wіll reduce debt.

So, then how dо we create financial abundance? The answer to thiѕ iѕ simple аnd yet profound. We work togethеr tо achieve our needs. In our rural Costa Rican pueblo thаt means, whenеvеr there іs a nеed for something, lets sаy thе road nеedѕ tо be repaired (here thе government iѕn't responsible for fixing manу of the roads), thе community wіll throw a party, with a cover, provide entertainment, sell goods, tаkе а long horse ride аnd all proceeds gо toward the road. Everyone, from thе elder grandma to the newborn baby аre there, аll supporting thеir community. Every town, village, аnd city іn Costa Rica hаѕ a community center for events and thіs іѕ whеrе theу hold thеir fund-raising functions. Survival of thе most cooperative.

To takе thіѕ to thе nеxt level and generate wealth, there iѕ a business model thаt hаѕ beеn created fоr this. It іѕ а model that not onlу provideѕ anyonе thе opportunity tо create wealth, it generates cooperation and group success, while, іn ѕоmе cases, deeply educating people аbоut things that genuinely benefit theіr health. Too good tо bе true, іt exists. Lets explore a bit mоre tо get rеally clear. Above, we learned thаt the wealthy hire оthеr people to gеt mоre work done, thiѕ wаy thеy can double, triple, quadruple thеir productivity. The dоwn fall with hiring employees іѕ that they аre gеtting paid, nоt for thеir productivity, but rаther оn a wage. This саn be dangerous fоr the employer, аѕ if their employee іsn't verу productive, thе company сan lose money. So, a solution іs to pay an employee commission, i.e. fоr theіr productivity.

An examplе of thіs іѕ the real estate industry, thеre аre brokers whо train agents, and both gеt paid a percentage оf the house they sell. The broker, who hаs the experience or training, puts hiѕ time аnd energy іntо training an agent аnd thеy bоth benefit frоm thе sale. If a broker wants to make morе money, or increase hiѕ productivity, thеn that person will train anothеr agent, thе mоrе agents thаt broker haѕ thе more money iѕ made. The problem wіth thiѕ model iѕ thаt onе day onе of the agents may decide thаt theу wаnt tо earn mоrе money and becomе a broker as well. Now that agent turned broker, who knowѕ аll the tricks of thе person whо trained them, bесоmеѕ thе original broker's competition. This iѕ not a cooperative model. What іf that broker wanted to encourage the agent from day оne to bеcоme a broker, and benefits frоm the agent becоmіng a broker, than wе hаvе created a cooperative situation that encourages еаch person tо fulfill thеir highest potential.

Does thiѕ sound familiar? This is the structure of the Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) or Network Marketing industry. The vision thаt inspired this industry to exist wаѕ tо generate abundance for the people whо enjoy they products thеу use, bу spending the marketing budget on the consumers rathеr thаn traditional methods. So, if MLM is ѕo great, thаn whу does it hаve ѕuch a bad reputation? This iѕ a simple answer, іt іs beсаuse the people whо market thе products, оftеn called distributors, hаvе little training. Because thе distributors arе average people, who dіdn't necessarily havе а background іn marketing, twо unfortunate things tend to happen. One iѕ thаt they gеt rеallу enthusiastic and go оut pressuring people аnd connecting with people fоr thе sole purpose of selling thеm things and thе othеr person feels cheapened bу thе experience. And two, іs thаt theу don't know whаt to do, dоn't feel capable оr supported, buy thе products with thе vision of making money, but dоn't activate their business аnd end uр "losing money," thеу then become disenchanted and stop Network Marketing. Often, in а legitimate MLM, thе person gоt somеthіng out of thе experience, products, аnd if thеy valuе thоѕе products thеу really didn't lose much money, but the hope fоr аn income and thаt disappointment саn make them feel that there was a loss.

Many people whо hаd vеry lіttlе opportunity іn the traditional business world hаvе becоmе wealthy frоm MLM. People, like yоu and me, whо hаd good training, people skills, аnd determination hаve made millions оf dollars while supporting thе financial abundance of thousands оf people. Communication іѕ ѕomеthіng that іs learned, abundance stems from cooperation, аnd еасh person holds thеir destiny іn thеir own hands bу the choices they make throughоut thеir lives. What choices will yоu make thаt will determine how you live аnd whеthеr or nоt yоur community can generate abundance? Each of uѕ iѕ givеn the chance tо bе great, іf we hear the call аnd act on that, we can achieve all our dreams, іf we ignore it оr tеll оursеlvеѕ we сan not do it, thаn we will remain stuck in whatеver blocks we hаvе created in our lives. Make thе change, howеvеr уоu can, уou аre powerful.

The Cutting Edge of Mobile Marketing

How your personal branding benefits from mobile  marketing

Mobile marketing changes fast and keeping up with those changes is daunting. What the latest for small business owners? New mobile marketing advances are in-store mobile offers, targeting consumers using public transport, and putting more emphasis on intelligently tailoring mobile ads to appeal to specific target markets.

The Growing Role of In-Store Mobile Offers

Today's marketers know they need to utilize geotargeting (a strategy that involves taking into account the target audience's real time location to make more effective ads) to get the most mileage out of their mobile marketing efforts.

Still dominating the geotargeting world is Foursquare. Foursquare is famous for helping people connect more intimately with businesses they are interested in. As a business owner, Foursquare is a potential goldmine for you. With it, you can send mobile offers to participating customers when they are in the vicinity of your store or business. This is an extremely powerful marketing strategy.

By targeting customers that are physically close to your place of business, you increase the odds that they will respond to your ads by visiting your business in person which increases your likelihood of a sale. Customers that actually visit your business are much more likely to buy something than those that do not. Even in the digital age, physical location is very important.

Public Transport Time: A Hidden Goldmine

The results of a huge research project recently conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) revealed that one of the times consumers are most likely to respond favorably to mobile ads is when they are using public transport. Partially because people using public transport have available time and are more open to read/review things that they wouldn’t normally have time for in the day. If you can reach people in this state of mind, you stand a reasonably good chance of making more sales.

How do you effectively target people using public transport? You have to use a combination of intelligent geotargeting and marketing savvy. First, plan on targeting cities that have well-developed public transportation systems. Next, make sure that you send out your ads during hours when people are most likely to be commuting.

Designing Ads More Effectively

It isn't enough to find out who is in your target market and targeting them. You have to tailor your ads to their individual wants and needs effectively. When mobile marketing was first starting out, a lot of mobile marketers made the mistake of ignoring important principles of human psychology and crafting overly simple ads. Since mobile marketing is more competitive now, you can't afford to make those mistakes if you want to be successful.

Take Advantage of the Desire for Instant Gratification

One of the most basic principles of psychology is that the vast majority of people would rather have something good now than later, even if by waiting they can net a greater reward. This principle has been widely used in most forms of marketing, but a lot of mobile marketers have failed to apply it adequately. To successfully apply it to your marketing efforts, make sure all your mobile ads emphasize an immediate payoff for your potential customers. Use discounts and other special bonuses  and even giveaways to satisfy that need for instant gratification and stand out amongst your competition.

Build Your Brand, Don't Just Sell Products

Ads that only sell products are never as successful as ads that also help establish a brand. You always have to keep in mind that your ultimate goal is to build up your business as a whole, not just to sell a particular product or service. Try to give potential customers a consistent presentation of the kind of business you have, your service, your benefits and really drive home your value.   If you do this, you will help make your business more memorable in their minds. Using distinctive slogans or catchphrases can really help assist with this process.

Mobile marketing isn't easy, and it's been getting harder. As more mobile marketers target a limited number of potential customers, more people are learning to ignore ads that they get on their Smartphone’s.  It’s important with every tool and with every promotion that you stay on brand and work towards communicating what your brand value is.

Questions to Ask Yourself to Help You Get Ahead with Mobile Marketing

1. Do I have a specific plan for using in-store mobile offers successfully?

2. What cities near my area have good public transportation systems that a lot of people use?

3. Do my ads do a good job of appealing to peoples' desire for instant gratification?

4. Am I trying to build a brand and not just sell a product?

Automatic Paper Envelope and Paper Bag Making Machine for set up a Small Business

Automatic Paper Envelope and Paper Bag Making Machine is a good option for Small Business. Anyone may set up a Small Business and can be self-dependent by investing a small amount. It is also a good opportunity to earn handsome money.

Demand and Market of Paper Envelope and Paper Bag:

With this Automatic Paper Envelope Making Machine, you may start a small business. This machine can make upto 42 inch envelope automatically. You can make bags of paper also with this machine.

How to make envelope with Envelope Making Machine:

At first you have to buy role of paper. You may afford it in the market of Baithak Khana Bazar in Kolkata. The price starts from Rs. 42 per kg. Or if you want to make very small size envelopes, you may buy pieces of paper from the market of Rajabazar in Kolkata.

Now you have to put the paper sheet in the indicated place of the machine. You may use dies of different size to make envelopes of different size. Now start the machine and the envelopes will be made automatically. With this machine, you can make 30 to 40 envelopes in minute.

It needs 2 horsepower motor and 220 volt to operate this machine.

Price of the Automatic Paper Envelope Making Machine:

The price of the Automatic Envelope Making Machine is approximately Rs.1700, 000 and the price of hand-operated Envelope Making Machine is approximately Rs.70,000.

Where to buy the Automatic Paper Envelope Making Machine:

You may afford the machine in the address given below-

Bharat Machine Tools Industries, 61, Ganesh Chandra Avenue,

Kolkata-700013.

Phone No.- 2236 8015

You can find many companies manufacturing a wide range of Automatic Paper Envelope Making Machines. Their machine matches high technology electronic control.

 

www.kaverienvelopes.com

www.tradeindia.com

www.sikandarmachines.com

http://trade.indiamart.com

www.friendsenggcorp.com

www.indianindustry.com

Treat Your Customers Like Fools - Land of Delusion

This morning, as I was driving to work listening to news radio station WTOP, I nearly spilled my Diet Coke listening to a segment on bullying.  WTOP had a call in segment asking listeners to share their experiences with bullies at work.  One woman called in to complain that her former supervisor had bullied her by telling her current supervisor that she had a bad attitude and didn't know how to perform her job after more than twenty years.  Her former supervisor was “former” because the supervisor had been promoted.  I have an alternative theory of the universe for this woman.  Maybe she has a bad attitude and still sucks at her job after twenty years.

The definition of bullying has morphed.  You have now been bullied whenever anyone tells you something you don't want to hear.  This stupidity was predictable given the media frenzy over the subject.  When they run out of real stories about a topic, they have to generate some.  As readers of this blog have long known, I am in favor of more bullying not less.  Do you really feel great about living in a country where the woman, who called in to WTOP, feels free to express her idiot opinion?  A good slap up side her head would be a good thing and probably stimulate the economy as well if it made her and others like her a little more productive.  This could be my presidential campaign platform.  Let's bitch slap the economy back to prosperity.

This past week I toured universities founded by Tommie Jefferson (University of Virginia) and Jimmie Madison (James Madison University).  Our founding fathers extensively debated the eventual outcome of a democracy in the hands of fools.  They didn't frame the discussion quite as I have but the debate is the same nonetheless.  Think about that when you pull the voting lever in Fall 2012.  Or better yet, write in my name.  Nixon had an enemies list.  I'll have a fools list.  I promise you won't be on it if you vote for me.  Now getting to this week's topic.....

This past week I was touring Virginia colleges with my twin sixteen year olds.  Every tour has the same basic format.  First, you sit through a presentation with the admissions department, and then you go on a brief campus tour with a student.  Our first stop was the University of Virginia.  UVA is one of the top academic schools in the country, right up there with the Ivy League and Stanford.

I expected some talk about the competitiveness of the admissions process there.  However, I didn't expect the admissions office representative to have the following attitude, “I don't know why I am bothering with all of you.  You probably won't get accepted anyway.”

At the other three stops on our tour, the admissions representatives gave sales presentations on why we should all want our children to attend their institutions.  The UVA presenter tried to discourage applications.  You might believe this is because UVA is a bit of a snooty school, which it is.  But, I don't believe that explains the tone of the presenter.  I believe that the presenter's boss's boss would have been appalled.

Despite the low percentage of prospective student applications accepted, UVA has a vested interest in getting as many applications as possible.  The lower the acceptance rate, the higher the perceived value of a UVA education.  So why the rotten attitude of the presenter?  She reads applications.  The more she gets, the more work she has to do.  She doesn't get paid by the application.

My point is that our employees don't always want what we want as business owners.  We tell prospective customers we want more business.  Many times our employees subtlety or not so subtlety give prospective customers an entirely different message.  What good was the ten thousand dollars you spent on advertising if your employees tell people they are too busy to serve them?  Here is another example from my favorite industry, car dealers.

As many of you know, I bought a Kia Sorento almost two years ago.  I bought it, because after my trade -in, I spent less than $30K on a loaded car.  Yes, I am a cheap-ass accountant.  Almost every week, I get a direct mail piece from the dealer telling me how much they want my service business.  As cheap as I am when I buy a car, I am the opposite when it comes to service.  I don't tolerate car trouble.  If my car doesn't start, I'm pissed.  Of course, I don't know what to do if it doesn't start, but I am pissed.  Consequently, I tend to get my car serviced by the dealer even if it costs a bit more.  Actually, it costs a lot more.

Previous to my Kia purchase, I owned a Ford Explorer that I purchased at Ted Britt Ford in Chantilly.  Over the six years I owned it, I always had it serviced by Ted Britt Ford.  They had a ten dollar loaner car program.  If you purchased your car from them, you could get a loaner car for ten dollars per day.  I could drop my Explorer off at 7 AM, pick up a loaner, and be at work by my normal 7:30 AM.  I paid more for service, but it was more than worth it.  They minimized the disruption of my life caused by the need to service my car.

My Kia dealer, Dulles Kia, is now imploring me through their mail pieces to use their service department, but that isn't the message being delivered by the employees in the service department.  When I call them to schedule an appointment, they always tell me they can't see me for a week.  When I drop off the car, the service department employees are surly, tell customers what they can't do to help them, and just generally seemed more concerned about quitting time than getting customer cars fixed.

The owner of the company is spending tens of thousands of dollars in advertising to spread a message his employees are undermining, either intentionally or unintentionally.  Be careful telling potential customers you want more business when you haven't already delivered that message to your employees.  Otherwise don't waste your money on marketing.  Effective marketing just makes a bad product or service fail more quickly.

Redskins training camp starts this week.  Welcome to the RGIII era.  I feel for him.  The hopes of an entire generation of Skins fans rides on a rookie quarterback's shoulders.  I wonder if RGIII has had a good bowel movement today.  I just need to know his every move.  What brand of toilet paper does he use?  It could matter.  If he scratches his butt with the rough, single ply stuff, he might not be able to evade fast defensive ends.  Oh the agony of not knowing.

A record of eight and eight would be a major accomplishment this year.  How about a little patience please.  Unlike the rest of the DC area news media, I promise not to write about RGIII 24 by 7.

Thanks for reading.  As always, please visit our main S&K web site at www.skcpas.com for real tax and accounting advice. 

When is it Too Many Posts

Word of mouth marketing and your social media strategy

While Facebook is undoubtedly a fantastic way for a business of any size to promote itself for free, it can actually get to a point where using the site too much can start to have a negative impact instead. It is, therefore, important to strike the perfect balance between keeping in contact with your friends list and not bugging them. You will then see that when it comes to interacting on social media, less can indeed be more.

The problem is that people do eventually get to the point where they become fed up of being given updates on things that have been posted. It is even worse now that Facebook is accessed via smartphones so there is little to no escape for them. The only solution they will have left if you continually post updates is deleting the friendship, unliking your page or hiding you posts – all of which of course means you as a business will lose out.

Limit and they will read

This problem has been highlighted in a recent report by Inc. and the conclusion was that if you want to get more value out of your posts, limit them to once a day and you will find that your friends are far more likely to read what you post. 

The report did, however, also throw up a number of other interesting statistics that businesses should take heed of in regard to their marketing on Facebook. One of the more shocking statistics is that only approximately 30% of businesses respond to feedback by clients on Facebook and this in itself can be a major error. Whether you work in a main city or the far flung corners of Texas, word-of-mouth marketing works both in a positive and negative way. So if you ignore feedback from clients, they will tell their friends that you do not care. In this case, you are advised to use the time that you would have spent posting more things on Facebook to dealing with feedback instead as it will benefit your business in the long run.

Shutting down your wall

The only thing you can do worse in social media than ignoring feedback is not allowing it to be done at all. The report by Inc. states that 25% of businesses actually block contact from fans. This puts across the impression that your business does not listen nor care what their customers think.  In any social interaction, offline and online, you must make sure that people see you as being warm, open and welcoming. Do not even consider blocking people and when they contact you, respond accordingly even if it is a negative comment as you can still do something to turn it around. (And, all we lurkers are watching your every move!)

This means to continue to use Facebook as part of your word-of-mouth marketing, you must be very strategic about how, when and how often you post Saying “hi” and “asking for feedback or more information from their feedback that’s posted” is ideal, but do not plague them with posts several times a day. Instead, be professional and use it to let them know what is going on in your business and if someone comments, then respond as quickly as possible as this will speak volumes about you and about your business. 

Word-of-mouth marketing is very much a part of Facebook .  Post when you have something valuable to say and also reply to fans who give you feedback. Do not ignore your fans and engage with them as best you can so that you can give the impression that you are a business that cares about its customers. With that kind of reputation, you’ll not only be likeable – you’ll be shareable.  

The Easy Way to Solve Your Writing Problems

Doing the writing thing is just not that simple. There are so many things we need to prepare to get the best result. This is good to find the right information we really need about the high quality solution if we really have no idea to finish the paper. We really have to find the right way to get out from this problem. We can’t just simply do anything because we need the score for our writing and this is the reason why we do need to find the easier solution. This is very important and we all need the right information we really need. This is good to check the right essay service because it can be the easiest way to deal with the essay writing issue that you are facing right now.

Many services are available on the internet. You can find so many websites provide you the writing services and they are very competitive in giving the price. The Essay.writepro.net can be your very best solution. This is the online website that you need to check to get the high quality solution that you really need about the writing service. You can simply get the essay service from them with decent quality. Their writers are the professional people that have good experience in writing and they are capable with the skill in doing the writing thing. Their professional essay service is just a very good thing for you to start thinking about. This will be just good to get their service and they also guarantee the quality and the originality of the paper that they write. Your order will be written by the writer that you have chosen. To ease you to get to know the progress of your paper, you can contact them online. Their custom written essay will be very good for you to find and it will show you the right solution that you really need. No more headache and stress by giving all the heavy weight of writing to them.

So, what are you waiting for? This is good to check this website and get your best service. This will be just good and you can get the better result for your writing. You can have the score that you need without thinking too much about your writing progress. This is the most effective alternative that we can choose to get the satisfied result in writing.

Why can't I do email marketing with Outlook?

Why can't I just use outlook to send bulk emails?

Let's start out this article on the right foot, shall we? Outlook sucks for sending marketing emails. Why? Because you are missing so many components that will make you successful. Outlook is fine for communicating with your customers and co-workers, but don't expect it to double as a "free" email marketing tool. Here's a list of some of the reasons Outlook won't work for sending bulk marketing email:

• Poor HTML! - Outlook uses Microsoft Word to create the html necessary to send out a nice looking email. The problem is that Word's creation of html is so bad that your email can get flagged as spam by the receiving email server which is looking for poorly formed html as a sign of a spammer. That's right, even the quality of your html is judged by spam tools.  Use a real email marketing product that forms proper html to avoid getting flagged as a spammer.
  
• No tracking of clicks or opens - If you don't know who is clicking and opening your emails, you don't know who your "engaged" subscribers are. Not knowing this important fact will get your emails blocked.  How? Email receivers automagically monitor how many of their customers are opening and clicking YOUR email. And, if not enough of them are engaging with your email, they start blocking you even if these recipients are double opt-in subscribers who love you dearly, and have sworn allegiance to you as Grand Poo-Bah. You should remove subscribers who are not engaged in the last 90-120 days or so. Outlook won't give you this info.
  
• No automatic bounce removal - how much time do you have on your hands? I have so much time on my hands that I write this blog during a time that I should be asleep.  In case that was too subtle, I don't have any free time.  And since time is not available to me, I certainly don't have time to manually remove every hard bounce that comes back to me, or every person that replies with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.  That's why I use a real email tool that handles all that for me.
  
• BCC email looks like spam - if you use Outlook to send bulk email, and BCC a bunch of email addresses, receiving email servers greet your email with a nice, cheery, "Hello, you are spam, welcome to our spam box" greeting.  It looks like spam so it's treated like spam.
  
• No authentication - when you use Outlook to send your email, you are getting no email authentication.  What in the heck is email authentication?  These are technologies that tell the receiving email provider who you are, that you are announcing your identity and domain, and are doing so such that you couldn't possibly be a spammer.  When you use a real email marketing tool, they provide you with authentication technologies like DKIM, DomainKeys, SenderID, DMARC, and SPF.  Sometimes you need to also have your website guy do a little tweek to your domain record, but your email marketing tool will give you instructions on how to do this.  Let's put it this way, if you don't use email authentication, a huge amount of your email is being blocked at this very moment.  Your email isn't even reaching your subscribers.
  
• No control over unsubscribing - Not only do you have to manually handle unsubscribe requests, but your customers have no subscription preference center to opt in and out of the different emails that you offer.  What customers want is to see a pretty little webpage where they can check cute little boxes to indicate which bulk emails they want from you and which they don't.  If you're not using a real email marketing tool, your customers can't do this, and they pout profusely about it.
  
• No personalization - Finally, using Outlook for bulk email, how are you going to send an email that has personalization on it so it can say things like:  "Dear Mikey, as a kid, Life cereal was your favorite, and now it's Super Fiber Overblow, we'd like to offer you a 15% discount on your next order..."  Every field in red represents data from your database now being displayed as a merge field which would be automagically filled in with the information you have stored about your subscriber, Mikey. Think of how powerful this email message is instead of sending Mikey an email that says "Dear Customer, we use stupid Outlook to send bulk emails which means we can't personalize your email even though we know your favorite cereal, and so we can't offer you a discount on it."  If you use Outlook for sending marketing email, you get no personalization.

Hopefully you see the folly of doing email marketing with Outlook.  So use a real email tool instead. Take a look by signing up for a free account.

Your email open rate may not mean what you think. What the Silverpop Benchmark study can teach marketers.

Email service provider Silverpop conducted a benchmark study which reveals some interesting email marketing information that impacts senders of bulk email. Below is the recap which may open your eyes.

Your open rate may not mean what you think:
Email recipients are now commonly using their mobile device to scan their email messages. Many emails are deleted, but some are opened on a mobile device and then saved for later viewing on a laptop. This could register two opens for the same subscriber. It might seem that this subscriber is really interested in your email message and was so darned excited about it, she had to reopen it later just to take a look at your rippling prose. Let's put it this way; she's not as excited about your prose as you might think just based on the fact that she opened your message twice. Don't get me wrong, she likes you, but you aren't exactly dating yet either.

Size matters:
No matter what you've been told, (email) size does matter. Emails that are lengthy are more likely to be opened a second time for another look. Don't get carried away here and go all "War and Peace" on us. But, this data also reveals that you shouldn't write an email so short that the time it takes to read it is the same amount of time it takes for a jackrabbit come home from a date either. Emails that also include deadlines, especially deadlines with offers in them, are also more likely to get a second look from your recipient. When it comes to the physical size (in KB) of your emails, keep in mind that your subscriber might be downloading your email on their mobile device, sitting in the lounge at the airport, listening to the live stylings of "Murph and the Magic Tones", with two lousy bars of cell signal. In that case, your 290KB message isn't going to load too fast. The best rule of thumb is to try to keep it to under 50KB.  Don't go too small though. A message of only a few KB "is likely a text-only message and may significantly underperform versus a comparable but HTML-designed message many times larger".

Lighten up on the cheese:
Emails that are heavier on news, are educational, or contain really relevant information get higher click through rates and engagement compared to those cheddar-filled, sales-ey cheese-ball things you've been throwing lately. Three industries seem to excel in the anti-cheese department. Computer Software, Media / Publishing, and Consumer Services were the best performing verticals in click through due to their focus on low-Brie email content.

"List Churn" doesn't have anything to do with making homemade butter:
List churn includes what we at Thought Reach like to call "the ugly." The ugly is comprised of things like unsubscribes, hard bounces, and the dreaded spam complaint. The study reveals that recipients that unsubscribe may be trying to tell you something. Your email is irrelevant. Or, something far easier to handle- the fact that they just want to change their email address or subscription preferences, but they don't see that as an option on your email.  Since they don't know how to change these things, they simply unsubscribe.

Was it over when the German's
bombed Pearl Harbor?

The spam complaint is the Grand Poo Bah of the ugly. "While each ISP is different, the rule of thumb is to not exceed one to two complaints per thousand messages". Those subscribers may be telling you they simply don't trust your unsubscribe process in the first place. Worse still is if they simply can't find how to unsubscribe, so they click the spam complaint button instead. And the ugliest of the ugly is when they click unsubscribe, yet your page wants them to login before they are able to unsubscribe. Requiring a subscriber to login to be able to unsubscribe is not only a violation of CAN SPAM, it's just downright un-American. In fact, it almost reminds me of when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

Managing your list is critical as well. "Top-performing companies had hard bounce rates one-twentieth that of average performers". I'd repeat that statement again, but instead, why don't you just reread it so I don't have to. If you just do it right, keep your list up to date, and stop emailing non-engaged bozos, your hard bounce rate would plummet to near zero. Top performing companies are spending a lot less money reacquiring the same customers that you keep trying to chase.

To read the study in full, visit the Silverpop website.  And while you're at it, stop using Outlook to send marketing email.

How Can Great Content be Created

Content creation for your personal branding

Content generation and content distribution are some of the phrases that you will come across when you start building your own business. You will also often hear the term, "content is king". When you’re focusing on building great products and services, you may wonder what exactly is so important about having good content and who can create it.

You may be aware of the crucial role that a website, Facebook, and Twitter page can play in ensuring your brand’s exposure. You can enhance your brand’s ranking in search engines by adding relevant and intuitive content to your website and social media accounts. When you do that, your website will not only be a place where your customers will go to in order to see your products or services, it will also be a place where potential customers will go to for valuable information.

To illustrate the point better, let us assume that you want to buy a kayak and that you have come across a couple of different websites. In one website, you see different models of kayaks along with their prices. However, a second website has that and a blog written by the founder of the company giving beginners tips in kayaking. It also has links to some of the best kayaking destinations and videos showing helpful tips such as what to do when your kayak overturns. Though both websites provide the information you were initially looking for, the content in the second website makes it much more attractive and is more likely to gain new customers.

It is a fact that incorporating as much information as possible into your website will not provide the intended benefits. The content that you provide must have value to the visitors of your website. Here are five simple ways of finding great content for your brand:

1. Provide how-to information

You may have extensive knowledge about your products as well as your industry. However, your target audience is not likely to have the same in-depth knowledge. This presents you with an opportunity to help them. Starting with the basics, you can include information on how to do many things. To give you an example, if you are a maker of online applications, you can offer tips that your audience can understand as to how they can become successful through a distance learning program. You can make use of a blog post, a video presentation or articles to convey the information to your audience. Whatever the method that you adopt, it must be simple, light, easy to read and informative.

2. Provide inside information

Give people the feeling that they have the privilege of getting insider information when they go to your website. They will absolutely love it. The information that you add or update on a daily basis may not be exciting to you, but your audience may be looking forward to it. To give you an idea as to what you can do to give them this feeling, here is an illustration. Assume that you are at a trade show and identifying suppliers for your upcoming product. You can take a few pictures of the fair and make it available in your website. Such information sharing will not only provide greater access to your brand, but also add a human touch.

3. Have a Founder's Column

Customers often want to get to know the founders of a company better as it helps them identify better with the company. As the founder, you must have a presence on your website and contribute to your column regularly. Founder's blogs are available in the websites of many companies. The topics in these blogs include the latest information on trends in their field of operation, personal success stories, etc. This is not only an opportunity to provide unique and enticing content, but it’s also great for public relation efforts and helps build customer loyalty to your brand.

4. Facility for interaction

People like interacting with others and also the brand they adore. This is one of the major reasons why social media is so popular. It is therefore important that you have the facility for regular interactions with the audience. You can arrange for contests on a weekly basis, rope in guest bloggers and encourage your audience to share relevant videos, photos, thoughts, etc. You will have a growing community around your brand even before you realize it. You will also have a great archive of content.


5. Take charge

You may think that all the content has to be created by you. But that is not correct. You can share an article or any content related to your industry or brand that you happen to come across. You should not reproduce the articles that you see on websites without prior permission. However, you can always share a link or an excerpt. It is even better if you add your own opinion. This is a great way of making your audience know about your connections outside your business. This adds to your credibility and also helps to stay ahead of the competition.

As you strive to educate, inspire and establish a connection with your audience, you should keep in view the fact that your content is an extension of your brand. The content must be kept relevant. It is also important to ensure that words are not spelled wrong and the content is always grammatically correct. You want to give the impression that your company is professional, not careless.

Pinterest and Your Business

Some questions to consider before taking your brand to Pinterest:

1.What are some of the best ways you've seen small businesses use Pinterest?
2. Do we know if Pinners are purchasing?
3. What are some best practices.

Best Pinterest Practices for Businesses

1. Include your website, facebook page, twitter on your Pinterest profile
2. Watermark all photos
3. Put contact info on all photos
4. Highlight Your Team
5. Think Lifestyle; Not Product

Learn more about Maria Elena Duron and how she can help you use Pinterest and other social media sites to promote your personal brand or small business. For more information, you can visit Buzz2Bucks.

Naphthalene Ball Making Machine for set up a Small Business

Naphthalene Ball Making Machine is a good option for Small Business and to be self-dependent by investing little money.

Demand and Market of Naphthalene Ball:

Naphthalene Balls are used to prevent from the attack of insects. With the Naphthalene Ball Making Machine, you can make Naphthalene Ball and after packing it you may sell it or supply orders from local market.

It needs a Govt. License to start this business.

How to make Naphthalene Ball:

You can buy Naphthalene Powder from the market. It is available in the market of Barobazar Bournfield Lane. The price is approximately Rs.150 per kg.

At first buy Naphthalene Powder and some necessary chemicals. Now you have to pour the powder and chemicals of indicated quantity in the hopper of the machine. You may use different dies for making different sizes of Naphthalene Balls.

Now start the machine and Naphthalene Ball will be made automatically.

Price of the Naphthalene Ball Making Machine:

The price of the Automatic Naphthalene Ball Making Machine is approximately Rs.55, 000 and the price of each dies is approximately Rs.1000.

The price of the semi automatic Packet Sealing Machine is approximately Rs.20, 000 and price of the hand-operated packet sealing machine is approximately Rs.1, 000.

Where to buy the Naphthalene Ball Making Machine:

You can afford the Naphthalene Ball Making Machine from the address below-

Bharat Machine Tools Industries,

61, Ganesh Chandra Avenue, Kolkata-700013,

Phone No. 2236 8015

You can find many companies manufacturing a wide range of Coil Binding machine. Their machine matches high technology electronic control.

To read the reviews and buy the Automatic Coil Binding Machine visit websites

www.tradeindia.com

trade.indiamart.com

                                                                                                                                         2^nd May, 2012 KK