Archive for August, 2008

Ten-Step Guide To Boosting Your Site’s Traffic and Revenue

1. Hunt for Catchy Domain Names and Get a Quality Paid Host

You probably have a domain name already, but you might consider getting new ones for different sections of your website or for different target markets. Gone are the days when it used to cost $50 to register a .com and most people can afford to have several domain names. Nameboy is a fabulous free tool to find available names. However, don’t register your domain names with Nameboy: they are expensive. Instead, we recommend you use this registrar who charge half the amount.

If you are using a free web host, then ditch it – their intrusive advertising will stop people returning to your site and most directories will not list it. Spend some time at Webhosting Talk, which is world’s number one forum for webhosting. There are literally thousands of hosts out there, so it can be an arduous process finding a reliable one which will provide a good level of service. The one we use for most of our sites is here.

2. Put All your Energy into Creating the Best Website Possible

Now its time to create your site or, if you have one already, make it even better! If you need a user-friendly yet advanced HTML editor, we would recommend 1st Page 2000. It is 100% free and far easier to use than the likes of Dreamweaver. Try to make your website look as impressive as possible: it is worth burning the midnight oil to make it look just perfect. We can’t stress how important it is to have a professional-looking logo; most webmasters underestimate their significance. In this day and age, image is everything and a jaw-dropping logo will impress potential advertisers. If need be, pay for a graphic designer to create one for you.

3. Write Unique Meta-Tags for Each Page of Your Site

Although meta-tags are no longer as important as they used to be, with search engines like Google and Yahoo no longer using them, it is worth the effort to create unique meta-tags for each and every page of your site. That way you will receive multiple listings in the search engines. An invaluable free meta-tags generator can be found here.

4. Do Some Market Testing and Then Tweak the Site if Necessary

When you have finished your website, ask your friends to surf around it and get their feedback. Big businesses spend billions of dollars on getting consumer feedback on their products and services, but by asking family and friends, you can gain an invaluable insight into how other people will perceive your site for free. You can also ask other webmasters for suggestions on how to improve your site on one of the many forums such as SitePoint or IHelpYou

5. Submit Your Site to the Search Engines

Now comes the fun part. You can either submit your site to the major search engines manually or, to save time, use a submission tool. There are lots of companies which will try to rip you off by asking you to pay to use their submission service, but there’s no need to pay a penny. We have spent hours surfing the net to find the best free submission tools for you!If you are pushed for time, you can use either

this or this service which will submit details of your site to various top and middle-ranking search engines. However, we would strongly urge you to spend an afternoon using the excellent SelfPromotion.com to let scores of search engines and directories know about your new fangled creation. A word of caution: never ever use your real email address to make site submissions. Despite what they claim, many of the search engines, particularly the smaller ones, sell the email addresses of webmasters who submit sites to them and you will start receiving more and more spam. Make up your email address or open a new Gmail or Yahoo Mail account and use that when submitting.

6. Don’t Forget to Submit Your Site to Directories

The most important directory to submit your site to is Dmoz which syndicates its content to thousands of other portals. Read the instructions about how to submit your site carefully. Yahoo’s directory used to be equally significant, but we don’t think it’s worth the investment any more. Yahoo now gives prominence to its pay-per-click listings and being in their directory will not pull enough traffic to most sites to justify the cost. Yahoo charges an exhorbitant annual fee for a site to be listed in its directory. Alongside Dmoz, don’t forget to submit your new-fangled creation to niche directories in your field and in your geographical region. The more links you have to your site, the greater your link popularity and the higher your site will feature in King of Search Engines, Google!

7. Also Consider Pay-Per-Click Search Engines

Free search engine traffic is great, but sometimes it takes months to properly optimize and tweak your web pages until those pages show up high enough in the rankings to do you any good. PPC Search Engines are based on the premise that you, the web site owner or affiliate program promoter, pay a fee to have your site/product listed before others. You can end up paying a considerable amount of money for PPC listings in search engines, but it can provide a valuable source of targeted traffic if you play the game with caution and guile.

Make sure you do your research first to choose the most cost-effective PPC search engines for you. If you do a search at

Webmaster World, for instance, you will discover that many webmasters who paid for listings at Enhance Interactive have considered it a complete waste of money as it partners with poor quality search engines. Other PPC search engines we suggest you avoid are Xuppa (awkward to navigate, poor customer support), Brainfox (terrible control panel) and the European PPC search provider Espotting (very high minimum bid). A couple of PPC search engines we have had a good experience with are this one and this one

8. Optimising Pay-Per-Click Marketing Campaigns

A good way to create a collection of keywords for PPC advertising is to view the source on competing websites. You may do this with as many sites as you want, create as large a collection as possible. Here are some other useful tools to dig for keywords to add to your PPC campaigns: Overture USA and Overture UK toolboxes shows both keywords and traffic; 7Search’s and Google’s are equally good.Patiently build a large collection of search terms. If you only use 20-30 “good” keywords you have to bid high on them and the traffic will be expensive. But if you use hundreds of words you can receive an equal amount of traffic without having to bid high amounts. Also don’t forget the landing page people first see when they click on your PPC link must be optimised to generate the sale, sign-up or whatever your aim is.

9. Banner exchanges are a Brilliant Way to Build Your Brand and Traffic

Banner exchanges will allow you to spread the word about your site on thousands of others at no cost. If haven’t got a banner, there are hundreds of excellent free-to-use templates at AAA Banners. We have tried over 100 banner exchanges over the years, but most of them seem to be run by amateur webmasters from their bedrooms and, as time progresses and their interest in the project wanes, the level of service deteriorates. The most professional banner exchange we have ever come across is this one. We receive hundreds of visitors from them every day. If you decide to give them a go, spend time getting to learn how to target your banner(s). That way they will only appear on sites in your category and you receive more traffic back to your site.

10. And Finally, the $$$s…

It’s only when you have finished promoting your site that you should consider adding prominent advertising to it. If, say, you have in-your-face affiliate links from the start, directories are more likely to reject your site. Therefore wait until your site has been included in directories, accepted by PPC search engines and banner exchanges, before adding banners and text links to the top of your pages.

When looking for merchants to promote, avoid the ones that merely pay a one-off lead or sales commission. Most of the wealthiest people in society can enjoy a high standard of living because they have residual income streams: they don’t work 100 hours a week to pay for their Mercedes cars. Therefore look for stores that pay you commission for each and every purchase a customer you send to them makes – even if it is years down the line. Visit Azam.biz’s directory for the best companies to consider partnering with.

About The Author

Article by Nadeem Azam – URL: http://telecom.Azam.biz

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Your World Wide Estate Market – Assisted by Property Index

Need specialist advice for property in Italy? View the PropertyIndex site to find lots of properties!

Notwithstanding the fact that the Property Index online service must be rated a recent concern, they were established only in March 2007, they have swiftly proven their mettle. In actuality they are a rather easy concern fully concentrated on guiding essentially anyone who is looking to let, sell, rent or buy property across the globe. Their guarantee: to help you out unearth bang-on what’s needed quickly plus without hassle. Property can easily be purchased all over the world now, one of the hippest areas being property available in Italy. It should really be an easy job to list some of the splendid real estate you can purchase in Italy, one motive for selecting realty here being a combination of the houses and apartments for sale and the opportunity of living right amid such a fervent populace.

It’s one of the truly trendy areas now, and considering the beauty and weather that surrounds you all year long, how could you ever go wrong! Property in Italy is steeped in history, this realm of the world is home to a good number of indigenous nations. Around one generation ago you would find only very few of Britishers looking for real estate in Italy. Ask any individual who has relocated to Italy and they’ll corroborate it. There are those who would prefer to view it as a brief rage and others prefer to view it as a practically a compulsion! People interested in moving over here will range from young well to do couples who are looking for a life perspective to elderly buyers looking to put their feet up.

Bear in mind, though, that you may well encounter a few catches when buying real estate overseas — it stands to reason that there are dozens of steps when organising, popping in or purchasing. If you miss out on a single minute procedure it is sure to well trigger large catches plus, of course, more important, loss of money. Obviously and expectably with this trendy region, real estate can be high priced in this destination and this, of course, is naturally because of the high market pressure. Regardless of this property buyers are definitely spoilt in terms of choice in a destination determined by merry setting. It’s certainly got the whole shebang a patron could conceivably want and then some.

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VIP Privacy

Will malefactor steal your most private information right now? Or will he wait for tomorrow?

The relevant issue of privacy protection is important today like never before. Malefactors are hunting users for their personal information, inventing new intricate ways of stealing it.

You may think that there’s nothing wrong with giving away such ‘innocent’ info like your email address, for instance. Well, that’s where you have to think again. By finding some bits of information malefactors are always able to find out more. They may find a way to get into your system and fish out some data which you didn’t even know existed!

The following are just some examples of how your personal data may be used by frauds.
Spammers make use of your address book for sending annoying unwanted letters to you and all of your acquaintances. Phishers masquerade as a trustworthy person or business and send you an apparently official email trying to find out your bank account details or your credit card pin number. Hackers use your login and password for stealing your Internet traffic or sending exploits into your system thus turning your computer into their slave. Not exactly something you’d like to be a part of, is it?

The main problem is that most users don’t even suspect they might get ripped off in such a malicious way. They are naive enough to think that their personal information is perfectly safe the way it is without any extra measures taken.

But please consider the following. Your personal private information might be in danger, if:
- you ever used any of the web-services
- you ever filled out any of the online registration forms
- you ever used any online messaging services
Which basically means that you are in the risk group if your computer is connected to the Internet. And that would be almost all of us!

So what you need now is to find out how to deal with this problem. Many articles have been written on this subject, and many words have been said. But the number of attacks grows with every day, and so does the users’ alarm. What a user really needs nowadays is not talk but some REAL protection of his PRIVACY.

When you input any information into your computer, you trust your system to protect this data. But unfortunately it is you who has to take measures and turn your PC into a SECURE STRONGHOLD, inaccessible by any malefactors.

If you wish to find out how to do this, just read on.

First of all, let’s get to the root of the problem. Why is it that you need any protection in the first place? What exactly puts you into a risk group?

The thing is that your Operating System collects and stores data about you personally and about your computer’s configuration. This is mainly done to facilitate the process of you getting customer’s support in case any problems occur. Many user’s applications do the same. So when you contact the program’s Support, all you might have to do is to click one single button in the application’s screen rather than to scan your system manually, trying to find the needed information. Rather convenient, isn’t it?

The other reason for the system and applications storing your personal information is you using web-services. Many applications store information about your e-mail address, your passwords, your credit card number or your bank accounts in order to speed up the process of your registration at some websites or your buying and selling stuff via the Internet etc.

Now, please note that by personal information we don’t mean any of your files or documents. It is only the data collected by numerous applications and the Operating System that we talk about. Such data is stored in your system separately from any user’s files and usually does not affect the work of the applications themselves.

While all those features of collecting and storing information about you and your system are meant to help you, sometimes they turn into your worst enemy. There are many many malefactors that will try to take advantage of your system’s leaks in order to steal your personal information stored by your OS and applications. Thus instead of making your life easier, the storage of your private info brings you nothing but potential problems.

Now don’t you think that you should be the ONLY one to decide whether you want to share any of your data? Well, exactly! It should be only up to you to determine who should know what about yourself! After all, it is YOUR information!

So we defined the problem and we know you want to solve it. The question is how.

There are several ways of protecting your private information. Nowadays there is a great number of software solutions that will help you deal with the problem of privacy protection.

First of all you may choose to install some kind of a firewall that would prevent any hacker attacks. Modern software market offers a great deal of such applications to choose from. But note that setting up these programs is usually a rather complicated process. In order to customize the application you’d have to specify what actions it would take for virtually any event. Besides you will have to download base updates if you want to be sure that you have the best protection available (than means you have to download them daily or hourly even). Considering the fact that malefactors daily invent hundreds of new ways of getting into your system, firewalls might not be just the best solution to keeping your private info safe.

This does not in any way mean that firewalls offer bad protection level. It’s what we should call an ‘insufficient’ measure.

Keeping this in mind you might ask yourself: What if I don’t want these applications to store any info about me in the first place? And that’s exactly right! No one will ever steal something that you just don’t have!

Now the problem arises how to clean up the information stored in your system. You may, of course, do that manually by locating system files and settings responsible for storing user’s data and then cleaning them up. But this requires advanced user’s skills and knowledge, as you may accidentally erase something that will cause your applications work unsteadily. Besides, manual clean-up takes time and patience and is not always possible to perform as many applications encrypt your info (so you may have trouble finding it, let alone removing).

And what now? Is that impossible for a common user to protect his own personal information? Well, of course not! Luckily, there are some programs in the market that allow for automatic safe clean-up of all your privacy leaks. You can easily find such applications in search engines, searching for ‘personal data protection tool’, ‘privacy protection tool’ or ’system-stored personal data search and removal’.

And remember this: No one but you has the right to access your personal information! So take the necessary steps to prevent your private data from being stolen! Do that before it’s too late, as some of the malefactors are attempting to rip you off at this very moment!

www.vipdefense.com/products/vip_privacy/index.html“> Download VIP Privacy now and forget about the problems described in this article forever!
VIP Privacy is a perfect tool for your private info protection. Unlike many other applications, VIP Privacy protects your from potential threat by giving the malefactors nothing to steal! VIP Privacy lets you search and safely clean up all information stored inside your system and installed applications. It does not in any way delete any private files nor it changes the contents of user’s documents. VIP Privacy knows about 700 applications and several thousand system leaks storing the user’s personal data that can be stolen and used by malefactors. So from now on your privacy will always be safe with this tool!

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Lost Secrets of Making Money In Today’s World; Part Two

In Part One of this series, we talked about some of the qualities you need to possess in order to prepare yourself for realizing continued wealth. In essence, you must simply multiply yourself. But, before we can move to that stage, we need to establish some specific things to build momentum to reach that level.

First, you must establish THE SAVING HABIT. Here are some things to do to get there.

CAPITAL CONCEPT

If you still do not understand the concept of saving money and simple and compound interest, deep inside your bones, I suggest you have a talk with your local banker. Make an appointment and you’ll learn how you can start building capital and earning interest on your money. You’ll see the world very differently from then onwards. You’ll perhaps determine why you have been struggling financially all through the years and how to correct it.

If it is not a banker, it could be anyone who deals with money and makes a living lending money and saving money either for themselves or for others. Mortgage brokers and bankers, lending officers etc., are good candidates who you can pick their brains to get an understanding of the workings of money. You need to discuss things like, the concepts of principal and interest, building capital and the discipline required to do so. You also need to learn about simple and compound interest, savings bonds, trust funds, equity building.

Another avenue to look at is, to take an introductory course at a local community college in borrowing and lending or in Home Finance. It is really amazing how a large portion of the population do not understand how money works and because of this they spend money stupidly. This practice is like adding more fuel to a fire that is using un-dried wood to provide heating.

START A SAVINGS ACCOUNT

Practice to save at least 10% of your income every pay check.. You can start small. Put your nickels and dimes and quarters in a jar and discipline yourself not to empty it when it starts building in value. Then take it to the bank and deposit it there. Do not succumb to the temptation to crack the jar open and spent the money. This will be the test to see if you can commit to this discipline.. This idea is so practical yet so powerful. This exercise should have been taught when you were a kid, but some people never had parents to teach them about the value of money or some just never thought it was important. But, training like this is invaluable to kids in later years.

If you are in the work force, you can talk to your employer to establish a 401K plan on your behalf. Over time this amount builds to a sizable amount. You can save this for the future when you really need itlike retirement. You can withdraw it at any time but you’ll have to pay the taxes on the amount you withdraw. So, leave it alone and withdraw it only for a very worthwhile purpose. Another good idea to discipline yourself to save is to make arrangement with your local Credit Union to automatically deduct a portion of your salary and put it into a savings account. After the first five deductions, you’ll never miss the money. You would have adjusted your expenditure and tighten your spending habits. You can have a long talk with the Credit Union Manager also about money management and this will help you to establish in your head gradually, the value of saving and let it season itself in your mind. Little by little you will start feeling it in your bones and this would be a good indication that you are developing the saving habit.

Yet, another idea that requires great discipline is dining at restaurants. Discipline yourself to dine out only once a month. Make home cooked meals. It is much cheaper and nutritious. Better still, buy foods stuff in the raw form as these foods are not processed and still have the nutrients your body needs to function well. Processed and package foods, however are loaded with preservatives that accumulate in your body and from toxins that slowly cause havoc in your body and makes you sick.

Next, you can do yourself a favor and deposit your entire Internal Revenue Services refund in the bank. Yes, this might be a little hard to do, at first, you might say. But, by now hopefully, you would have established that sense of VALUE that it would be an automatic response to put it away for that dire need you may have in the future.

From now on you’ll see value and not waste precious money. You could even make a commitment to yourself to put your next IRS refund in the bank for a five year period …for a set purpose… say, to reduce your mortgage balance. And, by refinancing your mortgage with this saving, you can reduce our term from30 years to 15 years thereby paying a lower monthly payment to the mortgage companythe banker who holds the note to your house. Again, being a smart saver, you will continue to deposit your IRS refund for a further five year to perhaps pay off the rest f your mortgage by another refinancing or pay for your child college expenses, which is of major importance in your life.

By cultivating sound and careful money management habits, you’ll be able to develop sound management techniques to manage your affairs like a professional. You’ll not have to take several jobs to make ends meet and tolerate getting abused by your bosses and others who control your livelihood for stupid things you cannot control.

CREATE LEVERAGE

Later, in the final part of this series, we will discuss how to leverage yourself by adding more streams of income. With your developed savings habit, coupled with this technique you will amass great wealth, much faster. But you’ll have to wait for Part Three for now.

But, if you cannot wait and want to get moving fast to multiply your income a thousand foldusing the LEVERAGE system then: CLICK the link below to learn about the 3 easy steps and the 5 vehicles that could propel your income to the moon.

The author has a broad range of expertise in Business, Science, Engineering and Technology. He is an avid a researcher, copywriter and on-line internet marketer and controls several high traffic web-sites. He researches and simplifies complex topics and translates them to layman’s terms for their benefit and to reach broader audiences for products and services.
Meanwhile, you can visit his site: http://www.createbigprofits.com to learn the Fast Track method to internet profits. Earn 5 streams of income and build a sound financial future in the coming months. You’ll be amazed of your success.

This article may be distributed in its original form and link back to this site, with all links active.

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Spinal Cord Injury: Diagnosis with Medical Intuition and Treatment with Integrative Energy Healing

Spinal cord injury (herniated discs, pinched nerves, collapsed vertebrae) is one of the most devastating catastrophic injuries that one can endure. The spinal cord is the gateway for all nerve paths. The location of the injury and the severity of the damage determine the complications involved and the dysfunction. Science is discovering that the sooner the spinal cord injury is addressed and treatment begins, there is a direct correlation to recovery of the affected areas.

As a medical intuitive and “human MRI”, when assessing a spinal cord injury, I look at the 360 degree view of the traumatized area. Failing to “see” the entire injured area can produce further injury, and create neglect in areas that need to be immediately addressed. It is best to look at each segment of the spine (discs and vertebrae) and spinal cord nerves in 4 equal quadrants. When helping to diagnose and evaluate the damaged area, reevaluating every 3 hours for the first 24 hours until the client is stabilized produces more accurate readings and beneficial results, as inflammation, further compression and damage can progress after the initial injury has occurred.

Although the initial site of the catastrophic injury is your primary source of dehabilitation, the damaged neural pathways can extend beyond that original area and days later create problems of their own. To counter this problem, “tracking” the energy of the affected neural pathways will give you further information of possible deterioration and additional side effects. If you do not have extending neural circumstances, containing the affected areas in a bubble of Healing energy will usually suspend further exacerbation of future problems.

While the allopathic physicians are providing their treatments, you can effectively use energy healing to complement and integrate with their procedures.
Removing pain is usually the first consideration, unless the client is rendered “numb” by his experience. Secondly, work on inflammation to help minimize current damage and to alleviate possible secondary symptoms.

In my experience in healing the spinal cord nerves, vertebrae and herniated discs of a paralyzed dog in 90 days, it is best to work on each issue separately so as not to overload the client’s health response system during a time of great stress. Use energy healing to build a solid foundation step by step to rebuild the molecular structure of the cells and in turn the bodily systems. It is also best to work in increments and intermittently, so the molecular structures can recalibrate, and regenerate without stressing the physical structures.

First, regenerate the vertebrae’s cellular structure in order to provide a foundation that is capable of holding the disc. Secondly, reestablish the health of each disc, leaving the neural pathways as your last concern. Once the spine is stabilized, then revitalize the neural pathways. If you reactivate the nerves before you have a solid base in the spinal column, you might create more inflammation and pain than necessary. Rebuilding a system, inch by inch produces a stronger foundation that will allow the client to rebuild his muscular system with physical therapy without causing extra pain.

Although stem cell research is providing a gateway of hope for Spinal cord injuries,electromagnetic bio molecular energy healing can and will be a beneficial healing modality.

Feel free to reprint this article in its original format.

Contact Information:

Brent Atwater

Medical Intuitive, Distance Energy Healing

ATL, GA Phone: 404.242.9022 USA

NC Phone: 910.692.5206 USA

Disclaimer: Brent Atwater is not a medical doctor or associated with any branch of medicine. Brent works in Alternative Medicine. She offers her opinions based on her intuition, and her personal energy healing work, which is not a substitute for medical procedures or treatments. Always consult a physician or trained health care professional concerning any medical problem or condition before undertaking any diet, health related or lifestyle change programs. There are no guarantees with the Energy work.

Website: http://www.brentatwater.com

Email: mailto:Brent@BrentAtwater.com

Brent Atwater - EzineArticles Expert Author

Brent Atwater: Medical Intuitive, Distant Energy Healing: Her global Medical Intuitive & Distance Healing has been studied by & or documented at Duke, the ARE, & for pets by the NCSU’s Veterinary school. ARTIST: An artist (30+), Brent is a pioneer in healing art by scientifically documenting the Healing benefits of Paintings that Heal. Her art was featured on “PBS”. At 16, the NC Museum of Art chose her painting for their permanent collection. In 1987 she founded Just Plain Love Charitable Trust to benefit children & other causes. AUTHOR: Just Plain Love Children’s Healing Books. The books are translated into plays performed in children’s healthcare facilities turning illness negatives into positives. “Cancer Kids, God’s Special Children”, & “Positive Attitudes, Affirmations, & Actions for Overcoming Your Health Challenges”, and “Positive Attitudes, Affirmations & Actions to Help Survive Your Cancer Experience”. These books are holistic, alternative medicine & alternative healing for your mind Brent attended Wake Forest Law School and is a minister.

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WWW Bingo

Internet Bingo

Cyber bingo is turning out to be progressively more popular in the UK. After the smoking ban, lots of popular bingo gaming places have had to close — this has expectably caused lots of establishments proffering web based bingo as another possibility. Public icon affirmation as reported from Jordan and Sharon Osbourne have been of assistance in developing the appearance of www bingo — comprising nearly 2.5-3 million contestants now enjoying a game or two on the computer.

Of course there are now plenty of web based bingo Web pages, all propounding their supporters truly tremendous winnings and a huge number of other world class rewards, for instance new cars, movie premiere tickets and luxury holidays. What’s particularly ripping about web based bingo is that we can enjoy it 24 hours a day, anywhere you have a Web account. In view of games starting off every 2 minutes or faster, you are easily able to organize bingo gracefully with routine life. First people believed that the community aspect of bingo fun would fall off as a consequence of this shift away from popular bingo gaming places, but in actual fact United Kingdom bingo players are absolutely disproving all skeptical alarmists. Increasing numbers have begun to utilise the facilities made available by a gazillion web based bingo establishments.

Here everyone can get to know plenty of new friends, gain access to exclusive contests and become fully immersed in other bingo groups. Besides, research projects have borne out that one is more likely to gain £1 million by playing Internet bingo compared to other styles of gambling for instance pools and sports betting. Furthermore, if you become a little tired of bingo, quite a number of web based bingo Web pages will present a slew of alternate diversions. These will be anything from slots and numbers games, thru caption tourneys as well as mock quizzes. In view of so many different options, chances are it’s bewildering to spot which bingo setup is the right one. It should be worth the effort to have a bash at some rudimentary research and look to see who is advancing the most appealing special deals. Quite a few web based bingo Web pages will permit everyone to try a certain number of free cyber bingo games or match any initial cash deposit at 1:1.

If your good friends have already selected a certain web based bingo online page, why not consider joining them because the chatting and networking side adds even more excitement to the overall enjoyment.:)

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Trademark Your Business – Lessons Learned

Small business owners learn many lessons the hard way – through
the school of hard knocks. I recently experienced my own tough
lesson concerning the importance trademarking my business name.
Like many solo-entrepreneurs on a tight budget, the thought of
trademarking my business name was not high on my priority list.
Had I placed more importance on it, I might have saved myself
some anxious moments, not to mention a few hundred dollars in
attorney fees!

As a member of a couple different virtual assistant membership
organizations, I often look with interest at other VA’s business
names and website URL’s. One day I noticed a new member
announcement for one of the groups and saw a listing for VA
Office Solutions. Now this one hit a little too close to home for me – after all, my business name is VA Office Solution. I also noticed that she had a domain name to match.

Have you figured out my first mistake yet? I could have kicked
myself for not purchasing the domain name,
http://www.vaofficesolutions.com, which is so close to my own
domain name of www.vaofficesolution.com. After all, even some of
my own clients inadvertently add an “s” to the end of my business name in correspondence. I certainly didn’t want people to look for my business on the Internet, and mistakenly find this other website! This could potentially be very confusing for both of us, especially considering we both operate similar businesses and conduct our business virtually, working with people all over the country.

Well the first thing I did was a little research on this domain
name. I was able to find the owner and saw that the name had only recently been purchased, and had only been purchased for a one year period. This indicated to me that this was a new business, and she had only just started using this name.

Then next step was to get some legal advice. I had met an
attorney who specializes in trademark law at a networking event
so I gave her a call and asked to meet with her. I learned that I definitely had a good case, as I’d been using the trademark since 2001. Even though I had not formally registered the trademark with the USPTO (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office), I still had first use of the trademark, which gives me certain rights.

After meeting with the attorney, I decided that my first step
should be filing my trademark with the USPTO (http://www.uspto.gov). Now this is something that I could do
myself, without paying an attorney, but taking into consideration my own time constraints and her expertise, I decided to let her handle it for me. Also, since there would need to be a letter drafted to the trademark infringer after my trademark had been filed, I just felt more comfortable letting my attorney draft a letter that would be effective enough to get the infringer to stop using the trademark and take the website down.

So how did it all end? Well I got my trademark registered and we
sent the letter to the trademark infringer. She agreed to stop
using the trademark and took the website down. All in all, the
entire process took about three months. I feel very lucky though, as I was able to find this infringer very soon after she opened her doors for business. By getting it done quickly, it should not have been devastating to her business and did not have an apparent affect on my business.

So what should you consider when deciding if you should trademark your business name? First you should conduct some research to make sure you’re not infringing on someone else’s trademark. You may be forced to stop using it if that’s the case. If you decide to trademark your business name, then you must be prepared to enforce your mark. If you allow others to use the mark, then you can face abandonment and risk losing your own trademark. You should also consider the domain name issue. Do not make the mistake I did and let someone else snatch up a domain name that matches your trademark.

Be sure to visit the U.S. Patent and Trademark office at
http://www.uspto.gov, and then visit my attorney Heidi Pliam’s
trademark website, Trademark Edge, at http://www.trademarkedge.com. And if you’re looking for a good
trademark attorney, be sure to give Heidi a call! Her contact
information is on the website.

Jean Hanson - EzineArticles Expert Author

Jean Hanson is a Certified Professional Virtual Assistant.
Discover how partnering with a virtual assistant will give you
more time to do the things you love to do! Visit her at
http://www.vaofficesolution.com. Jean is also the author of the
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Organizational Capital in Politics, War, Sports and Business

Intangible Corporate Assets such as Organizational Capital, Blue Sky and Brand Name Capital, actually they all have a common thread in my opinion. Here are some thoughts on these issues. And first I would like to comment on a couple of UCLA, Anderson School of Business items which are of interest. And I must say these research pieces are somewhat cutting edge, in business management theory.

This is particularly interesting to me as one of my family tree offshoots was Friedrich Winslow Taylor, whose mom, Emily Winslow was an offshoot of the Winslow’s in the Philly area, which are my direct ancestors after they had moved from the Mass and Maine areas. Thus Freidrich Winslow Taylor had similar beliefs in organization which also I had nurtured into my upbringing and therefore find such items fascinating and apropos to running a nationwide service business like the Car Wash Guys http://www.carwashguys.com, which is my company.

Here are some thoughts of value to add to the comments and findings in these research projects of the UCLA Anderson School of Business. First item to be discussed is an article by Bhaqwan Chowdhry a Professor PhD (not to be automatically granted superior expert status as Einstein said-Pile higher and deeper comes to mind) although in this case the work is relevant and very good, so the PhD in this case has been noted as such social norms dictate. I thoroughly enjoyed Bhaqwan’s research on Organizational Capital (OC). This is quite good.

http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/bhagw…dhry/orgcap.pdf

I think when teaching this concept to future executives, governmental leaders, non-profit leadership personal, coaches and military top brass that a few points of value might be added in summary, for instance: First and most basic is: “Bet on the Jockey not always the horse” might be looked at a little closer. Winners usually win and therefore bet on a winner. In a team atmosphere the best team can beat a team made up of superior single players with better skills. Bet on the team or jockey and not necessarily the horse or industry. Another comment might be “Chainsaw AL destroys OC”, cutting organizational capital that it took time to build destroys rather than builds and we should be looking at companies such as Microsoft and Bill Gate’s theory of organizational and intellectual capital in this realm. When other companies cut back he continued supporting and advancing his team on new projects. Another point is that of competition during periods of OC flux of the opponent, whether it be generals of a hostile country, downsizing of military due to economic situations of your potential adversary and with that theories of Von Clauswitz on first strike and reciprocal response to serve your political will. Look at China and other countries forcing their hands at times of our military down sizing?

So this comment is worthy of note to add to the cliffs notes of such a research report on OC; “The best time to try new products or marketing techniques is when your rival competitors are going through transitions such as lay offs, large department cost cutting, mergers or changing of the guard due to retirements. Their OC is at an all time low as it is readjusting and cannot adapt to chase you into the newly opened market sector”. OC is also exponential in many cases depending on it’s usage. Try this concept to be added to the debate on OC. “The longer a groups works together, the greater the chances of increased OC provided primate politics and innate human characteristics to not impede the flow of information and rapid transfer of communication”. All these items and the OC of any company is critical when discussing flow of information for good decision making in a non-linear fashion. Here are some thoughts on flow, which will increase your ability to convey these concepts and this message to future leaders. I have always determined that the OC as is called in this report, which is appropriately named was far more important than the Physical Capital. For instance our company runs our entire business and operates in many states from this unit.

http://www.carwashguys.com/blitz.html

And with that said our physical capital besides the service vehicles is nearly unworthy of mention from a Balance Sheet perspective. But the rapid ability to adjust to new markets and take them is our strength as the game becomes faster and theories such as the Fast eat the Slow abound, I to am a firm believer and perfect case study for this most recent evolution in management theory and OC enlightenment. This research paper is correct in that regard for the building of teams. And I submit of further value for the new leadership, which will be taking over CA from Gray Davis. CA is a large state and needs a team akin to that of the White House team with top notched brilliant visionaries and people with incredible strength of character and passion. I would also submit that part of our problem in this country is it takes a while to get adjusted as a team to work smoothly, this president was lucky in that he was able to bring on many experts who had worked before under his fathers administration and had become ego-less in their many years of taking hard knocks of politics and media attacks in stride.

But as we are witnessing currently the country is dividing and the current population is divided about 55% – 45%. And the nine opposing candidates are blasting the team and the team is forced to defend itself instead of focusing maximum efforts on the future and strategic positioning of this great nation for the rapidly increasing rate at which we must deploy our efforts to stay at the top of the game. We can tell by the poles of the people and approval ratings that the country is divided on the means, but still believes in the ends. Keeping a team together means the time needs to allowed for the leadership to work together for the betterment of the American people, the more chaos is involved and the every four years attempts to change the guard is at issue, just as it would be in any company. As we watch the divisiveness of the Maryland Senator Sarbaines attack the Forbes gal appointed for the economic team in the white house you have to wonder what would happen if every company executive of GE, first had to have all the applicants reviewed and voted on by the competing companies before they could serve as a officer, middle manager, board member or janitor? See the problem, the opposition is trying to destroy appointments to the team and therefore threaten them and influence their future decisions on capital hill.

How can they then be able to do their best and use those skills to help us, the people, in the case of a Sports team the fans, in the case of the Military the people you are liberating, in the case of a company the customer, which is the reason that they are allowed to make money. How many levels of disruption should be allowed to build a strong team. In the government they are attacked as appointees, Supreme Ct, Secretaries, department heads and advisors to the leadership. Then they are attacked by frivolous lawsuits, then by the media, then again by the wannabe incoming politicians throwing stones who live the terrariums of glass, who are not even a half a step away of Hurricane Isabel? All this hurts a team. And since we are all on the same team, in that we are all Americans, why do we allow the flow of information, the recruiting of the best of the best and the guidance of the most qualified and passionate of those who serve to be attacked?

This does not pave the way for future communication on the team, which is suppose to serve free men. The people, damn it, you and I. At one point Sarbaines laid into the Mrs. Forbes for going to a benefit, $5,000 hot dog gig where the President would be along with all the leadership. She would soon be appointed to help on the economic committee, which we need the best and brightest. By attending such an event she could get a good feel of who she will be working with a noble cause indeed, what is wrong with that? Nothing and this liberal school we call UCLA even has a study on why this is the best. So we have an opposition party attacking a future team member who will be serving us, while they attack the Corporate world and cause 7 trillion to exit the market and slow the flow of returns of capital into markets which would allow me to grow our company and provide jobs? Meanwhile calling all businessmen evil, complain there are no jobs? What is going on here, there is an incredible lack of communication, ego games, politics as usual and you and I have to listen to these idiots grandstand while we are wondering how on Earth we are going to make our payments while we are laid off and why our insurance was cancelled and credit cancelled due to traffic tickets because the strapped state budgets are increasing fines and the number of tickets quota to be written per period to help out the budgets?

Excuse me but no one is communicating. The Liberals or the Conservatives, meanwhile we attack the team members destroy teams of doers for photo-ops and pay backs in politics. Obviously mother nature is pissed too after you saw what happened with Isabel in the Washington area. What is the difference between a company run by leaders and leaders who run a country, from an MBA standpoint, like a company? Or a team, or a military or a Bee Hive for that matter?

It is interesting to watch such research papers in modern management theory try to mathematically quantify it on paper. This is because of the publish or perish rules and modern academia standards of quantification of all theories even though the mathematics used to describe such theory will not work on a case by case basis, since there are too many factors and simple or even complex equations cannot adequately describe many simultaneous relationships of simplicity drawn out into complexity by the order of ever increasing magnitudes of Government Intervention, regulations, types of individuals, market regions, East-West, Mid East, etc civilization differences in hierarchy and culture. In that regard these simple observations cannot be rendered absolute and therefore much of the mathematics involved in these things are best guess at best, which is certainly not better than natural observations of the uninhibited and open mind in an out of the box viewpoint of the interactive dynamics of egos, pecking order, Machiavellian competitiveness and/or relationship building personalities.

You do not have to be on a team very long to under stand you need to stroke the egos of those who hog the ball. I believe that their is an exponential grouping not mentioned in that companies which divide and continue such a nurturing of new managers which operate in that realm, produce offshoots of other market sectors with the mentors of the previous whole for the individual divisions. Such as GE, 3M, Battelle, Fed EX, etc. I see this happening with our team (the company I run).

I believe that such an observation also servers well in coaching, military leadership, Presidential Administration and R and D non-profit efforts. As you probably have also looked at the benefits of such OC management theory for things like NASA, UN, NATO, etc. I grant Continued success to those PhD research people at the UCLA Anderson School of business and surely applaud those who walk the walk and are able to practice such theories in the real world and not only on the Meade Paper water mark, this research is definitely onto something big and it is correct and a good paper.

Each month I receive the Books of the month audio book summaries on tape of the best business books, each month one or more are about Organizational Psychology, Leadership, Management and you know what all the books are looking the same. I can tell you the old professor who comes every night and eats on the waterfront in George Town drunk off his ass may as well be running things if we cannot get our act together and get on the same page, because this infighting Beltway buzz BS is hurting America. It is not solving the problems we face, the team must be strong, every one who is elected or appointed to such capacities must be on the team. In it to win it. Darn it. Any comments of my observations are welcome in my efforts to beat the best efforts of the past period leaders in all sectors. Too many people are not studying the whole game out there.

Now then I would Also like to comment on another research project which is quite good. So with regards to Bart Bronnonberg’s research on multi-branding of retail consumer goods. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed Bart’s on the Multi-brand issues and having purchased Salsa at Wal-Mart last night and last week at an Albertson’s, these thoughts went through my mind. And as I build my business across the country, I see things and think of such issues often. I enjoyed Bart’s Bronnonberg’s paper:

http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/bart…./sustain_v1.pdf

Having traveled to every city in the US over 10,000 population, I find it interesting that this paper comes to my similar conclusions, about these same topics and even goes further into quantifying mathematically the truths that we observe and the reasons behind the decisions. I therefore applaud Bart’s efforts as this is important information to any Entrepreneur. Also I have to wonder what Bart’s thoughts about the article in CFO Magazine about these manufactures amortizing the shelf space costs over 40 years as brand capital? If the product fails they keep the cost against the Brand Capital for the forty years even if the particular product is a dud, or that sub-brand did not take hold in the minds of consumers and the product was therefore cancelled. Estimated in one study I have read 60% of new products are duds and even the ones, which survive a small test market often when rolled out are mistakes. By separating out the shelf space costs to get at eye level of the consumer, and calling the product successful when it sells, maybe a way such a company can bring out more products faster and still retain operational profits to keep up stock valuations thus giving them the edge to go into new markets or cause greater market share in Duopolies where the other competitor does not use such creative accounting. Whereas there maybe good enough reason initially for such off P and L accounting techniques, once it starts when would it ever stop?

So then, I would like to know other people’s and Bart’s thoughts on this as well. And what are your thoughts with newer Web Based operations, which are run by large retailers for home delivery, the basic WebVan concept, but done by the grocery chains themselves? I was recently in Jacksonville, FL and Piggly Wigglies and Publix are both considering if they should ditch these efforts or continue while it takes hold. Safeway and Albertson’s as well as Bashams in AZ are also going after these niches. If these retailers continued the symbiotic relationships with Manufactures of let’s say salsa, then the web listing space placement would be of significant value thus offsetting costs to consumers for delivery and thus the consumer wins from this symbiotic relationship. However, the accounting for such is at issue also as well as your thoughts and numbers and equations are called into question since the bidding for space would be more instantaneous and product testing faster. Has anyone considered these things yet?

Lance Winslow - EzineArticles Expert Author

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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The Fabulous Advanced Hair Studio

Hair loss, baldness, hair thinning is something that disturbs countless men old and young. There are countless options achievable to you nowadays, to help you yourself fix the problem. Advanced Hair Studio is nowdays one of these exact places. They have helped around 300000 customers all around the UK and presently have seventy studios in twelve different parts of the world.

There are loads of distinct types of hair loss treatment services possible to people all of which involve very different methods Any of these are conceivable to all customers after an appointment with a consultant. The procedures are Strand by Strand this is very particularly maintenance & builds the hair up slowly & steadily, so not to make it so obvious, this acts as a hair replacement method as apposed to a hair regrowth method. Advanced Hair Laser Therapy is another option that you could go for; this method is super & very specialised. Advanced Hair Studio has successfully managed clinical trials in a combination of the latest laser beam technology, an FDA approved re growth pharmaceutical, and a proven scalp & follicle treatment programme for hair loss. With this programme, you will see a massive change within 3 months. The last technique that they offer is a home treatment, so this is something that the client can actually do themselves in the comfort of there and the results are super. The home treatment programme combines the naturally occurring herb Sereonoa Repens range of products, with a handheld laser device & antioxidant treatment which helps to thicken, strengthen and repair your hair & scalp as well as promoting hair growth & reducing hair loss. All Get expert assistance with Hair regrowth today.

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Buying Furniture at Yard Sales

Buying furniture pieces at yard sales offers many options, but you must look closely to know what you’re getting.

Are you interested in trying your hand at some creative furniture painting? If you don’t already have an old piece of furniture to practice on, shopping yard sales is the best way to come up with a piece.

If you are buying the yard sale furniture for the sake of practicing your creative idea, buy away! If you are looking for a particular piece to use, take time to look the furniture over to make sure you are getting a solid piece at a good deal.

For instance, if you want to buy a small dresser for a guest room and want to give it a country look, your first concern should be the stability of the furniture. You can give almost any style the look you want, as long as the furniture is sturdy and in good condition. Look to see if any of the wood is buckling or if the piece has any deep scratches that can’t be sanded out. If you want it to have an old look, the scratches might not matter so much to you. The buckling, however, might be a sign of warped drawers that are hard to open or close. Warped furniture is not usually very functional.

If the furniture you are looking at is a sofa, loveseat or chair there are additional considerations you should keep in mind. Will you be using the furniture as it is or do you plan to give it a fresh coat of paint or some new fabric treatment? Does it look clean? Ask the seller if the furniture has been used recently in a home or if it has been in storage. If it has been stored, ask if the storage unit was climate controlled. If not, you may find yourself dealing with pest issues or mold down the line. Make sure you look the seating over good – check out its frame, springs, cushions and the over all wear. If you think it is in good shape and can get a good deal, go for it!

If you are taking up furniture shopping through yard sales as a hobby, learn all you can about various types of furniture. The knowledge will help you separate a good deal from a great find. Plus, if you plan to recycle your yard sale findings, you don’t want to strip and paint an antique, one of a kind headboard. When you know your furniture – what is of special value and what is just a trash to treasure item – you can save yourself the heartache associated with finding out the dresser you just painted a Dr. Seuss scene on was actually by a famous craftsman. Visit your local library to check out books on antique or unique furniture. Then, keep your eyes open when you are hitting the yard sales the following weekend – you’ll know a good deal when you see one!

Bob Benson is the founder of Furniture online. You can check out our website at http://www.my-antique-furniture.info

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