MLM Leads List- Learn to use Myspace the right way to build your own targeted MLM leads list.
I hope you find this video helpful!
I Appreciate You.
Monique
540-858-2885 Anytime
Be A Mentor With A Servant's Heart
Chapters 10 and 11 answered all my questions about MLM. The same can happen to you! Grab your free ebook today: http://mentormonique.bigmlmtruths.com/?mad=9091
If you are looking for powerful tips, ideas, and secrets about achieving success, visit http://www.squidoo.com/tipstoexplodeyourhome-basedbusines
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Saving Energy the Brazilian Way
In Brazil, they don't mess around when it comes to saving energy.
At my hotel in São Paulo, all of the lights in the hallways are on motion sensors with very short timers. If you stop moving, the lights go out. It's a little disconcerting at first, but it makes a lot of sense. Why light a hallway when nobody is in there?
More surprising, the electrical power is "off" in your room unless you insert your key card into the device I've pictured. When you aren't in the room, everything is dead. Lights, air conditioning, everything (update: except the refrigerator). Once again, why waste power when nobody is there?
These little things add up... Maybe we in the US ought try a little bit harder to catch up with the energy policies of our Portugese speaking neighbors to the South.
Now Brazilian traffic... well... let's just say that Brazilian traffic is another story :-)
At my hotel in São Paulo, all of the lights in the hallways are on motion sensors with very short timers. If you stop moving, the lights go out. It's a little disconcerting at first, but it makes a lot of sense. Why light a hallway when nobody is in there?
More surprising, the electrical power is "off" in your room unless you insert your key card into the device I've pictured. When you aren't in the room, everything is dead. Lights, air conditioning, everything (update: except the refrigerator). Once again, why waste power when nobody is there?
These little things add up... Maybe we in the US ought try a little bit harder to catch up with the energy policies of our Portugese speaking neighbors to the South.
Now Brazilian traffic... well... let's just say that Brazilian traffic is another story :-)
Place ads on television with Google TV Ads
We'd like to introduce Google TV Ads, a flexible, all-digital system for easily and efficiently buying more accountable and measurable TV advertising. The program, which has been an invitation-only beta test since June 2007, is now available to all US-based advertisers.
Television is a great way to reach new customers who might not be familiar with your product or service. Research shows that 37% of online search users were prompted to perform a search as a result of exposure to television advertising.* Now, you can launch a national television ad campaign right from your existing AdWords account.
How does it work?
First, you'll need a TV commercial. If you don't have one yet, check out Google's Ad Creation Marketplace, where you can connect with industry professionals who provide script writing, editing, production, and voice-over talent at an affordable package cost. It's free to search for specialists and send them requests for project bids, and you aren't under any obligation to work with them until you accept a bid. To celebrate our launch, for a limited time Google will cover the cost of creating your TV ad through our Ad Creation Marketplace, up to $2,000. Learn more about this special offer.
Next, you're ready to create your campaign. You can choose the networks and dayparts on which you'd like your ad to run. If you're looking for guidance on how to best reach your target audience, TV Ads offers recommendations based on audience demographics, or you can request a free customized campaign proposal. You can also run your ads during specific television programs that are relevant to your product or service. If you search for program content such as "home improvement," TV Ads suggests programs based on matches with the title, program description, cast, genre, episode information and networks.
With Google TV Ads' auction model, you choose the maximum cost-per-thousand impressions that you're willing to pay, and only pay when your ad airs.
Ready to learn more?
We'll be holding online webinars led by AdWords and TV advertising specialists covering tips on how Google TV Ads can help drive more web traffic and increase your sales volume, turning TV viewers into your customers. Sign up here for the upcoming webinar.
You can also read about how other advertisers are finding success with Google TV Ads, and check out our product demo to learn how to create a campaign step-by-step. Click on the image below to be taken to the demo.
(click the image to go to the demo)
* iProspect Offline Channel Influence on Online Search Behavior, August 2007 (PDF)
Television is a great way to reach new customers who might not be familiar with your product or service. Research shows that 37% of online search users were prompted to perform a search as a result of exposure to television advertising.* Now, you can launch a national television ad campaign right from your existing AdWords account.
How does it work?
First, you'll need a TV commercial. If you don't have one yet, check out Google's Ad Creation Marketplace, where you can connect with industry professionals who provide script writing, editing, production, and voice-over talent at an affordable package cost. It's free to search for specialists and send them requests for project bids, and you aren't under any obligation to work with them until you accept a bid. To celebrate our launch, for a limited time Google will cover the cost of creating your TV ad through our Ad Creation Marketplace, up to $2,000. Learn more about this special offer.
Next, you're ready to create your campaign. You can choose the networks and dayparts on which you'd like your ad to run. If you're looking for guidance on how to best reach your target audience, TV Ads offers recommendations based on audience demographics, or you can request a free customized campaign proposal. You can also run your ads during specific television programs that are relevant to your product or service. If you search for program content such as "home improvement," TV Ads suggests programs based on matches with the title, program description, cast, genre, episode information and networks.
With Google TV Ads' auction model, you choose the maximum cost-per-thousand impressions that you're willing to pay, and only pay when your ad airs.
Ready to learn more?
We'll be holding online webinars led by AdWords and TV advertising specialists covering tips on how Google TV Ads can help drive more web traffic and increase your sales volume, turning TV viewers into your customers. Sign up here for the upcoming webinar.
You can also read about how other advertisers are finding success with Google TV Ads, and check out our product demo to learn how to create a campaign step-by-step. Click on the image below to be taken to the demo.
(click the image to go to the demo)* iProspect Offline Channel Influence on Online Search Behavior, August 2007 (PDF)
Tips on online safety and preventing phishing
At Google, we're committed to the online safety and security of our advertisers and users. Recently, Google's Security Team has put together a list of tips on our Official Google Blog regarding phishing and how you can protect yourself and your sensitive information online. We encourage you to read the post, and feel free to contact the AdWords Support Team if you have any questions.
The Latest Member of the Enterprise Training Family
Living on the west coast of the US, I know it is hard (especially in winter) for some of our customers to make their way out to the east coast for training. I often make the 4 hour trip out east to visit my family. So we are really excited to announce our newest Certified Training Partner for Search, Innovent Solutions. Innovent will be teaching Google Search Appliance courses on a regular basis, starting May 14-16th in Irvine, CA. If you are registered, I look forward to meeting you at this course, as I am planning on being there. Don't worry if you cannot attend this class, they will have other sessions in the future.
We know that some of our customers learn better through self-study materials, so don't forget to:
* Browse our library of self-paced training videos (current customers only)
* Explore our online tutorials
Services We Provide
My boss (that would be me) tells me I must make some money in order to afford to spend time on this blog. So forgive a short post with advertising.
We provide Lean-Agile coaching. See here. Or contact us (contact info is at that site). From one day to 400 days. This is what we do; we're good at it. We do many varieties of coaching.
We also provide Lean-Agile training. In fact, we just opened a new site, http://leanagiletraining.com/ We have been doing training for years, but this site is new. Not as pretty as we would like, but that will be improved iteratively. And more content to add to it.
Within training, we provide both public courses (see that site) and in-house courses (contact us). The public courses are being updated all the time (we have some scheduled that are not showing yet).
You may wish to subscribe to our training course newsletter (monthly)...see on the right-hand bar (Can we help you?) or see the mailing list page at leanagiletraining.com. The newsletter also includes 3 or 4 new ideas each month, which we hope you find useful even if the courses are not interesting at the moment.
...well, maybe not as good as a Super Bowl ad.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
We provide Lean-Agile coaching. See here. Or contact us (contact info is at that site). From one day to 400 days. This is what we do; we're good at it. We do many varieties of coaching.
We also provide Lean-Agile training. In fact, we just opened a new site, http://leanagiletraining.com/ We have been doing training for years, but this site is new. Not as pretty as we would like, but that will be improved iteratively. And more content to add to it.
Within training, we provide both public courses (see that site) and in-house courses (contact us). The public courses are being updated all the time (we have some scheduled that are not showing yet).
You may wish to subscribe to our training course newsletter (monthly)...see on the right-hand bar (Can we help you?) or see the mailing list page at leanagiletraining.com. The newsletter also includes 3 or 4 new ideas each month, which we hope you find useful even if the courses are not interesting at the moment.
...well, maybe not as good as a Super Bowl ad.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Up the creek. Without a paddle
My friend Mike Vizdos has a blog with cartoons called ImplementingScrum.com.
His latest cartoon is titled "Up the creek. Without a paddle." See here. The idea is that, if you want a specific change to happen or even to stay, you have to keep paddling.
Very simple idea. Very true.
Agile (Lean, Scrum, XP, etc) is a change. A hard change, although also fun a lot too. If you do not keep paddling, then Agile will be viewed as "the flavor of the month". And things will revert to the mean (probably not good Agile, would be my normal guess).
If you stop paddling, things will continue to change. But not in the direction of better and better Agile.
To me, it is a shame to see people stop paddling in the direction of their dreams. Doing one's best is hard, but it is something to be proud of. Something to live for. It may not always be fun, but in a deeper sense, joyful. Every success you have is an example for every other person who feels partially defeated. And the customers around the world need the great stuff you can create. Real customers. Real people. Kids, grandparents, mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers.
(As an aside, let us admit that even customers are not perfect. Many can be pretty bad sometimes. But we still feed even the lesser ones despite their weaknesses. Let us not pray for justice, for who would escape whipping. Let us pray for more generosity than that. The wiser ones have told us: It is more blessed to give....)
So, I hope you will see the value of Agile (of Scrum, XP, of Lean, and related ideas). If you do (and of course it is your choice), prepare yourself for the relentless pursuit of perfection. Prepare for the long march (my phrase for it). Keep paddling.
And have fun doing it. We should enjoy even the struggle part, as it makes us better.
His latest cartoon is titled "Up the creek. Without a paddle." See here. The idea is that, if you want a specific change to happen or even to stay, you have to keep paddling.
Very simple idea. Very true.
Agile (Lean, Scrum, XP, etc) is a change. A hard change, although also fun a lot too. If you do not keep paddling, then Agile will be viewed as "the flavor of the month". And things will revert to the mean (probably not good Agile, would be my normal guess).
If you stop paddling, things will continue to change. But not in the direction of better and better Agile.
To me, it is a shame to see people stop paddling in the direction of their dreams. Doing one's best is hard, but it is something to be proud of. Something to live for. It may not always be fun, but in a deeper sense, joyful. Every success you have is an example for every other person who feels partially defeated. And the customers around the world need the great stuff you can create. Real customers. Real people. Kids, grandparents, mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers.
(As an aside, let us admit that even customers are not perfect. Many can be pretty bad sometimes. But we still feed even the lesser ones despite their weaknesses. Let us not pray for justice, for who would escape whipping. Let us pray for more generosity than that. The wiser ones have told us: It is more blessed to give....)
So, I hope you will see the value of Agile (of Scrum, XP, of Lean, and related ideas). If you do (and of course it is your choice), prepare yourself for the relentless pursuit of perfection. Prepare for the long march (my phrase for it). Keep paddling.
And have fun doing it. We should enjoy even the struggle part, as it makes us better.
The 33 Biggest Corporate Implosions. Ever - 3 in Travel, 4 tied to the BOOT
Nice piece on HR world covering the Biggest 33 corporate Implosions of all time.No surprises that a number of travel companies are on the list.
Number 2 - Swissair that crashed post 9/11 and after an expansion spending binge known as the Hunter Strategy
Number 13 - TWA that despite 70 years of operation, a requisite stint in chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection and re-invention as a domestic carrier disappeared through an acquisition by American in 2001
Number 27 - Laker Airways that was the world's first "first long-haul, low-cost and "no frills" airline" in 1977 but was gone by 1982
Strangely Pan Am did not make the list? Personally I have 4 former clients on the list from when I was a lawyer.
thanks to kalimistuk via flickr for the photo
hat tip to Consumerist
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Import Export Business Questions & Answers Continued
Question:
I’m interested in the import-export training materials you have on
offer, but concerned about how applicable the material would be for
starting up an import-export business outside of the US. I’m South
African - do you think the material would be of the same value when
applied within SA? How about differences in the legal system, import /
export procedures, information sources, etc. Or are those things pretty
standard across the board?
Basically, do you think it will be of as much value to me as it would be
to a US startup? I don’t want to spend money on information that
doesn’t apply in SA. Please advise.
Answer:
We have sold a number of packages to new traders in South Africa. Yes, the
export training products have a USA slant but if you access the Internet, it
really doesn’t matter where you’re located. In fact, many of the resources I
recommend to U.S. traders can be accessed by non-U.S. traders as well.
The tactics or processes for exporting work in any country.
Normally I don’t recommend non-U.S. traders purchase the import package.
There is information that is useful but much of it has to do with U.S. Customs
and may not be applicable in your country.
Question:
How are you? I figure I email you instead of calling since you have such
a busy schedule. I like the import and export business tool kit very much
and I’m thinking in buying it. But I have one concern, all the import/export
books I have read previously did not discuss how to check if the products
you are importing is actually legal to sell it in the states because some
company might hold a patent on the product that you are importing. How
do you avoid running into situation where you are importing some
product and you think that no companies in the states hold a patent on
that particular product but later on a lawsuit is being file on you because
a company actually holds a patent on the product that you are importing
without you knowing.
Does the IMPORT AND EXPORT BUSINESS TOOL KIT talk about this?
Answer:
The short answer is no, it doesn’t. From what I can tell, most patent issues
with imports deal with pharmaceuticals. I haven’t had this come up before
except in the case of importers who buy items (ball caps in the case I know
about) that had unauthorized team logos and trademarks and legal action
followed. Actually, the goods were held in Amsterdam on the way to the U.S.
by customs people there due to illegal trademarks.
Question:
I am working a deal and I have a question if you wouldn’t mind answering?
I am having some laptops built to be shipped overseas.
the customer will wire me the money and I will then have the money sent
to the supplier to build the goods.
what documentation should I get?
I was thinking an RFQ from the supplier
I can then send a PO along with payment.
I want to make sure the transaction is documented properly so if anything
happens I have records.
Answer:
Do you know if your potential buyer is in agreement with this arrangement?
Is he willing to pay you in advance for product even though he has not done
business with you before? What kind of time delay is anticipated (for
production) and will the buyer agree to this?
I would suggest that what is probably more workable is a pro forma invoice
with payment made through a transferrable letter of credit (check with your
international bank on particulars). Conditions cited should meet the time
frame of the manufacturer to prepare and ship the computers.
Question:
I have a question related to export and hope you have answer for it.
I’m based in US, and interested in selling a US company’s product in China,
this company has a branch office in China, and they requires anyone who
wish to sell their product in China go through its Chinese branch office.
However due to the price difference between its products sold in US and
those in China, I would like to buy its product in US with the US wholesale
price and export/ship the product to China myself.
My question is that if this US company has the right not to sell me the
produce in US and force me to go through its Chinese branch office,
buy the product there in China with Chinese whole sale price. Is there
any regulation about this?
Answer:
Basically a company can sell their products to whomever or thru whomever
they choose - yes, that is their right.
You would potentially be setting yourself up for a lawsuit by this company if
they discovered what you are doing and in reality you could be jeopardizing
your Chinese counterpart with regards to their legal problems with the US
company’s Chinese authorized distributor.
Bottom line (I know this is not what you wanted to hear), but I would not try
to circumvent a company with regards to their approved lines of distribution,
you are really asking for trouble and legal problems if you attempt to do so.
I’m interested in the import-export training materials you have on
offer, but concerned about how applicable the material would be for
starting up an import-export business outside of the US. I’m South
African - do you think the material would be of the same value when
applied within SA? How about differences in the legal system, import /
export procedures, information sources, etc. Or are those things pretty
standard across the board?
Basically, do you think it will be of as much value to me as it would be
to a US startup? I don’t want to spend money on information that
doesn’t apply in SA. Please advise.
Answer:
We have sold a number of packages to new traders in South Africa. Yes, the
export training products have a USA slant but if you access the Internet, it
really doesn’t matter where you’re located. In fact, many of the resources I
recommend to U.S. traders can be accessed by non-U.S. traders as well.
The tactics or processes for exporting work in any country.
Normally I don’t recommend non-U.S. traders purchase the import package.
There is information that is useful but much of it has to do with U.S. Customs
and may not be applicable in your country.
Question:
How are you? I figure I email you instead of calling since you have such
a busy schedule. I like the import and export business tool kit very much
and I’m thinking in buying it. But I have one concern, all the import/export
books I have read previously did not discuss how to check if the products
you are importing is actually legal to sell it in the states because some
company might hold a patent on the product that you are importing. How
do you avoid running into situation where you are importing some
product and you think that no companies in the states hold a patent on
that particular product but later on a lawsuit is being file on you because
a company actually holds a patent on the product that you are importing
without you knowing.
Does the IMPORT AND EXPORT BUSINESS TOOL KIT talk about this?
Answer:
The short answer is no, it doesn’t. From what I can tell, most patent issues
with imports deal with pharmaceuticals. I haven’t had this come up before
except in the case of importers who buy items (ball caps in the case I know
about) that had unauthorized team logos and trademarks and legal action
followed. Actually, the goods were held in Amsterdam on the way to the U.S.
by customs people there due to illegal trademarks.
Question:
I am working a deal and I have a question if you wouldn’t mind answering?
I am having some laptops built to be shipped overseas.
the customer will wire me the money and I will then have the money sent
to the supplier to build the goods.
what documentation should I get?
I was thinking an RFQ from the supplier
I can then send a PO along with payment.
I want to make sure the transaction is documented properly so if anything
happens I have records.
Answer:
Do you know if your potential buyer is in agreement with this arrangement?
Is he willing to pay you in advance for product even though he has not done
business with you before? What kind of time delay is anticipated (for
production) and will the buyer agree to this?
I would suggest that what is probably more workable is a pro forma invoice
with payment made through a transferrable letter of credit (check with your
international bank on particulars). Conditions cited should meet the time
frame of the manufacturer to prepare and ship the computers.
Question:
I have a question related to export and hope you have answer for it.
I’m based in US, and interested in selling a US company’s product in China,
this company has a branch office in China, and they requires anyone who
wish to sell their product in China go through its Chinese branch office.
However due to the price difference between its products sold in US and
those in China, I would like to buy its product in US with the US wholesale
price and export/ship the product to China myself.
My question is that if this US company has the right not to sell me the
produce in US and force me to go through its Chinese branch office,
buy the product there in China with Chinese whole sale price. Is there
any regulation about this?
Answer:
Basically a company can sell their products to whomever or thru whomever
they choose - yes, that is their right.
You would potentially be setting yourself up for a lawsuit by this company if
they discovered what you are doing and in reality you could be jeopardizing
your Chinese counterpart with regards to their legal problems with the US
company’s Chinese authorized distributor.
Bottom line (I know this is not what you wanted to hear), but I would not try
to circumvent a company with regards to their approved lines of distribution,
you are really asking for trouble and legal problems if you attempt to do so.
The whirlpool is spinning counter-clockwise... so this must really be Brazil!
I woke up this morning in a major metropolitan area... tall buildings as far as the eye can see in every direction. A bit disoriented, I staggered into the bathroom, filled the sink, and then pulled the plug.
As the water drained, a small spinning whirlpool formed... spinning counter-clockwise. Yes indeed, for the first time in my life I am truly South of the Equator. I reall am in Brazil (Sao Paulo).
As the water drained, a small spinning whirlpool formed... spinning counter-clockwise. Yes indeed, for the first time in my life I am truly South of the Equator. I reall am in Brazil (Sao Paulo).
Monday, April 28, 2008
How to Be Successful In MLM-Learn How To Say The Right Words
How to be successful in MLM sometimes can be as simple as learning how to say the right words. Listen in as Tom, Big Al, Schreiter teaches exactly what this means.
"Why do I have to learn that?"
And if you are a leader reading this newsletter, give your new distributors the skills they need right away. Don't let them struggle. Write down exactly word-for-word what your new distributors should say and do.
Anyone can do this business easily if they just say the right words and do the right things.
Get seven examples of ways to sponsor new distributors, taken directly from the '103 Ways & Places to Sponsor New Distributors' manual.
Simply go to: http://www.fortunenow.com/products/item28.cfm
Chapters 10 and 11 answered all my questions about MLM. The same can happen to you! Grab your free ebook today: http://mentormonique.bigmlmtruths.com/?mad=9091
If you are looking for powerful tips, ideas, and secrets about achieving success, visit http://www.squidoo.com/tipstoexplodeyourhome-basedbusines
"Why do I have to learn that?"
Give me a break . . .
So I was giving the "Skills Test" to a potential leader. He couldn't answer a single one of the 10 skills needed to get a new distributor started. Ouch.
When I asked him if he was going to learn how to do this business, he said,
"Why do I have to learn that? I have a good attitude and I have goals. That's all I should need. I don't want to bother learning how to do this business."
Well, it is hard to learn to spell if you refuse to learn the alphabet.
So if you are a new distributor reading this newsletter, go to your upline's training and learn these skills. Don't make excuses. Don't blame the weather, say you are too tired, that you are busy petting the stray cat you just bought ... just go to your upline's training sessions and learn.* If you can't share with your new distributor four or five great opening sentences that get prospects to beg you for a presentation, what chance does your new distributor have to get presentations?
* If you can't write down word-for-word exactly what to say to get an instant appointment, should you let your distributor just make something up and hope for the best?
* If you don't tell your new distributor the three real reasons people join, will he leave those reasons out of his presentation?
* If you don't show your new distributor the two ways of creating "instant vision" - how will your new distributor keep his team motivated?
* If you don't give your new distributor three or four great, rejection-free closing sentences, won't your new distributor be afraid of closing?
* If you don't teach your new distributor the "needs vs. wants" principle, won't your new distributor get discouraged quickly?
* If you don't teach your new distributor the exact words to say to take control of the prospect's mind to get his total attention, won't the message go unheard?
And if you are a leader reading this newsletter, give your new distributors the skills they need right away. Don't let them struggle. Write down exactly word-for-word what your new distributors should say and do.
Anyone can do this business easily if they just say the right words and do the right things.
Get seven examples of ways to sponsor new distributors, taken directly from the '103 Ways & Places to Sponsor New Distributors' manual.
Simply go to: http://www.fortunenow.com
Tom 'Big Al' SchreiterFortune Network Publishing
PO Box 890084
Houston, TX 77289 USA
http://www.FortuneNow.comTom does have a way of putting things in perspective doesn't he? Follow his advice and you can learn how to be successful in mlm.
I Appreciate You,
Monique
Skype: Monique371
mentormonique@gmail.com
Be A Mentor With A Servant's Heart
Chapters 10 and 11 answered all my questions about MLM. The same can happen to you! Grab your free ebook today: http://mentormonique.bigmlmtruths.com/?mad=9091
If you are looking for powerful tips, ideas, and secrets about achieving success, visit http://www.squidoo.com/tipstoexplodeyourhome-basedbusines
Promote your feeds and gadgets with iGoogle
Have you heard of iGoogle, Google's personalized homepage? Well, tens of millions of users have, and with a just a little bit of effort you can share that traffic.
iGoogle allows users to bring together their favorite content and services from around the web by adding feeds and gadgets to their Google homepage. Let's start with the basics of what feeds and gadgets are, and how you can create them for your own site:
Once you have a feed or gadget -- and for those of you who already do -- you can start promoting it. As a first step, make sure to submit your feed or gadget to the iGoogle directory. Promotion can help new readers find your content and deepen engagement with your existing readers every time they visit their iGoogle page -- all of which can lead to more traffic for you site.
Don't stop there, though. Gadgets and feeds are ranked in the directory according to popularity, so make sure to feature your gadget or feed prominently on your site. One easy way to do so is with the ‘Add to Google’ button. Simply fill out some basic information, insert a small snippet of HTML into your site, and you’ll be ready to go.
Want to find out more about how to raise awareness of your feed or gadget? Take a look at our step-by-step guide.
iGoogle allows users to bring together their favorite content and services from around the web by adding feeds and gadgets to their Google homepage. Let's start with the basics of what feeds and gadgets are, and how you can create them for your own site:
- A feed is a format that allows your content to be delivered (and subscribed to) on the Web. This allows users to preview your content wherever they go, making it easier for them to find out whats new on your site and reminding them to come back. To learn more about feeds, check out Feedburner for everything you need from basic set-up to advanced performance tracking and monetization tools.
- Gadgets are mini-applications created using simple HTML and JavaScript. You can present more complex information in a gadget, such as a calendar, and also help users interact with your content, for example through search. To find out more about gadgets, check out the Google Gadget Center.
Once you have a feed or gadget -- and for those of you who already do -- you can start promoting it. As a first step, make sure to submit your feed or gadget to the iGoogle directory. Promotion can help new readers find your content and deepen engagement with your existing readers every time they visit their iGoogle page -- all of which can lead to more traffic for you site.
Don't stop there, though. Gadgets and feeds are ranked in the directory according to popularity, so make sure to feature your gadget or feed prominently on your site. One easy way to do so is with the ‘Add to Google’ button. Simply fill out some basic information, insert a small snippet of HTML into your site, and you’ll be ready to go.
Want to find out more about how to raise awareness of your feed or gadget? Take a look at our step-by-step guide.
Roamfree Story - BOOT (kinda) makes into the Courier Mail
The comment stream in my original Roamfree post has (almost) led to the BOOT gaining a mention in mainstream press. Brisbane based newspaper the Courier Mail is carrying a story with the title "Roamfree faces online ire from former staff". No direct naming of the BOOT or link. But if they did readers would unfortunately find a number of comments saying "This post has been removed by the blog administrator."
BOOT meetup in London May 12
I am in London on May 12 and thinking of organising a casual drop in/meetup at a pub somewhere central (maybe Smithfield?) after work. Is there any interest out there in InterWebLand to join me for a drink and chat about the Euro Online Travel market after work on May 12?
HotelChatter and Jaunted sold to CondeNet (Conde Nast) - I'm confused is the travel blog business viable or not?
I'm confused. Two weeks ago Gawker Media (one of the top blogging networks) sold the relatively popular travel blog Gridskipper. This was a clear indication that a blog media barron (Nick Denton) believes there was more money in gossip, gadets, games and girls than in travel. This is despite plenty of evidence that Gridskipper is the number on travel blog out there (see Guillame's Nov 07 ranking list for example). This weekend the Sunday Times in London listed Nick Denton as being worth GBP140mm - based on Gawker. Now I think this number is complete baloney but Denton's successful reading of the need for a blog media network is clear. So if Denton thinks there is no money in online travel blogs then surely this is true.Not according to CondeNet (online arm of Conde Nast). They just bought SFO Media - the owners of travel blogs Jaunted and HotelChatter. TechCrunch has the story and information on the roll up with Conde Nast's Conceirge.com. In the blogging world I am willing to beton Denton rather than Conde Nast but at the same time if TripAdvisor's roll-up strategy is anything to go by then there is a nice traffic business developing in online travel blog/content aggregation. This is also supported by the raising last week of $15mm in VC funding by Travel Ad Network led by Rho Ventures, Village Ventures (industry standard story here). Travel Ad Network includes in its network LonelyPlanet, Rand McNally, FlightView, Viator, Rough Guides, EuropeForVisitors.com, HotelsByCity and claims to be the number three traffic network behind Expedia and "Travelport" [sic] (clearly this needs updating for ownership changes at Travelport subsidiaries). So who will have regrets first - Denton ditching Gridskipper or Conde Nast for buying SFO Media? If the Sunday times is right then it probably doesn't matter...
Saturday, April 26, 2008
BOOT to Chair Eyefortravel Sales & Marketing in Travel Asia Pacific 28-30 July. Intro Podcast available
On 29-30 July you can find the BOOT live at the eyefortravel Sales & Marketing in Travel Asia Pacific conference at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney. I will be Chairing the event and blogging real time. Conference organiser Tom Ellum has put together an introductory podcast with me that you can listen to here. We discuss a number of issues in this show including- New emerging marketing channels;
- Thoughts on for online success;
- obstacles and challenges search is presenting to online travel;
- Web 2.0;
- How are the intermediary power plays changing in the Asia pacific region; and
- More
CEO Chris Meehan leaves Travel.com.au post Wotif Acquisition
Avid readers will be aware of the battle between Webjet.com.au, AOT and Wotif for ownership of Travel.com.au (operators of the Lastminute.com franchise in Australia and New Zealand). This battle had Webjet in the early lead only for Wotif to claim a late victory based on a bigger cheque book. AOT walked away smiling, with a nice little capital gain. The deal formally closed on 1 Feb - you can read the full back story here.News has been beginning to drip out on integration plans post Wotif owning Travel.com.au and Lastminute.com.au. The latest piece is that Travel.com.au CEO Chris Meehan will be leaving the business this month. Chris was caught in a very unfortunate piece of timing. On August 30 2007 Chris was annointed as the successor CEO to Adam Johnston at Travel.com.au. Just seven days later the Webjet offer hit the news wires and the roller coast ride to Wotif ownership started. It was always going to be the case that a merged/acquired Travel.com.au was not going to need a stand alone CEO so just days after be anointed as the new boss, Chris was sitting on a job that was destined to disappear. Tough timing. Am sure after a quick break we will see Chris back in the online world quickly.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Amazon.com, Apple, AT&T, McDonald's, 3M and Microsoft - Innovators Earnings Report
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), AT&T (NYSE: T), McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), 3M (NYSE: MMM) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) delivered solid results, and either met or beat the first quarterly earnings. These are six of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index.
Amazon.com "Net sales increased 37% to $4.13 billion in the first quarter, compared with $3.02 billion in first quarter 2007. Operating income increased 36% to $198 million in the first quarter, compared with $145 million in first quarter 2007. Net income increased 30% to $143 million in the first quarter, or $0.34 per diluted share, compared with net income of $111 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, in first quarter 2007." - Solid results at Amazon. Amazon.com showed the street that it can grow the revenue and grow the income at the same time.
New innovations at Amazon.com:
-- Kindle selection continues to grow - with more than 115,000 titles now available, up from 90,000 at launch.
-- Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched Elastic IP addresses and the ability to provide compute instances in multiple zones; over 370,000 developers have registered to use AWS, up more than 35,000 from last quarter.
-- Newly launched TextBuyIt (www.textbuyit.com) service lets customers use text messages to find and buy products sold on Amazon.com.
Business highlights at Amazon.com:
-- The number of sellers using Fulfillment by Amazon increased by more than 50% compared with fourth quarter 2007.
-- Worldwide Media sales grew 28% to $2.54 billion in first quarter 2008, compared with $1.99 billion in first quarter 2007.
-- Worldwide Electronics & Other General Merchandise sales grew 56% to $1.48 billion in first quarter 2008.
Apple Inc. "announced financial results for its fiscal 2008 second quarter ended March 29, 2008. The Company posted revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share. Apple revenue increased by 43%, and net profit increased by 36%. These results compare to revenue of $5.26 billion and net quarterly profit of $770 million, or $.87 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 32.9 percent, down from 35.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter's revenue.
Apple shipped 2,289,000 Macintosh(R) computers during the quarter, representing 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 10,644,000 iPods during the quarter, representing one percent unit growth and eight percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone(TM) sales were 1,703,000" -
Great Earnings Report from Apple. Although Apple had provided a very conservative quarterly forecast in January, 2008, Apple beat the high end estimates on revenue, and came on the high end estimates on earnings. Apple once again gave a conservative outlook for the future. The street should get an idea now. Mac business is solid. iPod volume business is stalling, however Apple is selling higher priced iPods. iPhone business is strong, and Apple is on track to sell 10 million or higher iPhones in 2008.
AT&T's "revenues totaled $30.7 billion, up 6.1 percent versus reported results in the year-earlier quarter and up 4.6 percent compared with first-quarter 2007 pro forma revenues, which exclude merger-related accounting impacts on directory revenues. This marks a substantial step up from year-over-year pro forma revenue growth of 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 and 1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2007.
AT&T's reported first-quarter 2008 net income totaled $3.5 billion, up 21.5 percent from $2.8 billion in the year-earlier first quarter, and reported earnings per diluted share totaled $0.57, up 26.7 percent from $0.45 in the first quarter of 2007."
AT&T delivered strong wireless growth in the first quarter, reflecting the company's high-quality network, innovative services, attractive handset selection, extensive sales reach and continued improvements in operations.
Of particular interest was "an accelerated Ramp in AT&T U-verse TV Services. Growth in AT&T U-verse TV service, the company's next-generation IP-based video service, continued its strong ramp during the first quarter, achieving a net subscriber gain of 148,000 to reach 379,000 in service. AT&T expects a further ramp in the quarters ahead and is on track to reach its target of more than 1 million subscribers by the end of 2008. Total video connections, which include AT&T U-verse service and bundled satellite television service, increased by 264,000 in the quarter to reach 2.6 million."
AT&T is using scale to an advantage, and also creating new innovations such as U-verse TV to attract new buyers and grow into new markets. AT&T had a good quarter, and provided a conservative outlook.
McDonald's reported the following first quarter highlights:
-- Global comparable sales increased 7.4%
-- Growth in consolidated Company-operated and franchised restaurant
margins for the ninth consecutive quarter
-- Consolidated operating income increased 24% (16% in constant
currencies)
-- Earnings per share were $0.81, up 31% versus $0.62 in 2007, and
included $0.05 per share of currency benefit
McDonald's surprised everyone with the strong global growth. For the quarter, Europe and Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa both delivered double-digit revenue and operating income growth. McDonald's is a growth business, and expect 2008 is poised to be an excellent year for the Big Mac.
3M announced first-quarter sales of $6.5 billion, an increase of 8.9 percent over last year. Net income was $988 million, or $1.38 per share, versus $1.4 billion, or $1.85 per share in the first quarter of 2007. Included in first quarter 2007 results are net gains of $422 million, or $0.57 per share, from the sale of the company's branded pharmaceuticals business in Europe, net of other various special items (a-c). Excluding the impact of these items, first quarter 2008 earnings per share increased 7.8 percent.
Key 3M highlights:
Industrial and Transportation
-- Sales increased 17.1 percent to $2.1 billion.
Health Care
-- Sales rose 12 percent to $1.1 billion.
Safety, Security and Protection Services
-- Sales of $859 million, up 13.4 percent.
3M gave a modest guidance for the rest of 2008, but "reiterated its 2008 earnings expectations. The company continues to expect full-year 2008 earnings to increase a minimum of 10 percent over 2007 earnings-per-share of $4.98, which excludes special items." 3M met the earnings estimates; however, the weak outlook drove down 3M shares during the week.
Finally, Microsoft announced third-quarter revenue, operating income and diluted earnings per share of $14.45 billion, $4.41 billion and $0.47, respectively. Microsoft surprised the street with mild earnings and mild outlook, whereas in January of 2008, Microsoft had given a strong guidance. Microsoft client division revenue that sells Windows Vista and Windows XP came in below the mid-range of the expectations, and the business division also stalled from last year. The street reacted by a corresponding decrease in share price. Although, if one looks under the hood, there are many positives in Microsoft's earnings.
Entertainment and Devices revenue for the quarter grew 68% over the comparable period last year driven by robust demand for Xbox 360 consoles. Cumulative console sales surpassed 19 million during the quarter, up 74% from a year ago. Server and Tools revenue growth of 18% added to its string of consecutive double-digit revenue growth quarters, which now stands at 23.
Would Microsoft turnaround and create a strong growth in the 2nd half of 2008? Would the proposed merger with Yahoo help Microsoft's business or distract it from executing?
Is Apple winning marketshare against Windows Vista? Apple had a strong surge in Mac business. Can Apple reclaim the position, slowly but surely, in the PC business? Apple has a really long way to go.... but if Apple can get to the 10% marketshare of the overall PC business worldwide, this would mark a significant milestone and signal a shift.
Innovation Index Group, Inc. is a new investment management company focused on systematically identifying, tracking and investing in the most innovative publicly traded companies in North America – collectively called the Innovation Index. We have developed the Innovation Index Fund, LLC as our first vehicle to invest in the Innovation Index. Over the past six years, the Innovation Index has generated a gross average annual return of 40%.
Innovation Index Group, Inc. and Innovation Index Fund LLC are registered California Corporations, and member of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce in Orange County. Further, Innovation Index Fund LLC is a private placement investment partnership organized under the California state regulations.
The Innovation Index Reports:
*Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results
References:
Company Press Releases
Amazon.com "Net sales increased 37% to $4.13 billion in the first quarter, compared with $3.02 billion in first quarter 2007. Operating income increased 36% to $198 million in the first quarter, compared with $145 million in first quarter 2007. Net income increased 30% to $143 million in the first quarter, or $0.34 per diluted share, compared with net income of $111 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, in first quarter 2007." - Solid results at Amazon. Amazon.com showed the street that it can grow the revenue and grow the income at the same time.
New innovations at Amazon.com:
-- Kindle selection continues to grow - with more than 115,000 titles now available, up from 90,000 at launch.
-- Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched Elastic IP addresses and the ability to provide compute instances in multiple zones; over 370,000 developers have registered to use AWS, up more than 35,000 from last quarter.
-- Newly launched TextBuyIt (www.textbuyit.com) service lets customers use text messages to find and buy products sold on Amazon.com.
Business highlights at Amazon.com:
-- The number of sellers using Fulfillment by Amazon increased by more than 50% compared with fourth quarter 2007.
-- Worldwide Media sales grew 28% to $2.54 billion in first quarter 2008, compared with $1.99 billion in first quarter 2007.
-- Worldwide Electronics & Other General Merchandise sales grew 56% to $1.48 billion in first quarter 2008.
Apple Inc. "announced financial results for its fiscal 2008 second quarter ended March 29, 2008. The Company posted revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share. Apple revenue increased by 43%, and net profit increased by 36%. These results compare to revenue of $5.26 billion and net quarterly profit of $770 million, or $.87 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 32.9 percent, down from 35.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter's revenue.
Apple shipped 2,289,000 Macintosh(R) computers during the quarter, representing 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 10,644,000 iPods during the quarter, representing one percent unit growth and eight percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone(TM) sales were 1,703,000" -
Great Earnings Report from Apple. Although Apple had provided a very conservative quarterly forecast in January, 2008, Apple beat the high end estimates on revenue, and came on the high end estimates on earnings. Apple once again gave a conservative outlook for the future. The street should get an idea now. Mac business is solid. iPod volume business is stalling, however Apple is selling higher priced iPods. iPhone business is strong, and Apple is on track to sell 10 million or higher iPhones in 2008.
AT&T's "revenues totaled $30.7 billion, up 6.1 percent versus reported results in the year-earlier quarter and up 4.6 percent compared with first-quarter 2007 pro forma revenues, which exclude merger-related accounting impacts on directory revenues. This marks a substantial step up from year-over-year pro forma revenue growth of 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 and 1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2007.
AT&T's reported first-quarter 2008 net income totaled $3.5 billion, up 21.5 percent from $2.8 billion in the year-earlier first quarter, and reported earnings per diluted share totaled $0.57, up 26.7 percent from $0.45 in the first quarter of 2007."
AT&T delivered strong wireless growth in the first quarter, reflecting the company's high-quality network, innovative services, attractive handset selection, extensive sales reach and continued improvements in operations.
Of particular interest was "an accelerated Ramp in AT&T U-verse TV Services. Growth in AT&T U-verse TV service, the company's next-generation IP-based video service, continued its strong ramp during the first quarter, achieving a net subscriber gain of 148,000 to reach 379,000 in service. AT&T expects a further ramp in the quarters ahead and is on track to reach its target of more than 1 million subscribers by the end of 2008. Total video connections, which include AT&T U-verse service and bundled satellite television service, increased by 264,000 in the quarter to reach 2.6 million."
AT&T is using scale to an advantage, and also creating new innovations such as U-verse TV to attract new buyers and grow into new markets. AT&T had a good quarter, and provided a conservative outlook.
McDonald's reported the following first quarter highlights:
-- Global comparable sales increased 7.4%
-- Growth in consolidated Company-operated and franchised restaurant
margins for the ninth consecutive quarter
-- Consolidated operating income increased 24% (16% in constant
currencies)
-- Earnings per share were $0.81, up 31% versus $0.62 in 2007, and
included $0.05 per share of currency benefit
McDonald's surprised everyone with the strong global growth. For the quarter, Europe and Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa both delivered double-digit revenue and operating income growth. McDonald's is a growth business, and expect 2008 is poised to be an excellent year for the Big Mac.
3M announced first-quarter sales of $6.5 billion, an increase of 8.9 percent over last year. Net income was $988 million, or $1.38 per share, versus $1.4 billion, or $1.85 per share in the first quarter of 2007. Included in first quarter 2007 results are net gains of $422 million, or $0.57 per share, from the sale of the company's branded pharmaceuticals business in Europe, net of other various special items (a-c). Excluding the impact of these items, first quarter 2008 earnings per share increased 7.8 percent.
Key 3M highlights:
Industrial and Transportation
-- Sales increased 17.1 percent to $2.1 billion.
Health Care
-- Sales rose 12 percent to $1.1 billion.
Safety, Security and Protection Services
-- Sales of $859 million, up 13.4 percent.
3M gave a modest guidance for the rest of 2008, but "reiterated its 2008 earnings expectations. The company continues to expect full-year 2008 earnings to increase a minimum of 10 percent over 2007 earnings-per-share of $4.98, which excludes special items." 3M met the earnings estimates; however, the weak outlook drove down 3M shares during the week.
Finally, Microsoft announced third-quarter revenue, operating income and diluted earnings per share of $14.45 billion, $4.41 billion and $0.47, respectively. Microsoft surprised the street with mild earnings and mild outlook, whereas in January of 2008, Microsoft had given a strong guidance. Microsoft client division revenue that sells Windows Vista and Windows XP came in below the mid-range of the expectations, and the business division also stalled from last year. The street reacted by a corresponding decrease in share price. Although, if one looks under the hood, there are many positives in Microsoft's earnings.
Entertainment and Devices revenue for the quarter grew 68% over the comparable period last year driven by robust demand for Xbox 360 consoles. Cumulative console sales surpassed 19 million during the quarter, up 74% from a year ago. Server and Tools revenue growth of 18% added to its string of consecutive double-digit revenue growth quarters, which now stands at 23.
Would Microsoft turnaround and create a strong growth in the 2nd half of 2008? Would the proposed merger with Yahoo help Microsoft's business or distract it from executing?
Is Apple winning marketshare against Windows Vista? Apple had a strong surge in Mac business. Can Apple reclaim the position, slowly but surely, in the PC business? Apple has a really long way to go.... but if Apple can get to the 10% marketshare of the overall PC business worldwide, this would mark a significant milestone and signal a shift.
Innovation Index Group has BUY Recommendations for AAPL, AMZN, MCD, MMM, MSFT and AT&T.
About Innovation Index Group:Innovation Index Group, Inc. is a new investment management company focused on systematically identifying, tracking and investing in the most innovative publicly traded companies in North America – collectively called the Innovation Index. We have developed the Innovation Index Fund, LLC as our first vehicle to invest in the Innovation Index. Over the past six years, the Innovation Index has generated a gross average annual return of 40%.
Innovation Index Group, Inc. and Innovation Index Fund LLC are registered California Corporations, and member of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce in Orange County. Further, Innovation Index Fund LLC is a private placement investment partnership organized under the California state regulations.
The Innovation Index Reports:
Invest in The Innovation Index - Innovation Index Fund tracks The Innovation Index
The Innovation Index closes 2007 at 66% - 2007 Annual Report on the Innovation Index
Top 50 Innovative Companies in the world - 2007 Report on Top 50 Innovative Companies
Annual Report - Chapter One - Total Innovation Activity - 2006 Annual Report One
Annual Report - Chapter Two - The Top Innovator - 2006 Annual Report Two
Annual Report - Chapter Three - The Innovation Insights - 2006 Annual Report Insights
Innovation and Stock Performance Correlation - The Innovation Index and Stock Performance
About The Innovation Index
The Innovation Index introduced in December 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in
The Innovation Index returned 66% in 2007 based on performance model, and would have returned 174% over the previous five years (2002-2006) based on historical model*. This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index as of December 31, 2001. An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $454 as of December 31, 2007. By comparison, $100 invested in S & P 500 returned 28% or $129, $100 invested in NASDAQ returned 34% or $136, and $100 invested in the Dow Jones Index returned 30% or $131 through December 31, 2007. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by more than seven times over the past six years.*
Alphabetical list of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index for 2008 and their stock ticker symbols:
3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
AT&T Inc. - (NYSE: T)
Best Buy Co., Inc. - (NYSE: BBY)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Costco Wholesale Corporation - (NASDAQ: COST)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NASDAQ: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Merck & Co., Inc. - (NYSE: MRK)
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
NIKE, Inc. - (NYSE: NKE)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)
The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the Top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2008, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.
Disclaimer: The Innovation Index Group, Inc. invests in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.*Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results
References:
Company Press Releases
Joan: Thoughts of mine
The ramblings of joan are quite interesting as she talks about her training classes of Tae Kwon Dohow and says she love the sport very much. Her hub was a black belter during school days and now they want their son to follow in dads steps. she admits not being too fond of granola, though hubby was, but she began to relish it only after sifting to the us and she once got her granola into trouble when she left it in the oven to bake, for about an hour! In her post, My first Christmas in U.S. she expresses how excited and happy she was, while surrounded with kind and loving in-laws. Her hubby, his mom and his sister surprised her with the greatest gifts she ever got and they all enjoyed Christmas together,
Would like to wish her a very happy belated birthday and may she continue enjoying with a loving family, forever:)
Would like to wish her a very happy belated birthday and may she continue enjoying with a loving family, forever:)
MLM Online Success-Mentoring for Free Can Help
MLM online success is a goal of many networkers, but yet, for some, seems unreachable. Many feel that it is all their faul they are failing in MLM. The good news is that this is not true! Let Michael Dlouhy and Mentoring for Free teach you how to be successful in mlm and help you achieve you achieve your goals and dreams. I hope you enjoy this special video!
I Appreciate You!
Monique
Skype: Monique371
mentormonique@gmail.com
Be A Mentor With A Servant's Heart
Chapters 10 and 11 answered all my questions about MLM . Now, I am having a lotta of fun! Grab your free ebook today: http://mentormonique.bigmlmtruths.com/?mad=9091
If you are looking for powerful tips, ideas, and secrets about achieving success, visit http://www.squidoo.com/tipstoexplodeyourhome-basedbusines
I Appreciate You!
Monique
Skype: Monique371
mentormonique@gmail.com
Be A Mentor With A Servant's Heart
Chapters 10 and 11 answered all my questions about MLM . Now, I am having a lotta of fun! Grab your free ebook today: http://mentormonique.bigmlmtruths.com/?mad=9091
If you are looking for powerful tips, ideas, and secrets about achieving success, visit http://www.squidoo.com/tipstoexplodeyourhome-basedbusines
Worldwide Link Love Tag
Got this tag from ~Martini
~ start copying here ~
Join the Worldwide Link Love!Benefits of Worldwide Link Love:
1. Make new friends around the world.
2. Feel the Link Love.
3. Gain new readers and subscribers.
Rules:
1. Copy from ~start copying here ~ to ~ stop copying here ~ and paste it on your blog.
2. At the end of the list, put your name and the country your in, it doesn’t matter what’s your nationality just put the country where you are publishing your blog. Don’t forget to put links at your name.
3. If u have many blogs, you can link all of it, just make sure you post the same on each blog.
4. Tag eight (8) or more of your blog friends.
5. Tip for blogspot users: make sure you copy and paste the code in Compose mode.
Worldwide Link Love! Participants:
1.Julia(Philippines) 2. Catherine(Malaysia) 3. shimumsy(u.s.a) 4. Mitch(Philippines) 5. Hailey(Philippines) 6. Sexymom(USA) 7. Liza(Philippines) 8. Sasha(Philippines) 9. Tere(Philippines) 10. Simply The Best 11. The World Wide Web Addict 12. My Daily Nourishment13. My Euro Travel and Adventure 14. Euroangel Graffiti(Germany) 15. A Simple Life(Philippines) 16. My Wanderings(Philippines) 17. Picture Clusters(Philippines) 18. Maiylah’s Snippets(Philippines) 19. Its Not a Lifestyle;Its a Weekend (Singapore) 20. Napaboaniya APAD (Singapore) 21. Our mini blogsphere 22. Rooms of My Heart (Indonesia) 23. My Memories, As Time Goes By(Malaysia) 24. Nishas world and baby Alisha(India) 25. pregnancy and parenting 26.
~ End copy here ~
I guess all my friends have done the tag, so who can i tag now? is that you?
Ive put up the code so you just copy and paste, if you wanna save time!! happy linking away:)
~ start copying here ~
Join the Worldwide Link Love!Benefits of Worldwide Link Love:
1. Make new friends around the world.
2. Feel the Link Love.
3. Gain new readers and subscribers.
Rules:
1. Copy from ~start copying here ~ to ~ stop copying here ~ and paste it on your blog.
2. At the end of the list, put your name and the country your in, it doesn’t matter what’s your nationality just put the country where you are publishing your blog. Don’t forget to put links at your name.
3. If u have many blogs, you can link all of it, just make sure you post the same on each blog.
4. Tag eight (8) or more of your blog friends.
5. Tip for blogspot users: make sure you copy and paste the code in Compose mode.
Worldwide Link Love! Participants:
1.Julia(Philippines) 2. Catherine(Malaysia) 3. shimumsy(u.s.a) 4. Mitch(Philippines) 5. Hailey(Philippines) 6. Sexymom(USA) 7. Liza(Philippines) 8. Sasha(Philippines) 9. Tere(Philippines) 10. Simply The Best 11. The World Wide Web Addict 12. My Daily Nourishment13. My Euro Travel and Adventure 14. Euroangel Graffiti(Germany) 15. A Simple Life(Philippines) 16. My Wanderings(Philippines) 17. Picture Clusters(Philippines) 18. Maiylah’s Snippets(Philippines) 19. Its Not a Lifestyle;Its a Weekend (Singapore) 20. Napaboaniya APAD (Singapore) 21. Our mini blogsphere 22. Rooms of My Heart (Indonesia) 23. My Memories, As Time Goes By(Malaysia) 24. Nishas world and baby Alisha(India) 25. pregnancy and parenting 26.
~ End copy here ~
I guess all my friends have done the tag, so who can i tag now? is that you?
Ive put up the code so you just copy and paste, if you wanna save time!! happy linking away:)
What is the scope of impediments?
Last night at Agile-Carolinas we had Israel Gat, VP of Distributed System Management at BMC Software. He spoke on "Leading the Disruption". He is giving this talk also in Austin, TX (and maybe elsewhere). If you get a chance, I urge you to go. Or just contact him.
After that meeting, I had several conversations. And then thought about them this morning. All that results in this post. Or at least, this question?
What is the scope that defines what might be an impediment?
By definition in Scrum, an impediment is anything that keeps the team from being more productivity. And I personally add that everything is imperfect, so by my definition everything is an impediment to some degree, and the trick is to identify the one or two biggest impediments today.
Scrum has also said that the scope is wide, including such diverse things as engineering practices and personal issues.
What I have not seen talked about much is the scope from an end-to-end Value Stream perspective. So, I would argue that anything that reduces the business value of what the Team produces (or the speed with which the value is realized) is an impediment.
So, as a simple case, imagine you have a Dev team in Charlotte and an "implementation" team in Chicago. (In this context, implementation means all those services around the software that make it actually useful in production.) The Dev team completes their work. The Implementation team is not ready (certainly not as ready as the runner to the right). So no business value can be realized.
I am suggesting this is an impediment. Perhaps the top one for that Dev team. And that Dev team (and their ScrumMaster) need to assure it is fixed (understanding that "a dead ScrumMaster is a useless ScrumMaster"). They probably can't fix it themselves, but they can make many efforts to get others to fix it. Perhaps they need to enlist a manager's help.
To me, this is similar to what Toyota found, ie, that to get the full benefits of Lean, they needed to aggressively train their partner firms upstream and downstream from them in the Lean ideas around flow, pull, JIT, etc, etc.
Does this make sense to you?
After that meeting, I had several conversations. And then thought about them this morning. All that results in this post. Or at least, this question?
What is the scope that defines what might be an impediment?
By definition in Scrum, an impediment is anything that keeps the team from being more productivity. And I personally add that everything is imperfect, so by my definition everything is an impediment to some degree, and the trick is to identify the one or two biggest impediments today.
Scrum has also said that the scope is wide, including such diverse things as engineering practices and personal issues.
What I have not seen talked about much is the scope from an end-to-end Value Stream perspective. So, I would argue that anything that reduces the business value of what the Team produces (or the speed with which the value is realized) is an impediment.
So, as a simple case, imagine you have a Dev team in Charlotte and an "implementation" team in Chicago. (In this context, implementation means all those services around the software that make it actually useful in production.) The Dev team completes their work. The Implementation team is not ready (certainly not as ready as the runner to the right). So no business value can be realized.
I am suggesting this is an impediment. Perhaps the top one for that Dev team. And that Dev team (and their ScrumMaster) need to assure it is fixed (understanding that "a dead ScrumMaster is a useless ScrumMaster"). They probably can't fix it themselves, but they can make many efforts to get others to fix it. Perhaps they need to enlist a manager's help.
To me, this is similar to what Toyota found, ie, that to get the full benefits of Lean, they needed to aggressively train their partner firms upstream and downstream from them in the Lean ideas around flow, pull, JIT, etc, etc.
Does this make sense to you?
FDA Lasik Quality of Life Report
An recent survey was conducted by the non profit council for Refractive Surgery Quality Assurance in the USA, based on three main points as to whether Lasik surgery was as expected, better than expected or worse than expected and the Lasik results certified that the surgery was safe to undergo based on the surprisingly, positive opinion responses from the patients to whom the survey were sent.
18,000 vision correction patients of a group of six doctors, were mailed the survey with a 31% response rate. Out of the whole total of responses, 91% of patients reported seldom-problematic complications, 22% of them reported problems as frequent or always. They were yet willing to undergo the operation again, as they justified it as a better option, rather than causing themselves inconvenience by wearing glasses and contacts.
18,000 vision correction patients of a group of six doctors, were mailed the survey with a 31% response rate. Out of the whole total of responses, 91% of patients reported seldom-problematic complications, 22% of them reported problems as frequent or always. They were yet willing to undergo the operation again, as they justified it as a better option, rather than causing themselves inconvenience by wearing glasses and contacts.
Wotif guilty of "recreational killing"
We have already discussed Wotif.com's entry into the traditional marketing world with TV (and also bus stop) advertising. I ran one of their commercials recently - the one featuring a creepy child/doll/horror movie motif. Here is a video of the second commercial - a "squid eating competition" (see video below). I raise it because Wotif have caused a stir with this ad and are getting into some problems with it.Wotif has been cited by Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) in Australia over this commercial. This is the body in charge of ensuring that Australian advertising meets the legislative and industry standards. The ASB have been hit with complaints from viewers that the squid ad (according to B&T Magazine) .
“This is a graphic ad featuring a sadistic act, akin to biting the head off a budgie. It is gross cruelty presented as humour.”... “physically disgusting-cruelty to animals –morally repugnant.”In the end the ASB ruled that the advertisement represented "recreational killing" and Wotif and its agency Leo Bennett will be forced to go back and rewrite portions of it. What do you think - funny ad or cruel and unusual punishment for cephalopods?
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Car Importing Exporting Business
For OVER THREE YEARS many people who have visited our
Import Export Business Help center web site have been asked
about information on how they can get into the business of
exporting cars or importing cars and although the Import
Export Toolkit self-study course is still the best
international trade training course on the market, it covers
the overall Import Export Business processes required in an
international trade transaction, it can in no way address
each specific or target market such as exporting cars or
importing cars.
While doing research for a new business client I discovered
what these folks have been asking for over the last 3 1/2
years - and it's title is --
Importing Exporting Automobiles
This new guide comes from two years of research and
writing by a licensed auto dealer. The guide will give you
the insider secrets from the publisher's interviews and
information from the experts in the car business including
shippers, exporters, Department of Commerce personnel,
foreign nationals, foreign embassies and trade associations.
This car exporting and importing training guide (and bonus
resources listed below) has been seen in such renown
publications as Popular Science - Popular Mechanics - Auto
Trader - Old Car Trader - Deals On Wheels.
By the way, I want to emphasize again - this entire training
program is written by a Licensed Car Dealer - someone who
not only talks the talk but who walks the walk!
If you are considering exporting cars from the USA, NOW IS
the BEST TIME EVER to get involved in this business. Have you
looked at the value of the Euro in comparison to the USA
Dollar?
Here are some of the Section Titles from the Table of Contents:
What Vehicles To Sell
Pricing Cars
How to Select A Country
Shipping/Taxes
Business Strategy
Importing Vehicles
The items listed above are just a preview of portions of this
valuable car import export business MAIN guide - I said
MAIN GUIDE because there are FOUR (4) Bonus resources you will
get along with the MAIN GUIDE.
Here are the Bonus Resource titles:
1. WHOLESALE CAR AUCTION RULES - Your first visit to a
wholesale auto auction can be exciting and intimidating -
this guide teaches you all the "rules" that "all" attendees
to the wholesale car auctions must follow - you will also
learn the secret of getting the auctioneer to reverse a deal
if you happen to get a lemon.
2. CONTACT INFO AND LOCATIONS FOR 500+ WHOLESALE CAR AUCTIONS - ALL 50 STATES - This guide cost over $200 to compile this directory list -- You can use it to quickly locate the 500+
best places to get cars for exporting at the lowest prices!
3. USED CAR WHOLESALER - This manual gives the complete
details and info on obtaining your car dealers license and
how the car auctions operate.
4. INSIDER'S DICTIONARY - this is your insider's guide to the
language of the auto business - if you don't know what the
terms "car jacket", "bumble bee" or "invisible trucks" are,
then you definitely need this report which contains over
100 car business insider terms used every day - with this
valuable information you too will be able to 'talk the talk'
and sound like and be treated like an old pro rather than
a rookie.
These are not printed manuals - when your payment is
approved you will be redirected to the website where you
will be able to DOWNLOAD Your Main Guide and 4 FREE BONUS
reports - they are all available, right NOW and you can
have all of them in 10 minutes or less!
- Immediate download. You get them NOW!
- Easy to read
- Can be read with any Windows Computer or Apple Mac
- No waiting for shipment and snail mail delivery
- No paying the high cost of shipping and handling
- You can read all of them on your computer or you can
print one or all of them out for easy off-line reading
The amount of targeted car exporting and importing business
information contained in the main guide and bonus reports
go far beyond the small investment this experienced auto
trader is asking and I in fact recommend they raise the
price because of the incredible amount of valuable inside
information they are revealing.
Go check it out for your self now, and if you are
one of those many people who called or emailed me in
the past few years asking for information that specifically
addressed importing or exporting cars, just go get this
training package because this is "exactly" what you have
been searching for.
Last, for any of you international trade customers who
have purchased our Exporters Master Package, Importers
Business training kit or the Import Export Toolkit - you
still have the most comprehensive courses available for
the overall Import and Export business, however, if
exporting cars or importing cars is an area you have
considered specializing in, the I strongly urge you
to invest in this guide and bonus materials as it will
provide you with the specialized training you need for
that target market.
This is the best (and only) specialized training
information package of it's kind that I have found and the
fact the gentleman who published it is a licensed car
dealer himself means you are getting experience, not just
theory.
If you are interested in car exporting or importing, then
Go NOW, check it out and invest in your business by getting
your own copy:
http://www.importexporthelp.com/recommends/car-business-guide.htm
Beware: Pay-ads.com is a scam site
I recently signed up for this site called pay-ads.com but to my horror i found out that it was just a scam site! I've seen many of my friends and fellow blogger still have the banner up on their sites and would like to inform you all that the banner itself contains a malware virus which is cleverly injected into it and causes some bad sites to pop up and may lead to banning of your blogs from Google and other sites. Not only that, even your visitors may believe that its a part of your blog and may earn you a bad reputation.. No wonder, my statics show a decrease in my traffic! so i request you to remove the banner soon, Friends.
The best part is that they will pay you $3.5 for every 1000 page impressions from your blog and they payout is every 5,10,15 days but whats the use of such a site that gives us malware in return?? I had signed up from a referral and did not know it was a scam at first, until i saw that in the google index.. My site is clean and i don't need such quick money schemes which hurt my reputation in this blogger world. what trick have you fallen for??
The best part is that they will pay you $3.5 for every 1000 page impressions from your blog and they payout is every 5,10,15 days but whats the use of such a site that gives us malware in return?? I had signed up from a referral and did not know it was a scam at first, until i saw that in the google index.. My site is clean and i don't need such quick money schemes which hurt my reputation in this blogger world. what trick have you fallen for??
Image ads for your mobile content
Our mobile ads team is pleased to announce that mobile image ads are now available in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and the UK, as well as the US. With this mobile ad type, you now have a new way to monetize mobile content while still providing the same benefits as our standard text ads.
Mobile image ads enable you to take advantage of the large and growing group of Google mobile advertisers. Ads are matched to your site content and the size of a viewer's screen, and are paid on a cost-per-click basis. You can view example ads and sizes in the AdWords Help Center.
For publishers, mobile image ads provide added flexibility and profitability. Publishers choose whether they want to show text ads, image ads, or a mix of both and Google will then dynamically return the ad that we expect will perform best at the time a user is looking at their site.
If you're a current AdSense for mobile content publisher, you'll need to update your AdSense code in order to enable image ads for your site. Directions on how to do this can be found in our Help Center. We recommend selecting "Text and image ads" as your ad type, in order to take advantage of all available ads for your content. Once you have your code, paste it into the source code of your mobile website where you'd like to show image ads. If you're new to showing mobile ads, you can follow the same directions to generate code that allows for mobile image ads.
For more information on AdSense for mobile content, check out our microsite or our September post on the AdSense for mobile content product launch. You can also take a look at our posting on the Google Mobile Blog for news on this launch and for information on other mobile and mobile-advertising related topics.
Mobile image ads enable you to take advantage of the large and growing group of Google mobile advertisers. Ads are matched to your site content and the size of a viewer's screen, and are paid on a cost-per-click basis. You can view example ads and sizes in the AdWords Help Center.
For publishers, mobile image ads provide added flexibility and profitability. Publishers choose whether they want to show text ads, image ads, or a mix of both and Google will then dynamically return the ad that we expect will perform best at the time a user is looking at their site.
If you're a current AdSense for mobile content publisher, you'll need to update your AdSense code in order to enable image ads for your site. Directions on how to do this can be found in our Help Center. We recommend selecting "Text and image ads" as your ad type, in order to take advantage of all available ads for your content. Once you have your code, paste it into the source code of your mobile website where you'd like to show image ads. If you're new to showing mobile ads, you can follow the same directions to generate code that allows for mobile image ads.
For more information on AdSense for mobile content, check out our microsite or our September post on the AdSense for mobile content product launch. You can also take a look at our posting on the Google Mobile Blog for news on this launch and for information on other mobile and mobile-advertising related topics.
The importance of Velocity
I had an interesting conversation about Agile metrics yesterday, and wanted to share one insight.
Why is velocity so important?
Well, first we should say, that in many ways it is not. Honestly. Velocity can be unmeasured, used badly, up, down, sideways, misunderstood. Whatever. As long as the team produces some business value (eg, software in production) that is seen as a positive multiple to what they cost, that is all the counts. Of course, we customers always want it sooner, but as long as the effort realized good business value, then it was not too late. The product helped that customer set; it probably helped society more generally.
Still, in most real situations is also really need velocity. Why?
First, for those new to Agile, the typical operational definition of "actual velocity" is the number of story points from the stories (features) completed in an iteration, based on the team's (robust) definition of done. (Describing a robust definition of done is a good topic for another post.)
Three words.
Why is velocity so important?
Well, first we should say, that in many ways it is not. Honestly. Velocity can be unmeasured, used badly, up, down, sideways, misunderstood. Whatever. As long as the team produces some business value (eg, software in production) that is seen as a positive multiple to what they cost, that is all the counts. Of course, we customers always want it sooner, but as long as the effort realized good business value, then it was not too late. The product helped that customer set; it probably helped society more generally.
Still, in most real situations is also really need velocity. Why?
First, for those new to Agile, the typical operational definition of "actual velocity" is the number of story points from the stories (features) completed in an iteration, based on the team's (robust) definition of done. (Describing a robust definition of done is a good topic for another post.)
Three words.
- Defense: The team needs velocity because almost surely some manager is going to ask them to do the impossible and go a lot faster (eg, complete more story points in an iteration) than they can go. Velocity is what the team uses to help that manager accept the true.
- Challenge: While we do not crucify the team based on demand for magic, at the same time, the team needs to be challenged to make their velocity get faster. This means identifying impediments. And getting them fixed (maybe after management approval, maybe by someone else).
- Justification: "What was it you wanted" is the name of a Dylan song. People forget. Managers will lose interest in Agile if we don't have some data to show them and to explain to them why Agile is important. Velocity is one of those key numbers. It helps explain why good teams, good Product Owners, good ScrumMasters, good coaches are needed. It helps keep Agile from being "the flavor of the month" (if you are persuasive in explaining the numbers).
What is a ScrumMaster worth? (2)
Based on comments, I made a few changes to the original post, here.
The specific numbers used in the post are not that important. The approach to logically identifying the value of a better ScrumMaster is. Take the approach, and fill in your own numbers. Help the right people think it through, using their own assumptions.
The specific numbers used in the post are not that important. The approach to logically identifying the value of a better ScrumMaster is. Take the approach, and fill in your own numbers. Help the right people think it through, using their own assumptions.
Rommel Acebedo - Expressing Myself
Welcome to a writers blog where you will encounter self expressions of a blogger on various topics, for example there are some lyrics, videos and tons of information in the artist and songs category. He has also put down plenty of advice for marketing strategies including how to sell newspaper ads online! If you're a die hard fan of science and technology.. hes giving away advice on battling virus's, blog comment spam and did you read about alligators blood may be a source of new antibiotics?? there's also space for Sunday Gospel sharing too :) how impressing is that!!
Hes pretty well known for his Opinions, Thoughts, and Creative Writing skills and so, i recommend this blog and a source of information to everyone.
Hes pretty well known for his Opinions, Thoughts, and Creative Writing skills and so, i recommend this blog and a source of information to everyone.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Internet Marketing Tips
By Luis Galarza - Internet Marketing And Make Money Online For Beginners.Free Daily Internet Marketing Tips For Beginners. Get Daily Up To Date Free Tips On How To Promote Your Business Online Using Free and Low Cost Strategies That You Proven To Increase Your Web Traffic and Help You Make Money?
Can you really use Internet marketing strategies to increase your leads list, your customer base, and your small business revenue? The answer is yes!
Just keep checking this blog on a daily basics so you don't miss any tip. Each tip are organized by putting the last Internet marketing tips listed first, and pushing the older ones to the below the new ones. Also, I'll be updating any of the strategy that no longer work, or that needs new twist to keep it giving you good business results.
OK, no more talking and lets get to the tips...
FREE Internet Marketing Tips:
- Blog Marketing Tips: Use blogs as your company public communication channel to decrease your customers service inquiries, to help your current customers - prospects understand your marketing message, your services or products features, and more important the benefits of using your goods. Blogs are a powerful internet marketing tool that if use right can double or triple your online sales and lead generating conversions.
- Article Marketing Tips: Don't post or submit the articles that you have on your web site to article directories, because you will make them compete against your website, plus Google likes original content. So, to make articles work for you, just rewrite your articles before submitting them to directories, this will help your web content work for you, by sending visitors to your web site - blog - or affiliate program site, and will get you more exposure on search engine results.
- Poll Marketing Tips: Use online polls on your web site to learn more about your audience and site or blog readers. This is a perfect way to know what your visitors like about your site or blog, what they would like you to add, to improve, and to take out. Also, polls are an excellent way to get a feedback about your product quality, price, and marketing message.
- Web 2.0 or Social Marketing Tips: Use online profiles from different social networks to increase your brand and marketing message exposure. There are many types of social profiles that you can sign up for free, but to make your new profile work for you, first you need to set goals, but to do that you need to have a clear idea on what you want to achieve with each profile... then find the best one for your niche or purpose, and last write a marketing plan that will help you get to your goals. So, don't go and sign up for every single free or paid social network profile that you find. I recommend you to make a list of the best ones for you and try their service, make sure to track everything you do, and each of your links to see which site send you the most traffic, and focus on those.
To learn proven Internet marketing strategies, I recommend you to check Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business Online 2008 Version. This is the number one Internet marketing training for over 10 years.
In Conclusion: Test, test, test.... Remember that all this above Internet marketing tips are not for everyone. If you have any question, feel free to post your question on the comment box below or click on the comment link.
To learn how can you be part of a small business association full with social marketing experts for only $2.95 visit the Internet Entrepreneurs Club.
To your success,
Luis Galarza, Internet Marketing Consultant Massachusetts.
About Author: Luis Galarza is a respectable Internet Marketing and Small Business Consultant in the area of Leominster and Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Also, he had teach 100's of entrepreneurs how to make money online and offline without their own product.
- The International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs
.
Technorati tags: Luis Galarza, Online Marketing, Internet, Marketing Tip, Marketing Tips,
Ad Review Center available to all publishers
Many of you have been eagerly waiting for the Ad Review Center to arrive in your accounts, and we're happy to tell you that this feature is now available for all publishers. By enabling you to review all ads placement-targeted to your site, the Ad Review Center gives you more transparency and control, and ensures that ads are relevant to your site's content and users.
We wanted to share a publisher's thoughts about the Ad Review Center, so we chatted with Jennifer McDonald, Account Manager at RealNetworks for sites such as rollingstone.com and film.com. Before using it, Jennifer says that "the concerns Real had... were mainly concerns about running competitive ads on our sites." But she says that by using the Ad Review Center, her team has been able to keep competitive ads from running. As she notes, "We are able to quickly review the ads before they run on our sites and block any ads that are considered competitive to our services."
The Ad Review Center is now available for all publishers utilizing placement targeting. You can get started with this feature by visiting your 'Competitive Ad Filter' page, located under the 'AdSense Setup' tab.
Before getting started, we strongly recommend keeping your review preference set to the default of 'Run ads immediately.' This will let you allow or block ads after they have run. If you choose the other option of 'Hold ads,' the ads will await review for 24 hours before being allowed to run automatically. Using the 'Hold ads' setting will keep ads from participating in the auction while they await review, potentially lowering winning bids and your AdSense earnings. Ads that you have blocked can't compete in the auction either, so we ask that you keep in mind the revenue impact of blocking ads or switching from the 'Run ads immediately' setting.
For more information about using the Ad Review Center, please visit our Help Center, and to start using it, please log in to your account.
We wanted to share a publisher's thoughts about the Ad Review Center, so we chatted with Jennifer McDonald, Account Manager at RealNetworks for sites such as rollingstone.com and film.com. Before using it, Jennifer says that "the concerns Real had... were mainly concerns about running competitive ads on our sites." But she says that by using the Ad Review Center, her team has been able to keep competitive ads from running. As she notes, "We are able to quickly review the ads before they run on our sites and block any ads that are considered competitive to our services."
The Ad Review Center is now available for all publishers utilizing placement targeting. You can get started with this feature by visiting your 'Competitive Ad Filter' page, located under the 'AdSense Setup' tab.
Before getting started, we strongly recommend keeping your review preference set to the default of 'Run ads immediately.' This will let you allow or block ads after they have run. If you choose the other option of 'Hold ads,' the ads will await review for 24 hours before being allowed to run automatically. Using the 'Hold ads' setting will keep ads from participating in the auction while they await review, potentially lowering winning bids and your AdSense earnings. Ads that you have blocked can't compete in the auction either, so we ask that you keep in mind the revenue impact of blocking ads or switching from the 'Run ads immediately' setting.
For more information about using the Ad Review Center, please visit our Help Center, and to start using it, please log in to your account.
Import Export Business Q&A Continued
Original Question:
What is the percentage of your customers that are actually making a living from your product? What is the average income per year for the customers that are making a living from your product?
Original Answer:
Thanks for the inquiry.
Let me ask you a question? or two. Please do not take what I am about to say as being sarcasm, it is simply the way I am trying to get my point across for the questions you have
asked.
If you own property, you are probably paying thousands of dollars in real estate taxes to support the local school system. Do you know the percentage of students that get a job paying above minimum wage? Do you know the average income per year of the students with whom you invest so much of your hard earned dollars??
Literally you are asking questions that cannot be answered. My primary business is export marketing and promotion. If you have read my Import Export Business blog, you would have learned that I started selling training materials and import export business resources early on to help support my "habit" of getting started in this business.
I spent hundreds of hours.....I've said all this before in the blog - go read it....I sell a course or courses, period. Why, because I do marketing of other import export business materials, people call me asking for solutions to the problems they got themselves into by trying to get into this business without proper training. My time is valuable and even more so at the age I am now. Now they could either pay me $200 an hour or they can buy the courses I recommend.
I have reviewed "many" different training materials in my 20 years in this business - the courses we offer now are the "best" I have found, period. They work if the person buying them has any amount of reasonable intelligence, can speak and write well enough to be understood and realizes that it
will take time and much patience to succeed.
If we were charging $8000 like some programs do which are being advertised on the Internet at this very moment, then your question is a valid one for them to answer and come up with some proof.
I have put on my web pages "Exactly" what you get with our courses, line by line, piece by piece and for an importing course priced at $160, an exporting course priced at $316 and a combination of the two at only $424.00, do you really think that I can take the time to follow through with all the people who have purchased our courses over the years? They are getting outstanding packages of valuable information, some of it proprietary, some not, but so much of it that you could spend hundreds of hours trying to compile it yourself - what is your time worth??
The sad fact is with any business - 95% or more of the people who buy courses or materials to help them start "any" business, NEVER do more than glance at it and forget about it.
Quite frankly, I doubt there are many universities that know how many of their students are actually making a living doing what they majored in or let alone what the average income is of those who were lucky enough to get a job in that major. So bottom line, for $160, $316 or $424, why am I expected to keep track of this kind of information.
Again, if you read my import export business blog, you will see I have stated many times over, there are NO ABSOLUTES in this business or any business or life for that matter. It really does not matter what someone else does with their life - what matters is what you do with yours - their success is in no way a guarantee of your success and by the same token, their failures, for whatever reason, are in no way a reflection on anyone else but themselves.
Sorry but I just cannot answer your questions - honest enough?
Follow Up Question:
I was hoping some of your customers would reply and tell you how well they are doing with your product and the income they were making. Before I get myself into this business, I would like to know the average salary. I'm not looking for a multi-million business, but I do have a mortgage and bills to consider. From your background and experience, would you know the median salary for this kind of work? I would truly appreciate your information regarding this issue.
Follow Up Answer:
I am sending you two references you should read - you should also scan through each post I have made on the import export business blog - there is a wealth of information there among all the ads, many questions and answers from the past 20 years.
I do not wish to seem vague but it is against FTC (federal trade commission) regulations to provide someone with any form of income claim in relationship to a business opportunity - I never have, nor ever will.
The first thing you have to change is your mindset about being in business for yourself and asking what the "median salary" is? Salary entails working for someone in a job, that is predictable, believe me a business is not.
The export business is even more variable - there are 10's of thousands of products you might choose to work with, each one offers different profit margins and/or commissions depending upon what level you work your business.
Therein lies another variable, most books, government and private write about an export business in terms of an export management company. Although our exporting course will teach you what you need to operate an export management company, it is not what we recommend you start out pursuing unless you have a very large credit line.
So we go back to what we recommend the most, starting out as an export agent/broker. In this area you match buyers to sellers and collect a commission from the seller. Each product of the 10's of thousands out there carry a varied profit margin as well as size of the market.
I currently have contracts with 3 manufacturers of a particular line of products, one started out offering me 20%, I negotiated it down to 10% because I did not want to be involved in the day to day responsibilities a sales rep has to endure. The commissions are payable, basically for as long as we are as under agreement and on for a period of 2 years after. The 2nd company is 5% for the first year because of different circumstances concerning the targeted leads we are providing them. The 3rd is basically like the 1st but starting out at 7% with a raise to 10% after a year.
I have worked with other companies where they paid a set dollar figure per item sold.
I just signed an agreement with a new company that agreed to 10% - another is an exporting business that has offered 20% of his net profit which can be $1000 or 500 for each product sold depending upon the number of these items sold.
Can you begin to see why I cannot and will not provide you a dollar figure?
I would say this, if you need income now or for the next 6 months, this is not the business to get involved in. Sell stuff on Ebay, at least your money is almost immediate.
Second, I would never quit your day job (if you have one) before you have a business generating at least the same amount as your job pays you or more.
Now if you wish to go forward, then read the old archived newsletter from 2001 at:
http://www.importexporthelp.com/b2bv1i6.htm
it contains an interview with an importer exporter who reveals his business income.
Next, the blog post in which I cite some examples of actual exporters I have spoken with and some of the deals they put together, go here:
http://importexportbusiness.blogspot.com/2006_02_05_archive.html
I would then continue through the blog looking at each post - some are more advertising than others but in there is literally a "wealth" of information you need to use to help you make the most informed decision possible. That is the first decision of a business person, i.e., making an independent decision - not having a boss, supervisor, wife, husband, teacher, coach, professor or other authority figure, just you and your future, your decision.
What is the percentage of your customers that are actually making a living from your product? What is the average income per year for the customers that are making a living from your product?
Original Answer:
Thanks for the inquiry.
Let me ask you a question? or two. Please do not take what I am about to say as being sarcasm, it is simply the way I am trying to get my point across for the questions you have
asked.
If you own property, you are probably paying thousands of dollars in real estate taxes to support the local school system. Do you know the percentage of students that get a job paying above minimum wage? Do you know the average income per year of the students with whom you invest so much of your hard earned dollars??
Literally you are asking questions that cannot be answered. My primary business is export marketing and promotion. If you have read my Import Export Business blog, you would have learned that I started selling training materials and import export business resources early on to help support my "habit" of getting started in this business.
I spent hundreds of hours.....I've said all this before in the blog - go read it....I sell a course or courses, period. Why, because I do marketing of other import export business materials, people call me asking for solutions to the problems they got themselves into by trying to get into this business without proper training. My time is valuable and even more so at the age I am now. Now they could either pay me $200 an hour or they can buy the courses I recommend.
I have reviewed "many" different training materials in my 20 years in this business - the courses we offer now are the "best" I have found, period. They work if the person buying them has any amount of reasonable intelligence, can speak and write well enough to be understood and realizes that it
will take time and much patience to succeed.
If we were charging $8000 like some programs do which are being advertised on the Internet at this very moment, then your question is a valid one for them to answer and come up with some proof.
I have put on my web pages "Exactly" what you get with our courses, line by line, piece by piece and for an importing course priced at $160, an exporting course priced at $316 and a combination of the two at only $424.00, do you really think that I can take the time to follow through with all the people who have purchased our courses over the years? They are getting outstanding packages of valuable information, some of it proprietary, some not, but so much of it that you could spend hundreds of hours trying to compile it yourself - what is your time worth??
The sad fact is with any business - 95% or more of the people who buy courses or materials to help them start "any" business, NEVER do more than glance at it and forget about it.
Quite frankly, I doubt there are many universities that know how many of their students are actually making a living doing what they majored in or let alone what the average income is of those who were lucky enough to get a job in that major. So bottom line, for $160, $316 or $424, why am I expected to keep track of this kind of information.
Again, if you read my import export business blog, you will see I have stated many times over, there are NO ABSOLUTES in this business or any business or life for that matter. It really does not matter what someone else does with their life - what matters is what you do with yours - their success is in no way a guarantee of your success and by the same token, their failures, for whatever reason, are in no way a reflection on anyone else but themselves.
Sorry but I just cannot answer your questions - honest enough?
Follow Up Question:
I was hoping some of your customers would reply and tell you how well they are doing with your product and the income they were making. Before I get myself into this business, I would like to know the average salary. I'm not looking for a multi-million business, but I do have a mortgage and bills to consider. From your background and experience, would you know the median salary for this kind of work? I would truly appreciate your information regarding this issue.
Follow Up Answer:
I am sending you two references you should read - you should also scan through each post I have made on the import export business blog - there is a wealth of information there among all the ads, many questions and answers from the past 20 years.
I do not wish to seem vague but it is against FTC (federal trade commission) regulations to provide someone with any form of income claim in relationship to a business opportunity - I never have, nor ever will.
The first thing you have to change is your mindset about being in business for yourself and asking what the "median salary" is? Salary entails working for someone in a job, that is predictable, believe me a business is not.
The export business is even more variable - there are 10's of thousands of products you might choose to work with, each one offers different profit margins and/or commissions depending upon what level you work your business.
Therein lies another variable, most books, government and private write about an export business in terms of an export management company. Although our exporting course will teach you what you need to operate an export management company, it is not what we recommend you start out pursuing unless you have a very large credit line.
So we go back to what we recommend the most, starting out as an export agent/broker. In this area you match buyers to sellers and collect a commission from the seller. Each product of the 10's of thousands out there carry a varied profit margin as well as size of the market.
I currently have contracts with 3 manufacturers of a particular line of products, one started out offering me 20%, I negotiated it down to 10% because I did not want to be involved in the day to day responsibilities a sales rep has to endure. The commissions are payable, basically for as long as we are as under agreement and on for a period of 2 years after. The 2nd company is 5% for the first year because of different circumstances concerning the targeted leads we are providing them. The 3rd is basically like the 1st but starting out at 7% with a raise to 10% after a year.
I have worked with other companies where they paid a set dollar figure per item sold.
I just signed an agreement with a new company that agreed to 10% - another is an exporting business that has offered 20% of his net profit which can be $1000 or 500 for each product sold depending upon the number of these items sold.
Can you begin to see why I cannot and will not provide you a dollar figure?
I would say this, if you need income now or for the next 6 months, this is not the business to get involved in. Sell stuff on Ebay, at least your money is almost immediate.
Second, I would never quit your day job (if you have one) before you have a business generating at least the same amount as your job pays you or more.
Now if you wish to go forward, then read the old archived newsletter from 2001 at:
http://www.importexporthelp.com/b2bv1i6.htm
it contains an interview with an importer exporter who reveals his business income.
Next, the blog post in which I cite some examples of actual exporters I have spoken with and some of the deals they put together, go here:
http://importexportbusiness.blogspot.com/2006_02_05_archive.html
I would then continue through the blog looking at each post - some are more advertising than others but in there is literally a "wealth" of information you need to use to help you make the most informed decision possible. That is the first decision of a business person, i.e., making an independent decision - not having a boss, supervisor, wife, husband, teacher, coach, professor or other authority figure, just you and your future, your decision.
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