Darkness

    It seems that today a great darkness has covered the earth and mankind is doomed to continue to repeat mistake after mistake so that only cruelty and violence is the “norm” for people to consider.

    If you go back a century to a year prior to 1914 you would find that people were very optimistic about what the future had to offer.  They seemed to feel that they sat on the edge of some great advancement that would provide a utopia of peace and tranquility.  However, when the year 1914 arrived those dreams were shattered by the reality of the Great War which we have come to know as World War I.

     Since that time it seems only doom and disaster have followed any supposed “advancements” that humans have tried to make.  Consider something very simple:  I can remember as a kid growing up in middle Georgia, taking walks in the woods.  I would come upon a stream of water and have no hesitation of dipping my hand into the stream and cooling myself off with a nice drink of water.  Today I would be hesitant to suggest this to anyone!

     Water pollution is only one of the problems that continue to plague humankind.  Add to that air pollution, light pollution, sound pollution:  The very environment in which we live is threatened to the point of our making an extinction of the human race.

     Some view these things only as scientific problems that will be solved with solutions that are obtained by continued research and human ingenuity.  Others view these things as political problems which can only be solved by the governments of the world working together to achieve a world-wide solution.  However, most governments of this world cannot even provide solutions for the problems that they face within their own borders much less want to work in harmony with other governments to provide possible solutions.

     The sad truth is that we as humans cannot solve these world-wide situations that we ourselves have created and continue to advance from bad to worse.  We continue to work in the direct opposite fashion by adding to the problems that already exist.  In these times we are our own worst enemy:  But, then again, we’re only human!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"The Solution to Pollution:

Just STOP!"

Articles and Autoresponders

     You may not think of yourself as a writer.  But you need to explain to your potential customers why they should going to YOUR website and making purchases instead of making a visit to your competitors.  Writing articles to market a product or service is an excellent way to build business. The articles should be very informative, providing the reader with information that is relevant to a specific topic. The article usually includes a link to a webpage for more information. The webpage, of course, is designed to sell a product or service that relates to the topic of the article.

     How do you get these articles out to the internet “public”?  These articles are commonly submitted to article banks, websites, and ezine publishers. This is one of the most effective ways to market a service or product on the Internet, and it can become even more effective when it is combined with the use of an autoresponder.

     Begin by setting each of your articles up in your autoresponder. It is important that each article have its very own autoresponder address, so you will need an autoresponder service that will allow you to do this. There are many of these on the market.  Just do a search on the web.  Next, make a master list of your articles, with the autoresponder address for each article listed beside the title. You can even add descriptions of the articles on your master list if you want to.

     Advertising your articles one at a time can take a great deal of time…but advertising one autoresponder address – the one for the master list – won’t take very much time at all. Simply put it in your newsletter and on your website. You can even allow other ezine publishers to use this as a free resource for their subscribers!

     You will be getting responses from your articles before you know it.  YOU will become the “go to” operation in your niche!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"If you have what people need, shout it from the rooftops!

But, make sure you're shouting in the right direction."

The Young

    As I am on the brink of passing into my 8^th decade of life I can take the time to ponder on some topics that I feel should be very obvious to others within my age group.  One of these topics is “The Young.”

     My wife and I have spent the past week taking care of our GREAT grandson and GREAT granddaughter.  It looks like we will have them at least for three to five more days!  Now don’t get me wrong I love these two kids, but they are certainly a handful to take care of.  Having and taking care of children is absolutely for the young.

     I guess I should also mention that one is a little girl TWO years old.  The other is a ONE year old little boy.  And of course, together they are constantly doing those little things that simply annoy the other.

     My wife and I are also getting to that point where we can hardly lift either one of them.  You must also realize that they want to be held and walked around all the time.  It almost becomes impossible for us to handle the situation.

     Now we understand why it should be (and usually is) the responsible for the young to have children and to raise them to be good, loving, and caring adults.  This is not always easy in today’s environment. 

     Often both parents may have to work secularly to care for the financial needs of the family.  This presents many problems for those who have children to care for.  Reliable child care is not always available or if it is, the expense may be more than a couple can handle.

     The situation is compounded when the children are in a single parent family arrangement.  That is the case with our granddaughter.  She has to care for these kids by herself.  This can be extremely difficult for some.  Add to the situation that the parent (or parents) may have their own health problems to deal with and you can understand how the situation may be exasperated.

     However, with the constant needs of such young ones you can see how difficult it may be for older ones to provide the care that is needed.  That’s why you’ve heard it said: “Having children is for the young!”

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"If you could save your youth until you are old enough 

to know how to deal with the matters of life 

you would be young enough to deal 

with all the trials you must face."

Don't Kill Your Business

    The only way to make certain that your online business has a chance to be successful is to keep yourself educated on HOW to make your site stand out from the rest.  We will discuss a few of these points.

Creativity

     This is one virtue a site must possess to lead the race in the ruthless competition in the Internet based business. With so much competition and rivalries going on, every method of marketing must be employed and utilized.

     It doesn’t matter if you have a killer product or a fantastically designed website, if people don’t know that you exist, it doesn’t matter, and you are not going to make it big. Worse of all, your business could just get killed by the competition.

     While there are so many methods and schemes used by so many e-commerce sites today, there are still some of those that can help you with an extra boost in the popularity ratings. One of these is the called Viral Marketing.

     While the term Viral easily depicts a virus, a word very much dreaded by all computer owners, it is not what it seems. You do not actually use a computer virus to spread your business; on the contrary that just might kill you. Everyone has had enough of all those pop up ads and spywares.   So what are we talking about?

Viral Marketing Overview

     Viral Marketing also known otherwise as Viral Advertising is a marketing technique used to build the public awareness of one’s product or company. They use many forms of media to reach out to the public without actually promoting the product by riding in on other forms of addictive means that could get a person hooked and be obliged or amused to actually pass it on, with the product or company advertisement along with it.

     In a nutshell, companies ride in on the idea that if people like the content of a media they will pass it on to their friends and family. They sponsor the certain media, such as a cool flash game, funny video, amusing story and such, which one may pass on to another with the company brand or logo or the products description or any other content to help promote the company or its product.

     Viral marketing has become a popular means of advertising and marketing because they are relatively low cost. To avoid being tagged as spam mail, viral marketing counts on the eagerness of one person to pass on the product to another. If a person sees the name of the person they know as the sender, they won’t block it and they will be more apt to open it as well.

     Many companies offer incentives such as discounts and rebates when they help in spreading their viral marketing. They rely on the number of recipients as viral marketing goes from one person to another in determining the amount or number of incentives they can be attributed with.

Using Viral Marketing to your advantage

     The main and foremost advantage of viral marketing is that you get a lot of publicity and public awareness about your site and your company. You get to generate a flow of traffic that becomes potential customers. With a little ingenuity and imagination, plus some incentives or prizes, you can reach out to a great number of people and announce your existence.

     Most every site and various companies are catching on to the effectiveness of Viral Marketing and Advertising. Not using it could kill your business. Along with other schemes and methods in promoting your site, like Search Engine Optimization and such, viral marketing could easily push you ahead in the rating games.

     Viral Marketing could be a sneaky way to get people to know about you and your company. You get them to pass your advertisement along. They are also very low cost so not investing in it could be downright a business suicide. All it takes is a great idea, a good addicting game, a funny story many ideas are still out there. Create a gossip or a buzz about your niche.  Many movies are promoted by using scandals and gossips to make them more popular. Remember the movie “The Blair Witch Project”?  I’ve talked about this one before.

     Many big companies have tried viral marketing and have had many success stories with it. A classic example is Microsoft’s Hotmail. They were the first known big company to utilize the scheme and it has worked wonders for them.

     Now it’s your turn to use viral marketing to work wonders for you. Act now and reap the benefits Viral Marketing will provide for you and your sales figures.  Always keep your “name” in front of your potential audience.  They will help make you become successful!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"You must continue to breathe life into your business.

You cannot succeed otherwise!"

Courage

     According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the meaning of courage is “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.”

     At this time many are celebrating the 50^th anniversary of man’s journey to the moon.  There on July 20, 1969 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin truly went “where no man had gone before.”  They step upon the lunar surface and fulfilled the proposed venture made by President Kennedy about eight years earlier to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

     It took courage for these brave men, along with astronaut Michael Collins, to sit atop a Saturn V rocket at the Kennedy Space Center and be propelled into the vastness of space.  Their courage and reliance upon a vast crowd of scientist, engineers, mathematicians, and others that had worked hard and long to make this trip a reality was a sure sign of their faith in the NASA project.  However, they still had to personally make the decision to put themselves into that capsule and courageously put their faith into action.

     We do not have to put ourselves into such a situation to show that we as everyday individuals have the courage we need to face our personal day to day life problems.  Another dictionary includes the following as part of the definition of courage: “the ability to do something that frightens one.”  Or “strength in the face of pain or grief.”

     Young or old, every day we face challenges in our lives that make us frightened.  Some of those situations bring us pain or grief.  We need courage to face these situations and we need the help and assistance of others.  Just as those three astronauts became household names of “fame” by making that historic journey to the moon, they could not have done it alone.  They had the help of thousands!  We too need to build around us a support group of friends, family, and others who will be there when we need them.  And there will be times when we do.  There will also be times when they need our support.

     Regardless of the situations we must face each day, we can take courage and know that others have faced similar situations and have come off victorious.  We too can have the courage to face these things and come out a winner!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"To face the unknown

is the greatest challenge.

Courage is what make it possible."

Friendships

    When we are small children it seems fairly easy to make friendships.  We usually know the kids we grow up with from the “neighborhood” and normally these are the ones we go to school with on a daily basis.  As the years pass we begin to gravitate toward those who develop similar interests that we have and before we know it these individuals become the cornerstones of what develops as our “circle of friends.”

     However, when we graduate from High School and venture off into our chosen areas of adulthood, these “friends” sometimes only become memories from our past.  We no longer have the connections that we had as children.  We don’t share the same interests that brought us together while we were growing up.  Now our interests are on new things, new people, and our imagined adventures that await us in our adult lives.  Sometimes these things become reality and at other times they do not!

     There may be times in our future when we find ourselves wanting (or at least trying) to “journey home”, but it seems that things are never the same when we do so.  That house we grew up in is never as large as it was when we were younger.  Those places we loved to go to even if it were to only sit and watch “the world pass us by” now having very little meaning for us.  Or perhaps they no longer exist.  I remember some fond memories from my junior high school days.  Now that building has been torn down and the land is commercial buildings with a huge parking lot.

     To some degree it is the same with the friends we made while growing up.  We have moved on with our lives and so have they.  Things that we had in common in the past no longer interest us or them!  We have our families and they have theirs.  We have new adventures and friends and so do they.  And we do have those occasions when we can once again meet and share “old memories” often neither of us remember things exactly the same way.  Are we right or is their rendition the correct one?  It may be hard to say.  Perhaps neither of us remembers the situation as it truly happened.  Maybe we both have some of the details a bit confused!

     At times it would seem so wonderful if we could turn back the clock and return to those simpler days.  Maybe we could regain the friendships we had in the past or make greater efforts to continue them into the future?  Yet, it may be better for all concerned for us to hang on to the memories that we have of these by-gone friendships from the past the way we remember them instead of finding out that what we recall in our minds is far from the reality we had lived!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Right or wrong.

Good or bad.

A friend is the one you can be with

and be YOU!"

Generate Low-Cost Traffic

     There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your website: A steady flow of website traffic. If no one goes to your site, it hardly bares a chance of generating any income. Many sites have tried and failed in doing so, and these results to the sites eventually being shut down. It takes money to maintain an income generating site; it also takes money to make money.

     BUT, it doesn’t take a whole caboodle of cash to generate website traffic for your site.

     Ever wonder how does big hit sites drive traffic to their site? Most of them are spending tons of money to drive the traffic to their sites, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmickries. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.

     You don’t have to do this if you don’t really have their resources. There are many ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.

     Here I am going to present to you the top five ways to generate low cost website traffic that could help your site a whole lot. Even if you only get a small percentage of successful visitors coming in to your client ratio it still works especially if you get a high number of website traffic.

1.       Exchange Links

     This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more public awareness about their own sites. You’ll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.

     A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or content as the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.  For example, if you sell books about sports you may want to link to a sports equipment site.

     Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines ranks high sites that have in-bound and out-bound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic in your website without the high costs.

2.      Traffic Exchange

     This is like exchanging links but on a different higher level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging or trading links but could be made cheaper because you get to earn credits. You can use those credits when viewing others traffic, while you earn credits when someone views yours.



     Traffic exchange services are the viewing of another’s site or page. This is done vice versa where a site can use your sites contents and so can you to his or her site. You both benefit from the others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your sites existence is boosted.

3.      Write and Submit Articles

     There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias on the internet which provide free space for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs, you can do the articles yourself. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write for you for a small fee, but to save money, it is wise to do those articles yourself.

     Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise on so that when they read it, they can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be eager to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines to the subject or niche your site has.

     Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link them to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.

4.      Make a Newsletter

     This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but on the contrary, this is not really that hard. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well.

     As your newsletter gets passed around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list of those who can regularly visit your site.

5.      Join Online Communities and Forums

     This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.

     Share your “two cents” and let them see how knowledgeable you are within the subject. As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people.

     With a little effort and time you can do a nice job of getting more people to visit your site.  And don’t forget to keep telling yourself that the more traffic you generate, the more you have the chance of creating a steady flow of paying customers.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Why spend TWICE as much money to get a new customer,

when you spend NOTHING to keep one you already have?"

Using SEO

    I don’t care what you’ve heard: E-commerce is a cut throat business. You have to arm yourself with the proper know-how and the tools to make your site a cut above the rest. Each day, more and more sites are racing to optimize their rankings in websites and if you lose your guard, you may just get trampled on and be left in the abyss filled with so many failed e-commerce sites.

     Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used today by many e-commerce sites.  For the past few years and the next ten years or so, search engines would be the most widely used internet tool to find the sites that they need to go to or the product or information they are looking for.

     Most people that use search engines use only the ten top search results on the first page. Making it to the first page, more so to the top three is a barometer of a sites success in search engine optimization. You will get a higher ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic for your site, the more business you rake in.

     But, it is essential to grab a hold of that spot or make your ranking even better. As I have mentioned before, each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites to make themselves rank higher using search engine optimization. It is imperative to make your site better and better every day.

     So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income generating.

     With search engine optimization you can get the benefit of generating a high traffic volume. Let’s just say you get only a turnover of successful sales with 10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good turnover of sales already. If you get only twenty to ten hits a day, you only get one or two if you get any at all.

     So once again, what is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in the results of search engines. Getting yourself onto the first page and better yet in the top half of the first page will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your site’s existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential income and business.

     Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your sites niche or theme.

     You may also need to rewrite your sites contents so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site’s content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.

     You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffic that is generated by sites among others are one of the components search engines uses to rank sites.

     Try to search the internet for many useful helpers: Tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are plenty to be found. Read many articles that can help you optimize your site in search engine results. The more knowledge and information you gather the better. This will all help you in getting those high rankings. This may require a little time and effort in your part but the benefits will be astounding.

     If you can part with some money, there are many sites on the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality and get results.

     Act now and see the benefits garnered with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"To make YOU like no other,

you must be YOU!"

Technology

     I guess I’m at that age where I always have to find something to complain about!  Today I’m going to focus my attention on technology.

     Now to begin with, don’t get me wrong:  I LOVE technology --- WHEN IT WORKS!  It seems to me that there are some days when technology is out to get me.  Let me include this comment for your consideration:  I RARELY carry cash on my person.  I like to make sure that I have detailed records of the things I spend my money on and for me it has worked very well to make purchases using credit or debit cards and have the receipts or bank records to help me keep my finances in order.

     That having been said I find it very interesting that there are days when I walk into a restaurant or a book store, or a gift shop, of whatever, and the credit card machines are not working.  And I am usually told this AFTER I have made my order and the purchase has been rung up for payment.

     But it doesn’t stop with simple things as those mentioned.  THOSE days seem to make everything electronic go crazy.  Just today I called on the phone and got an automated system that lead me through a wide selection of options. You know, press 1 for this, 2 for that and so on!  Then I spend ten minutes or so playing this “push the button” game and reach a voice that tells me my call cannot be put through as requested!  What???? 

     So instead I try to use the company’s website.  I get the same “game”.  Select the department you wish to speak to.  Do you know the specific desk code of the person you are trying to reach???  Then the message comes up:  “We are currently having difficulties connecting to that department!”  What???? 

     If you are familiar with my web blogs I try to limit the material input to about 300 – 400 words for most posts.  Sometimes they go a little longer, but that is my normal goal.  I think most of you can imagine the stories I could continue to tell about this subject of technology sabotage.  To me, on THOSE days, there can be no greater cause for frustration than to have to deal with technology that doesn’t work when you need it the most.  I think I’ll ……. (Sorry, you have reached your limit of making bad comments about technology.  You will now be discontinued. Please Wait!  Tech Support System.)      

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Where machines may be faster,

humans compensate with emotion."