Internet Time Management

Internet Time Management

By Rene Graeber

The Internet is taking over man’s normal way of living, so therefore when we consider time management, we must also consider the World Wide Web.

It used to be to manage time; we had to consider family, friends, work, and ourselves.

Now we have to consider emails, websites, advertising, marketing, and other key factors that are including in businesses today.

At one time in our lives, we went to work for eight hours and returned home.

Now we go to work and it is never determined what our workload will include.

Time management is critical for saving us from headaches, heartaches, and other types of pressures. When we manage our time accordingly, we seem to function well in society and at home.

The flood of data that passes us each day via the Internet has changed the entire outlook of time management in the last few decades. When we go to work, we often have to sift through a pile of emails, sorting to find out which ones matter the most.

Sometimes we may stumble upon emails that surprises or interest us. This is not good!

Time management means to spend your time wisely, and if you are sitting around reading an interesting email, where is your time going?

The fact is most advertising are slicks that draw us into a world of fantasy. We often stare into the hands of something that lures us deeper into its web, and if we decide to act on the slick, we often find ourselves regretting the stupidity of acting.

Don’t find yourself saying, “I regret this action.” Rather find yourself saying, “Darn it was a wonderful day.” Life is way too short to waste precious time. When you are drawn away by flaky advertisings, your time is consumed, and your job, family, friends, and you suffer.

Surfing the web is another source that can take our time and toss it out the door.

When we are surfing the web, many interesting topics may confront us. Or, sometimes we see pop-ups that distract us from our intentional goal. Pop-ups for the most part are consistent fakes that interest the human eye, in an effort to distract us from the real world.

The interesting topics on the Internet can benefit us in many ways, but if we are at work, our main focus should be work. Once we finish our job, and other tasks are not scheduled on our list, then we can browse the World Wide Net with freedom.

We can also consider the chat room. Some companies make available chat rooms for their employees. This is good if you are using the program for work, but many of us are caught up in a game of cat and mouse. The chat rooms are so appealing at times, that it makes us want to stay on for hours.

Chatting is a source of communication, which is good, but if the time you are spending in the chat room is not making progress, what is your purpose?

To obtain sufficient time management, you need to avoid the areas that consume, and focus on the areas that make you zoom.

About the Author: Do you want to get rid of your dreadful “time-wasting” habits and start doing things in an organized, efficient manner? Take a few minutes and I’ll show you how to quickly and effectively get more done in a week than what most people can accomplish in a month! Just visit this FREE website at: http://www.time-management-tips-techniques.info

Source: www.isnare.com

Are you content with your online advertising expenses?  If not, schedule a coaching session with DeAnna Spencer.  She will design an affordable online advertising plan for your business.  Visit her small business resource site today for more details.

Website Changes…

Okay everyone, the new website is up.
You can check it out at http://www.learnsmallbusiness.com
I’m not done with it yet.  I’m going to install an article directory soon.  I hope to have the article directory up by February 9th.  I’ll keep you guys posted….

Website Changes…

I’m in the process of changing the servers for learnsmallbusiness.com
You can still view the site by going to http://www.freewebs.com/learnsmallbusiness
The new site will be up in a few days.
Stay tuned…

This Week’s Time Management Tip.

This week’s time management tip
Write it down.  I can’t tell you how many times I have missed an important event because I forgot to write it down.
Even if you have a pda, you still need to have a paper calendar.  What if your pda gets fried or something happens to your hard drive?
Always write your schedule down.  You’ll be more likely to remember what it is that you have to do that day.

Are you content with your online advertising expenses? Schedule a coaching session with DeAnna Spencer today. She’ll create an affordable online advertising plan for your business. Visit her small business website today for more information.

Efficient Blogging

Efficient Blogging

By Jim Estill

One of the challenges of blogging is to come up with good posts that interest readers and keep them coming back. Sometimes I do not feel like I have good original wisdom. It is presumptuous to think I can have top quality original material all the time.

A second challenge is the time to blog. I run a $1 Billion dollar company so when I decided to blog I knew I needed to figure out how to do it efficiently. My blog is mostly about efficiency and time management; these are topics I study.

These two challenges can be solved with a simple concept. Copy.

Ideas to use when copying are:

1 – attribution. Give the credit together with the link to the original author.

2 – look for something you can add to. Blogs can be synergistic. Take a concept or part of a blog post and expend on it and give your opinions, insights or views. In many cases, this can start a flow of ideas that are enriched from the original post.

3 – You can use either the whole post or most usually just part of it and point people to the original.

4 – I usually ask for permission which has never been denied. After all copying helps the original author and garners them some readership. And of course never copy copywritten material without permission (and most blogs are not copy written).

5 – The simplest place to find material to use to copy is by blog surfing although this can mean a lot of irrelevant material to filter. One source of free articles sorted by topic is www.isnare.com.

6 – In many cases the person you copy from will point a link back to you since it is flattering to them. Charles Caleb Colton said “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” (one trick on quotes is to look them up on www.brainyquote.com). These links to you can increase your traffic.

In summary, copying saves time and increases the quality of material on your site. It can even lead to traffic since in many cases you will get link backs from the original site.

About the Author: Jim Estill is CEO of SYNNEX Canada a $1 Billion distributor of computer products. He is also a regular blogger at http://jimestill.blogspot.com/

Source: www.isnare.com

Are you content with your online advertising expenses? Schedule a coaching session with DeAnna Spencer today. She will design an affordable online advertising campaign for your business. Visit her small business site for more details.

The Humble Postcard Is Making A Comeback

The Humble Postcard Is Making A Comeback

By George Dodge

If you were a contestant on Jeopardy and the answer was "Postcards," what would the question be?

How about:

"What is one of the most incredibly effective, yet under-utilized methods for driving qualified buyers to your business or website?"

Many businesses think postcards are a little old-fashioned for this era of Internet Marketing, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Online marketers are discovering that using email lists as an effective form of marketing is fading fast due to the unfortunate avalanche of SPAM (unsolicited commercial email)!

Internet Service Providers and individual consumers are now trying to filter out the ever growing glut of SPAM. But, unfortunately the software developed to assist in SPAM control is not terribly accurate and a very large amount of legitimate communications between a business and its customer base is being unintentionally blocked by these filters.

And even if the email does get through, it is often lost among the other 200 or so emails in the receiver’s inbox and simply gets bulk deleted. As a result, email is no longer a reliable method of maintaining contact and building a relationship with customers.

Yet, most small businesses do not have large budgets to conduct full fledged direct marketing campaigns. The humble postcard comes to the rescue! The humble postcard can serve both online and offline businesses well, driving traffic to both brick-and-mortar stores as well as commercial websites.

Famous copywriter Gary Halbert says most people sort their mail over a waste basket. As they mentally separate the mail into two categories, junk and personal, the junk mail drops directly into the wastebasket unopened. But the postcard is already open. It is small and easily read at a glance so the likelihood of the message getting through is increased greatly. And at the same time the production and mailing cost remain economical.

Postcard advertising and postcard marketing are back in vogue. Marketing postcards can be sent to customers as personalized postcards for any number of occasions, including holidays, birthdays, special events, or special offers.

The simple postcard economically helps keep businesses in touch with their customer base and develop that all important relationship between the business and the customer. Promotional postcards should be in every marketer’s bag of tricks!

Are they in yours?

About the Author: George Dodge is owner of Postcard Campaigns a resource site where you can discover how to create winning postcard marketing campaigns for building your business on a budget and where you can download 3 FREE Chapters from the Market with Postcards course

Source: www.isnare.com

Are you content with your online advertising expenses?  Schedule a coaching session with DeAnna Spencer today.  She will design an affordable advertising plan for your small business.
Visit her small business resource site today for more details.

Maximizing Your Advertising Budget

Maximizing Your Advertising Budget
By Spencer Hoyt

Trying to communicate your company’s message can be quite difficult if you’re working with a limited advertising budget. One of the biggest problems with having a small budget is that reaching your audience becomes more challenging since you may have fewer opportunities to put your message out. In order to effectively get your message out you need to make creative choices when deciding which types of media to use.

Buying ad space for TV, radio and magazines can add up quickly giving you a hefty bill to foot each month. To avoid high monthly costs for ad space consider using any space that your company may already own. For instance, if your company is already using vehicles for its everyday business, think about taking advantage of that space for advertising. Fleet graphics are a great way to maximize the use of your company vehicle and make the most out of your advertising budget. Everywhere your company vehicle travels it will take your message along for the ride.

Targeting a specific audience can be complicated at times. You must consider the audience’s demographics before placing a single ad. And then you still have to take a chance and hope that they will see or hear the ad when it airs. Fleet graphics can offer a solution to this common dilemma. Since they are a mobile form of advertising they are constantly coming in contact with different audiences at various times of the day and week in multiple locations.

For some companies the main concern with advertising is whether or not it is working. They want to advertise and then see business increase quickly. The use of fleet graphics can create the fast turnaround that is craved by many business owners. You do not have to wait for your ad to be aired or published for customers to see it. Once it is on the company vehicle it can begin to work for you whether it’s on the road or in a parking lot somewhere.

Various types of fleet graphics are available to meet your needs and reach your audience. Car magnets and vinyl decals can provide you with signage for any vehicle. If you’re looking to make a splash with fleet graphics, bus wraps may be the way to go. Advertising across the side of a bus really commands the attention of passersby. Fleet graphics are durable and long lasting. They are able to remain in good condition even in the harshest of conditions so you can get lots of affordable advertising from them again and again.

Spencer Hoyt is a freelance writer for Pixus Digital
Printing. Pixus is a short
run producer of various types of Adhesive Graphics including Fleet
Graphics.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Spencer_Hoyt

Are you content with your online advertising expenses? Schedule a coaching session with DeAnna Spencer today. She will design an affordable online advertising plan for your small business. Visit her small business resource today for more information.

The Bible – The Source of All Copywriting Secrets

The Bible – The Source Of All Copywriting Secrets

By Ray L. Edwards

I’ve been a student of the Bible for practically all my life. There is a lot of reason why this book remains the number one best-seller year after year. I think that it is the source of ALL wisdom, yes, including successful copywriting!

What do I mean by this?

Simply put, every copywriting strategy can be found FIRST in the Bible. This may appear to be a strong statement but I challenge the reader to prove otherwise. As I did the research for my latest ebook "77 Ways to Skyrocket Your Website’s Conversion", I kept saying to myself "but that’s in the Bible … that’s in the Bible."

I would like to take a look at FIVE copywriting principles and show you that they are as old as the Scriptures. This article is not meant to ‘convert’ you so read with an open mind … ready? Let’s go!

1. Stress benefits not features.

It’s the Garden of Eden. The serpent approaches the woman Eve to get her to take of the forbidden fruit. Does he rave about the color, taste and texture of the fruit? No, he sells Eve on benefits. "Your eyes will be opened, you will be like God …" (Genesis 3:4). Now that’s a benefit, not a feature at all. And did Eve fall for it? She surely did.

That may seem like a ‘negative’ example – a plain deception. But look at what the book of Revelation promises the "overcomer". Eternal life, health, recognition, wealth and mansions without mortgages.

2. Use lots of testimonials.

If you have just a cursory knowledge of the Bible you know that the gospels of Matthew, Mark Luke and John make up the first four books of the New Testament. They all cover the same ground and share many common stories. So why would we need four different people saying practically the same thing?

You see they all wanted to tell THEIR story about the Rabbi Jesus Christ. So the writers (all satisfied customers) relate the life-changing encounter they each had – the more testimonies the better.

The entire Bible relates stories of peoples encounter with the supernatural and how it affected their lives. In fact, Jesus related to the disciples after His miraculous resurrection that all the Old Testament was really about Him.

3. "Create a damaging admission and address flaws openly"

That’s the title to chapter 3 of the master copywriter Dan Kennedy’s book "The Ultimate Sales Letter". He goes on to explain that if you openly admit the drawbacks of your offer then your credibility goes up instantly with the customer. For example, your price may be higher than your competitors so you may say: "If you are looking to save a few bucks then you can find many other companies who will be willing to give you some ‘quick fixes’. But we provide a very thorough and expert service, hence the higher price"

You are admitting that you are expensive but showing why – the customer gets a superior service.

In the gospels we see many potential disciples who wanted to follow Jesus and he told them openly that it was a sacrificial walk. He told them in no uncertain terms that it involved a "cross", leaving father and mother behind, even possible death – but you will gain eternal life in the process. Talk about a "damaging admission.

4. Place a limit on your offer to motivate procrastinators.

This is a very important element of the "call to action" section of any sales letter. Humans are naturally procrastinators. We always put off what should be done now for a ‘later’ that never arrives. That is why the copywriter must show that supplies are limited or the special offer is for a ‘limited time only’.

In many ‘call to action’ sections of the Bible we see the same warning to procrastinators. "Today if you hear my voice do not harden your heart .." (Hebrews 3:7). In the story of the great flood procrastinators were found outside the ark. Jesus told the story of the covetous farmer who built bigger barns to store his grains not knowing that death would come knocking on his door that very night.

Jesus never sent one of his listeners to go away and think about it. Today … now, was the only time that anyone had. His message was "ACT NOW!"

5. Research your potential customers to know their problems and needs.

Dan Kennedy refers to this as "getting into the customer". Getting into the head and experiences of the customer -walk in his moccasins.

The whole Christmas story is about Jesus getting into the skin – literally – of the customer. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus is touched by our feelings and infirmities. He became like one of us so that He may understand "the customer" better. That is why he could speak to the needs of the human heart with such authority because he knows what is in man.

I’ve just briefly looked at 5 copywriting principles but this applies across the board. Whether you accept the Bible as just another book or as inspired writings, there is no denying that the principles are there.

I would love to hear from the reader if he or she would like to challenge me on finding a useful copywriting principle that’s not in the Bible.

About the Author: Ray L. Edwards is a master copywriter, published author and Internet Marketing Consultant. You may find more of his inspiring articles by visiting his website. More Copywriting Articles

Source: www.isnare.com

Are you content with your online advertising expenses?  Schedule a coaching session with DeAnna Spencer today.  She will design an affordable advertising plan for your small business.  Visit her small business resource site today for more details.