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They say that image is everything and some of us have seen it all. Have you ever went into a store and just could not believe what you were seeing behind the counter? Is that a real human? Without trying to make the world into a civilization like the “Borg” there are a few things you need to think about in your small business. You need a grooming policy; one, which allows for individualism to a point but conveys confidence to the consumer.

Obviously if you run certain types of businesses such as; a head shop, tattoo parlor, a funky novelties retail store, new age spirituality store, adult book store, alternative music shop or cyber café; then grooming policy is not as critical. As a matter of fact the more unique the grooming from mainstream the better following of clientele you will have. For the rest of it is different.

All employees and crewmembers must be well groomed. Shirts should be tucked in. Men should be clean-shaven. Facial hair is ok but beards must be trimmed and mustaches should be well kept. We don’t want anyone looking like Charlie Manson or Adolf Hitler. Everyone should like they have just left ettiqutte school for girls or graduated from the boy scout. Well, let’s not take this too far, however we as business people must be thinking here to insure repeat customers and lots of referral business. So, hair should be brushed and controlled even on windy days or wear a hat; not just any hat, a company logo’ed hat. In the summer most workers cut their hair to stay cool and keep perspiration out of their eyes. If you are an outdoor service company like ours, we run a car wash, then we recommend sweat bands if this continues to be a problem (company colors, of course). Additionally in our company we go so far as to instruct workers to be careful not to wipe their face after handling tire dressing because your hands will have black on them and you will eventually get stains all over your head band and in your eyes. Each company has a different set of things to think of. Food vendors have other issues, clothing stores others; every business is different and your grooming policy needs to be cognizant of how you business differs from others and what type of policy is safe and smart for you.

All workers should shower each morning before work. This keeps them smelling nice; body odor can be a real turn off to customers and kill a sale faster than anything else. If a crewmember perspires a lot, that worker should bring an extra towel and shirt if they work outside. Politely suggesting body deodorant may not be such a bad idea either to help you from losing sales.

In the car wash business we must be concerned that a worker should not use car wash towels to wipe sweat off their face and body. The towels will dry out and someone else will accidentally pick up that towel and use it for windows or wax and smear dried sweat all over a black Mercedes. If your company works out doors on humid days; the heavily perspiring worker should change in to their new second company shirt at 2:00 pm after wiping off with the towel they brought.

Extra deodorant, preferably roll-on with a cap that fits snug, can be kept in the break room with the employees name on it. If you work outside with a work crew out of a work truck, keep it behind the seat, rather than in the glove box. Roll-on left in the glove box on hot days will heat up and leak. The best thing to use is baking soda. If you rub a little under your arms, it will absorb sweat for hours.

What ever grooming and personal hygiene policy you have must fit your individual small business, do not simply adopt another businesses policies, make your own and think about it.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

PR, that is public-relations, leads the way to effective advertising; opening the channel of communication and allowing the advertising to be acceptable. Public-relations is really all the different ways of communicating that enable society and individuals and groups and organizations to better function and more understandably communicate with each other. Marketing is composed of the different forms of communications, such as words and pictures on music and shapes and colors that make a person or group more willing to receive a communication that communication usually being an advertisement. In the advertisement is to induce a consumer to purchase a good or service. The more a public-relations and marketing expert knows about various goods and services, the better that person is that marketing, advertising and selling them.

To be good at PR marketing, advertisement, and sales person must be good at counseling. And they must be good at counseling, whomever is providing the good and service, as well as whomever is purchasing it. In order be good at marketing, one must be good at researching evaluating establishing goals setting priorities designing programs and implementing all the activities necessary to get a product or service from the producer and provider to the consumer.

To be good at public-relations marketing, advertising and sales; you need to be good, professionally good at writing, speaking, art, management, psychology, philosophy, sociology, political science, economics, and the basic principles of science and engineering and physics. And in the final analysis, one must be able to achieve the goal. That is a sale and a payment as a result that sale, no matter what. That’s about all there is to it.

Copyright 2005 by Jody Hudson www.JodyHudson.com and www.Kate-Jody.com

Jody Hudson has been a realtor in America and Delaware for over 35 years.

Rule #1. Write an article on “how to explode blog traffic !!!”
Rule #2. Read on

To be very frank there are quite a bit of so called tried and
tested ways to increase you blog traffic, but these merely focus
on increasing hits on your blog, but do not focus on the main
reason why you want more traffic viz. to read what you write and
keep coming back for more.

Sites such as Blogexplosion.com do deliver on their hits, but
sadly most of these hits stay for a maximum of 30 secs only,
after which they click on the next blog to increase their
traffic.

That brings us back to the topic, What can really be done? Is
there a way out? How do i make myself heard above the din?

Well, here are some tips for starters.

1. Write. Write stuff. Write stuff people like to read. Most
often blogs end up being abused by people who think the world is
waiting to know what happens to them every second (I don’t deny
them this right…they have it!), however the same thing can be
presented in a way that forces the reader to continue reading.
Simple check! read as though you didn’t write it. Funny? worth
posting? go ahead post.

2. Make friends. I don’t mean going around shaking hands with
people and expect a sudden spurt in your traffic, instead post
reciprocal links on your blog. Yes people do read others links
and if you are there, people will visit your blog. Its an easy
way to piggyback on some good blogs.

3. Articles!!!! Take some of your posts, tweak them a bit, add a
snazzy caption and Presto! you have your own article ready. Now
take that article and post it all around you (on the net
please….i don’t expect people to walk around with faces stuck
with paper muffling away….thish is smy aaarticle!). There are
quite a list of websites that do this.

4. Check your Site title and description ( I think this should
have come in second in order….lets just forget the order for
now) Get a cool title something that makes people go, “oooohh
thats hhhhhhooooootttttttt” (if not that much atleast…….a “i
think this might be interesting”). And remember to give a
matching description (the funnier the better). This will also
help you get better results on search engines.

5. Submit to Blog Search engines. Most people search for blogs
not on the major search engines, but on blog search engines. So
make sure your blog has been submitted to these engines. The
more the merrier. Search on google for blog search engines and
submit your blog to all of these.

6. PHOTOS ROCK!!!! Face it, most people do search blogs to see
something interesting and what best but a photo to give them a
24million color view of something. Yes photos rock, and they do
bring in traffic. It kinda gives a coolness to your site. Its
like wearing colors while everyone else is in uniform. Most
blogging providers support photoblogging, but if you need a
place to host photos photobucket.com is a place as good as any.

7. Get original ! Showing others content may bring people to
your site, but it would not make them stay. all they would say
is . ….”another smartass trying to keep his blog updated by
somebody else’s work”. So keep the blog original with what you
would like to say.

8. Publicize!!! I am not talking about banner exchanges ( not
only do give free advertising on your site, you also have to put
up with ugly graphics that can be out of place on your beautiful
site.) Think up creative ways. Get a bumper sticker on your car,
your boss’s car, your company delivery truck…the works.
Another easier option, get it on your company’s email signature
or atleast on yours.

9. Evangelize!!! No i am not a religious nut and i’m not
expecting you to be one. Write stuff that would make people go
on and talk about you without you threatening them or paying
them. And refer to “the blog” in common discussions, parties
etc…. wherever you find people.

10. Ok so you got so far…….on more important thing. Don’t
expect to find any of the above on my blog, the only reason
being, i don’t need to explode my blog traffic !!!!

Apple recently announced the release of the iPod Radio Remote. This little accessory combines a wired remote control with a FM radio receiver. It works with the iPod nano and the most recent generation (fifth) of iPods.

The iPod Radio Remote is a convenient way for music lovers to control their iPod and add FM radio for a reasonable price point. Using the remote, you can skip tracks and adjust the volume of your iPod even when it’s in a pocket or backpack. It’s main feature - lets you and listen to FM radio stations while it displays station and song information on the iPod’s screen.

“The iPod Radio Remote combines two great features in one elegant product,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s iPod Marketing guy said recently. “The iPod Radio Remote is both the best remote control and the best FM radio listening experience for iPod.”
If you search the Apple iPod store online, you will also find a couple of competitors that launched similar products ahead of Apple.

But I must admit, the Apple Radio Remote is a cleaner package. If you live in the city and get good FM reception, this is a nice little add-on. If you live in the burbs and are looking for great sound - similar to the quality that you get from your iPod, then forget about the iPod Radio Remote. Why, because it is like any other small FM radio, it needs a strong signal to give you decent sound.

But don’t give up, there is quite a lot happening in the real time audio market and you will have more choices in the coming months.
There were several rumors in 2005 about Apple and satellite radio for instance. “The iPod is the biggest, baddest thing around and satellite radio is this small, cool device,” said Steve Mather, an analyst with Sander Morris Harris. “Put them together and it’s the ultimate.”

But there has been no evidence that such a dream machine is in the works. Earlier this year, Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Mel Karmazin said he had approached Steve Jobs, the chief of iPod maker Apple Computer, about a possible deal but said Jobs wasn’t interested.

Sirius didn’t sit on its butt. The created their first portable device called the S50, a small, sleek device used with a docking port in your car. It is like a TiVo for radio. It automatically stores music for later listening. You can schedule recordings from both music and talk stations (with a firmware upgrade), save favorite songs, and link up to a PC to load music files. But… you can’t see the song list for recorded music. The S50 is available only with a car kit and the controls are hard to use.

Not to be left out, XM recently unveiled a new satellite radio for spring ‘06. Like their initial radio, the new receiver will pick up satellite signals as you are walking around outside. No docking station is needed, which is a huge advantage over the Sirius S50. It also has 1 gigabyte of memory so that you can record 50 hours of radio play. Out doing the S50 - there are no restrictions on how or what you can record. In fact, XM has made it even easier to capture individual songs.

The new XM player also provides a “tag” feature that let’s you immediately purchase any song you hear from Napster’s online store. When you reconnect the player to your computer, you can get those MP3’s that you just purchased to create a mix of MP3’s and radio content on the player.

XM now appears to be ahead of Sirius and Apple in the radio wars. To prove it they announced the XM Passport, a small card that can be plugged in and out of future XM enabled devices. With the passport card, you need only buy one subscription to XM radio to power a number of satellite receivers; just plug in your passport card

John Thomas is an author and business consultant who works with entrepreneurs and business owners. He takes time to pursue his passion for iPods at iPod-Tips.com

Google had established its supremacy amongst the ranks of search
engines being the most preferred and most popular search engine
on the web. I remember the instance when the son of a friend of
mine refused to accept the information we gave him about
Christmas, until he was convinced that the content had indeed
been pulled off Google. In 2000, as Google won the race over the
other search engine it was also involved in creating a program
that would catapult its position as a viable advertising medium
and generate more revenue. The initial advertising model that
Google had developed was primarily for the use of big companies
however, it later also developed the Google Adwords program
which offers beneficial results to all companies, big and small.

Google’s Adwords is a keyword targeted advertising program. The
original Google Adwords program was discontinued because its
basic idea was to pay per impression which did not guarantee
traffic to the advertiser and was not so popular. With the
overhauling that the Google Adwords received in 2002 changed all
of that. Google’s Adwords is advertising model that works on the
principle of pay per click advertising. It is keyword targeted
which means that when a user searches for certain keywords that
are related or present on your site then Google Adwords
automatically display your site along with the results of the
search in a column right next to the search results.

With Google Adwords, you choose which keywords you choose to
advertise and hence when your ad is displayed on the search page
it will display what you feel is your most relevant content.
This way you are guaranteed a click if your domain name or the
content appears relevant to the user. It is PPC advertising
which means that you only pay if the user clicks on your domain
name and hence visits your site. Adwords also makes sure that
your ad stays at its position on the search engine page because
the program Discounter reduces the price you pay per click to
one above your competitor which also means that you are not
required to constantly check on the position of your advert,
Google Adwords does that for you.

Another plus point for Google Adwords over others is that Google
Adwords maintains the position of your ad through not only Pay
Per Click but also Click Through Rate, this is essentially
important because this way even the small fish have the chance
to stay alive. The company with the bigger bank balance does not
win hands down; each company must strive to stay at the top. If
your content is good, and your CTR is good then you can keep
your place on the search results page easily.

There is a new advertising style from Google Adsense that is available in your Adsense panel, it is called “Google Ad Links.”

This new ad system presents a list of 4 or 5 vertical links(you can pick either 4 or 5 and Google will supply the actually links) to your site visitors, when the visitors click on one of the targeted contextual words it displays a results page from Google listing ten Adwords advertiser’s ads for this related topic.

Here is what Google says Adlinks are:
“What are Ad Links by Google?

Ad Links are a new form of text advertising that we’re offering to our AdSense publishers. Using the same contextual targeting algorithm that targets Google ads to your content pages, Ad Links units display a list of topics that are relevant to your page. Each topic, when clicked, brings the user to a page of related advertisements.

The result is advertisements that are closely targeted to the interests of your users. By selecting the topics through interaction with the ad unit, users are presented with useful information in the form of related advertisements. Their direct involvement with the evolution of the ad unit guarantees an interest in the ads that are presented.”

Positive Aspects of Adlinks:

They allow you to blend this in with sections of your links which will get more visitors to click on them, inevitably increase your Adsense revenue.

The Adlinks ads display 10 ad results when clicked without cluttering you page.

Google’s rules allow you to place three Adsense code block on a website. If you are doing this near say a 500 word article it can distract the visitor from viewing the article. With Adlinks you can still display 1 block of normal Adsense code and the Adlinks block and it keeps your page relatively nice looking while still giving you revenue potential.

Negative Aspects of Adlinks:

Adlinks requires your visitors to make two clicks. One on the original Adlinks block and one when they view the Adlink results. As any marketer knows the more actions you need a visitor to take the less the response rate.

Where are the best places to display Adlinks ads?

The best place to display them are within your navigation menu. Try to make them blend in as best as possible.

Another great place to put them is at the end of an article suggesting an interested reader view these resources. When doing this the reader is very targeted since they red your whole article and if they are likely leaving your website, why not let them leave through Adlinks and make some money?

Are Adlink ads as effective as the normal ad blocks?

Well some have seen positive results while other have not. Personally I am going to test it some more to see what kind of results and make my decision then.

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Most web sites are considered as dead. They are buried among the millions of other unvisited web sites. Website promotion is a specialist service that many companies are failing to address, with the end result that no matter how good their websites are, visitors are still slow and that makes them fail to generate a worthwhile income. With a good website promotion, It is certain to boost your sales and achieve excellent return on investment by getting multiple top rankings in the major search engines and directories for your website.

You should start your website promotion efforts by listing the site at the most popular internet directories. Because they can send your substantial amounts of traffic and can affect the ranking in various search engines. It is better to make sure that your site is present in all of the major directories before doing anything else.

Web site promotion should be the most important part of your web site marketing plan. It’s not sufficient just to design a beautiful web site and put in on the Net. Promoting your web site has to be done frequently if you want to get a nonstop stream of traffic to it. If you don’t make traffic go to your web site, your online business scheme will soon be unsuccessful.

Here are 7 Fundamental Steps to a Better Web Site Promotion:

1. CREATING A WEB SITE MARKETING PLAN.

When making your web sites create a plan on how to promote it as well. Try to pretend you’re a consumer when you’re developing it. It’s too effortless just to view your web site from your own point of view. You need to have a clear visualization for your business, goals (short and long term) you wish to attain and the strategies of how you will carry them out.

2. DEFINING YOUR GOAL.

A lot of online marketers promote their web site without purpose in a field which is too large, for instance they may use bulk mailing as one of their endorsement strategies. You may get some consumers but the chances are you will not make any sales because of the wrong consumers you acquire. Getting targeted consumers to your web site, will increase sales, because they will have more interest in your merchandise or service than advertising to a general audience.

3. USING SEVERAL ADVERTISING SRATEGIES.

Sticking to one form of promotion is not advisable because you may never know which one will work for you the best. Using more channels like search engines, email, marketing, forums, writing articles etc, you will have a greater chance of having traffic on your web site.

4. PROMOTING CONTINUOUSLY.

Driving constant traffic to your web site, you must promote it endlessly. The life blood of your online business is the web traffic. For instance, you could always optimize your web pages for the search engines; resubmit them if needed, visiting discussion forums daily and writing an article for online publications for not less than two weeks.

5. CALCULATING YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT.

Keeping track of how much money you invested in your promotion plan and what earnings you received in return. This will keep you away from wasting large amount of money thrown aimlessly into advertising.

6. ANALYZING YOUR WEB SITE TRAFFIC.

You can identify what marketing strategies are doing well. You can then modify them as necessary, to improve the sales or services from your location. Your analysis may consist of what keywords your visitors are using to find your web site, which web pages are the most admired and where your visitors are coming from. These are necessary information you should know, instead of blindly promoting your web site and hoping for the best.

7. TEST, MONITOR AND TRACK YOUR RESULTS.

When running an effective online marketing operation, you need to always test what works and what doesn’t. Tracking an answer to an ad may cause you to refine it until it generates a great return on the money you invested. Once your results are all right, you can then roll out your ads on a bigger scale and spend large amount of money.

Jay Peterson writer, web designer, marketer. http://www.TicTacWebsites.com is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. No programming or design skill required. Get your small business online in just 5 minutes with http://www.tictacwebsites.com loaded with 30+ business features.

The craft of clock making is said to have started in Black Forest, Germany. The abundance of both time and woods have fashioned the idea of creating clocks, which was followed after an imported clock from a nearby area.

The first clocks that were produced in this region were rather primitive but are great alternatives for the sundials hourglasses that were ordinarily use during those times. Wooden toothed wheels were the first parts and the weights are normally made of stones. The pendulum was created from the wood named as Waag that runs back and forth on top of the dial to keep the cuckoo clock in time.

In due time, the inhabitants of the Black Forest became artisans in their own fields. Some specialized in wood carving, others on clock making. Still others became clock painters while some make the toothed wheels and the chains.

And from this peaceful countryside of Black Forest town of Schnwald, Germany did the cuckoo clocks originated. Later, cuckoo clocks have gain worldwide popularity due to their uniqueness. What was originally the Dutch clock was reinvented to capture a nature’s sound-the cuckoo’s call. Franz Ketterer outlined the system of a clock that imitates the whistles and billows of the cuckoos. Refinements on the original design of the cuckoo clocks had led to the familiar set of a chalet or a birdhouse.

Since 1738, the production of the cuckoo clocks is still centralized at the Black Forest area in Germany, specifically in Neustadt and Triberg. However, cuckoo clocks are often thought of having its origin from Switzerland.

This confusion may have been due to the fact that there are other versions of the cuckoo clocks from neighboring regions, which had been around for quite some time even before the making of the cuckoo clocks. One good example is the rooster clock.

A cuckoo clock typically has a pendulum built into it. Conceptualized after the striking of a gong, the cuckoo clocks are characterized by whistles and billows that are imitated after the calls of the cuckoo birds. The designs of ordinary cuckoo clocks are often conventional with birds popping up from the openings and rustic designs all over with occasional nature designs like animals and leaves. Cuckoo clocks are hanged on the walls and are frequently enclosed in wooden boxes.

As the clock strikes, the bird that is hidden within the cuckoo clock appears through the trap door and vanishes immediately after the striking is done.

The typical cuckoo clocks have birds that move everytime the clock strikes. This is done through an arm that is being lifted from behind the carving. Most cuckoo clocks are programmed to play musical tunes from a musical box before the hour strikes. This type of cuckoo clocks has other automata that creates the musical tunes. Most clocks are driven by weight, they are seldom made with spring drives.

With modernity comes the change in the cuckoo clocks. There had been created clocks that imitate the billows and whistles of the cuckoos, only electronically. Mostly of these are fake quartz that runs through battery.

With the clocks’ fame, many of them have moved their ways into the homes worldwide. Many are still fashioned after the traditional cuckoo clocks but many were created with the touch of modernity. A display of these clocks is a genuine mark of Germany.

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