The Lucky Cabin

I meet a lot of different people both socially and professionally. Being self -employed, I’m at many business mixers and networking events. Whether for professional reasons or casual conversation, the question “What do you do?” comes up. The answer is usually your 30-60 second elevator speech… Hi, My name is …. I work for/my company is ….. I help people…….Sometimes the response goes on for more than 60 seconds.

Last week I was at a mixer and was called over by a colleague to meet a gentleman to whom she was speaking. With my name tag on, I walked over and extended my hand. Next - the question ” So what do you do?” I have several short responses that invite questions if people want to know more. He didn’t. My turn came up to ask him the same question. After learning about his profession (financial services) in about 6O seconds, I asked him a question to learn more about who he was. His answer was to tell me about how good he was at his job, how happy his clients were with his services and so on for 10 -15 minutes. I stopped hearing him after the first few minutes as I looked for a polite way to excuse myself. Know what I mean? During the entire conversation he never asked me anything that showed any curiosity in knowing who I am. It felt more like listening to an advertisement instead of having a conversation. It was all about HIM! Then he gave me his card, asked for referrals and said he’d get in touch with me. It was a total turnoff. Sound familiar?

Here’s my 64 cents. People like to be talked to not talked at. If your focus in networking is only to get clients to build YOUR business, that’s what people will pick up. That may work with some people. Remember, the first thing people buy is you not your product or service.

Have you met people who have shown a genuine interest in you/your needs? What was that like? Did you feel a connection or want to affiliate with them? Would they have been people you would want as friends? And if that person had a service or product something you needed, would you want to buy from them? If your intent is to forge strategic alliances and build relationships with people, take a look at the way you’re coming across and the agenda (expectations, desired results) you bring in meeting people in any situation. Creating connections naturally opens the door to referrals. If you knew of someone great who would be of help to folks in your life, would you keep that person a secret? This is Attraction not a technique to be more effective in business.

Three Attraction Tips:

– Be real - be yourself with people. * If you don’t know who you are or how to be real, contact me. I’ll help you figure that out!

– Be genuinely curious in learning about people in casual or business situations. Listen for how many times you make “I” statements to draw the focus consistently back to you. Good conversations have a back and forth flow vs. being a captive audience.

– Really listen by staying present to what’s being said. Practice active listening. Asking question that refer to people’s comments invites conversation.

Three Networking Tips:

1. Only offer your card when someone asks for it. Ask for their card if you want it.

2. If you want to give your card but haven’t been asked - you can say ” May I give you my card?”

3. When given a card, hold it in both hands and say something about the card ( I like the color, very striking) before putting it in your pocket or purse.

– If you meet someone you’d like to know better, invite them for coffee!

Last comment…..I’m a big believer in forging relationships and building a community of support. You can quote me - “What we can do alone is nothing compared to what we can do together” - Lorraine Cohen

Copyright 2004, Lorraine Cohen

Lorraine Cohen of Powerfull Living (http://www.powerfull-living.biz) is a Business Coach and Life Strategist and Team Member of Solo-E (http://www.Solo-E.com). Lorraine Cohen is a Business Coach & Life Strategist who brings more than 25 years of experience in life coaching, counseling, and sales. She helps people through career change, life transitions, and the process of breaking through FEAR and removing barriers to success.

Find more articles like this at http://www.Solo-E.com, the lifestyle-inspired online learning and connection community. Visit now to receive a free copy of our special report, The Four Secrets of Solo Entrepreneur Success, plus a complimentary 30-day membership.

If you are buying several different gifts for Christmas hoping that the person will like them, then this article is for you. It would be a great idea to get them a gift card and let them choose what they really want and then you can spend the rest of the day enjoying each others company.

Christmas gets more extravagant every year. Everyone says that Christmas will be different next year but it will be the same boring holiday. Sure it was fun to get gifts when we were kids; but now that we’re adults do we need to continue the crazy mall shopping every year?

The obstacle occurs,because everyone has different tastes. The theory is that if you buy the person a lot of gifts, chances are they will like at least one of them. If you really want to go all out for someone, then do some research first. Inquire of someone who is aware of what they desire. Ask the person a few probing questions throughout the year so when gift time comes you will have something to go on. Hopefully, this will keep you from buying them useless trinkets and gadgets. There isn’t anything wrong with a gift card when ideas elude you. You can make this personal in any number of ways. How about adding home made biscuits, or a card with a personal message that means something uniquely to them? The point is that spending all day surrounded by presents is no match for the gift of family and friends being together.

A lot of people feel that gift cards are not personal, but of you think about it, you realize that giving a friend something he or she doesnt like or need is not personal either. Gift ideas are hard to come up with but gift cards are a great back up when questioning and snooping about fail. Most of the time people don’t know what they want, or won’t answer if they do. There are lots of ways to give pleasure to this group. Here is a great site for some unusal gift ideas for everyone.

Did you put off hosting teleseminars and building your business
dramatically this year? Make a resolution to start in 2006 and
begin increasing your company’s cash flow.

Here are 10 reasons to put teleseminars into your budget for
2006.

1. Make money. You can make thousands of dollars
   in registration fees depending on the size of your audience and
   the topic’s importance. Great Teleseminars
   Audio Production Studios, http://www.GreatTeleseminars.com
   has several clients making six-figure incomes from teleseminars
   over the course of one year. One recently made $30,000 in one
   hour by offering the right topic at the right price to the right
   audience.
2. Beat your competition by improving your image and
   building your name brand. By conducting teleseminars, you
   will be perceived as a trusted expert, an innovator and a leader
   within your field.

3. Maintain contact with your clients with little time,
   energy and financial investment. Isn’t it great to offer
   your clients a seminar so they can learn your latest tactics,
   techniques and breakthroughs? Some of my clients do teleseminars
   for free just so they can build rapport and maintain good
   relationships with clients.
4. Prospecting. What could be a better way to
   introduce yourself and your services to prospects than by
   offering a free teleseminar jam packed with beneficial
   information that show you at your best? You don’t have to fly
   anywhereand they don’t have to drive anywhere. Nothing could be
   simpler or cheaper since you can deliver the same message to
   many people at one time - and still be personable.
5. Slash customer support costs and increase customer
   loyalty. You can do this easily by offering free
   teleseminars on how to use your products and services
   effectively.
6. Create multiple streams of income by creating products
   for future sales. Every teleseminar can be turned into a CD,
   MP3 file, transcript and/or e-book to generate extra
   income.
7. Become newsworthy. Teleseminars give you a reason to
   post press releases about the topic, the guest and the
   information learned. Don’t overlook the chance to get your name
   in print.
8. Build your list. By offering people on your list a
   great event, they’ll tell their friends, so you’ll build your
   database of prospects.
9. Keep your marketing team busy with a project that is easy
   to do every month. Once you get the mechanics in place, you
   can do teleseminars every month with ease.
10. Teleseminars are cheaper and easier than webinars by a
    factor of at least 10 to 1. Check out Great Teleseminars
    low prices at http://www.greatteleseminars.com or use our
    conference lines for free for 100 people.

When you offer teleseminars, you make money, build your customer
loyalty and grow your business - for a very small investment.
Wouldn’t that be a great resolution for the new year?

[ Submitted with ArticleSubmitter Pro -
http://www.articlesubmitterpro.com]

7 hours ago also a Europe based dutch company took of a fun website and is also legally differently. Really anyone can win super wakeboards now every 5 weeks even if you live in Oakland California or in Amarillo Texas, isn’t that marvelous. Easy sweepstakes are also legally different from the contest websites in Bell California. Many more online game contests are pick out to enter online cyber sweepstakes. Online promotions advertised as funny online contests, til now, can postulate an entry fee or certificate of bribe.

Translated in Dutch: Woon je in Oirschot of Ouderkerk en wilt u veel prijzen winnen’ Met Win de Prijsvraag winnen is nergens zo eenvoudig. Veel prijzen winnen met de windeprijsvraag.nl formule‘ Minstens 439 prijzen per maand. Van Enkhuizen tot Zwijndrecht, winnen met Win de prijsvraag.nl gaat hier altijd. Een vrouw van 75 heeft vorige week nog een plasma TV weten te winnen.

That’s why there are great computers to be won at online game contest and sweepstakes this quarter. It will be terrific to win laptops worth 9374 euro and that easy. Online sweepstakes and online actions are proscribed from calling for a purchase to enter. Entering internet sweepstakes by mail is slumping in good popularity this week. Online contests are toughened much more different than the people who win who are not chosen by hazard but by an fine element of special. Sweepstakes are more often than not much looser and much more faster to enter than fun websites.

Leading search engines treat the news article different and it may have something to do with frequency of posts at a site. However my tests clearly show that news articles have an edge over non-news article posts done frequently. Still this is an extremely valuable secret. This little secret has helped me generate thousands of targeted hits and has given me some interesting earnings from my Adsense ads. It is amazing how big an impact stuff that you discover almost by accident can have on your life.

There are several high traffic advantages that news article posts come with. To start with, everybody knows that news and current affairs usually has a major impact on searches in terms of the keywords being used. Breaking news often leaves many unanswered questions that will tend to send droves to their favorite search engines in search of more information. New popular keyword phrases emerge that do not have any competition yet and therefore it is fairly easy for a small unknown site to gain high rankings with search engines for those particular keyword phrases.

And the really huge advantage here is that it is fairly easy to predict popular keywords in advance when you opt to go for news article posts. When you consider the fact that some news items and subjects remain at the center of the public’s attention for a long time, you will quickly realize the real power of a single news article post in increasing traffic for a site and keep it high for a long time.

In the previous article, we discussed how blogs can help you generate traffic for your main website. But what if you don’t have another site? Or what if you want your blog to be your main website, the exclusive carrier of your moneymaking ventures?

This can be achieved, of course. Such is the versatility of web logs.

Standalone blogs are best utilized for online businessmen or women who have decided to pursue what many people call as nicheing. Yes, the word is ungrammatical, but it is a term that many Internet marketers have come to embrace with fondness. Nicheing involves the creation of many sites that cater to particular niches. Niches, of course, are very specialized markets, most of which are so obscure that they do not garner the attention of businesses, hence creating high demands with low supplies. The purpose of nicheing is to find these markets and provide for their needs. These enterprising businessmen would earn through the following ways:

* Creating and eventually selling products that aim to serve the said niches.

* Selling existing products that the said niches need.

* Providing for information that the members of the said niches can access for free, and enrolling the site that contains the information in a Pay Per Click (PPC) program like Google AdSense.

Regardless of what path the online entrepreneur decides to take, he should first create a site that serves as the repository of his commercial methods. Niches can be very rewarding. Since there is but a few competitions in the field, your search engine placement is sure to be higher than usual. Traffic should also be at a sustainable level since the members of a niche have nothing else to visit. This will mean a greater possibility for more sales, if you’re selling a product, or a higher Click Through Rate (CTR) if you’re enrolled in a PPC program.

Now, making a site can be quite cumbersome. You have to deal with the aspects of web design, graphic creation, and content writing among other concerns. What more when you have to create numerous sites for numerous niches?

Thankfully, blogs will make things a whole lot easier for you. Every online marketer who has attained success with niche marketing can attribute this to their proper exploitation of blogs. Whereas it would take you a couple of weeks to come up with 10 websites, it would only take you a couple of hours to come up with 10 blog sites. The sheer convenience and ease of web logs have made nicheing a very potent business model.

Blogs can very much substitute for a regular website. As we have previously discussed, high quality content is, ultimately, what will drive traffic to your site, and this kind of content can easily be carried through a blog. Also, you don’t have to change the entire page whenever you want to update your content, as you would with a regular website. With blogs, all you have to do is to write your update in a designated box and press the publish button. Of course, different blogging software have various features, but none comes more loaded than Wordpress (www.wordpress.com).

Blogging is the way to go if you want to create, and maintain, several niche sites. And Wordpress is the weapon of choice for most Internet marketers. To fully realize the potentials of the medium, therefore, you should be able to exploit all the features that Wordpress does offer. Again, David Pankhurst’s excellent report on powerful Wordpress secrets (http://www.malkeenan.com/top10tricks) will help you excel in this area.

Look out for the next article, where we’re going to discuss how you could efficiently integrate the Google AdSense program into your blog, and make it a passive income generating machine.

Copyright 2005 Mal Keenan

Get Your Hands on My FREE and Exclusive 7 Day Blogging Report by Sending and Blank Email to mailto:freeblogreport@getresponse.com
In this Report I Reveal All The Secrets for Creating and Running A Successful Online Blog, Including Blogging to Niche Markets.

Lemmings are cute, but dumb. If you tell them to jump off a cliff, they will. Just like the people who start blogs because everyone is doing it. Guess what happens after a little while? The blogs die.

In managing a list of many Web sites, most of which are blogs, I deleted countless sites from the list because the sites and blogs no longer existed. The people ran out of steam or had no reason to start them in the first place.

How do you know when a blog is right for your business? Learn why people start blogs, how they find their niche and how blogging tools can be used for more than blogs.

Some people like to read blogs, others like to read newsletters, still others like to rely on feeds and some read a few or all of them. No matter the method the information is distributed, each medium has one thing in common: content. Having a blog connects your newsletter and your business with all of these readers and delivers important content in a particular style.

I’ve been blogging since June 2000. If you review my early blog entries in meryl’s notes, you’ll notice they’re more personal. When blogs first hit the scene in the late ’90s, they were personal diaries and journals. Like the blog business, my blog has transformed from personal to business speak, although I still add personal notes here and there.

A few bloggers tend to talk about their work, their products and their little world. That might work for celebrities where fans want to know everything about them, but it doesn’t work for the average business person. Other business people want information on how to succeed and when a blog spends time hawking products offering information of no value, few people will return. The people whose products sell well are the ones who provide valuable information. Readers already know what kind of information they’re getting, so they trust that when they buy something, it will be of the same or better quality. This value must be reflected in their blog. It’s much like people who only sign up for a newsletter after first seeing an example.

No one wants to be a lemming (I would hope). How do you decide whether or not to set up a blog? The answer isn’t black or white (what did you expect?). Ask these questions:

• Can you regularly update it at least five times a week?
• Do you have something to say other than just linking to others?
• Do you read other blogs or feeds?
• Can you provide information of value to others not just to yourself?
• How large is your newsletter subscriber list?
• How many unique visitors do you get on an average day, week or month?

The big decider is whether or not you can write in the blog almost daily. The people behind the high traffic blogs post multiple times a day. Though resourceful, merely linking to other sites doesn’t give visitors much reason to make the effort to come to yours. Reading other blogs or feeds is a great way to learn how to carry a discussion. Find other blogs covering topics similar to yours and check them out. Disagree with their opinions? Write about it and explain your reasons. Cross-blog discussions are common, and that’s where trackback comes in handy.

Trackback is a blog feature. If you decide to comment on another blog posting in your blog instead of in that blog’s comments page, then you link to the conversation through the trackback link. Trackback is similar to the permalink, the permanent URL for the blog entry, but it has a different URL for copying and pasting in your blog’s trackback box.

Aside from the technical aspects of operating a blog on a daily basis, subscriber list size and Web site traffic are good indicators of what kind of reaction you’ll get when opening a blog. Starting from scratch with little traffic means you have a long road ahead and lots of work to do. There is no magic formula anyone can sell you for $97 to make your blog an overnight success. But with some perseverance and ingenuity, your blog can engage many prospects and clients.

Considering there are numerous blogs out there, pick a niche topic when starting a blog for a better shot at attracting and keeping an audience. meryl’s notes focuses on three areas: webby, geeky and wordy. In reality, this is too much. What I need to do for my readers is create three separate blog entry points, so those interested in writing, newsletters and Internet marketing get nothing but the wordy entries. Those interested in Web design get the webby stuff and the technophiles receive the geeky content.

I also manage a personal blog separate from meryl’s notes. It’s about cochlear implants and deafness. This could fall under the geeky category, but it’s a personal blog and doesn’t belong in meryl’s notes. This blog is written for a different audience.

The blogging tools for both of my blogs come with syndication capabilities so those using feed readers or aggregators can read the content through the software. When sending a new issue of a newsletter, comment on it or link to it in the blog, that way the blog and feed readers will get the goods, so all three bases are covered.

Blogging tools aren’t just for, well, blogging. Such tools are an excellent way to help you update your Web site more often than you otherwise would. I use it to manage the list of tableless Web sites. Using blogging tools is much easier than the way I managed it before, updating the HTML files by hand. Though using a blog tool, it isn’t a blog. In this case, the blog tool has become a content management system (CMS).

Small business owners don’t have a need for the fancy and pricey CMSes out there. They find it easier to use blogging software to manage their sites or hire someone to adapt the tool for their site.

Blogs have found a place in businesses and people are finding creative ways to use them. Some companies have a blog on the intranet for communicating project status, jeopardies and metrics. They’re used for knowledge management. With information pouring in, blog tools provide a way to share, organize and process the information.

Being a follower can be good or bad. No one wants to walk off a cliff with the lemmings, but everyone wants to succeed. Best practices won’t help, since the decision to blog is based on the organization’s mission, needs and goals along with its target market’s desires and needs. A blog about lemmings? There is one, sort of. Or maybe you’d like to start your own and talk about dumb business moves.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl.net who increases conversion rates by writing and editing content so organization can focus on their core business. She is the editor-in-chief of the eNewsletter Journal and Shavlik’s The Remediator Security Digest. Visit her Web site at http://www.meryl.net/blog/.

If you are seeking the utmost in wedding cars ireland, choose the service that is more than just cars. AT&T Chauffeurs not only have cars, they truly care. They include a free wedding checklist with every inquiry or booking reply. They can also make your wedding planning even easier by connecting you with a recommended florist and photographers, for whom they allow discounts and vouchers. I found the wedding checklist to be a very nice, caring touch, because how often will you see a business wanting to make sure you don’t forget any important preparations for your big day, even if it’s for services they may not offer?

If you wish to choose only the most special wedding cars ireland has to offer, look at AT&T Chauffeurs. They specialize in “vintage” cars that are actually new cars made to appear antique, for the ultimate in both class and safety. Would you like your ride to the church on your special day to entail an element of charm and fantasy, but the idea of a horse and carriage is a little over the top to you? Choose either a Beauford, Regent, or Brenchley convertible, all of which are in the classic style of the late ’20s and early ’30s. Their metallic exteriors add a touch of modern appeal, with available colors such as ivory and black or bronze, silver and sapphire or charcoal.

Too often bloggers complain that after a great start, a year later their blog is as dead as can be. This is a common problem that almost always revolves around a small list of common mistakes made by the blogger. A blogger can sit back and expect the blog to do all of the work for him or her, which is a terrible way to approach blogging. A successful blogger would tell you that great blogging takes a certain amount of dedication and hard effort to make it work. You have to put effort into a blog to sustain it, especially after the first month or so of completing the design. Many people work so hard during the initial design phase that they get lazy after it is complete. To avoid this happening to your blog, check out these five common mistakes that can bury a blog.

Infrequent Updates

One of the biggest mistakes a blogger can make is to “forget” about posting. The most successful blogs are updated with new posts at least once a day. Some larger blogs are constantly being updated. You should try to create new posts as often as possible. If you miss a day here and there, it will be no big deal. However, if you miss a week or more without posting, you might as well consider the blog dead already. You have to take a few moments, even as few as five, a day to create interesting posts or content. If you are writing short and concise posts like you should be, this should not be that challenging. It is easy to keep your blog updated, if you make it a priority.

Too Much Advertising

Most bloggers today do want to make a profit from their blog. This is a trend that can get out of control quickly however. If you are interested in adding ads to your blog, do so with caution. There is nothing wrong with a few appropriately places ads that offer viewers links to places that correlate with your blog’s content. However, adding a massive amount of advertisements on your blog is a mistake. If you have a bunch of flashy ads on your blog, your content will get lost within the hoopla. Therefore, you should always limit your ads to three or less per page. Make sure you place them in appropriate places that let your content shine through. Don’t allow enormous ads to fill up your pages either. They will simply annoy readers. Be smart about including advertising on your blog!

Unprofessional Look

Looks do matter when it comes to your blog. The more professional and crisp your blog looks, the more your readers will take you seriously. If you are interesting in boosting traffic, you should try a more serious layout or presentation for your blog. If you can afford to hire a professional, you should. If you choose to do it yourself however, you must make sure the end product is good. If you have a sloppy blog that looks “homemade” you will not likely have a great response. Try different layouts and approaches to see what gets you the most traffic.

Graphics Overload

Pictures can add a ton to your blog and draw in more readers. However, when done excessively, much like ads, pictures can drive people away. The main reason too many pictures can ruin a blog is because there are many web surfers who still use slow internet connections. When they try to load your page, it will take an excessively long time to do so. This in turn will likely drive them and anyone else with this problem away. Try limiting to a few pictures per page.

Inappropriate Content

Everyone knows that the web is a place where you can freely express yourself. However, if you want your blog to survive, you might want to think about that freedom of expression. Although you should always say what you feel, you can do so in appropriate manners on your blog. There are ways to say anything on your mind, without using profanity or any offensive lingo. If you want your blog to be successful, you cannot be inappropriate with your content.

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The only downside to having wicker outdoor furniture is that it might not last as long as the other kinds, such as the wrought iron or aluminum outdoor furniture. However, with just a little upkeep and the proper precautions, you can keep your wicker furniture looking great. So, what kind of maintenance is required to keep your wicker outdoor furniture looking as it did when you first bought it? All you have to do is, when you’re not using it, keep it covered. Covers will keep it protected from the rain, or any other bad weather, which can warp your wicker outdoor furniture over time.

Ask for other people’s opinions so that you can get a grasp on where the best places are because this will help you out a lot in the end, and remember that patience is truly a key factor here, as all too often people get overwhelmed by the multitude of options and this will never turn out good because then you are more likely to buy on impulse and then end up regretting what you bought, which is obviously not a good thing at all. A great place to do your research is online as you can compare all the different places before you actually go into the store and start to haggle.