How and Why to Use E-news to Boost Your Business

For me, it's my issue of People Magazine that shows up in the mail once a week. It's my true vice and I sit down every week and read each issue from cover to cover. Think about how you feel when the latest issue of your favorite magazine subscription arrives in the mail. It may even be a newsletter that you subscribe to online that arrives on a regular basis and is packed with useful and insightful information on a topic of interest to you. What does your favorite magazine or newsletter offer to you? What keeps you coming back for more?

My obsession with People is that it is the one way that I escape from my world of work, writing and coming up with marketing strategies and just read about what everyone else is doing in life. The majority of the information covers celebrities but there are also human-interest stories that make me laugh, cry and think.

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Keeping some of the things in mind that draw you to your favorites reads, think about the audience you attract with your business and what you may be able to implement in your own electronic magazine issue or newsletters.

Timely and consistent

One of the top likes of a publication is that it always shows up on time and it contains relevant and interesting information to its audience. This means that once you commit to sending out an e-newsletter, you have to create a schedule for it and stick to it. Some e-newsletters go out on a weekly basis while others stretch out monthly or even quarterly. Set your readers' expectations on how often they will receive the e-newsletter and then don't let them down by not sticking to your schedule. Also make sure that the information the e-newsletter contains is useful and relevant.

Communication vehicle

E-newsletters are great communication tools for existing and prospective customers. E-newsletters can also be a benefit to attract new subscribers. If you think about this logically, these are new subscribers interested in your business and industry that you then have the opportunity to turn into new paying customers.

Anatomy of an E-newsletter

You will see many different formats and information contained in the electronic and paper newsletters you receive from various businesses and organizations. While you can make your newsletter as unique as your company is, there are some essential parts that every newsletter should include.

o An informational article, tip, trick, industry trend-something that provides the reader with useful, insightful and relevant information

o A special promotion for your business-coupon, discount or special offer

o An About Us/Me section that talks about your company, product or service

o Contact information: email address, phone, website, physical/mailing address

No matter what else your newsletter contains, make sure that your newsletter contains all four of these sections.

Resources for creating

While looks are not everything, you do want your e-newsletter to look, feel and read professionally. To create a professional newsletter, you do not have to spend a lot of time or money. You can easily build an attractive e-newsletter using low-cost online software such as Constant Contact, iContact or Email Brain. These systems not only allow you to create professional e-newsletters but they also have contact management tools that allow you to collect visitor emails and names from your website and send out the emails in bulk.

How and Why to Use E-news to Boost Your Business

Want to Learn Chinese Now? Make it Happen

If you have ever dreamed of learning Mandarin Chinese, traveling to Asia, or experiencing another culture, you are not alone. Thousands or millions of people feel exactly the same way that you do. However, most of them will not act to fulfill their dreams. For whatever reason, they are too afraid to plan, to act, and to see the results.

Maybe you're familiar with the book "the secret". I'm not a fan, and I don't like things that trip too far into what I would call "new age". However, there is a solid and practical message in that book. We all have dreams. We all have goals. But most people are unable to visualize the steps that must be taken in order to achieve them. If you dream of learning Chinese, let me walk you through what you can do to learn Chinese now.

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Look into options for Chinese learning software. I personally recommend Rocket Chinese as a great system that can guide you through the steps it takes to learn Chinese. However, you should know that there are hundreds of resources available for free through the Internet that can allow you to teach yourself Chinese. It's entirely possible to learn Chinese now without spending a single cent.

For example, it is easier than ever to arrange for a language exchange with a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese. In exchange for a short lesson in English, you can receive a free language lesson in Mandarin Chinese. This is how people learn Chinese fast. If you speak regularly to a native speaker you will discover that you can learn any language much faster than by reading and memorizing from a book. This is how languages were meant to be learned. With a little courage, a little memorization, and a lot of speaking, it is easier than ever to learn Chinese now.

Remember that if you want to learn Chinese now, the first thing that you have to do is take action. This is the first step that most people never get past. Can you visualize yourself ordering fried rice from a Chinese restaurant in Taiwan? Can you see yourself walking along the Great Wall of China, and explaining to others in Chinese who you are and where you are from? It is possible. It is even practical. But first you need to visualize the steps you need to take, and then take action.

If you begin, you've already come farther than most people will ever go. But, you want to make it all the way to fluency. If you want to learn Chinese fast, you need to differentiate yourself from the Chinese language learners who fail. Make sure that you plan your language learning. Set realistic goals for yourself and check your progress regularly. Lastly, take the initiative to speak as much as humanly possible. Before long, you will find that your goals will rise to meet you.

Want to Learn Chinese Now? Make it Happen

Avoid These Top 5 Form I-9 Mistakes When Hiring Temporary Employees

When hiring temporary employees, Human Resources managers risk putting their company's E-Verify and Form I-9 compliance in jeopardy if they make any of these common I-9 mistakes.

Mistake 1. Failing to treat I-9s and E-Verify as seriously for temporary employees as you do for permanent, long-term employees. Remember: even though an employee may be only temporary or seasonal, your organization will have to live with that I-9 form for a minimum of three years, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement can fine you up to ,100 per I-9 form in error.

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Mistake 2. Forgetting the 3-day grace period to sign Section 2 does not apply for employees hired to work for less than 3 days. Normally you have until the 3rd day after hiring to complete Section 2 of the I-9, but if the employee is only hired to work 3 days or less, you must complete Section 2 on the first day.

Mistake 3. Accepting a receipt in lieu of an original Section 2 document. Unlike longer-term employees, if an employee is hired to work for 3 days or less, the employer must only accept an original Section 2 document.

Mistake 4. Following inconsistent I-9 practices for re-hiring temporary or seasonal employees. Always be consistent, even across worksites. For example, if you re-hire an employee within 3 years of the initial date of hire, you can either complete a new Form I-9, or update Section 3 of the original Form I-9. Whichever you do for one, do for all.

Mistake 5. Failing to E-Verify all seasonal, temporary or re-hired employees (where/when E-Verify laws apply). You must E-verify all employees working at a worksite that participates in E-Verify, even if the employee is seasonal, temporary or a re-hire. If your organization is a federal contractor and the temp employee is working under the contract, or if state or local E-Verify laws apply to your worksite, you must E-Verify all affected employees, even if they work for 3 days or less.

Stay Timely and Consistent to Stay in Compliance

Using electronic Form I-9 software is a wise business practice that can help mistake-proof your I-9 and E-Verify process. Whether using paper I-9 forms, electronic I-9 software or a combination of both, remember to I-9 and E-Verify temporary employees with the same care and consistency as you do all your employees. This is especially true if your company hires temporary and seasonal workers in large numbers, because such companies draw the most attention for potential auditing by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Avoid These Top 5 Form I-9 Mistakes When Hiring Temporary Employees

Enterprise Resource Planning - Transforming the Enterprise

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an integrated suite of information technology applications that support the operations of an enterprise. It provides organisation with transaction processing models that are integrated with other activities of the organisation and coordinate complicated, multifaceted operations.

The main value ERP systems provide is the opportunity to integrate an entire organisation. ERP systems promise to solve the problem of fragmented information in organisations by providing seamless integration of all the information flowing through the organisation across the different functional and business units across the world. End to end business processes that were traditionally disjointed, now share information through a common database.

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ERP systems work in real-time, meaning that the exact status of everything is always available. When data such as a sale becomes available at one point in the business, it courses its way through the software, which automatically calculates the effects of the transaction on other areas, such as manufacturing, inventory, procurement, invoicing, and booking the actual sale to the financial ledger. The information flow is much more efficient as there are clear lines of business processes across the enterprise.

The basic modules and their brief features of ERP systems are as follows:

Finance - This module tracks financial information such as revenue and cost data through various areas within the company.

Logistics - This module is often broken into several sub-modules that cover different logistics functions: Transportation, Stock Management, and Warehouse management.

Manufacturing - This module tracks the flow of products through the manufacturing process, coordinating what is done to what part at what time.

Order Fulfilment - This module monitors the entire order fulfilment cycle, keeping track of the progress the company has made in satisfying demand.

Human Resources - This module handles all sorts of human resources tasks, such as scheduling workers.

Supplier Management - This module monitors supplier performance and tracks the delivery of suppliers' products.

Besides the above-mentioned standard features, ERP vendors are offering several "bolt-on" products that provide specialised functionality to augment the core, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

CRM is a strategy used to learn more about customers' needs and behaviours in order to develop stronger relationships with them. These relationships are critical to business and mission success. The more useful way to think about CRM: Processes that will help bring together pieces of information about customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness, and market trends.

The logic behind the idea of CRM is that it helps businesses use technology and human resources to gain insight into the behaviour of customers and the value of those customers. Organisations effectively implementing CRM will be able to: provide better customer service, make call centres more efficient, simplify marketing and sales processes, and discover new customers.

Do you need ERP? The answer is yes if you want to stay at the leading edge and competitive in this fast-moving and dynamic environment. ERP is able to contribute to your organisation's general pursuit of internal visibility, flexibility, excellence in quality, and the capacity for inter-organisational extension.

Enterprise Resource Planning - Transforming the Enterprise

Use the Internet for Recruiting Purposes

Why are you using a paper filing system to keep track of your recruiting and hiring? Even worse, are you keeping all of that data on your hard drive, causing your systems to slow down and creating more work for administrators who are already doing far too much already? Think about it. If you have a secretary taking the call, a clerk creating paper files, a data entry person entering that information into your computer, an admin creating spreadsheets, and an IT specialist trying to keep your system capacity up to par, how much are you spending before you hire a single new employee?

If you're using a computerized recruitment tracking system, you're on the right track. If its not web based recruiting software, you're creating more work for yourself, not eliminating it. Companies that have more than one person involved in the recruiting and hiring process need to take advantage of cloud computing tools. If your job recruitment software is on the internet, you and everyone else in your human resource department can access it from their terminals or from home when necessary. You won't need five sets of hands working to create what will in the end be one single file.

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When you use internet-based software, hiring managers and interviewers can make notes directly into it, eliminating the need for data entry people. Emails can be screened and resumes can be sent directly to the departments that they pertain to, cutting down on the amount of time your secretary has to spend on the phone screening. And those spreadsheets your admin is spending hours creating - they will no longer be necessary. The best applicant tracking software creates them for you. As far as your IT guy is concerned, he'll be playing solitaire most of the day.

In years gone by, the office space needed to house computer equipment had to be huge to accommodate all of the servers and storage devices needed to keep track of data. Today, those pieces of equipment are no longer necessary, so companies can downsize and keep more affordable space filled with people, not machines. Cloud computing is one of the reasons that is possible. Miniaturization and more powerful systems have also contributed, but online software and data storage are what have mainly made the difference. Are you taking advantage of either or are you living in the past?

If you're not streamlining with new technology, you're giving away business to your competitors. They are using web-based tools and their costs are coming down. Lower costs mean higher profits and more room for lower prices that you will not be able to compete with. Holding onto an "old-fashioned" way of doing business might have been admirable in the 80s. Today, it's financial and corporate suicide. Upgrade your computers, get some web based recruiting software, and you'll be able to compete for the next few years. You might want to look into alternative energy also, but that's a topic for another day. For now, stick to simple changes you can make right away. Internet based recruiting software is definitely one of them.

Use the Internet for Recruiting Purposes

Text Vs Video Content

There's a lot of talk here lately as to which format of content delivery is king. Text, audio, images, and video are the types of media that we can expect to find populating the web. But which format will be given the scepter of digital supremacy and rule as the preferred method of communication across a global digital platform that's occupied by an evolving cyber culture? To help shed light on the issue, I will provide some detailed information about the advantages/disadvantages of text vs video - and leave you to draw your own conclusion.

Text

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You might say that textual communication bares the birthright to digital supremacy, or that crafting the right copy for a particular niche requires a skill that is second to none. However you see it, technology is changing the way we communicate with one another. The evolution of communication is enough to boggle any mind. Some might even say that one day we will communicate through some form of osmosis. Whatever your belief, the human vernacular makes it possible to divulge even the most intimate of thoughts with nothing more than a type-pad.

What are some advantages of text?

* Skimming (Consuming content on the fly)

Speaking for myself, I would rather be able to skim a body of text to locate the key points that apply to my interest rather than sit through an entire presentation via audio or video. Imagine if all the RSS feeds that you subscribe to offered only video content. You would have to make a determination on title alone as to whether you would spend your time reviewing the clip. However, a message can be communicated through video much quicker than through text if it's producer leverages the power of multimedia to create a dynamic user experience. Nevertheless, skimming text to locate key phrases that stimulate curiosity is a clear advantage of textual content.

* Craftiness (Taking pleasure in consuming intelligently crafted content)

I can appreciate a good wordsmith. I have always enjoyed reading the work of a true craftsman when it comes to wordplay. The skill and creative nature that is required to carve out a thought into consumable content is rare. Therefore when I find such a rarity, I would rather savor the moment while consuming each line of text with utmost respect for the skill it took to produce it.

What are some disadvantages of text?

* Distant (lacking the ability to convey intense emotion)

Remote in manner, text lacks the ability to convey intense emotion. Similar to how history books lack the ability to transmit the finer nuances of subtle indifference's that would otherwise be revealed in sarcastic tones, enthusiasm, or facial expressions. For instance, the eye has the ability to convey in a split second what might take a few paragraphs of text to communicate.

* Stagnant (What you read is what you get)

Despite my own personal romance with text, I can't deny that technology is taking communication to a level that far exceeds the ability linear text has to perform. Unfortunately text based media reached its pinnacle when it was hitched with the better half, hyperlinks. I am not saying that text is, or ever will be, replaced by other forms of media. I am simply recognizing the overwhelming response to technology and the experience it can provide to the end user by cooperating with other forms of media.

* Superficial (Merely scratching the surface of the user experience)

Text has the ability to take the mind on a journey through time and space, but lacks the centripetal accuracy to engage it's reader in a sensual expedition. In other words, where text is limited to describing certain things through words and images - video has no such limitations. While you're talking about something in a video you can actually show your viewers exactly what you mean (live!) so that there is no room for misunderstanding or miscommunication.

Video

According to recent stats, Video blogging, marketing, advertising, etc. is quickly becoming the preferred method for content consumption. I am a writer. I enjoy mining my thoughts and carefully crafting their logical expression into words that convey the most reflective suggestions. So regardless of this comparison, my preferred method for communication will always be text. With that said, lets take a look at some advantages/disadvantages of video.

What are some advantages of Video?

* Dynamic (characterized by degree of personality)

The compelling nature of visual content provides efficient incentive for it's consumers. With HTML5 soon to become a Web standard, the capacity for video content that loads faster, integrates easier, and cooperates better with other elements of content distribution will exceed all expectations.

* Explicit (Precisely and clearly expressed)

Leaving nothing to implication, video content has the ability to demystify a concept by providing precise instructions using visual aid. There is nothing more powerful than a visual demonstration to awaken the mind and breathe life into a script - I guess this is why movie theaters are more popular than libraries.

* Intimate (fosters a friendly atmosphere)

The feelings expressed on a person's face provide context to conversation. Video content that features the founder or representative of a brand is more likely to appease your audience than faceless text. Using video to foster a warm or friendly and informal atmosphere while delivering a message, is confronting to fact and therefore worthy of belief. Just because you may not offer video content on your site does not mean that your visitors will sense a lukewarm reception.

What are some disadvantages of Video?

* Extrinsic (requires external aid)

Unfortunately, competent content is incidental to quality production. In other words, you could have the ability to mesmerize an audience by your cunning words, but if you do not know how to operate even the most basic of software then your message could be rendered impotent. Creating video content that is unique, and qualified to represent your brand, can take extra time to produce. Hence, your efforts will be met with opposition if your intent isn't married with skill.

* Circumscribed (subject to limits)

Streaming video is subjective to the limits of current technology, bandwidth, and browser compatibility. Therefore you cannot expect your video content to reach as wide an audience as text. For instance, the majority of your subscribers will choose not to receive your delivery into their inbox in HTML format. Hence your content must be able to deliver your message using a reliable format, otherwise your rolling the dice.

Stats and Resources:

* YouTube serves 1 billion videos per day. The average person watched 182 online videos per month.

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* Cool infographic http://www.clicker.com/blog/the-world-is-watching-the-state-of-online-videos-7517.html

Text Vs Video Content

How to Write Around a Busy Schedule - Part 2

In part one of this series (How to write around a Busy Schedule Part 1), we explored the possibility of pursuing a writing career while holding down a full time job which requires a regular daily commute. In this article will focus more on those issues which arise due to being confined mostly to the home environment during the day. For me the key obstacle to being effective in the home environment is the relative lack of structure as compared with the corporate office world.

By lack of structure I mean a freedom to switch randomly from one task to another combined with a continued stream of distractions which would not happen in the office. We shall explore three vital points which need to be addressed if we are to become successful in working in the home environment.

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A Lack of structure of the actual physical work environment A lack of structure with regards to a chain of command A lack of structure with regards to time management

These are not new problems to most of us. But it is my experience that in the home environment they become greatly magnified. This magnification can bring about a paralysis which can cause any productive writing activity to grind to a halt.

1. A Lack of structure of the actual physical work environment

Using a Self Imposed Structured Environment to facilitate the process of getting things done

To write effectively at home we need a self imposed structured environment which will temporarily cordon us off from the rest of the house. What is a "self imposed structured environment?" Well with regards to writing, a self imposed structured environment is any environment which actively supports the writing process. A classic example would be a study. But not everybody can afford the space to have a dedicated study so we sometimes need to improvise.

The more important part of the phrase "self imposed structured environment" is "self imposed." This is because in the home environment where there is no manager to impose structure on us we must deliberately take responsibility for imposing structure on ourselves. It took an accident for me to find out how powerful it is to work in a structured environment while spending an extended period of time at home.

It was in a sense fortunate that this happened. This is because after rather forcibly being made to learn the value of structure, I became more pro-active about working with structure in the home environment.

When a leg down can give a leg up

A few years ago while rushing to catch a train on my way back from work I slipped and fell quite badly. The pain in my left ankle was excruciating. It was so bad that I had to be wheeled into a waiting taxi and driven straight home. Diagnosis later revealed a broken leg which put me mostly on my back for over 6 months. Now during this time a very interesting thing happened.

By working on my laptop computer while lying on my back I was able to do a fair bit of software documentation and development consultancy for a charity which I support. Also in the process of doing this I was able to pick up new skills which contributed considerably towards my securing a better job after I got back on my feet again.

And when both legs were working?

Two years previous to this incident I had been at home for a few weeks while seeking another freelance contract. During this time I had found it almost impossible to settle down into a work/study routine. So why was it easier to knuckle down after breaking my leg? What did this teach me about working from home?

A bed-ridden environment is a good example but we want it to be voluntary

In my case I was bed ridden hence this provided the structured environment. While confined to this environment I was more easily able to set up a routine. This routine enabled me to carry through on my work activities. However to be bed-ridden is not generally ideal. What is ideal is to consciously choose the necessary confinement of a structured environment which will make it easier to get things done. Some writers have likened the act of writing to the flow of a river whereby the banks of the river can be compared to the necessary structure required to guide its flow.

Use more than one Structured Environments to create natural breaks

Some people are fortunate to have a study at home. But even then it can take a degree of discipline to retire to that study and take up the proverbial pen. When we walk into the study we are deliberately imposing the structure required on ourselves. Many of us are familiar with how procrastination can manifest itself as we find excuses to do anything except go into that study and start writing. I know somebody who hates ironing but sometimes she finds herself doing some ironing rather than carrying on with writing her latest article.

So how can we overcome this procrastination?

The number one principle is "ease of Access facilitates getting things done"

The number one principle is ease of access. Do not limit yourself to a single structured environment but create a number of them around the home and make sure your writing tools are available at each way station. So for example you could map out the following environments around the home:

(a) Your study (if you have one).
(b) Your bed and bedside table.
(c) Your bathroom or toilet.
(d) Your kitchen or dining table.

Having more than one location gives you flexibility

Having more than one location gives you the flexibility to choose the spot where you are least likely to be disturbed depending upon what is going on in your house at that point in time. So if there is drilling going on next door then head for the kitchen table or dining area.

Having more than one location gives you variety

In the case when I was bedridden with a broken leg I had the structure but the lack of variety proved quite irksome. Switching structured environments within the home can sometimes be as refreshing as taking a break. This can serve to prolong your actual writing stint before you actually need a real break from writing. For example today I was working on this article in my bedroom upstairs and as the evening wore on I started feeling tired.

I moved downstairs to the dining table and the background noise of my kids playing there consoles combined with this change in environment helped to energise me and keep it flowing. But take note that I didn't just move to any area of the house. I switched to a previously designated area where I knew I would be comfortable because it met all my requirements. So take the time to explore your home and locate and test drive all the nooks and crannies.

You can have access to multiple working environments even if you have a one bed apartment

Just to clarify "your home environment" extends beyond your immediate living quarters. Suppose you are living in a one room apartment and you want to take the multiple location approach to keep yourself awake or boost your stamina to keep going. (The principle behind switching locations is that a change can be as good as a break or a rest).

Depending on where you live there might be some potential writing locations which are within walking distance. A few typical locations could include:

(a) The local park.
(b) A nearby coffee shop.
(c) The local library.
(d) The local shopping centre.
(e) The house of a friend who also works from home.
(f) A local communal work centre specially tailored to the needs of those who work from home.

As always do the ground work to map out these locations before you need them

It's worth taking the time out to explore and experiment with potential writing locations well before they are actually needed. Then when you really need them as a means to motivate yourself to meet a tight deadline they are already tried and tested. So please keep your eyes peeled on your way to get some groceries because you never know when you could spot a good location for writing.

Try to get outside occasionally even if you feel you have a sufficient number of rooms or locations to work with inside

On a radio program I was listening to recently, a psychologist mentioned that the internet was making some people emotionally ill because they were using it as a substitute for interacting with people on a personal basis. I feel that we human beings need company more than we care to admit. For me the mere act of being among people can give an emotional boost even if I don't know them personally. This energy can then be fed into the act of doing some more writing.

I also find the hustle and bustle along with ongoing conversation between others sometimes triggers ideas which I would not normally have if locked up alone at home.

2. A lack of structure with regards to a chain of command

Having addressed the issue of a structured physical environment let us explore in some detail the conundrum of managing ourselves at home given that there's nobody else to do it.

Cultivate a Self Starting attitude

As hinted at before I believe this is still a problem of structure. In the corporate world we have the well defined management hierarchy with its corresponding chain of command. We are told what to do and we strive to do it in the allotted time frame specified. We are accountable to our bosses and this in itself (given that they are our paymasters) is usually sufficient motivation to at least try to get something done.

Now there's nobody looking over my shoulder how can I motivate myself?

In my experience it's easier to get going when I'm surrounded by like-minded people with similar or related goals and objectives. Of course having a boss to motivate us on can be quite effective and if the boss has tact and knows how to work with people this can indeed be a preferred option for some of us. But what do we do when none of these options are available and we find ourselves left to our own resources?

Have a portable keep-fit strategy because it's easier to be a self-starter when you're feeling fit and healthy

This point was raised in part 1 of this series so it's worth re-reading that. But in addition I would like to add that it might be even more important to have a simple and effective method of regularly exercising if you work from home. The reason why it might be more important is because the act of commuting to work can be a natural form of exercise in itself if we use public transport. This is something I quickly discovered when I spent an extended period working from home as in no commute. I soon began to put on weight and feel quite unfit as I started resorting to quick snacks to alleviate the boredom of being alone.

It was only when I discovered a simple exercise routine which was portable (could be done at anytime anywhere without the need for any equipment), that I was able to regain control of my weight and also gain a general sense of wellbeing.

Separate the writing process from the planning process

In part 1 of this series I passed along some tips gleaned from Nick Daw's writing course "Write any book in 28 days." Nick suggested that the article or book writing process can be greatly facilitated by taking a few minutes to plan out the general content. This is quite obvious to many of us writers but what is interesting is not what Nick is suggesting but how he proposes that we go about it.

He suggests a three step process for creating a book or article:

Brainstorm a list of keywords (planning process). Using these keywords formulate a list of questions (planning process). Write your book or article by answering these questions (writing process).

What I noticed when I tried out this approach was that the structured approach supported my activities much as the skeleton supports the body. The goal of brainstorming a list of keywords is much less daunting than the goal of writing an article. The key to self starting is to break you big task down into many small tasks and simply set one goal at a time. If the 3 step process outlined above is used correctly (as detailed in Nick Daw's writing course) writers often find that by the time they get to step 3 the article virtually writes itself.

Use a continuous chunk of time to do your planning

For me the act of planning out my articles requires more of a quiet uninterrupted chunk of time than the act of writing. But this might be different for you. Hence I am usually very careful to block out a minimum of a couple of hours of quiet when I wish to plan out an article. What I've found is that once the plans have been laid out the actual writing can be done sporadically and piecemeal.

Use a public location near your home if the presence of other people helps you to self start.

This point has already been touched on under "using multiple structured work environments" as a way to create variety. However for some of us it's more than the quest for variety which drives us to work in a public place when we have the alternative of the comfort of our homes to work in. There's an energy to being around people which helps to get us started if we are feeling bogged down.

This is why writers find libraries so effective. It's not just the quiet and having access to books for reference. It's encouraging and motivating to be among people who are also quietly studying or writing.

3. A lack of structure with regards to time management

Finally let's explore the age old problem of time management in the home environment. There's a lot of documentation out there on time management. However in this article we shall draw a tight bead on those aspects of time management which work when writing within the home environment.

Become a Clock Watcher

The term "clock watcher" is usually used in a somewhat derogatory manner in the corporate world to indicate an attitude of simply working the required number of hours then dashing home. Actually there is quite another side to "clock watching." I've often found that when I carefully monitor the passage of time while I'm performing a task it helps to create a false sense of urgency which helps me to meet a deadline.

This is not a novel idea but a principle which has been hammered out by many Time Management gurus. So in performing your writing task you can if you wish proceed as follows:

Take a few minutes to decide how long your stint is going to be. Start your stop watch. Begin your task and continue your task until the specified time has elapsed.

Where I have fallen over on the past is in the continuation of the task. I have overcome this by not being too ambitious in specifying how long I wish to work for. A goal of writing for 10 to 15 minutes is much easier for me to stick to and complete than a goal of writing for 1 hour. After the stint has been completed hopefully you will feel sufficiently encouraged to set another target time. If you're feeling stale or stiff then change to another structured work environment for variety. Then back to step 1 to decide how long your next writing stint is going to be.

In the final analysis it's really down to us

No matter what strategies and techniques we use the ultimate responsibility for achieving success lies with us. The various techniques available are there to help us but on their own they cannot do anything. The doing will come from our own actions.

This is what makes it so challenging when operating from the home environment as a writer.

How to Write Around a Busy Schedule - Part 2

How to Become a Professional Hacker

So you want to learn how to become a professional hacker. With some education, training and basic computer skills you can start a career as an ethical hacker for a large corporation or organization. Professional hackers protect computer systems from hazardous invasions by preventing malevolent hackers from being able to access the network system and do damage. This job requires dedication, formal training, initiative, motivation and continued self-education, but if you're up for the task you can have a great career.

The first step to become a professional hacker is to learn about all the career options, and see where the job opportunities are. Get career information from banks, financial institutions, government organizations, military establishments and private companies, and see what the basic requirements are. You must decide whether you want to specialize in hardware or software, as they require different types of knowledge and training. It would be wise to analyze your strengths and weaknesses when making this decision.

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Formal training starts with basic programming language knowledge such as C or Java, so you can read and write code. You'll also need to learn the ins and outs of the Mac OS, Windows and UNIX operating systems if you haven't already. Then you'll be ready to take a professional course in ethical hacking or Internet security and begin doing your own work at home, so you can gain experience controlling situations with hardware and software. And most importantly, you must get professional certifications after completing your formal training, so you are able to apply for the best jobs and get hired. Throughout your career you will also need to continue your education and remain connected to the ethical hacking community to stay on top of your game.

The salaries for professional hackers can be quite lucrative. Security engineers earn an average of ,018 to 1,541; security consultants make ,166 to ,798; Certified Ethical Hackers earn ,930 to ,981; security administrators make ,964 to ,424 and computer security specialists bring home an average of ,250 to 2,310 per year. To find more information about how to become a professional hacker, seek out companies or agencies that already employ professional hackers, and speak with their human resources department.

How to Become a Professional Hacker

Marketing Techniques For the Newly Published Author

This May I published my first novel. I'm an intellectual property attorney with no formal background in product development or marketing, so I knew that increasing the book's profile would be a challenge. In this essay I'll share with you some techniques that worked for me. Marketing is more art than science, so the suggestions reflect my personal opinion and experience. I'll also mention some resources I found helpful, but in so doing, please know that I'm receiving nothing of value from third parties for mention of their services or publications. This is not an infomercial.

The first decision you need to make is whether you are approaching publishing as a past time, or as a business. If you are serious about getting the broadest exposure for yourself and your book, you must realize that literary critics and the buying public will not distinguish between your work and that of commercially successful, established professional writers. And frankly, if the choice is paying for your book or for Martin Amis' latest novel, why should the new author be given a handicap?

Human Resource Software

Dedicated Website: A website structured around branding your new book is one of the most effective, if not the most effective, marketing techniques available to the author. When a prospective buyer pulls up Amazon's website, with over a million titles available for purchase, what are the odds your title will cross their monitor? You need a conduit to direct the reader to your Amazon product page, and the most effective conduit is a website dedicated to exploration of your book. The website allows you to pitch the book and yourself, as author. It also affords the author the opportunity to interact with the reader: to establish a rapport with a prospective buyer. Setup a website dedicated to the book well in advance of publication date. There are many things in a marketing campaign that require retaining specialists. Much of the marketing you can do yourself, but setting up a professional quality website that will compete with sites mounted by conglomerate publishers, their webmasters and teams of graphic designers is not one of them. Having been immersed in technology, personally, for the past 20+ years, I'm very comfortable manipulating software and hardware, but even with this depth of knowledge, website design at this level is not something I would undertake. Unless you're a professional in website design proficient with Dreamweaver, I strongly encourage you to hire the best person budget allows to perform this mission critical task.

Some marketing experts suggest using the author's name as the registered domain name; e.g., ScottTurow.com. This is a logical approach for authors that are household names. I think it is a mistake for first time authors, unless you are an established personality in a different artistic medium or profession. Reason: no one knows who you are, so how would they know to search for you in order to locate your site? If you promote your book title as the domain name, rather than your name as author, there will be greater symbiosis between marketing endeavors, as each tool in your arsenal is focused on publicizing the book's title. The exception would be if your book's title is non-memorable, lengthy or otherwise difficult to promote. It is easier to come up with unique keywords -- words that search engine bots identify and catalogue in indexing new Internet content -- for a unique book title than for an author's not-so-unique name. Unique and distinctive keyword and keyword long-tail phrases are critical in successfully ranking your website and, thereby, elevating its profile.

Audit the websites of successful authors in the same genre for ideas on how to structure your site and to assess the competition. Sites run by marquee name authors are what you are up against in achieving successful product placement: it is the standard against which your site will be measured. A website set up three to six months in advance of publication date is the most effective way to generate pre-release interest in your book. Include a blog component on the site, even if you maintain a separate blog, in order to keep the content fresh. The more frequent a site's updates, the higher its ranking on search engine indexes, and that is the ultimate goal. If people cannot find your site, they will not find your book. The site should include a webpage providing a short abstract of the book, author bio, press release page and way in which to contact the author. Requiring registration on the site to participate in an integrated forum is also helpful, as you then have an automatic list of all prospective buyers for your book when it's published.

Essays: One easy way to get the word out on the virtual street that you have an expertise in your book's genre or theme is to publish short essays on the Internet. Ezinearticles is currently the leading host site and resource for essays by free-lance authors. It will provide you with the greatest exposure, but there are similar sites out there the author should explore. The body of the essay should offer the reader something of substance and value, and not be an infomerical for your book. To reference the book is fine, but the focus should be on a subject not directly related to pitching your title to the reader. Essay length should, ideally, be between 250 and 700 words. Shorter articles are more likely to be syndicated. At 2,000 words, this essay runs afoul of that rule, but there are always exceptions. The essay should always contain a resource box at the end with the author's name, book title and contact information, including his website address. If the essay is popular on the host site, there is a good chance it will be syndicated by third party publishers, further increasing your audience. The value of such essays cannot be overstated as a tool to brand your name and your new book.

Blog: When I began formulating my marketing campaign, my understanding was that blogs were passé and had reached market saturation levels. Both assumptions are true, but oddly blogs remain a very effective marketing tool. The blog, like your website, must be updated regularly in order to work towards a high ranking on popular search engines. In my experience, Wordpress, an open source software suite of tools and webhost, offers the most effective platform upon which to reach a large audience. There is a learning curve here, but much of it is intuitive if you possess average software fluency. Building a Wordpress Blog by Scott McNulty (Peachpit Press 2009) is a terrific primer. The blog differs from your website in that it is intended to feature daily ponderances, essays not relating to your book and other writings that allow the reader to connect with who you are as a person. The blog, if used effectively, helps to build a relationship between reader and author that pure marketing vehicles, such as a book's website, cannot achieve. I would also highly recommend registering a domain name separate and unique from that of your book's website for your blog, rather than use Wordpress's community site. This approach allows greater search engine optimization (SEO), as well as permitting the blogger to fully exploit the power of the Wordpress blog tools and plug-ins. Use of the latter on the Wordpress site is extremely limited.

Podiobooks.com: Most people, even liberal minded artists, like to be paid for their work product; therefore, it goes against human nature to give away one's prose or verse. Now is the time to set aside that instinct and fully embrace your inner Karl Marx. Podiobooks.com has yielded NYT acclaimed authors with major publishing deals out of complete unknowns. If your book in audio form generates enough interest on the popular Podiobooks website, it could well launch your professional career as a writer. The volunteers that are tasked with the site's administration are, themselves, writers, and their hands-on approach to each submission is impressive. The site has been recognized as trend setting by the Grey Lady, herself, as well as Time Magazine. If the New York Times regards Podibooks as a serious resource, so should you. There are some excellent professional voice over artists that will translate your book to audio form. If you are not comfortable reading aloud your own work or do not have a strong speaking voice, I would encourage you to consider this as an option; albeit, it's costly, with fees in the 00 - ,000 range depending on length of book and reputation of the artist retained. Sounds expensive, and it is, but that's the cost of a decent studio microphone. At the very least, invest in a Shure SM58 mic and small mic pre-amp. Cardioid mics benefit from a mic pre, as they do not produce a strong signal.

Video Trailer: This is a hot new trend in book marketing and a highly effective one. The video trailer is not unlike the preview for motion pictures seen in theaters. It's a multimedia presentation of the synopsis or theme of your book. Like most new and popular services, it's also a market sector that is full of incompetents and opportunists. Carefully vet anyone retained to do this work for you: ask for a curriculum vitae and a portfolio of their work. What formal training do they have in video production and what is their specialty? How long have they performed contract work in the publishing field? Do they perform all the work in-house or do they job out the work? I'm a gearhead (a technophile that possesses a knowledge of hardware), so I often ask about studio equipment used and production facility. Much can be done these days with a Mac Pro Workstation and Final Cut Studio or Adobe Creative Suite, but you still need expertise, a sound isolation booth and professional mics and mic preamps in order to achieve competitive commercial product.

Price points for this service range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. There is -- or should be -- a direct correlation between price point and videographer experience and resources. The correlation typically extends beyond that to the contractor's ability to effectively place and publicize the video. As important as the quality of the finished video trailer is placement of that trailer. Just as with one's website or blog, visibility of the trailer is essential for it to be effective. If distribution of the trailer is limited to populist sites like YouTube, Spike and Atom, there is no way to achieve niche marketing -- to narrow your audience to a desired target market of book buyers, much less niche readers in a particular genre. Much of what you are paying for with the better services is product placement. Just like your book, a video trailer has little utility if it does not reach an audience. Book Surge (booksurge.com) is one of the few print on demand (POD) publishers that offers an effective video trailer placement service. They are uniquely positioned to do so, as they are wholly owned by Amazon.com. When you pay for trailer production through Book Surge, they are able to guarantee placement of that video on your book's Amazon product page. Something no other publisher or publicist, save for the major publishing conglomerates, can offer.

Virtual Book Tours: VBT have become a popular and inexpensive alternative for authors that have paid thousands to publicists with modest return on their investment dollar. With books now being the number one subject commodity of online transactions, it only makes sense to maximize exposure of your book's website and related web presence. Here, an established network is everything. Few new authors have the existing relationships with literary special interest websites, forums and blogs to effectively publicize their book and their name, as author. You need these third-party sites to discuss your book, its author, and to link back to your site. As important as branding your book is branding your name. If your name is recognizable amongst readers, they are twice as likely to locate your book online or at a brick and mortar reseller. Since there is significantly less overhead for the publicist in promoting an author online, the cost to the client is less than partnering with a traditional publicist. The specialist in promoting books online should be able to secure author interviews, book reviews and featured articles -- like this one -- on sites frequented by prospective purchasers of your book. Because of the sheer volume of book sales online today, a VBT is a no brainer, but should be preceded, in my opinion, by having the aforementioned promotional tools in place to maximize the effect and reach of the VBT publicist's efforts. Even the big publishing houses are now requiring their authors to be proactive in marketing their books, including updating websites and blogs. This is even more true for the new author, where it will require that much more legwork to establish both the author and his body of work as worthy of the reader's cash and time.

Marketing Techniques For the Newly Published Author

Benefits Of Customized Appointment Emails

Recruitment of the work staff is a very crucial part of Human Resource studies. We know that an organization is an artificial judicial person. It earns profit, acquires property, grows, declines and enters into the contracts in its own name, but still it is artificial. It is nothing itself, it cannot make decisions, and it has to have someone on its behalf to represent itself everywhere. As an organization cannot do anything itself, it needs to recruit employees. Employees are recruited according to the size of the organization, small firms need lesser and big organizations need larger number of employees. When you appoint one, you need to send him an appointment letter or email. One application which can facilitate you in this task is customized appointment emails.

To achieve the soul of the benefits from this dynamic application, your business needs to be a large scaled. For example, if you need to recruit 700 employees in a go for your new factory. It's a huge task to be done, but customized appointment email utility does most of your clerical work itself. Let's start from the beginning of the recruitment process;

Human Resource Software

· First of all you will receive resumes of different people in thousands of numbers. What you need to do is to some particulars from these resumes in customized appointment email application. E.g. email, name, qualification, phone number etc.

· Just with a single click it will sort out all the applicants according to their qualification, name or whatsoever.

· If you want to call top one thousand applicants for interview. Ask your machine to do it. It will send emails to all of them as quickly as you click the button. These interview call emails will be personalized with the name, address, time and other details of applicant. You need to tell your customized appointment email application about the time duration of one interview, and number of interview you want to conduct in a single day. Your software will automatically adjust the time and dates of the applicants.

· After conducting all the interviews, now you want to send final appointment letters or emails to your selection. Writing 700 emails may take around 2 weeks manually but with the use of customized application email, it is possible in some minutes.

· Once again, you need to tell your machine about the salary package and terms and conditions of groups of employees. Your dynamic software will automatically send customized appointment emails to all the people you have selected.

Benefits Of Customized Appointment Emails

Efficient Payroll Management Can Save Your Both Time and Money

These days, a payroll system has emerged as an essential part of many organizations and businesses. Whether it's a big or small firm, an entrepreneur can attain the payroll system designed as per the needs and necessities of the company. In respect to handle properly all the account, a company needs effective and efficacious payroll software that is capable enough to generate pay slips at a fixed prices as well as able to track the recording history. The main important persona of a payroll management system is the power to generate the recorded history whenever and wherever is required.

You can browse online a number of payroll outsourcing companies offering outstanding payroll accounting functions, speedy calculations and cordial in ceding effective results at a much quicker rate. Usually most of the accounting processes are prominent and very time consuming. A firm comprises varied departments equip with several employees. Each and every employee's salary scale is distinctive and evaluated differently for keeping up the finance records. Thus, it is preferred and advised to hire good outsourcing payroll system that can raise the level of payroll processing services, along with resulting in saving your manpower, money and valuable time.

Human Resource Software

A payroll system comprises gross pay calculations, transferring of the existing balance sheets to the system and maintenance of standardized payroll reports. Hence, for getting unique and unparalleled payroll software, it is an utmost requirement to inculcate varied factors like tax rating, gathering employee's information, making salary slips of every employee etc. to develop accurate and precise results.

After the economic slowdown, Indian economy has been witnessing a major bonanza expanding all over the world. HR jobs India are amongst favorite in all the sectors, vastly popular for tackling and handling issues concerned to the recruitment, appraisal and management in a company. Conceived as an extremely important and functional segment in an organization, human resource professionals smoothly desegregate with the company's processes and operations. In addition, HR jobs India tries to keep the employees happy and merry, just like a family by managing assorted fun events, occasions and junctures.

Efficient Payroll Management Can Save Your Both Time and Money

How To Hire Potential Employees For Your Organization?

Are you puzzled as to what should be the selection criteria for potential employees? Do you wish to hire the best talent for your organization? Well, we live in a competitive world. If we keep all other variables fixed, it is essential to have correct person at the correct place and at the correct time. This can surely aid in understanding the differences in the overall performance of your company. Technology and material assets are two things in the knowledge based economy, which can be fetched at a particular price as well as time. However, for running the show carefully, you need to have responsible and skillful people at your workplace. Workforce decides the fate of the business.

If you intend to improve the recruitment process of your company and make it more competent, then you should use the latest technology. Many big organizations in the world use the novel techniques in human resource. Online recruitment software is used extensively to find the best talent.

Human Resource Software

High-tech systems comprising solutions recruitment, resume software, software for resume extraction can aid you in finding the right talent in a simpler, faster and effective approach. By means of online recruitment software, you can identify suitable candidates that have the potential to develop themselves and your organization too. This kind of software is available in a wide array of languages. Further, it can be integrated with other solutions recruitment like On boarding, Performance Management and Employee Assessments to get the benefit of their individual performance. Thus, you can expect organizational victory right from the preliminary phase.

Latest recruitment systems allow you to access the data of applicants in an easier and faster manner. Further, you are able to observe new employees right from the entire employment lifecycle. Many large companies now prefer to make use of recruitment software of their own. It is possible to design it specifically as per particular needs and requirements. An effectual front and back office online recruitment software solution offers complete management of jobs and candidates. In this way, you can save lot of your time, money and efforts. Once, the solution is up, almost all the things will run in a much faster, smoother and efficient way.

Now, it is possible to do everything online. Organizations post open positions on their website. They will get online applications; thereby helping them to develop a database of people who have made applications for different posts within the particular company. Costs related to this, if done manually are much higher in terms of the costs related with the personnel, and management needed for the same. It is possible to find suitable candidate for the current vacancy by means of the information in the database. Further, automated replies are sent to job applicants. Thus, candidates will be aware with the status of their application as it's only a matter by means of the information in the database for finding appropriate candidates for the assortment.

By using the online recruitment software, you are able to have complete control on the whole recruitment process. This is the main advantage of online recruitment software. It is now much faster to find the right employee. It will save the company time. Furthermore, it aids to fit in right people into right roles. This will help to run business in a most effectual way.

How To Hire Potential Employees For Your Organization?

Does CRM Really Help? Different Answers to Different People

CRM, the abbreviation of Customer Relationship Management, has been a buzzword for a decade and has become an old term now. While it is treated as commonplace as ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning), HRM (Human Resources Marketing), E-Marketing, etc., why should we bother discussing it again?

The fact: many benefits of CRM are yet to be discovered.

Human Resource Software

The ancestors of CRM solutions started from software boxes like ACT!, and later Goldmine and Maximizer, the so-called "Contact Managers" to "upgraded" versions of CRM (of course, I skipped a lot like "PIM" or "Groupware") that help users manage the interactions, documents, potentials, or later projects, voice, or many more and in company basis. A decade ago, research companies like Gartner speculated the big potential of CRM solutions and therefore many solutions, like Saleslogix, ACCPAC (or Sage) CRM, and later Salesforce and MS CRM were found on the global market. The revolution of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and now Cloud Computing further boosts the global CRM implementations and therefore the revenue to, still, double-digit annual growth rate even during the years of financial tsunami. Millions of people, especially in the United States are still paying Salesforce US per user per month and thus contributed the annual revenue of the company beyond $US 1 billion last year. Thanks to evangelists like Mr. Paul Greenburg, author of the best-selling CRM book called "CRM at the Speed of Light", CRM wheel has been moving fast and are still evolving (e.g. Customer Experience Management, Social CRM,... well, I am sure more will be coming).

When we look at the Asian market, however, the situation seems not as encouraging as that in the western world. Just take an example of the International ICT Expo in Hong Kong held in April 2010 that just finished. We received comments like:

- Why the sales pipeline / forecast is obtained by such rough opportunity percentage?

- Writing to the system does in fact kill my time in pitching more customers

- (Sales people) Why should I put the contacts to company database as in case I leave the company, I can "bring" them to the new one to keep on the pitching.

Not many people are concern with using some scientific approach to keep healthy pipeline (or that's the similar reason why stuff like Balanced Scorecard or Management KPIs is yet to be popular in most of the SMEs). Further, professionals here could be meaner on time in writing even simple sentences but be concerned less on the time in looking for information (i.e. files, contacts and emails from different locations) that is in fact killing their valuable time. What's more, physical but dead contact information could mean more than a great tool in managing great relationship with your customers who can directly contribute their prospects in the companies that they are serving.

But above all, being reluctant to change is the most important reason. My experience can prove the statement that at least 80% of conversation with prospects is to invite them back to the right track to explore the opportunities together but replies are usually they are busy. Well, I have been offering apps and services to help them turn their valuable time into opportunities and thus revenue.

CRM is indeed beneficial to a lot of businesses but they just need "a reason" to kick off the project immediately. What I can say is that it is not up to me to "offer" my customers a reason to buy my solutions, but whether there is any "strategy" in business owners' mindsets to make their companies more competitive.

Does CRM Really Help? Different Answers to Different People

The Four Best Online Degree Programs To Invest In

Today online courses are more in demand than traditional regular courses. These courses are specially designed for working professional those are not able to attend regular classes due to lack of time. There are many online courses, but four most popular online degree programs are following:

Online MBA: - Online MBA is the most popular post graduate online managerial level course. It helps to get a very good job and reputable position in any organization. Every professional wishes an MBA degree for enhancing their skills and shifting upward in the organization. It is a two years duration program after a basic graduation degree in any field. In an MBA course, candidate has option to choose a specific field of study like - human resource, finance, sales, marketing and executive management. According to their interest the students choose their field in MBA. But online executive MBA is specially designed for executives.

Human Resource Software

Online BBA: - Online BBA is a three years undergraduate course after senior secondary. It also helps to get a good job in managerial scope in the organization. We can say it is the preliminary course before MBA. So its helps us to upgrade all our basic skills, for example it increase our communication skills and problem solving skills. This course gives us an amazing confidence that helps us during the job in the organization and creates a difference between the high level and low level executives.

Online BCA: - Today, IT industry is also booming field, so IT courses are automatically in demand. Online BCA is also an undergraduate three years course after senior secondary. It also helps to getting a reputed job in IT industry. After getting a BCA degree we are able to get a job like network administration and a database administrator in any organization.

Online MCA: - Online MCA is also a most popular IT course. It is a two years post graduate course IT programs. Mostly Software Companies hire MCA professionals as software engineers. These software companies provide rich working environment and many facilities with high salary.

The Four Best Online Degree Programs To Invest In

Infosys Openings For Freshers 2010 - Recruitment Drives

Infosys is one of the largest software giant. All freshers likes to join a good company. Infosys is one of them. Currently Infosys has openings for freshers who have completed their degree in 2010. They always recruit in large numbers. At present they have an idea of recruiting 18,000 people. Infosys freshers walk-in drive is a boon to many students. Many students are not able to attend Infosys campus recruitments in their college. They are using these job openings for fresher as an opportunity to join infosys.

Infosys openings 2010 has certain placement procedures. First they conduct written test. Candidates who clear the written test will be able to enter the second round. The second round is a Human Resource interview. In this Infosys fresher recruitment process, they check the technical knowledge of the candidates. Students who are well verse in solving aptitude questions can easily clear the written test. Good English knowledge is also required to clear the first round.

Human Resource Software

The written test mostly consists of jumbles, crosswords and puzzles. In English language test, the vocabulary and grammar knowledge is checked. In Human Resource interview, they check the confidence, team spirit and basic knowledge of the candidate. Technical knowledge is checked by asking questions in C, C++ and Java languages. Sometimes stress questions can also be asked to check the emotional behaviour of the candidate. They also check the decision making capacity of the candidate. Freshers aiming for Infosys openings must be well aware of all these points and prepare well. Getting a clear idea of the Infosys placement process will help them to clear the Infosys openings.

Infosys Openings For Freshers 2010 - Recruitment Drives

Make Money Online in a Legit and Sustainable Way

You are here probably because:

You want to find out how you can make money online in a legal and sustainable way. You already have an online business, but it is not working out well for you. You have heard that many people are having huge incomes online, and you want to do the same thing, but you don't know how.

Human Resource Software

No matter which group you are a member of, you are going to benefit from this article, although it is a long one. If you feel that you already know some parts, you may want to scan and skip them.

First of all, I would like to thank you for the privilege and the opportunity to share with you the little I know about Online Marketing. Let's get started.

In this section, we are going to discuss what it really means to be an Internet Marketer, and what it involves. If you already know this, you can skip this part.

Online Marketing, or Internet Marketing, is a combination of certain skill set and mindset.

As far as the skill set is concerned, the following points are of great importance:

Basic Knowledge of computers and the Internet

If you already know how to send and reply to emails, how to search on the Internet, and how to work with simple social media web sites like Facebook, you already know this. Even if you don't have a good understanding of them, they are simple learnable skills that anyone can learn.

Article Marketing

Writing articles is a great way to promote your online business, and to let people know who you are, and what you do. What you are reading right now is actually an article. You write your articles and publish them to "Article Directories" where they are published after they have been read and approved by the mediators. Article Directories usually publish your articles for free, but there are paid services as well, where you get special services like immediate article publishing or the like. Article Directories publish your articles and make them searchable by different search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc.

Publishing articles places you as an authority in your own industry, and makes it very easy for others to find you on the Internet.

Article Marketing is an integral part of every online business. Like the many marketing strategies you are going to be introduced to shortly, you are going to do it for a while when you start your business. However, you might decide later that you want to outsource it, and concentrate on other ones. Once you have got your business up and running, you can decide for yourself which one you are good at and like, and which one you want to outsource.

Video Marketing

Video marketing is one the most powerful ways to promote your online business, and place yourself as an authority in your own industry. It is one of the many ways you can connect with your audience, educate them, and let them know who you, and what you do, and how you could help them.

It is very simple to include it as a part of your marketing strategy.

Have you ever talked to the members of your family, or to your friends about one of your experiences, or have you ever talked to your spouse about how your day was? I am sure you have. It is that simple, except in the beginning, you may be afraid of the camera, but over time, and as a result of the education that you obtain from your sponsor or the company that you join, it becomes easier and easier for you until you get to the point where the camera becomes your friend.

Certain aspects of this marketing strategy can be outsourced, but not the whole part, since the video is usually about promoting "you" more than anything else.

Classifieds Marketing

You have always seen the classifieds section in the newspaper. Nowadays, the offline press is going through some changes, and most of the newspapers are being taken online. Along with the emergence of online newspapers, "Classified Directories" have grown a lot.

People advertise online, and there are many advantages to this method as compared to the offline one. The advertisements are easily searchable, and they could be made local, national, and international. Your business gets a lot of exposure through the online method, and it is free in most cases unless you want your ad to be shown on top of others' ads.

If you can sell your old bicycle to your friend, you already know a lot about this. When it comes to international business, there are some points you need to know so you get the best results.

You want to optimize your ads, and you could learn that from your sponsor, the company you join, or the many resources you could find online.

Forum Marketing

Forums are places or web sites on the Internet, where people can register themselves as members, and take part in the conversations specific to the forum that are of interest to them.

For example, Microsoft, as a part of their web site and their services to their customers, have a forum, where members can ask questions about the problems they have with products or services Microsoft offers. Someone has bought an operating system, and they cannot work with a specific part of it. They can post their questions on the forum, and the members that have already had that problem, and know the solution, post their answers.

Likewise, Internet Marketing has its own relevant forums, and members help each other with the different topics specific to their businesses.

Through forums marketers place themselves as authorities in their own fields of expertise, and build rapport with their potential customers. Your potential customers could be turned into an actual customer over time once they really trust you, and know who they are dealing with.

If you want to make money online, forum marketing must be a part of your marketing strategy. It could also be outsourced once your business has grown enough, so you can focus on a specific aspect of your business personally.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is one of the most important parts, if not the most important part, of any online marketing business.

They are powerful tools that enable you as an online marketer to let people know who you are as a person, and build relationships with people. They are great places to show people what you do on the Internet on a day-to-day basis, and what you personal life looks like depending on how much you choose to share.

Some of the social media web sites that are commonly used by Internet Marketers are Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Squidoo. There are many more, but these are the most important ones.

There are many ways to manage your social media accounts. They need to be maintained every day. Many online marketers today, use some automation tools since it can be quite overwhelming when your business grows in size and volume over time, and with it, so does the number of your online contacts. Some people, however, consider it unethical to use automation tools to manage social media.

As an online marketer who wants to make money online, social media is your virtual store on the Internet. Many people spam theirs with sales pitches, and business offers. People turn off when you pitch them on your business opportunity even if you have the best in the world. If you do your job right, you do not have to pitch anybody on anything. People will ask you voluntarily about your business opportunity, and will want to join.

Blogging

Blogs or weblogs are personal web sites where people write on different subjects. Some blogs are personal, some business-related, and some maintained by companies.

Blogging is an essential part of online marketing. Some of the advantages of blogs are as follows:

Blogs are easy to update. They usually have a simple graphical user interface, which is the software the blog user works with, through which the user updates the content every day. Web sites, on the other hand, need the user to have some knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc. to update the web site content. You can easily rank for your name, or your blog itself, in the search engine results, much more easier than you can for web sites. Blogs are great tools for building relationships, and they come in handy as compared to web sites.

Blogging must be an integral part of your online business if you want to make money online.

SEO Marketing

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. As an Internet marketer or entrepreneur, you want to reach out to as many people as you can. How would you do that?

Normally, whatever tools you use in your promotional campaigns, you can reach out to a specific number of people every day as a result of your own direct efforts. You want to be easily found by those who search for what you present as a business opportunity, or a solution to one of their problems on the Internet.

Through SEO Marketing, you would learn over time how to rank for your name, web log, company name, web site, or anything related to you on the Internet. You could learn this skill from the company you work with, if they have a good education platform, or from the many different sources on the Internet. But the problem with the sources on the Internet is that, since you do not know much about the subject, at least when you start out, you could easily pay a lot of money for any course that would not serve your real needs and waste your time. Internet is full of courses, CD's, DVD's, etc. that claim to make you a millionaire over night. There may be nothing wrong with their products or services, but the responsibility lies within you to choose the right one for yourself.

This Marketing strategy must be on the top of your agenda if you are really serious about making money online. You also could outsource it depending on your own circumstances.

People Strategy

Probably the most important part of every business is how you deal with your customers, how you talk to them, how they see you as a person, and how much you try to solve their problems, rather than pushing your business opportunity on them.

When you want to make money online, you either have to offer a service or sell a product that people ask for. The product could be yours, and part of what you sell in your brick and mortar business, or someone else's.

If you do not have a product of your own to promote, you will have to promote some other product primarily related to another company and get paid commissions on your sales based on your agreement with the company you work with.

Internet Marketing is usually done in two ways:

Some already have brick and mortar businesses, and want to promote their products or services online, so they get higher exposures in the market, and have more profits. Some, on the other hand, promote some company's products or services and get paid commissions on their sales.

As far as the members of the second group are concerned, they usually complain about how hard it is to sell online, or they believe that they are not good at selling.

When you have a close look at successful online marketers, or the leader in this industry, they really do not sell anything. They never pitch anyone on their business opportunities. Others simply approach them and want to buy from them. People want to buy from them because they believe buying what they preach leads them to having what leaders have. People actually want to have what leaders have, otherwise nobody ever likes to buy anything if it does not lead to solving some problems of theirs.

Any business you do, online or offline, you will be successful if you are a leader in that industry. Leadership is learnable by anyone like any other skill, and it would say that the most important skill that your company teaches you must be leadership.

Well, these are some of the activities that you would be doing on a day-to-day basis as an Internet Marketer if you want to make money online. Like I said before, any of them is a learnable skill, and anyone can learn them. It is very important that you choose the right company, so you can make sure you will add to your tool box as you go along. If you can sacrifice your long term success and brighter future for some get rich quick techniques that might work today, but definitely no longer tomorrow, you will acquire skills that no matter where you go, or whatever industry you want to work in, they come in handy and sometime quite impressing.

Online Marketing is an interesting journey where you need to learn and update yourself every single day, and there is no end to learning since the Internet is constantly changing. Also you should be proactive and anticipate change, so you are not surprised when the strategy you worked so hard to find to facilitate that aspect of your business stops working the next morning you turn on your computer.

Now if you think that doing all or most of the above meets your values regarding your ideal occupation or career, keep reading.

You do realize that you cannot be good at what you do not love, and you cannot make much money off of what you are not good at.

Now that you have made sure this business really suites your interests and values, you can now choose the company you want to work with.

There are many companies that apparently offer the same concept, most of which claim to be the best one on earth. Despite the fact that it really does not matter much where you work, as much as it matters who you are as a person, but the choice of your company and as a result of which the people you will be working with, really helps you become the kind of person you want to be somewhere down the road, and have the kind of income you want to have. You may want to consider the following points regarding the choice of your company:

Do not choose the companies that promise to make you rich quick without not much effort on your part, and in a short amount of time.

Choose the company that shows you the way how to create your own success rather than doing it for you through some kind of magic or unusual investment. Always keep in mind that there is no shortcut to success, and the only way is hard work. Once you have earned the kind of success that you want, nobody can take it away from you, since you have earned it.

Choose the company that offers great online marketing education.

The education that your company offers is extremely important. You want to choose the company that both offers good education for marketing, be it online or offline, and also the online implication of these marketing concepts through the free and paid online tools that are at your disposal on the Internet.

Both the parts are equally important. Most people fail over and over again at online marketing for the simple fact that they are not good at marketing in the first place. When you do not know the underlying and fundamental concepts of marketing, you will not be successful whether you do it online or offline.

Some people are good at marketing, but do not know how to choose their words in different situations. You need to know when to talk, when not to talk, when to listen intently, and how to choose your words so you get what you want from different people. Even if you intend to give them something, you will not be able to do so, if you do not know how to make them understand that they will be benefited if they have what you have to offer. Such matters are all around us in our day-to-day lives every day. It is just that those who know how to behave in different situations accordingly, have better lives and better incomes.

Some though, are good at the marketing part, but do not know how to use their marketing skills on an online platform.

All the different parts combined will make a good online marketer, and you could get all that if the company that you join has that education platform in place.

Choose the company that offers great community support.

The community you socialize with. or your peer group, is extremely important. You must have heard it said that your income equals the average income of the ten people you socialize with the most.

Ideally the online marketing community members get on online calls and webinars on a day-to-day basis, and let each other know about what they have been doing, what works, and what does not work.

Another advantage of a good community is that it gives you an entrepreneurial mindset, and so gives you the winning edge.

I could not emphasize more on the importance of your community since my mindset has changed a lot as a result of the community I have been socializing with during the past few months. I have become so positive, and look at things in a totally different way. I tend to see the positive side of every situation, and guess what, the positive side shows up most of the time.

Choose your community and the people you socialize with, with utmost care.

Make sure that first you really understand what it is that you are going to promote as the product or service of the company, and then make sure that you really believe people could be benefited from the product or service that you promote.

Human beings do not really try for something that they do not believe in on a very deep level. If you really believe something is worthwhile, you give it your all. But if not so, you may hang on to it when it is not so hard to do so, but when it get a bit hard to save it, you give up, since you do not really believe it worth your while.

If you really believe that the product or service you represent could really benefit others, you give it your all. You will try your best to convince others that they would be benefited if they bought it. And when people realize that you really believe in what you say, and see you as a person with integrity, they will want to buy from you.

If you look at marketing or simply selling on a deeper level, you will realize that people do not really buy your product; they buy "you"

That is where the term "branding" comes into play. Branding simply means how you let others to see you. It means what images or memories combined are represented on people's minds when they hear your name, or any other title they know you by. They might know you by the title, "the bank teller", but then what follows after somebody says "the bank teller", really matters, how you have branded yourself in people's eyes and minds. So you want to brand yourself shortly as a leader, be it in your business, or your personal life, so your success is guaranteed.

Another important point to be noted is that you cannot advertise a product online or offline very successfully, that has already been all over the market for a while. You would need to make a lot of efforts and invest a lot of time. That simply does not make much sense. So you want to find your niche market, and concentrate on something with great marketing potential, that preferably has not been tapped into much before.

Today there are soaps, lotions, potions, pills, juices, vitamin pills, and many such products that have saturated the market. Moreover, when you decide to market such products, there is not much potential for earning commissions on them, since they are usually very inexpensive in the first place.

There are some products though that are never outdated. A product that helps people improve the quality of their live never loses its marketing potentiality. Educational programs, wealth building strategies, etc. are good examples of this category.

So you want to choose a product that you really believe is worth your time to work on, and has not been advertised by many people before.

Think of it this way. What would you choose to promote online or offline, if you knew you would not be paid for it? Answer this question, and start your business.

Choose a company or business model that pays you both commissions on your sales as well as residual income on your downline.

There are many companies and business models on the Internet with many being added to them every single day, each of which having their own rules and regulations. You need to comply with all their rules when you want to join their business opportunity. Today there is no security with almost any of the business opportunities on the Internet. Some though, have gained a good reputation over time.

To be on the safe side, you want to choose a company that pays you high value commissions on your sales, and a residual income on the sales made by your downline. Your downline are those people who sign up under you, or join your business opportunity. This way you can make sure that you will have your monthly earnings, and once you have built up your downline, you will not have to put in as much efforts to have a monthly income. Of course, there will be some people all the time that drop out, for many reasons, and the portion of your residual income that depended on them, drains out.

So after a while, you will find yourself only making up for those who drop out, and replacing them with new applicants, and of course making a few sales a month.

To be successful online, you should keep yourself updated all the time, and act as an information center, so people want to come back to your web site or blog over and over again, learn from you, and lead you wherever you go.

Choose a company that helps you grow as a person, and improve your leadership qualities.

You must have heard it said that wise people do not work for money; they work for learning.

If the community you work with helps you grow as a leader, you will be a leader no matter where you go, and people will want to follow you.

Maybe the most important factor to consider when choosing a business opportunity is to decide whether it is going to help you learn and grow or not. Otherwise, wherever you work, you are going to earn enough money to take care of your expenses. Money is definitely very important in our lives, but when are we going to work on the other aspects of our lives?

The point is that when you take care of certain aspects of your life, that in most cases are ignored by most of us, money will automatically flow in.

Would you rather be a person who has enough money, and is a leader, so people want to follow him, buy from him, learn from him, and socialize with him, or the person who just has the money, but none of the other qualities?

You do realize that money is actually a by-product of the good qualities a person has. More often than not, you cannot be rich without having those qualities first. There are however some cases where people are rich, but not wealthy. Being rich is far different from being wealthy. "Being rich" is only about having money. "Being wealthy" on the other hand, means that the person is "rich", and has the good qualities as well. And you do know what someone's life looks like when they have a lot of money, but are not wealthy. Don't you?

Okay, now you have decided that online marketing is the right occupation for you, have chosen the right company, and joined the company. How are things going for you? Are you making any sales? Are you happy with what you have?

Well, things are a little bit hard during the first few months, but once you adjust to your new working conditions, understand the whole system you are working with, and get the big picture, you will be okay.

But this is the most important and critical part of your journey, once you have made it through the first few months.

Usually only 3% of Internet Marketers succeed and thrive, and those are the ones who just hang in there until they attain their desired results.

You see, you need some time in the beginning to learn any new system you start working with, and understand it, be able to manage yourself in time, focus on what you need to do, and not be carried away by the many web sites and different software you come across along the way.

You also need to give people some time to know you on the Internet, trust you, and start working with you.

So basically you need to work hard upfront and reap the rewards later on.

Most people get discouraged once they have done almost whatever they needed to do to succeed. Once they are almost there, they quit. Don't let this happen to you.

On the other hand, some really give their all, but still do not succeed, and keep going from one system to another, or one company to another, but they never make it.

The key to success here is to give your all, but under the supervision of a tested proven system. In most cases, knowing what not to do is much more important than knowing what to do. Your time, capital, and all the other resources are limited, and without a good, step-by-step business plan you are not going to get anywhere. When you have a tested proven system, one that has already worked well for many people like you, it is almost impossible to fail.

This article was a little bit long, but I wanted to publish a complete guide to online marketing, as I knew it, for those who have always thought of starting it, but never have, since they did not know what they would be getting into.

There are times in our lives that there is something within us all the time inspiring us to take action on something. Most of the time we do not listen to that voice, and it fades away after a while. We really do not know what our lives would look like today if we had listened to the inner voice within us, talking to and directing us all the time.

On the other hand, sometimes our minds do not really get started on something until we proactively take action on them.

Always remind yourself that there is nothing in the world you cannot do if you set your mind to it.

I would like to thank you for taking the time and reading through this long article, and I hope it has added something to what you already knew. If so, I have achieved my objective.

Go through the article again, if you feel you need to. If you have any doubts about anything that has been discussed here, you are more than welcome to contact me.

If you feel that this is the right business for the kind of person that you are, go ahead and take action now. The timing could never be any better than NOW. You are never going to figure it all out before you get involved and get your feet wet. Take the first step in faith NOW, and the rest of the way will be shown to you.

Never stop dreaming and believing in yourself! Thank you for your attention.

Make Money Online in a Legit and Sustainable Way