The Marketers’ Senate

I recently began an exploration of the internet and was
overwhelmed by the amount of information available on making
money online. You could spend years searching for the right
information. Much of the information was free, and a good
majority of it was available for a price. What i found was the
right information was priceless, but if you did not use the
information it was worthless, and some free information was
worth many times more than the price of information you could
pay for.

So what does it take to start making money online? You need a
simple plan of action and the willingness to just start and take
baby steps in the direction of your goals. Just Do It! Then
observe the effects and continue on with the next step or make
corrections. I think it’s possible to make money online and
highly probable if you have the right tools and information and
take the action necessary with a positive attitude towards
success.

So where do you start? It begins with a willingness to take
chances and venture into unknown territory, learning from
everyone you can. A good beginning would be learning the basics
about finding a product to sell and how to market a product
online, building a website, and then going on from there. The
best way is learning from a mentor who has already gone through
all the steps necessary to be successful and knows all the
pitfalls of running an online business. Plus as an added bonus
they could answer any questions that you may have. In
conclusion, I only have this to say. Nothing gets started
without taking action, so do something positive in your life
today and at least search for some answers. You will never know
what you can find unless you do. I hope you found this
information useful.

Exercise Tips

The most effective exercise regimen includes both strength training and cardiovascular (aerobic) training in a consistent, regular program.

2-4 days of strength training and
2-5 days of aerobic activity; or
3-4 days of circuit training.

Every safe and effective exercise program should consist of three elements. In order, they are:

Warm Up
Work Out
Cool Down

Warm Up

Always warm up before exercising. People who do not warm up before exercising are the ones who usually end up sustaining injuries. Protect your neck, back, spine, and joints. Get the blood and juices flowing and wake up your muscles gradually through a series of stretches and preliminary sets using reduced resistance. This is one time when “going through the motions” can be extremely beneficial.

Strength Work Out

Perform at least one set of 8-12 reps to near fatigue for each muscle group in the body (chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, abs, thighs, hamstrings, and calves) a minimum of two times per week. Your goal should be to work up to doing three sets (increasing the resistance for each successive set) with 30-60 seconds of rest between each set.

Start out slowly.. By doing additional sets or combinations of sets you can realize even greater strength and body shaping gains. Following are some basic guidelines useful for all strength training exercises:

Perform each exercise smoothly and evenly through the whole range of motion in a slow, controlled manner. Never jerk or lunge.

Breathe. Exhale against the resistance; inhale on the return. Do not hold your breath.

Always resist the Power Bands back to the starting position for each exercise. This provides a training effect in both directions.

Increase the resistance for successive sets by 5%-10%. In general, increase the resistance when 12 repetitions can be completed in proper form; decrease the resistance when less than 8 reps can be completed.

Replace fluids lost while exercising by drinking water at regular intervals during exercise. Don’t wait until you feel thirsty to drink.

Rest a minimum of 48 hours and a maximum of 96 hours between training sessions using the same muscle groups.

Aerobic Work Out

An exercise is classified as aerobic if the oxygen supply is sufficient to meet the oxygen demand of the working muscles during the exercise. When this occurs, it’s possible to continue the exercise for prolonged periods of time (12 minutes or more). Another aspect of aerobic exercise is that it engages the large muscle groups, principally those of the legs, continuously over the length of the exercise. Brisk walking, running, jogging, cycling, rowing, jumping rope, etc. are examples of aerobic exercise.

You can achieve an aerobic training effect by performing aerobic exercise for a minimum of 12 minutes during which your heart rate has been elevated to within your training range. The training range is between 65% and 80% of your Age-Predicted Maximum Heart Rate (approximately 220 minus your age). Remember: It takes a few minutes of exercise to elevate your heart rate into the training range and this time does not count toward the minimum 12 minutes.

Circuit Training Work Out

Circuit training consists of a series of strength training exercises, commonly interspersed with short episodes of aerobic exercise, all done one after the other with as little time between each exercise as possible.

The object is to perform strength training exercises on the major muscle groups while maintaining an effective aerobic training level. Circuit training takes significantly less time to achieve results comparable to separate programs of strength training and aerobics.

Since lack of time is the number one reason people give for failing to start or maintain a regular exercise program, circuit training is a method that makes sense. And SmartGYM, with its revolutionary new design that allows simultaneous aerobic and strength training, is the ideal circuit training machine.

Cool Down

Never quit exercising suddenly. Instead, decrease your intensity gradually and finish up with some stretching movements to allow your heart rate to come back down to normal, nice and easy. This can help to reduce muscle cramping and post exercise muscle pain.

http://www.AffordableHomeGym.com

Comparison or Voucher Shopping? Which do I think is cheaper?

I already had a good idea as to what was going to be the cheapest way of buying products online. I took a quick (extensive really) look at price comparison sites and I seemed to find a lot of them weren’t all that up to date with their pricing…, so what next? Along my many searches for shopping sites I came across Vouchers or Voucher Codes, and these seem to give more value against the advertised retail prices as opposed to hunting through comparison price sites. Vouchers are a simple code you enter at the checkout process to give you a percentage or price discount, and clearly (?) came out the winner for me!

A site I found on my travels within this vast world wide web, which seemingly give a large benefit to all online shopping surfers is Discount Shopping UK. You can find the site here at www.Discountshoppinguk.co.uk which is a site is rammed full with voucher codes and many other ways to save money on your online shopping purchases. Discount Shopping UK list lots of Voucher Codes from all of the major, well known sites and retail stores, you can search by retail store or by product type category.

Visit www.Discountshoppinguk.co.uk and see for yourselves how much you could be saving and it really doesn’t matter what country you’re in just search for vouchers or voucher codes when next shopping online and will find lots of similar sites serving your country.

How much time do you waste every day on your job?

If you are an average worker, the answer is 2.09 hours per workday, according to a
new survey by America Online and Salary.com> The survey shows “that employees
are wasting about twice as much time as their employers suspect.”

According to Salary.com’s calculations, employers spend $759 billion per year on
salaries for which real work was expected and not actually performed. That
calculates to be $5,720 in wasted salary dollars per year, per worker.

Where’s all this time going? Surfing the internet for personal reasons leads the list.
Almost 45 percent of more than 10,000 persons polled say this is their number one
time-wasting activity. Socializing (23 percent) and conducting personal business
(6.8 percent) are numbers two and three on the list. Also, listed are spacing out,
running errands, applying for other jobs, planning personal events arriving late/
leaving early.

By the way, the Salary.com survey shows that persons born between the years of
1980 and 1985 waste nearly four times as much time on the job as do those born
from 1930 to 1949.

There’re Opportunities In These Statistics

These statistics spell O P P O R T U N I T I E S. Just suppose you cut the average time
wasted from two hours per day to one hour. That means if you work five days per
week, you could easily add five hours a week to your productivity. In a 50-week
work year, you would be gaining 250 hours or over 31 eight-hour days of
productive time. I have to believe the things you could accomplish in those 31 plus
days would certainly show up on the positive side of your annual review and lift you
above the average.

Ramon Greenwood is former senior vice president of American Express; a
professional director for various businesses; a consultant; a published author of
career related books and a syndicated column. Senior career counselor for
http://www.CommonSenseAtWork.com
Visit Ramon at his website,
http://www.CommonSenseAtWork.com, to
sign up for his free semimonthly
newsletter or contact him at
ramon@CommonSenseAtWork.com

The trouble of having to drive to a gaming room is enough to give it up altogether. Ultimately those traffic jams, the trouble, and tasks required seem not worth the nuisance for the chance of testing the odds at gaming room, but in case you’re someone who ache for betting going virtual is probably the most obvious option.

You will not need to leave your house to go for online wagering as you can access it easily from your familiar home office if you have access to a servicable computer with a broadband connection to the internet. In spite of this, you should remember that there are more than a few hints that you will positively want to know about regarding online wagering, in particular if you’re still green in this department. OK, dull down your hormones to traverse the leads below. Here is our layout that spells out how to choose trust-worthy online wagering web sites.

The very first thing that a keen online plunger like yours truly must target is an online wagering host of the sort which promotes the best winning odds. Take care to establish the online wagering host is monitored by a secure and honest bookkeeping company in order to size up their quoted wagers pay-out percentage routinely.

Casino Articles

Furthermore, here are a group of alternate leads regarding spotting your online gaming host. Always take care to ascertain the online gaming host is actually legal, such as by scrutinizing the officially certified operating authorization as disported on the casino site. If you cannot unearth any officially certified operating authorization on your selected online gaming host, don’t even think of gambling with this establishment.

As a next step I would advise you turn over very thoroughly the choice of promos that the online gaming host offers its customers. Another advice is to lay your bets for starters in limited amounts rather than expend great amounts of money immediately. Check, first of all, the functionality of this specific online gaming organization prior to provoking some serious hazard– in particular financial ones! And here’s another info regarding online card playing. It must be this- to remember always that online wagering is really about amusing yourself and less about big bucks. Wagering in an online casino isn’t a profession, on the contrary - it’s a diversion that should help you become delighted and your overall life amusing.

Once you have kept to the given suggestions, you can go ahead surrender to the enchantment of online gaming!

The purpose of marketing is to ultimately generate sales. Whether you are building a brand or coordinating a one time sale, it is important that you cover all the bases to be effective. If you are selling a product or a service, on the web or over the counter, the five essential steps for effective marketing is a check-list to make sure that you are maximizing the return on your efforts.

1. Features
Define the features of the product or services that you are promoting. Be specific, concise and accurate in your summary of the features. Imagine that you are developing your list of features like the list of ingredients for the side of a cereal box, or the list of hardware requirements for a software application. The list of features should be easy to locate and easy to understand. The list of features should not be flamboyant or contain promotional “puffery”. It should be concise and contain substantive information. Demonstrate respect for your customer’s time by being direct and easy to understand.

2. Advantage
Identify at least one, but no more than three, key advantages of the product or service that you want to promote. Unlike the list of features, statements of advantages are intended to generate excitement. The advantages are typically a subtle comparison between the ‘before and after’, or a comparison to competition. Do not disparage the competition. If you are effective in stating your advantages, the customer will make their own conclusions. Some examples of phrases used in identifying advantage are “fewer calories”, “every day low prices”, “longer lasting”, “less filling” and “fresh scent”. These advantages may or may not be the related to the primary features or functions of your product or service, but the advantages can set you apart.

3. Benefit
It is important to identify the customer value to be realized by the advantages of your product or services. The list of features details the item. The advantages identify why yours is superior. The benefits statement makes it personal. In some cases the benefits may be implied, For example, “fewer calories” implies weight loss, an obvious benefit for many customers. If the customer benefits are not inherently obvious, then it is good practice to state the benefits. This is especially true if you are selling services. For example, help the customer identify that “training and educating employees” may result in benefits like “better sales” or “increased productivity”. Keep the customer perspective, “You can buy at low prices here” is better than “I can sell to you at low prices”.

4. Image
If your marketing includes advertising or web content, it is extremely important to use appropriate images. The text of your marketing material creates an impression and an emotional response. The images or pictures used in your marketing will be remembered. To be highly effective, use images that portray your product or service with complimentary text (features, advantages and benefits). Some common mistakes are not including a picture of the product, or using cartoons in conjunction with professional services. An effective method is to use pictures that convey lifestyle associated with your product. For example, pictures of athletes for sport drinks, cityscapes convey large scope, images of people enjoying the use your product. Proper use of images can gain immediate attention and make a lasting impression.

5. Offer
Also commonly referred to as the “call to action”, make sure that your marketing material entices the customer to follow-up by asking for the sale. Effective Offers typically include a price, a place to purchase, and a compelling reason to ‘act now’. Limited time promotions, coupons, “while supplies last” and “for a limited time only” are compelling reasons to take advantage of the benefits promptly. Your marketing material may be your one opportunity to reach that customer, so use it wisely and ask for the sale.

Make a personal checklist and review your marketing material, brochures, ads and web content. Once you have reviewed your own materials, compare to your competition and commercials to see who is using the Five Essentials to Effective Marketing. Once you have successfully covered all of the bases, you will see your marketing efforts and web site transform into self-fulfilling sales.

For more suggestions on marketing, leadership, management skills and organizational development, please visit Executive Blueprints and the Institute for Advanced Leadership

John Mehrmann is President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital. http://www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com provides resource materials for trainers, sample Case Studies, educational articles and references to local affiliates for consulting and executive coaching.

Have you wondered why wedding cakes costs hit the roof? Why do
they cost so much? You will be amazed to know that the prices
could touch $15 per person or more?

I recall how Mrs. Ingridman taught me invaluable lessons on how
to lower a wedding cake price while still going for the
classiest of cakes. After her successful wedding, she told me
how she managed to treat her guests with a mouthwatering cake
which was bought at reasonable price.

She told me the reasons why most wedding cakes turn out to be
expensive are because the cake pans used to bake them are
expensive. I will list some of the ways by which you can lower a
wedding cake price and choose the best cake for your wedding:

1. Before you agree to give an order to the baker, make sure
that the decoration and design is the right kind to suit your
taste. Go through referrals and see what prices are being
quoted. Look through the samples first before deciding on your
cake. A supermarket could offer a wide range of cakes at a
lesser cost than your bakery.

2. Decide on how you want to decorate your wedding cake…whether
you want to keep it simple and cute or splendid and rich. Avoid
over decorating the cake. It is not necessary to have a five
tiered cake. You can have your cake stacked if you want.

3. Bakers who are not specially into wedding cakes could still
bake the best cakes and cost less. Home bakers too do not charge
much and could make lovely cakes.

4. You can borrow the pillars. There are disposable pillars
available with your local baker or rental companies which are a
better alternative than those crystal pillars if you want to cut
down on the cost of the pillars. Let the baker or your local
rental company helps you with the disposable pillars instead of
the crystal ones.

5. Another great idea would be to find prices at a cake making
or culinary school near your place. Students have baking and
decorating cakes as part of their curriculum. You can be assured
that you will get gorgeous cake and have your wedding cake made
at a very low price.

6. Investigate prices at a culinary school near you. If students
are baking and decorating wedding cakes as part of their
curriculum, the per person charge may be greatly reduced.

7. You can even save on your wedding cake topper prices. In
Mrs.Ingridman’s case her uncle asked her what she would like to
have as a wedding present. Her quick answer was a wedding cake
topper. Often relatives and well wishers would ask you to ask
what you need as a gift.

8. Another good thing which Miss. Ingridman did, which you may
want to do, is that if you buy a multi-tiered cake, see that you
decorate it yourself or have the florist do it for you. If you
want flowers on your cake but the cost of the artificial flowers
isn’t fitting in your budget, let your florist put real flowers
on the cake. Just make sure that they are non toxic. Check the
price of the organic edible flowers.

As Mrs. Ingridman put it, before you meet with any baker, look
around for the best samples.

Expect to pay per slice of the cake as the cake cost depends
more on style than flavors.

Before sign up with your baker, shop around or decide what is
the topper you would like, what style you would want for you
cake, what flavor is the taste of the season for you and how
tiered it should be…but the most important see that your
mouthwatering wedding cake comes at mouthwatering price.

What is important to get what you want, at a price which does
not tug at your purse strings.

Pilates is a system that was developed by Joseph Pilates.

Pilates Principles

Are not a collection, but also a method developed over eighty years or more. Lots of elements, from yoga to acrobatics are brought together to form the method known as Pilates.

There are six pilates principles. These are : Centering, Precision, Control, Concentration, Flowing Movement and Breathing. Pilates uses mind over matter as its central element. This allows the person practicing pilates to use their body to the greatest advantage.

Centering: Known as the large group of muscles in our center. Pilates exercises begin here and flow outwards.

Precision: The main focus is on doing one precise and perfect movement so that it becomes natural.

Control: This is referring to muscle control, from larger limbs down to finger positioning.

Concentration: This is about concentrating on your entire body until complex movements eventually become second nature.

Flowing Movement: Grace of motion over speed. None of the exercises are static. This is key to posture and suppleness.

Breathing: In order to charge our bodies with oxygen. This awakens our body and prevents fatigue. Again, control is emphasised in breathing, both inhalation and exhalation. It should be well co-ordinated with body movement. Each pilates exercise is accompanied with instructions on how to breathe.

Article by John Glover of http://www.information-on-pilates.com ( Pilates Information Resource )

Take a moment. Look back at your journey as a golfer. Take the past year or so, for example. Good? Bad? Perhaps your scorecard totals rose, fell, only to rise again, or you’re still playing with the same slice you had a year ago (despite numerous swing changes, and spending a small fortune on the latest wonder gadgets!). Or maybe you are one of that small band of golfers who are actually making progress. Whatever the story let’s see if we can make things a wee bit different, shall we?

You know, the single biggest thing that I see spoil the game in golfers is judgement, and it’s close buddies, criticism and impatience. But the great news is that judgement isn’t an actual thing, it’s simply a point of view. And as such it is something that we can change. It’s just like a program running in our mind.

On the course our biggest opponent isn’t another human being, or the wind, or the condition of the greens, but what is going on in our head. The incessant chatter, the voices telling us what not to do, or telling us that we’ve screwed-up yet again can completely ruin a round of golf. And of course, we have probably all experienced the opposite - moments when the mind is calm and our swing is a thing of beauty and simplicity. “Wow, I wish I could play like that more often”. Well, the good news is that you can, but it’s going to take a bit of commitment to begin to do something new.

In 1988 I learned a very simple series of meditation-like techniques from a group of monks. It had such a profound effect on me that now I’m a monk too and share these same techniques. I know, I know, a golfing monk? It sounds a bit strange, but we’ve come this far so please stick around.

What these techniques did for me was to change my relationship with the thoughts that I had, to begin to help me to be more present and not always caught in thinking about the past or anxieties about the future. The actual techniques are only taught in person, but right now I want to share a couple of exercises with you that can perhaps help in making a positive change.

Let’s try this for starters. In a moment I want you to close your eyes and watch what is happening in your mind. As you close your eyes be gently alert and watch the thoughts move through, and as they do count them - 1, 2, 3, etc. Keep your eyes closed for about two minutes. Close them now.

So, how did you do? Were you able to count them? If not, try again, but be gentle. So how many were there - 4, 10, 30? The number doesn’t matter, but what is important is that you can begin to experience that you are not your thoughts. Your thoughts are actually something outside of you. You are that which can be aware of them. Just like watching cars going by on the highway we can watch safely from a distance.

But just like on the highway the trouble starts when we start getting in the way of things! When we resist or get involved in thinking the thoughts we lose ourselves and begin to experience whatever the content of the thought is. So if the thought is self-critical, and we begin to relate to it, we feel that in our body. Do you swing well when you’re thinking about how badly your round is going? Of course not, and we all know that it’s only going to get worse if we stay on the same mental page.

So using this simple method is a great way to make a change. You don’t need to change your thoughts. That’s worth repeating. You don’t need to change your thoughts! You’re not the one that’s making them anyway. All you need to do is to change your relationship with them. So for example by taking a moment to count them, the thought, “I have to make par, I have to make par,” and all the pressures that come with it, simply becomes thought number 5.

Now I’m not proposing that you wake up and start counting your thoughts all day long - the average person has over 80,000 per day! What we are doing is making a start.

So let’s progress this a bit. This time when you close your eyes for two minutes don’t count - just watch. Go ahead.

How was that? The more you do that, gently observe, the more you will experience the mind becoming quiet. Being the observer, not judging or resisting any thought begins to help you be free of their influence and will make you a better golfer, and improve how you experience all of your life.

So, does this actually make a difference? Let me give you an example. I had my first introduction to golf as a teenager. I grew up in Scotland and golf was popular, cheap and it was a chance for me to hang out with my father. He bought me a half-set of clubs a bag, showed me what to do and off we went.

We were playing at a lovely small course near the coastal village of Carradale on the Kintyre peninsula. We were on the 3rd or 4th tee and I swung an air shot. OK, so what? But the group behind caught up and were waiting. I swung again - this time with a bigger audience - and whoosh, more fresh air. Someone coughed . My embarrassment was intense, my face tomato- red, and I tried even harder with the next swing with the same result.

We let the other guys play through. I couldn’t watch (I didn’t want to make any eye contact), I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. In my 13 year old mind a belief was born, a new program - “I don’t like it, and I don’t play well when people watch me”.

This is not unique. Lots of people lose their game when they find they have an audience. Yet this is purely a mental block, there is nothing technically different in the shot.

I was playing last year in Scotland when I came up on a four ball. Graciously they let me play through. From the tee I hit a perfect slice - OB, off into the trees to bother the squirrels. Behind me I heard someone cough. Like a bullet the memory of Carradale came back, along with the thoughts and beliefs planted in that experience.

But through my meditation practice I was able to stay uninvolved with these thoughts. In fact, I felt carefree and very content. With a sense of inner peace I teed up another ball, swung with no tension and struck a beautiful shot which left me with a nice 8 iron to the green.

The truth is that we are going to have bad shots when we play golf. It’s just in the nature of the game. The trick is to let them have no impact on how you play the rest of your shots. Being the impartial observer of the movement (and the peace) in your mind is a great way to be more natural when playing.

If your commitment to yourself is ” I am going to enjoy my golf more” then you may find that the mind throws up some qualifiers - “I will if I play well, I will if I can finally beat my buddies, I will if I can get my short game together, etc, etc.” It may be that believing this “if” thought is the only thing that stops you having a great time.

Personally, I now have the experience where I enjoy the development of my game; I accept it for how it is in any moment; and appreciate that if I have commitment to practice, and don’t take it, or myself, too seriously, I can allow the journey to unfold in a fun, and sometimes magical, way.

You can too. Go on, do something different.

Mahadeva Ishaya is a monk of the Ishaya Order, and also an avid golfer. He is the publisher of http://www.golfinthemoment.com which is committed to helping golfers of all abilities realise that mastery of the “inner game” of golf is not only vital, but simple and enjoyable.

“What’s the dress tonight?” This question has subsided over the years as my friends become used to each other, but new people to our group still ask. It’s always amazed me how prominent business people always worry about this . . . but then, that’s what makes them prominent.

I attended a realtor awards dinner last night. Black Tie was suggested. I hadn’t worn my “Tux” for nine months and when I tried it on, it was a little snug. Without worry, I dressed in a black suit and attended. It was as I had supposed. Those in Tuxedos stood out as the exceptions rather than the rule. Men don’t play dress up as well as women do. There were even men there without suits. One stopped a gold chain shy of an American Gigolo. On a group trip to Portland once, I suggested that we bring along our Tuxedos and attend the Portland Opera. I don’t think the men even told their wives. The men passed.

If I thought I would have stood out in the crowd at the awards dinner in my suit, I would have sucked in my tummy and not breathed for the evening as I wore my Tuxedo. As it was I arrived early with a back-up plan to rush home and change if I needed to.

The rule of thumb in business is to dress for the job you want to have next. At social events you want to blend in. There is a business training program on CD called Creating Personal Style: An Interactive Guide. This guide is a godsend for people in business who want to advance in their career.

“Whether on the job or going to a special event, dressing right and feeling good about yourself is always important. But knowing what to wear and how to shop for clothes can be frustrating without the right advice. These updated and now totally interactive versions of the popular Your Ideal Silhouette for Women and Suit Yourself for Men can help change uncertainty into confidence as students learn to build and manage their wardrobes in dynamic new ways.”
- Ad copy for Creating Personal Style: An Interactive Guide

Creating Personal Style: An Interactive Guide even has video segments that show you how to get properly measured and how to tie bows and ties. It’s a very good training aid to have, whether you’re a man or a woman.

As a man I think that women have it easy at social events. All they have to do is wear basic black and some make-up. But then I’m a man and I’m probably wrong.

When in doubt about the proper attire for a party or gathering, it’s best to call the host or someone involved in the event and ask. Many events are “Business Attire,” which means suits and ties or sport jackets and ties for men. At these types of events men use their radar. As soon as someone takes off a tie or a jacket, the rest will follow.

We don’t mind looking good, we don’t mind dressing up, we just want to fit in and be comfortable. Most of us aren’t fashion leaders, we’re peer group followers.

Don Doman is a published author, video producer, and corporate trainer. He owns the business training site Ideas and Training (http://www.ideasandtraining.com), which he says is the home of the no-hassle “free preview” for business training videos. He also owns Human Resources Radio (http://www.humanresourcesradio.com), which broadcasts HR and business training information, program previews, and training samples from some of the world’s great training speakers twenty-four hours a day. You can listen and learn on Human Resources Radio.