Content Maker Network Blog

Ebay was only two years old when I discovered it.

A friend I worked with was also starting to sell on Ebay at about the same time, and we exchanged ideas and experiences constantly. Since we were already working together on our Ebay ventures, we decided to combine our resources into one company and grow it while we were still both working our regular job. We found our niche selling technical books and manuals as our little company began to grow and prosper. Our co-workers at the company we worked at during the day came to consider us the “Ebay Experts”. We were answering questions about online auctions on a daily basis, but one coworker had the same comment every day.

“Hey, show me how to make easy money on Ebay!” he would ask. It became a standing joke between My partner and I that usually came up around two or three in the morning during a marathon packing or email answering session. One of us would look at the other and mutter in a disgusted tone “Yea, Easy money on Ebay..”

In January of 2002, we had more sales, and more auctions running than ever before. We were looking at 100 to 150 auctions a day closing, and enjoying a sell-through rate of close to 75%. Our shelves were piled high with books and manuals, the shipping area was well stocked with supplies, and we were ready for long hours of fulfilling our orders.

Then, as if fate stepped in to see just what we were made of, a huge ice storm hit our part of Oklahoma taking out large sections the electrical grid. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that online businesses can do without many things, but electricity is NOT on that list!
On the third day of the blackout, we were able to learn from the radio (battery powered) that it wasn’t just our area, but over HALF the state of Oklahoma. Worse yet, the damage was so extensive it was going to be at least TWO WEEKS before power was restored! A quick calculation and we almost panicked. We would have over two THOUSAND AUCTIONS END, and no way to contact the bidders! If we didn’t keep up with the sales, payments, and shipping on a daily basis, we were in deep trouble… We couldn’t imagine what a mess it would be in TWO WEEKS!

The fourth day into the blackout, I made an executive decision. I grabbed the company checkbook, and headed for our closest Lowe’s Home Improvement center (about 70 miles away..). The little roadtrip turned into quite the adventure. Strange thing about a massive blackout is gas stations can’t pump gas without electricity, and you are burning gas while you are driving around looking for a gas station that was open for business. I was running on luck and fumes before I finally found a station and filled up. With a full tank of gas, I made it to Lowe’s and purchased a generator. We assembled the generator in record time, put oil in the engine and then realized… Uh Oh, we need gas for the generator. No local gas stations were open for business, and we didn’t want to risk another road trip. Using an old trick I hadn’t used since I was growing up on a farm, we were able to get enough gas out of my pickup truck to fuel up the generator.

The little generator fired up on the first pull, and with the help of a few extension cords and power strips, we had a computer network up and running at My partners house. It was then we made another interesting discovery. Cable internet connections do not work without electricity. I had a DSL internet connection at my house, so off we go with a partially charged battery in my laptop to test my internet connection. SUCCESS! DSL works off the phone line power so it was still functional. We made a quick drive back to My partners house to tear down the computer network and load the generator, then back to my house to set it all up again.
At 4:30 the next morning We had the network online and a couple of lamps for light. We were self-contained, and open for business. Now we could get to work, and so we did, for the next straight 48 hours. We had a pickup truck load of packages ready for the post office when it hit us, “Is the post office open?”. A quick phone call ( by the way, cell phones and cordless phones are useless during a blackout. The simplest plug-it-in-the-wall phones work great.) found us with another problem. Our local post office was closed (no electricity there either.) They did tell us the regional USPS hub had power, and was open 24/7. The bad news is, the regional hub was 75 miles away in Oklahoma City!

Meanwhile, back at the fuel issue… We were relieved to discover that two local gas stations had rented generators and were open for business. We gassed up and headed for Oklahoma City. With the load of packages on the way to customers and most of the other urgent tasks completed, we took a much needed break. We shut down the network and use the generator to power an electric griddle and make a hot meal. The little generator wouldn’t power both at the same time without throwing it’s breaker.

For the next two weeks, that poor little generator ran constantly keeping the computers running and the shipments going out, the questions answered, and our customers happy. Every other day I would make the 150 mile round trip to the USPS hub in Oklahoma City, stopping on the way back to fill the gas containers for the generator, and fuel up the truck for the next trip.

One evening we took a short break, and stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. We noticed something different…. THE STREET LIGHTS WERE ON! I ran inside and tried the lights… ELECTRICITY!

I went next door and asked my neighbor how long the power had been back on. “Oh, about four or five hours..”. We had been so wrapped up working in our self-contained office, we hadn’t realized the power had come back on!
With our ordeal behind us, we couldn’t resist the temptation to elebrate with a cold beer and a toast…

“Here’s to “easy money” on Ebay!”

KL Bohn is an Industrial Engineer with a passion for technology and especially Ebay.

Ebay was only two years old when I discovered it quite by accident. 7 1/2 years, and over 85,000 transactions later I’m still hooked on Ebay as a seller, buyer, and shareholder.

Where have characters like steely faced Humphrey Bogart standing in the doorway with a cigarette in one hand and a revolver in the other gone? Where has the likes of John Wayne, Gary Cooper, James Cagney, and Robert Mitchum gone? The fact is that these actors are no longer in the land of the living, but they had such character and screen power. The women of the era were also tough cookies themselves, such as Betty Davis, Audrey Hepburn, and Lauren Becall. These women had moxie and a sexiness that jumped out through the screen.

Today’s actors seem to not have the presence that the actors of yesterday possess. There are many very good actors today. Robert DeNiro is a great example of this but they are few and far between. Could it be the type of movies the actors today are given? Movies today are relying more upon the remake and that could have an effect on the acting quality in Hollywood, but even the original productions today do not have punch they once did. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, such as The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption, Shindlers List, which are exceptional movies with great acting.

The discussion often rages about comparing eras in any genre, but today’s actors generally have a lot of catch up to do. As more and more movies are made the balance may swing back to today’s actor, but for the moment the greats still have the upper hand.

Rilio Mastrantonio publishes the web site Hollywood Snitch at http://www.hollywoodsnitch.com featuring entertainment news, gossip, movie reviews, dvd reviews and other Hollywood related material.

The Great Depression brought down the economy for a time and brought about the idea of cookie jars. The first decorative jars that attracted the American public first appeared in the 1930s. These were the products of what seemed to be a natural reaction for the decline in the stock market. Instead of frequenting the bakery shops, people resolved to bake breads and cookies in their own houses.

Once the cookies are done, they must be kept in a container to lengthen shelf life. To do this, the elements that may dry out moist cookies and soften dry ones must be eliminated. This was the primary reason why decorative cookie jars easily found favor in American households rather than the coffee tins and a variety of make-do materials.

Cookie jars are made out of different mediums. Some of which are metal, plastic, wood and glass but the most acceptable among enthusiasts are the ceramic cookie jars. The largest portion of these ceramic jars is crafted using earthenware, normally the white category. Redware is also an earthenware that is mostly used by Japanese cookie manufacturers. There are also yellowwares but they seldomly sought after cookie jar making.

A selected few are made out of porcelain but they are rather expensive than ordinary jars. Still others are made from stonewares, most of which are manufactured by Western Stoneware Company in Monmouth, Illinois. This medium is primarily used in making crockeries.

Though there are debates on which earthenware must be used in cookie jar making, this issue has lesser importance than the forms of decorations applied to the jars. Ceramic cookie jars normally go through this typical process:

- glaze
– paint
– paint and glaze combination
– transfer and glaze combination
– combination of all three materials.

Among these five finishes, the glaze is the most durable. Simply put, glaze is minute particles of clear or colored glass that is suspended using a liquid agent. This is applied on cookie jars by means of brushing, dipping or airbrushing. However, the major problem with glaze is crazing. The manifestations of which are the tiny cracks on the body or a portion of the jar surface.

Unlike glaze, pain or cold paint is never fired. It can be either applied directly on the glaze or on the bisque. Like ordinary painting, the paint on the jar often deteriorates. This may be due to extreme temperature, exposure to sunlight, humidity and contact with other objects. This process can never be stopped once the onset becomes visible.

The standard rule of thumb in handling painted cookie jars is not to wash them with water. This will further aggregate the fading of the color.

Transfer designs, so long as they were done in the proper manner, may be a much better option than that of the painted ones. This is true because transfer designs hold up much stronger than the paints. But they are far more susceptible to damage from foreign elements than the glazes. Transfer-decorated cookie jars that are undergoing premature deterioration is partly due to the transfer design, rather than the glaze.

Mold companies seem to have recognized the importance of improving these processes. They have been developing broader selections of finishing methods for jar crafters. This is partly due to the need for improvement and partly because of the growing popularity of cookie jar collecting.

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides cookie jar resources on http://www.your-cookie-jar.info.

You’ve been together for several years now. Sex has become routine and your relationship is in a rut. Those early days of euphoria that you felt when he/she looked your way are long gone. What do you do to revive the relationship before it stagnates and falls apart?

The Symptoms – Every relationship faces it. Boredom. Everyday is pretty much the same. You and your partner take each other for granted. Sex has become routine. You no longer catch yourself having warm fuzzy feelings about your partner and dreaming up ways to make them happy. Instead your priorities have shifted to work, the kids, money, or what you’ll get mom for Christmas. When and where it started, you’re not sure. One day you wake up and it occurs to you that your sex life is boring. You may even blame your partner. The cute coworker may have caught your eye and now your wondering why your partner can’t give you that kind of attention. Ok, you recognize the symptoms but how do you fix it?

The Cure – The thing that separates your relationship with your partner from every other relationship is sex. It therefore stands to reason that the way to revive your relationship is through sex. Consider it as playtime between you and your partner. Not only should it be satisfying, it should also be fun. Here are the steps that will help bring some fun back into your sex life.

• Make it a priority. First of all you need to make time for intimacy. The three main obstacles to intimacy are time, energy, and privacy. By making sex a priority, it is easier to find opportunities when both of you have the time and energy. Privacy can always be arranged.
• Feel Sexy. Do whatever it takes to make yourself feel sexy. Sex is more satisfying for both of you if you are not self-conscious. Work out or dress up. Women are often more self-conscious than men. Ladies your body does not have to be perfect. If your partner loves you and you feel sexy, he will see you as sexy. Lingerie may be a way of making yourself feel attractive.
• Communicate. Let your partner know that you want to break the routine. Never be accusing or negative when telling your partner that you want to change things or you will probably get a negative reaction. You may find out that your partner feels like you do and wants to get out of the rut you’ve fallen into.
• Do something different Break the routine. Remember, it’s all about fun so be creative. You might plan a day where you try to tempt each other to see who will give in first. Perhaps you could read a book and learn a new technique. You might try a romantic atmosphere with candles and music or a roaring fire. You could be adventurous and try role playing. For example, dress up and pretend you are strangers. Another idea is for each of you to write down a fantasy during the week and on Saturday you do his and on Sunday, hers. If you are uncomfortable coming up with ideas on your own, you might try a sex game and let the game lead you. Once your sex life is back on track, you will find that you feel closer to your partner.

Why bother – Never reach the point where you are not touching each other. Touch, whether erotic or not, is crucial to keeping your relationship on track. Again, this is not a relationship that you want to be like others in your life. One or both of you will end up cheating. Cheating often stems from boredom with the relationship. Do not give into this urge as you will be giving up more than you are gaining. If you get caught and break up, you will have all the time in the world to fool around with whoever, whenever you want. In the end you will still feel empty. What you are looking for cannot be found with a stranger. Working on your relationship, nourishing it with your attention and love, will give a much more fulfilling result. We are all looking for that special someone to fill that emptiness inside us. Who will love us through the good and bad, give our life meaning, our rock when we feel weak and our pillow when we fall. Starting over with someone new every few years makes this very difficult to accomplish.

In conclusion, think back to when you met your partner. Think about your time together and the good things you have shared. Is anything else in your life worth more effort than building on that love? It’s like a precious flower. Feed it, water it, nurture it and it will grow. Tend to it only when it crosses your mind and it will wither and die. Communicate, appreciate, and have fun. These are the key ingredients to adding zest to a relationship rut.

©2005 Patricia Fason

Patricia Fason is a writer and poet whose main focus is relationships. To read more of her work, visit Sites O Web Romances You (sitesoweb.com). Sites O Web Romances You is a love, romance, and relationship resource focusing on building stronger relationships and also provides links to hundreds of products and romantic gifts to make shopping for your partner easier.

One way to consolidate debts is to take out a home equity loan. There are instances when a person finds that he is an objectionable financial position. That is, he needs to make monthly payments that demands exceedingly high interest rates. This makes every month a financial strain on the budget.

However, it is possible to lighten this financial load by consolidating the debts. This means that all the high-interest-rate debts will be combined in one total debt that has a low interest. Debt consolidation essentially removes the high interests. And such can be done by a person taking out a home equity loan.

Describing the Home Equity Loan

The home equity loan does not refer to the primary home mortgage, but it is considered a mortgage. This is because the homeowner borrows money against the established value of his home. From another point of view, it is called a secured loan. A secured loan entails collateral from the borrower. And with a home equity loan, the collateral is the home.

Still, from another point of view, the home equity loan is a risk that may involve the loss of the home if the borrower fails to meet the monthly repayments. However, among the various types of loans available, the home equity loan is the most useful and most significant, as long as the borrower has control over his finances.

The usual type of home equity loan utilized for debt consolidation is the one described as the “closed end” loan. This type of home equity loan allows the loan applicant to state and borrow a specified amount. Usually, the amount is set against the market value of the home.

Using the Home Equity Loan

When a person has already obtained a home equity loan, he should wisely use the borrowed amount. Otherwise, he faces the risk of losing his home. Therefore, at the outset, the borrower must borrow the amount the he needed to consolidate all his high-interest debts. If the amount borrowed from the closed-end home equity loan is insufficient for a full debt consolidation, it means that the borrowerer will still face a few remaining high-interest monthly payments, along with the repayments for the home equity loan.

The borrower must also make sure that the stated monthly repayments is affordable – an amount that he can pay every month. If such an amount will make the borrower and his family skip some meals or let go of other essentials, then he should not take this particular home equity loan. If he does, he is slowly relinquishing his home to the lending company.

The best way to use the home equity loan is to exercise discipline and implement budgeting. This way, the home equity loan is the perfect instrument in removing debts.

You may freely reprint this article provided the following author’s biography (including the live URL link) remains intact:

About The Author

John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the http://www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.

Feng shui (say “fung shway”), often called the art of placement, could just as accurately be called “the art of flow.” This ancient Chinese practice, literally translated as “wind” and “water,” aims to maximize the beneficial movement of chi–the universal life force present in all things–through an environment.

Just as fresh air and clean water nourish our bodies, so does fresh, clean chi nourish our homes and our lives. When the flow of chi through our space is blocked, weak, or misdirected, our relationships, cash flow, creativity, health, and career can suffer. Chi wants to meander gracefully through a space, like a gentle breeze or a winding stream. When it flows too strongly, it becomes like a hurricane or flood. We are likely to feel tossed about by winds of change, unstable, prone to crises, struggling to “keep our heads above water.” Where chi is blocked it becomes stale and stagnant, like a pond choked with algae and fallen leaves. We may feel tired, run down, depressed, unable to focus, hampered in our efforts to move forward in our lives.

In a corporate environment, poor feng shui can result in miscommunication between managers and employees, conflicts among team members, and lack of support for key initiatives. Individuals may be overlooked for promotions or deserved raises, suffer damage to their reputation in the company, or even lose their job. The company may have difficulty attracting or keeping key customers.

In a retail store, feng shui problems can block the flow of customers into and through the store, contribute to theft and staffing problems, and have a negative effect on the amount and size of sales.

Feng shui provides tools and guidelines for analyzing and correcting the flow of energy into and through our space. It uses the arrangement of rooms and the placement of furniture to create a smooth pathway for chi through a home, office, or retail location. Blockages and other forms of negative chi are removed or counteracted in order to welcome in opportunities and encourage progress. Colors and shapes associated with the five elements-wood, fire, earth, metal, and water-are used to create movement, balance, or protection, depending on the needs of the client. Imagery and objects such as paintings, photographs, statuary and other accessories are chosen and placed to enhance and reinforce the client’s intention.

Feng Shui reminds us that everything is connected, and that our physical surroundings have a significant impact on our mind, body, and spirit. It teaches us to be mindful caretakers of our environments, so that we may be mindful caretakers of our lives.

Copyright © 2002 Stephanie Roberts

About The Author

Stephanie Roberts is a feng shui consultant in Maui, Hawaii, and the author of the best-selling “Fast Feng Shui” books (rated 5-stars by Amazon.com readers). To find out how you can use contemporary Western feng shui to help you achieve greater success and happiness in your life, please visit http://www.fastfengshui.com or subscribe to the Fast Feng Shui newsletter at mailto:subscribe@fastfengshui.com and receive free feng shui tips by email.

stephanie@fastfengshui.com

An ideal is not the dream that can never be realised, that certain weak-willed individuals like to imagine, if only to provide themselves with an excuse for moaning about life. Nor is it a vague and flimsy speculation in which shallow people want to indulge.

Here I am using the term ‘ideal’ to incorporate mission, vision, and purpose. I believe that it is indispensable for you to have an ideal, since it is the key to:

A more contented life.
A less stressful life.

A compelling future.
Living longer.
Putting first things first.
Focusing on what most matters in your life.
Preventing you from living in the past.
Allowing you to realise your future vision.
Giving you the reason for doing and being.

Your ideal is:

The overall vision, mission, and purpose for your life.
Very specific and understandable.
Always bigger than you.
Never completely achieved as it usually lasts your lifetime.
The power that determines your goals.
The continuous impulse towards a desire, which, because of gradual progress, gives you the courage to persevere.
The constant effort towards the whole, the partial realisation of which provides you with satisfaction and with encouragement.
Relatively constant even though your goals and values may change.
Not a definite goal as it exists at a much higher level.
Not egocentric.
Not an abstract, vague, hazy, or fanciful aspiration.

Therefore, an ideal is a dominant aspiration which all your efforts strive to achieve. I like to compare the ideal to a chain, of which every link, complete in itself, is added to the one before it to form a durable and constantly lengthening bond.

When you have a purpose your life has more meaning, and your ideal directs your life by becoming your helm, anchor, atlas, compass and inner core.

There is no situation in life, however modest, in which it is not advantageous to have an ideal. The shop-assistant will have thought of becoming the owner of the shop, and he will direct every aspect of his labour to that one end. Of course, an ideal once attained does not cease to exist, but merely changes. Once proprietor of the shop, our shop-assistants ideal will be to make himself distinguished among those who are in the same line of business.

And this same aspiration towards better things, while all the time progressing towards a single goal, can find satisfaction in successive victories, each of which is but a step in the right direction towards your goal. Without actually becoming a fantasy, an ideal can approach the realm of fancy as far as the perfection that you wish to reach is concerned. For certain artists this will be a flawless work of art which they continually progress towards, with each successive creation.

As an example, I am listing the various components of my ideal in the hope that it will help you to develop yours. They are as follows:

1. To strive for a better life and value my freedom to live my life as I choose, and without interfering with the freedom of others.

2. To respect and value the difference between individuals, irrespective of age, race, religion, or gender.

3. To become a positive influence and role model for others’ perseverance.

4. To serve as an inspiration and role model for my family, colleagues, and staff by always supporting and encouraging their growth.

5. To remain loyal and dedicated to myself, my wife, my children and grandchildren, my siblings, my friends and my staff.

6. To make every effort to achieve financial independence.

7. To conduct all my commercial transactions with honesty and integrity.

Having established your ideal, you will have a challenging future ahead of you. The next thing that you need to do is the crucial step of goal setting.

Goal setting is about making choices. It is about knowing where you are going and why you are going there. When you define your goals you need to ensure that every goal is:

Specific – to the extent that you know clearly what you are trying to achieve and why.

Measurable – to ensure that you can gauge and quantify your progress.

Achievable – to make sure that you have the production capability to complete it.

Realistic – to make certain that you have reasonable expectations.

Time-based – to guarantee that you complete it within a predefined time constraint.

If you do not apply due diligence and perform goal setting, then you will not realise your dreams because you will have no clue about:

Where you are going.
Why you are going there.
When you should get there.
How you are going to get there.

Copyright 2005 Abi Motala

This article is written by Abi Motala, CEO of Vista Information Publishing Ltd and author of “How to Unleash the Power of PERSEVERANCE”. Articles written by Abi have been published in both business and IT magazines.
Abi has extensive business management experience at senior levels within large companies, both in the UK and Western Europe.
Having spent 30 years in business, he has personally enjoyed many triumphs as well as endured many traumas. During his business life he has built a significant network of high achievers in many fields, and has witnessed the impact of both success and failure on his business associates and friends.

You can get more info at: http://www.vipinfoweb.com/howtopersevere
OR perseverance@vipinfoweb.com

Security window bars, retractable gates, roller blinds, or retractable shutters are
different ways of providing home security. If security window bars are used, care
must be taken to ensure they have the proper break-out mechanism so that
residents can escape in case of fire. Escape ladders can be used for exiting your
home from an upper floor through a window or off a balcony. You want to lock out
intruders, yet be able to get yourself out if needed.

Security window bars and the other products mentioned can help you to have peace
of mind. You will know that intruders or other damaging forces, such as flying
debris, can’t enter your windows. These protective bars don’t have to be
unappealing to the eye either; you can find many designer window bars that will
coordinate with the look of your home. You may also want to install matching
security gates and security screen doors. You can find contractors to assist you, or
install your products yourself.

Security windows are an important aspect of protecting your family and your home.
Whether from humans or nature, we live with destructive forces. Window security
film or laminates can stabilize your window glass. If breakage occurs the window
security film will virtually eliminate flying glass, harm to occupants or your home’s
interior.

There are a number of different types of window security films available. Depending
on your needs, you can get films which offer greater or lesser resistance to outside
forces. Some are intended to prevent the destructive impact of sunlight on your
home’s carpeting, drapes, and furnishings. Others are stronger and protect against
the powerful forces of nature of attempts by intruders to gain entry. If you live in an
area with powerful winds, or even hurricanes, you can stop worrying about breaking
windows.

Window security film is unobtrusive. It can make your home safer and help protect
your home’s value in the event of hurricanes, explosions, or attempts to enter by
intruders. Wouldn’t it be great to weather the storm knowing your home was safe
from flying glass or entry from the windows? How about keeping your home safe
from storm damage or break-ins through your windows? Window security
laminates can give you that peace of mind. Effective window protection is a
fundamental component of protecting any structure and its contents from weather,
sunlight, or physical force of any kind, whether from storms, flying debris, or
human force.

Window security laminates are available in various types, depending upon the
application you desire. The thinner laminates, or films, can provide solar control,
protecting the interior of you home from UV rays, reducing fading and sun damage
to fine furniture, artwork or carpets. You can also use laminates on your windows
for purely decorative purposes. Some laminates are designed to deal with graffiti on
windows or display cases. At the other end of the spectrum some products are so
tough that they resist breakage from flying storm debris. And these products can
deter theft, because it is very difficult to puncture through the window, even with
repeated blows from a hammer. The glass will splinter, but the laminate will hold it
together. Get started on protecting your home with these easy options today!

J.J. Nielson is a successful graphic artist and published internet author. She has
worked in the entertainment security field, as well as with private investigators.

For more information and home security resources, visit our site at www.best-home-security-online.com

What is a landing page

That’s been a lot of talk about landing page these days. So, what’s a landing page? It’s the page your website visitor arrived at after clicking a link. The link could be on any page on your website or pay per click advertising or banner ads or keyword search.

The goal of landing page is to cause your visitors to take definite action. You don’t want your visitors to leave until you get them to do what you want them to do. To click on the buy button, to sign up for an affiliate program, to download a free ebook or software, to sign up for a course, or to subscribe to your free newsletter.

The landing page is a direct marketing copy. Your visitors landed here through a link on your webpage, an ad, a keyword search, pay per click advertising, banner ads, and now you want to convert them.

Here are some tips to design a good landing page…

1.Content Relevance

Your landing page content must be relevant to what people were looking for when they applied the click through. The closer the match is the higher the chances of conversion.

2.Be Concise

Net writing is different than offline writing. Generally, when people surf the Internet they give short attention span to what they are reading. So be concise. When visitors arrive at your landing page they are already predisposed to buy, or they want to get more information of your product or service.

By all means give them information but be concise. Don’t use more than three sentences to communicate a point. Think through and concise what you want to say. Use bulleted list to communicate the benefits of your product or service.

3.Get straight to the point

The landing page is a highly customized marketing copy for your product or service or affiliate product or service. Don’t distract your visitors with advertisements, links to other web pages. Don’t let your visitors wade through a whole bunch of hosh posh before they get to want they want.

4.Focus

Dedicate one landing page to only one product or service. Don’t try to promote multiple products (unless they are of the same product group)or services on one page. Create separate landing pages and campaigns if you have multiple products or services to promote. Focus on one product or one product group on each landing page.

5.Be Factual

Use facts and figures instead of generalities.

General: Prices Reduced
Factual: Prices Reduced by 20 percent

6.Clear Call to Action

Tell your visitors what you want them to do. Buy now, click here to download, fill in name and email address to subscribe or whatever. Keep all call to action text in bold.

7.Readable Text

Sure, there’s nothing much to look at a page with white background and black fonts. But it’s definitely easier to read the text than a red
background with black fonts. Remember, it’s the words that sell. Your website visitors must be able to read your text with ease.

8.Navigation Links

Not at all, if you could help it. The only link you want your website visitors to click on your landing page is the call to action link.

9.Graphics and Images

Keep visual effects to a minimum unless you are running an online audio or video business, real estate business, or selling holiday destinations. Keep in mind that for direct marketing it’s the words that sell. Graphics and images serve only to enhance your text communication, not cloud it.

10.Grammatical and Spelling Errors

Check through your text and correct all grammatical and spelling errors. Otherwise it gives your website visitors a negative impression of you and the company you represent. Once visitors have a negative impression, it becomes difficult to convince them of the product or service that you are promoting. First impression counts a lot.

11.Make it personal

Make it personal to connect with your visitors. Use a lot of You and Your in your text.

12.Make your text clear and simple to understand

Avoid colloquialism or jargons. Use terms and phrases that people readily understood. Use short sentences, and phrase them in the active voice.

A good landing page will always sport good conversion rate as compared to a poor one. Take the time to think and rethink, work and rework your landing pages. Don’t make the mistake of just optimizing for the search engines. You need to optimize your landing pages for humans too. Ultimately, it is humans that give you the sales.

Gerrick W – mailto:gw@1stinternetmarketingsolution.com
Information and Software Tools You Need
to Effectively Promote Your Online Business.
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The single greatest obstacle preventing organizations from becoming great-achieving superior results, exceeding customer expectations, attracting and retaining talent, developing leaders, and creating work environments where people at all levels can learn and grow and prosper is painfully simple: Management Malpracticeabuses of power, knowledge and relationships that bog down systems, frustrate people, thwart teamwork, divert focus, and compromise results. What exactly is management malpractice? Any organizational practice or activity that makes it difficult for people to perform their jobs, develop themselves, coordinate with others, find fulfillment, create value and get results for themselves and their organizations. It occurs when management principles or corporate values are preached but not practiced and always involves an abuse of power, knowledge or relationships. Management malpractices at all levels in an organization must be constantly exposed and routinely eliminated if the enterprise expects to achieve and sustain greatness.

Great management principles that are considered by most people to be timelessly and universally true principles such as sharing ideas at every level, fostering a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo, treating employees as your most valuable asset, valuing the contributions of each individual, creating an environment where people feel free to raise concerns, establishing a foundation of respect and trust, enabling people to tap into their full potential, listening to all viewpoints, constantly challenging assumptions and biases, and accepting responsibility for your actions provide a vital shield and protection for individuals in organizations. When such universally accepted principles and truths are ignored, forgotten or preached but not practiced, individuals lose their protection and become subject to managers and leaders who can easily manipulate, abuse and injure them. Just as a nation without the rule of law cannot protect its citizens from physical harm, an organization without the rule of great management principles cannot protect its employees from emotional and psychological damage. Management malpractice occurs whenever managers and leaders fail to apply principles that have been tried and tested, proven and accepted as timelessly and universally true.

Oftentimes a vicious cycle is at work in organizations: leaders consciously or unconsciously malpractice management, employees react with disappointment and disgust, leaders attempt to correct their malpractice, employees perceive leaders’ corrective efforts as disingenuous and manipulative, leaders react with disappointment and disgust but they try again, employees cautiously give leaders another chance, leaders improve but not as fully and quickly as employees would like, employees become angry and call leaders hypocrites, leaders become angry and call employees whiners, and so on until both leaders and employees accept management malpractice as the norm. It is an inescapable reality of modern organizational life.

This vicious cycle continues until the organizational culture becomes mired in cynicism and distrust. The solution? Break the cycle by seeing it and exposing it – both the leader’s under-reaction to malpractice and the employee’s over-reaction to imperfection. Only when management malpractice is replaced with a widespread adherence to great management principles (timeless and universal) will the labels of hypocrite and whiner disappear. Only then can the vicious cycle be prevented from returning.

Craig Hickman is the author or coauthor of a dozen books on business and management, among them such bestsellers as Creating Excellence; The Strategy Game; Mind of a Manager, Soul of a Leader; and The Oz Principle. After receiving his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, he worked in the areas of strategic planning, organizational design, and mergers and acquisitions for Dart Industries and Ernst & Young. In 1985, he founded Management Perspectives Group, a consulting and training firm that helped companies implement the business strategy, corporate culture, and organizational change principles set forth in Creating Excellence and Mind of a Manager, Soul of a Leader. His clients have included: Proctor & Gamble, American Express, Unilever, AT&T, PepsiCo, Honeywell, Amoco, Nokia, and the U.S. government. He has lectured throughout the world for the U.S. State Department as part of its American Participant Program and is currently CEO of Headwaters Technology Innovation Group, a subsidiary of Headwaters Incorporated (NYSE: HW).