Singapore has become a high flyer on the international higher education scene. Many highly acclaimed international business schools are offering MBA in Singapore for experienced as well as aspiring managers. In addition to the local universities, such as the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University, many of the world's leading foreign universities have also established their presence in Singapore. These leading foreign universities have either set up a physical campus (institutes of higher learning) or have joint collaborations/programmes with local universities (local tie-ups).They mould outstanding graduates with internationally recognised degrees. Research and scholarship opportunities are also available to post-graduate students.
Some of the more prominent ones include
University of Chicago Booth School of Management has produced leaders in the world of business. The Asia campus of the Chicago Booth is located at House of Tan Yeok Nee, at the junction of Clemenceau Avenue, which is regarded as the heart of Singapore’s business and government district. This campus is famous for pertaining International Executive MBA in Singapore. In the first ever ranking of open enrollment executive educational programs, The Economist magazine has ranked Chicago as “excellent” giving 4.5 in a scale of 1-5. Its full time MBA program was ranked number one by Business Week in 2008. Six of the faculties have won Nobel Prize, which speaks volume of the standard of faculties. Students of Chicago Booth have access to the latest business concepts. For full time MBA in Singapore in 2008-09, estimated cost for nine months was $78,972. The cost included tuition, health service, health insurance, books, rents and utilities, food, and transportation. In addition, there is $2,000 non-refundable security deposit. For further details:
International Executive MBA Program at Singapore
101 Penang Road
Singapore 238 466
65.6835.64.82
asia.inquiries@chicagobooth.edu
INSEAD is regarded as one of the best business schools in the world. A close tie with business communities, synergy between training and research has developed its integrative general management approach. INSEAD offers full time MBA, part time Executive MBA programme and executive development courses. The full time MBA is a 10-month programme that has been divided into five study periods, each of eight weeks. During the first three periods 14 core business subjects are covered and in the final two, students tailor their degree by choosing among 80 elective courses. The selection process is very competitive. Candidates are expected to have excellent academic qualifications, diverse range of experience, and management and leadership potential. Each campus of INSEAD has two intakes per year, one in January and the other in September. Students over 70 nationalities in two campuses of Europe and Asia also have the opportunity to take elective courses at Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia. Asia Campus of INSEAD is located at:
1, Ayer Rajah Avenue
138676 Singapore
Tel- (65) 6799 5388
Asia campus offers EMBA (Executive MBA), to download the EMBA brochure 2009/2010 visit:
http://www.insead.edu/emba/documents/GEMBABrochure20092010_000.pdf or http://www.insead.edu/emba/index.cfm
Tuition fees for September 2009 and January 2010 entries amount to $51,000. There are other education related costs such as books and council fees. Business foundation programme, language course fees and laptop are optional. The estimated monthly expenses other than cost of study include accommodation, meals, transport, telephone insurance and transport that may vary from $2,000 - $3,000 per month.
The City University of New York (CUNY) Baruch College is the largest AACSB accredited business school of America that offers various MBA programmes in collaboration with Aventis School of Management. The Baruch campus at Singapore currently offers the following Executive programs:
* Executive Master of Science in Finance
* Executive Master of Science in Marketing
* Executive Master of Science in Management of HR and Global Leadership
For further details contact:
Aventis School of Management
Baruch College, The City University of New York
ASEAN Representative Office
100 Orchard Road, Concorde Hotel Hotel # 03-08
Singapore 238840
Office: 65 6720 3333
To download brochures and other details, visit: http://www.cuny.edu.sg
Singapore is regarded in the business world as the gateway to Asia. Highly advanced infrastructure, close economic ties with India, China and comparatively low cost of MBA programmes from international business schools have made MBA in Singapore a highly sought after career option in Singapore.
25 April 2009
Selecting An International Business School In Singapore
Top 5 SignsThat Your Website Sucks
Small business owners may not have the resources to invest heavily in their web presence and finding solutions to problems can be like finding a needle in a haystack. You know something's wrong but don't have the faintest idea how to fix it. Is it a technical issue? Are your ads not performing well? Don't know what kind of traffic you're getting? Website problems can fall into a myriad of categories. So if you think your website sucks, a) it probably does, and b) you should read on.
1. You Aren't Getting Traffic
You're excited about the big, expensive job the design team just finished on your site. It looks like a million bucks! Well it's a shame it isn't making you a darn cent. Just because it exists doesn't mean people know about it. Announce it to the world by submittíng it to reputable directories and sharing your useful content with others on social bookmarking sites (you do have useful content, don't you? If not, I'll cover this later). You can even do some link exchanges -- provided the sites you exchange with are reputable -- just to get your site crawled early on. Further optimize it for search engines by following good SEO practices, building quality content and generating inbound links from other sites. Once you do that, you'll need to monitor progress with web analytics software. Google Analytics is free and it has a slick interface. And we know you like pretty things seeing as how you broke the bank on your web site design.
If you're looking for high ROI, invest your time in learning search engine marketing. Better yet hire a qualified SEO firm if you have the budget for it. Don't settle for quick-fix promotional ideas. Build long-term exposure and a solid reputation by attaining high rankings, keeping email/newsletter lists, targeted ad placement and social media participation.
2. You Have Worthless Content
What defines worthless content? Without knowing what topic your web site covers it's tough to say, but if you have nothing that sets you apart from your top competitors then I'd say you aren't in good shape. If you don't know what kind of content people are looking for on the Internet today, take a peek at what's popular on social bookmarking sites. Observe some of the story titles on the front page of Digg.com:
"Guinness Stout Beef Stew Recipe for St. Patrick's Day"
"In Move to Digital TV, Confusion Is in the Air"
"Kim Jong-Il Interprets Sunrise As Act Of War"
"Automatic bacon dispenser?"
"The 5 Best Obama Photomosaics on Flickr"
Words I would use to describe these topics, in order, are: seasonal, informative, satirical, comical, and trendy. This information is popular because it's appealing in its uniqueness and is relevant to today's market. To set yourself apart from your competition, you need to get creative. If you're the kind of person who had trouble painting by numbers, then hire someone creative. Professional copy writers can be well worth the investment. Create free tools your customers will want to use; write funny or interesting commentary in a blog about your industry; put a new spin on a traditional product or service or provide seasonal discounts. Create a comprehensive F.A.Q. on your site that covers topics your competitors don't.
Take the time to beef up your content. Be innovative - don't be afraid to think outside the box. Use the top competitor in your field as a measuring stick.
3. You Have No Call-to-Action
Poor promotional language can have a sabotaging effect if visitors aren't drawn to your conversion pages. A conversion page is any page that acts as the final step in a visitor submitting a form, making direct contact or purchasing a product online. Obscuring those pages or confusing the visitor on where to go next can make them leave your site. Internet users have a short attention span - give them a clear direction when navigating your web site.
Use your web analytics software again to find out what pages visitors are landing on first. If your home page gets the most traffic, make sure there are clear links to your sub-topics. If inner pages are your most popular landing pages, find out if the traffic is targeted. Once you know the type of visitor and the specific page they land on, then you can start marketing your content more accurately.
The bottom line is to always make clear why, and how, visitors can buy your product. Don't get too cute with multiple steps, options or convoluted language.
4. You're Getting Traffic But No Sales
Are you sure the traffic is relevant? If you're running a pay-per-click campaign, ensure your ads are geo-targeted properly and your ad text or landing pages appeal to your customers. For organic search engine placement, have you done keyword research and analysis before optimizing your content? Look at your web stats and see where your visitors are coming from. What keywords were they searching for when they landed on your site? Are the referring sites relevant to your industry or topic? How much time does the visitor spend on each page? Sales won't come if your visitors aren't interested in what you're selling. This is why preliminary keyword analysis is so important to search engine marketing.
If you're running ads, it's always good practice to experiment with different ad campaigns. If you put all your eggs in one basket you run the risk of losing out on potential revenue. Elements of your ads that you can change are:
• ad text
• landing page
• specific network your ads are shown across
• topics on which you focus the campaign
• geo-locations targeted
Remember, it doesn't pay to skimp on initial product/market research and analysis.
5. You're Getting Relevant Traffic But No Sales
This problem could signal a technical error or navigation problem with your site. Make sure you thoroughly test all functionalities on various web browsers and systems. Submit test forms. Do a link check to spot possible broken links. Is your web hosting service reliable?
If you've ruled out technical issues as the cause then turn your attention to the content and customer base. Has your market taken a downturn? Can the lack of sales be attributed to the poor economy? Have you fallen behind your competition in product quality, selection or pricing? Does your web site's navigation system confuse users? Your web site is the first line of contact between the business and potential customer, but it's not the only step you need to worry about. Telephone operators or online payment systems can present their own issues.
This is moving away from web site problems but if any part of the sales process takes place away from the site, investigate those areas of your business as well.
If you're pulling out your hair over a problem with your site and these tips still haven't helped, feel free to post a comment and I'll personally have a peek at your site.
Web Development for Systematic Website Creation and Functioning
Developing and building a website is a stepwise process requiring professional handling and outlook. Many options are available in the market for designing a website and keep it running. There are many good web development tools available for the website builders.
The first and foremost thing is to decide on the aim of your website and for what purpose it is being created. It can be just to convey any information or for any buying and selling purpose. In case the website is developed for personal use like sharing the information regarding certain products, interests, market research, etc with family, friends or others then its development is not so difficult. Whereas if the website is aimed at generating money, any market research before its creation is certainly a big issue. Range of products that you choose might be related to your field of interest or in which you have expertise. Whatever is the case, company must know whether there is market demand of their range of products/services.
The most important thing that comes in mind for web development is how should the website be built. For site building many options are available that have their own set of pros and cons. For instance developer can build a website from start using programs like CSS and HTML. It enables the user to practice complete control over their website. Companies also purchase web templates and insert them with the relevant information. The products and information can be tangible in nature. There are many website development companies that sell websites with preloaded products. Many of such websites also gives the opportunity to customize website look and the product types intended to be sold.
Such sites usually allows to function in a quicker manner and provides control on the way your website would look.
All website owners that develop sites have some common goals like getting more visitors traffic, have proper online presence, customers having instant access to information and range of products or services and so on. Web development helps in creating greater brand value among the net users, also automize the business workflow. A well developed site has many features like view reports, remote login, order taking, share opinions, etc.
After the task of website development is completed you have to take care of another aspects like SEO, internet marketing, search engine submission, etc. The web development companies help their clients to get access to all these types of services.
How To Shop Organic
What is the most effective way to shop for organic Goods?
Gradually implementing small changes to your family's budget is the most effective way to start shopping organically. Trying to buy everything organic all at once could be going overboard and usually ends up being unfruitful. Like dieting you have good intentions, get charged up, starve to death and then try to run the million man marathon only to have it come crashing down a few days later. Rather, a small and steady effort over time brings better results.
A good formula is to set aside 5-10% of your current monthly budget and use this to shop for organic items. A family with three children might spend 1000$ a month on groceries and other basic necessities, now they would begin to put aside 50-100$ monthly and use it to purchase select organic products.
To have a more noticeable effect look for unique items that will last and bring long term benefits rather than spending money simply on daily consumables. All too often organic shopping is associated with perishables like food stuffs or skin care products. You may find that at first this small amount does not go too far in these areas and what you purchase is quickly used up. Shopping is enjoyable so look around for a different product each month and find things like organic clothing, sheepskin rugs or even chopping blocks and pretty soon you will have a house full of organic items that start to make a difference in your daily lives.
Present society, no matter how much we desire to live in a pure and natural way, will force everyone to make compromises from time to time in healthy living. Recognizing this helps promote a reasonable attitude in our efforts. A little change is all that is needed to make a difference. Anyway you decide to change your buying habits you stand to better the environment, raise your family's standard of healthy living and enjoy the best nature has to offer.
8 Steps to Build Traffic for Your Website
Here are 8 fine ways to increase web traffic and site visitors to your website. We are sure these tips may work the best for you:
Apply Proper HTML Structure And The Use Of Hyperlinks:
This is one of the most fundamental things but still overlooked by many! It is important for you to tell the search engines what a certain page is about. Therefore, while structuring your page the HTML way, keep in mind these three:
1. Title tag
2. Meta description tag
3. Meta keywords tag
It is good to include your keyword once or maximum twice in these features. Repeating over and over again may make the Search Engines ignore your page completely.
It’s worthwhile to mention here that using keywords in hyperlinks to internal pages is also helpful—e.g. instead of writing “please see this page for more information”…u can write “please see web designers articles here”
Submit To Main Search Engines And Web Directories:
Submitting your site only to the popular search engines; Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL is enough. Once you have been listed with these, your results will automatically appear in the others, which are mainly the portals of these search engines. Another way to set traffic directly to your site is by submitting to all the major web directories.
The More the Content—the Better It Becomes!
Content-rich sites are loved by search engines, esp. by Google. Despite all the efforts, if your site still isn’t being ranked high enough, I suggest you go through that content of your website and try loading it with a bit of text. Keep regular updates and make it interesting.
Get Links to Your Site
The more websites pointing back to you, the more link popularity you get and the more chances of being ranked higher—ultimately causing an increase to your site traffic. But here, it’s not just the number of links, but also the quality of links that matter. Connecting your site with other sites in your niche may also be a good idea.
Publish Yourself Through Articles And PR’s:
Write articles for your own site on regular basis. Providing information to the user will certainly give them a reason to come back to your site over and over again. Moreover, also publish your articles in article directories such as Ezine Articles, Article City, isnare, Go Articles etc.
Email Marketing and Newsletters:
It’s silly why people don’t capture the email addresses of the visitors actually interested in their products and services! A visitor would certainly never buy anything at first instance, and it’s important to take their email addresses so you could post them regular newsletters and keep yourself refreshed in their minds the next time they are willing to buy products of that very nature. Ask your visitors to subscribe for a newsletter whenever they land onto your site. Special offers, latest products and interesting articles must be the components of your newsletter.
Create Active Blogs:
Blogs (web logs) have become an interesting way of generating maximum traffic for your website. If your blog contains good content and information and you are actively promoting it as well, BINGO!! You have just found a way to increase your customers.
Off-Line Marketing:
Promote your site in every way you can. Put your URL on business cards, letters, T-shirts, traditional means of advertising and marketing etc.
If you are seeking to build a website that attracts maximum traffic and increase your sales by keeping the above aspects in mind, look no further. SeoGp - Internet Marketing Company carries out the best search engine techniques and makes you achieve long-term customers your company wants. SeoGp is the name you can trust for your .website promotion and web marketing
Single? Maybe. Avoid Online Dating Lies and More
After a messy break-up with your significant other months ago, your best friend finally talked you into joining an online dating service. Now that you’ve registered, completed a brief questionnaire and submitted your most recent photo, you’re excited about meeting someone new.
At first glance, you’re impressed with the profiles of several attractive, successful singles. But, what your friend failed to tell you is that what you see online, isn’t always what you get in person.
According to Paul A. Falzone, CEO of The Right One and Together Dating, the largest brick-and-mortar dating service in the world, “Online dating sites are used by the honest and dishonest alike. Men and women use the anonymity of the Web to lie about their age, appearance, name and even gender. For example, cheating spouses will use online dating sites to hook up with someone when they go out of town. It’s important to be aware of the perils of online dating before you get burned.”
Falzone alerts online daters of the red flags which signal potential dates to avoid:
R U free 2nite? The “texter” who has a few seconds to send text messages, but is always too busy or not available to actually chat on the phone or via email. This type likes communication to be kept to a minimum, unless s/he initiates it. Dates are often made and cancelled at the last minute with a variety of excuses used. S/he is often out of town a lot and inaccessible. These are common signs of someone who is not single and/or not being honest with you. Move on. You can do much better.
Beauty or beast? Beware of dishonesty through photo misrepresentation. Note that a good profile usually provides more than one photo of that person. If the photo looks too professional, chances are, it is – and perhaps even “borrowed” from somewhere else. And yes, there are people who deliberately post their high school photo from 15 years ago to attract your interest.
Think you hit the jackpot when you get a nice response with a good-looking photo? One of the ways competing online dating sites draw you in is by responding to you with profiles of “beautiful people” from another dating site. After you’ve clicked over to that site and signed up to meet that gorgeous creature, oftentimes you’ll find they don’t even exist. Save your time and money by responding to those who are members of your dating site.
Little lies. So you recently arranged to meet that single, 6’4”, trim and muscular, brown-haired former college basketball captain whom you found online. Upon meeting in person, you find out that the only thing true in his description of himself was his hair color. Some believe that telling “little lies” on their profile with regard to a couple inches in height or a couple pounds in weight won’t matter. Be aware that those who misrepresent themselves on the “little things” may have no problem lying about “bigger things” such as their marital status and age. Don’t settle for what you read in a profile. Verify the information they have offered by asking about their age, relationship status, height and weight. They may refuse to answer your questions or they may provide different information. Or, everything may measure up. Regardless, you’ll have a better idea of that person’s honesty and whether or not you really want to meet him/her.
The “put down”. Avoid the online profile that disrespects and rips an ex-lover to shreds or simply informs you of those aspects s/he doesn’t want in a date. For example, “looking for someone without issues - unlike my fat, drunk ex.” Or, “if you’re needy, jealous and selfish, look elsewhere”. These are profiles that signal potential anger issues. Statements such as these come from someone who has recently ended a relationship or is emotionally scarred from a past relationship and really not happy. Leave them be. You don’t need to be their sounding board or rebound date. They’re not ready to date now and won’t be until they can move on.
Learning Metal Guitar: The Fastest and Easiest Method
How many times did you feel the urge of playing the heavy metal guitar when you saw someone using his fingers to produce note that drives the entire audience crazy? How many times did you dream of playing hard rock in front of a huge audience? In addition, how many times did you think of learning the metal guitar only to drop the idea because you do not have sufficient time? Metal guitar lessons in normal music guides are not easily comprehensible unless you have some previous technical knowledge of the music, its notes and chords etc. If you never played guitar before, does not it mean that you cannot learn metal guitar unless you spend a lot of time and money on it? The answer is no.
With the introduction of a guide that is aimed at solely the beginners, learning metal guitar was never so easy. This guide does not require you to have any technical knowledge of music. You need not have any experience in music. You can use this guide to learn metal guitar in the easiest method possible. You will start playing your favorite songs with confidence in no time. The guide comes to you after a good research in the learning techniques that were discovered accidentally by the creator of the guide.
However, there is now an option for you to learn the metal guitar. You can call it a shortcut to learning the notes necessary to play the much favorite songs that you always wanted to play. This technique helps the immediate beginners with learning metal guitar chords, even if they have not played any instrument before and do not have any technical knowledge about music.
There are some websites that provides the technique which is available in form of a guide for everyone, at a minimal cost. One has to choose between the guides that may be for immediate beginners and for people who have been playing for quite a time. If you can play songs already then you may want to buy advanced guides for playing guitar even more efficiently. The guide for immediate beginners is developed in an easy to understand manner so that they can learn how to play metal guitar in no time.
It employs an easy to understand step by step instructions. The instructions are accompanied by colored illustrations so you will not have difficulty in finding the chords. Once you understand the basics of the chords, you can continue with the sequence or go straight to the chords for some of the famous songs as you go through the remaining portion of the guide.
You can start directly by learning the notes essential to play your favorite songs. The guide is a set of step-by-step instructions that help you pick up the difficult metal chords easily. It also includes several illustrations to help you achieve the results fast. You can just check out the images along with the text and learn the metals. The guide may also include videos that help you grasp the basics quickly. So choose the best guide before it is too late.
Every one is concerned about the beauty of their web page design. If you are concerned about the look of your website and want it to load fast then here are few commonly used tricks that you may want to consider:
Avoid putting everything in one big block, not even text. Make use of white space and separate the text in paragraph. This will make the text look neat and more readable.
Do you like colored pages? It's okay, but in general, if you care about the readability of your text then a white background with black text works best. If keeping a colored background is must for you then you can make sure the resolutions by viewing it in resolution like 256 colors, to check the appearance of the page. A colored page that looks fine on your 32 bit color resolution system may have dithering that makes your text difficult to read on lesser settings.
Most of the companies prefer white background, you may check their websites and you will find that how beautifully they have used the white background. The common text color on white background is obviously black but some companies do not hesitate at all in experimenting. After all experiment make you different from others.
Few big companies who do so may probably have more resources for testing the usability of their website than you have, so it will be better if you do not play with your designs too quickly.
Reduce the size of the individual graphics files on your pages by using the following methods:
Reduce the number of colors in the graphic
Reduce the size of the image, if possible
In animations, reduce the number of frames
On searching online you can find many tools (free also) which can help you in reducing your GIF files. There are many forums, blogs, articles and online venues where you can find out numerous ways to do so. People in the online arena are eager enough to answer your query.
Just as a note of caution I would like to say that focus on the content is equally important as design of the web page. Good designs and graphics may hold them for extra couple of minutes but your content will make them to rely on you.
Cheap Web Hosting Solutions to Fulfill Small Business Demands
In order to craft a niche for yourself on internet, a company needs to have a website running live on world wide web. But for that a site needs to have a website account first with any good web hosting company for publishing your site. However the type of hosting account is influenced by size of the website, its type, project bandwidth usage, etc
For the beginners, they can find many web hosting service providers that offer services that fits well into small scale business websites as well as personal ones. The range can vary from free to few hundred dollars per month depending upon the company and services being hired. But choose these cheap web hosting services with care to avoid services with poor technical support and customer help.
Before buying the web space carry out research about the hosting company's history. Although newly launched companies may not have a history but those in these business do have a prior track record of their earlier assignments. This would give you the idea whether their services would fulfill your hosting requirements or not. Review the testimonials and portfolio section so that there is no future disappointments.
The features of web host account varies from one solution provider to another. Experts always recommend to go for advance packages rather than plain accounts as a site might grow big in near future demanding more functionality.
When you sign in for a web hosting account, check whether there are any hidden costs or not.
Many new websites or companies with budget constraint look for cheap web hosting solution providers. You can find many cheap and expensive web hosting companies online to choose from. Those going in for cheap web hosting services always select the most reliable and trusted service provider. All companies claim that there hosting services are best but before believing them do the research at your own end. Have clear cut idea about what exactly are your expectations and what you want from the service providers.
You would come across many of such hosting packages in very attractive schemes. The choice of hosting can be individual or shared. Packages have details like speed, bandwidth, time guarantee on the website. The up-time guarantee is very important to keep your website running successfully round the clock and 365 days a year. These packages can be made flexible according to the client's needs.
Balancing Work and Home
Work is addicting...and more so when your computer is your office or shop! And while you spend hour upon hour to network with other netpreneurs and provide online customer services to your clients, you tend to neglect a dozen odd household jobs.
Hours seem to fly by when work online. As for your household duties, with great effort, you just take care of the most basic ones like fixing dinner, driving your kids to school etc.
Cleaning, Organizing, Buying Groceries, paying your bills, going to the post office etc. are postponed till the last hour. So how do your balance your work along with your home?
There are two important steps to do this. First, make yourself realize the fact that you HAVE TO take some time out for your home and there is no excuse in the world to avoid that.
Secondly, start organizing your available time. Here are some quick steps to help you balance your work as well as your home.
1. Divide available hours between your home and your work diligently.
2. Set timers when you are working online.
3. Maintain a 'To Do' list or a diary.
4. Picture yourself going through the troubles of paying your bills later than allowed.
5. Set aside some time for all those jobs which require you to go outside. For e.g. going to the market, post office, bank etc. Try to coincide these with each other. Say, for example, you could take care of these after driving your kids to school.
6. Make up your mind and start some kind of organizing/ decorating/ renovating activity around your house. These are so addicting that once you start, you will enjoy yourself a lot.
7. Similarly, take up your favorite hobby in the afternoon. You will love the change and enjoy getting creative.
8. Plan weekly activities. Take up cleaning once a week. Go for outings once a week. Call upon a friend once a week. This will help you maintain your social life as well.
9. Surf the net for information related to a hobby. This will get you started with that hobby and also give you the much needed break from work.
10. Surf the web with your hubby or children. Show them websites of their interest. That way, you will also get to spend more time with them.
Just like the old saying - 'You Eat to Live, You do not Live to Eat', I'll say
'You Work to Live, You do not Live to Work'. It's no use being successful on the cost of your home and your family.
Good Luck with your efforts to striking a balance between your work and your home!
How to Find the Best Vacation Home Rental
Not everyone is comfortable with the idea of renting a private residence for their vacation, although with a little help they could and should be. Here are a few tips on how to over come some concerns about how and why renting private homes in tropical vacation areas is the best way to insure a "perfect" vacation.
There are literally thousands of homes available for vacation rentals. Trying to find the one that fits your needs can be threatening, but really doesn't have to be. Obviously you have to start by knowing where you hope to vacation. With this destination in mind searching the internet to find sites that advertise these accommodations is easy. Once you have surfed a while and made yourself familiar with a few rental sites you can start to notice a few things.
First, pictures are king! Home owners who have a place they are proud of will have as many photos as they are allowed to have, and will have photos of as much as they can. If you have a home to be proud of you show pictures. So always be suspicious of sites that do not have a LOT of pictures.
Secondly, pay close attention to the description of the property. Again, proud home owners are not being boastful when they describe their home in colorful, expressive ways. They talk about their vacation home the way anybody talks about anything they are very proud of and want to share with others. So ads that are short, curt and devoid of description should be avoided.
Thirdly notice who you will be dealing with. If it's a management company or another 3rd party source, that just takes you one step further away from the REAL decision maker. The real decision maker is the homeowner, the one that has cared for, maintained and created a slice of paradise that they are making available to you. When you deal with the actual home owner, there can be a bond created that becomes your MAIN source of confidence that you are getting the best vacation home rental you can. I liken it to the difference between buying a car from a used car lot verses the previous owner. Why do people get rid of their cars via dealers? They KNOW selling it themselves will be a tough sell. But if you have a quality car you are looking to replace, selling it yourself presents no problem. Quality sells itself.
If the sterile, impersonal environment found in most hotels and resorts is what you want, then vacation home rentals may not be right for you. On the other hand, now that you know what to look for, you may find that once you experience vacation home rentals for your family, you will never take any other type of vacation again.
What Is This Hosted Sevices I Keep Hearing About ?
Hosted Services and Cloud Computing. These are two of the new buzz words that we are hearing from the IT industry. But what exactly are they? Well, hosted services can mean any IT service that is hosted in a third party environment. Web Site hosting has been around for many years and people didn't make a big deal out of that, and those old enough to remember bureau services provided a type of hosted service many years ago.
So why make a big deal about "hosted services" now?
Traditionally, companies run their IT systems with a server and client workstations onsite. If they had multiple offices, they ran this configuration in each site or used serial communications if their application was suitable. With the advent of increased graphics in applications, serial communication couldn’t be used, however the traditional server and workstations located in the workplace works well.
With the advancement in technology, applications are becoming more feature and graphic rich and data communications have become faster and cheaper. The increasing demand for timely information, increased uptime, improved communications with email and wireless connectivity, it is becoming an expensive exercise to setup, maintain and upgrade in the traditional local environment. Companies need in-house skills or contractors in local area networking, server maintenance, security, mobile communications and overall system strategy not to mention which staff member was responsible for backup.
Most successful companies or businesses these days want to focus on their core business. Technology and IT are tools they use to achieve their objectives or a necessary evil forced upon them. They don't want to know about it but they want it to work for the lowest possible price.
So the objective is utilizing the latest technology without hassles for the lowest price. Enter the "New Hosted Services". The following business example will illustrate the some of the features of Hosted Services:
Business: "Medical Practice"
Location: "Two Surgeries"
Doctors in Total: "12"
Admin Staff: "4"
Requirement: Doctors have to be able to access patient records from both locations, home and local nursing homes. Administration staff also need access.
Backups and System up time are critical as all patient records are on the Server.
Business doesn't want to employ full time IT staff and contractors can be slow to respond.
There are many good Software packages that provide databases and accounting for the medical industry. Current technology allows one location to access another cost effectively however the communications are still not fast enough for the remote branch. This occurs because ADSL which most people use has a much slower speed on the out traffic than in traffic so the remote site is limited to the speed of the out traffic.
One solution is use a high speed BDSL line, however this is very expensive and we still incur all the other costs and problems of running and maintaining an in house system.
What do Hosting Centres provide?
Most provide a secure controlled environment for your server using your software and hardware. They also supply faster communication channels plus some type of remote hands service.
You are responsible for everything else.
Some specialist centres, we will call them Managed Application Providers, provide everything except your application software.
If the medical practice moves their IT to this type of centre, the centre will provide Hardware, Operating Systems, Managed Communications, Redundant Systems and Backup just to name a few services. This service is charged generally on a per user per month basis. Applications can be accessed using low cost ADSL because the centre’s have large capacity Data links. The centres have 24 hours support and are continually upgrading their equipment and Operating System to the latest version.
From the medical practice point of view, it meets their requirements.
Creative and Profitable Ways to Use Autoreponders
An interested visitor who has been strolling through your site has finally come to just what she is looking for and is about to make a purchase. It's a sunny afternoon, and her cat, who happens to be sitting on the moss under the visitor's large fifty-year-old snow-rose bonsai tree, suddenly jumps down, and the priceless tree topples over.
In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and your sale is dust - unless you have had the foresight to utilize an autoresponder that has captured her email address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can then follow-up with her, and in all probability, make the sale when the poor woman has finished repotting her precious bonsai
Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do so much more than just automatically answer your email. Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively and productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual visitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder to:
1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality autoresponders will manage subscriptions and follow-up with interested prospects. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed about your services or products, while building your reputation as a credible expert in your particular business.
2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Inform them of current sales you are running and of promotional material that your affiliates can use themselves to increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and techniques that your affiliates can use to successfully go out and promote your business.
3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, e-books, movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder. Review your affiliate programs, using a link to your affiliate's page in your autoresponder.
4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing targeted articles is a powerful tool to build your business credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your sales potential. If your articles contain valuable information, many editors will print what is known as a resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and a brief description of your service or product. It can also contain your autoresponder address. Let's say you've written fifty articles. Put them on separate autoresponder accounts and create a master list that contains the titles of each article, the autoresponder address, and a brief abstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally, include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates can add their articles to your list, increasing the number of writers who are represented in your article list.
5. Create mailing lists. Inform subscribers to your articles when you've written new ones that they may want to publish in their own newsletter or website.
6. Automate your sales process. Use an ad to insure repeated exposure of your message, which has been proven to effectively increase sales. In your ad, put your autoresponder address where a visitor will be exposed to numerous marketing materials. This multiplies the chances of converting visitors into customers. For example, if you're selling a particular product, put testimonials about how spectacular it is on your autoresponder, and add a detailed, enticing description of your product.
7. Distribute advertising. Let's say you sell advertising on your website or in your newsletter or e-zine. Set your autoresponder to send the information about rates and how to place an ad automatically to all prospects' email addresses. Then have your autoresponder follow-up. It can also send notification of any special deals you are currently offering.
8. Distribute an email course. Each day, have your autoresponder send out another lesson. Just be sure that each lesson has quality content - not a sales pitch. Your content will do the selling for you, and will do it much more effectively. You can include tips centered on a different topic for each lesson, illustrating how your product will benefit the reader. Include the tangible benefits the visitor will reap by purchasing your product. Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of each lesson enticing your prospect to consider making a purchase.
9. Automate a reminder about your service or product after a visitor has completed your course. This will increase the possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your course but are dragging their feet about actually making a purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new products or services, and the products and services of your affiliate programs.
10. Distribute free reports. This gives your visitor an idea of the type of information you can provide and the quality of your product or service. Make sure these reports are not sales letters or you will more than likely lose a potential customer than gain a sale.
11. Create trivia quizzes on your site and place the answers in an autoresponder. Your visitor will then be motivated to request your autoresponder, and you will have a record of the visitors' email addresses who took your quiz. Or create a contest and have any visitors that enter send their responses to your autoresponder. Your autoresponder can be set-up to send them a confirmation of their entry.
12. Offer a trial version of your product. Give your prospects a sample of your ebook, course, software, membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little taste often end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capture their email addresses when you offer them a free trial from your website. Set up your autoresponder to give instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then make sure to follow-up to try and close the sale.
13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder. For example, a hidden page could be your affiliate page that contains graphics, promotional articles, and text links that interested affiliates can make use of. Inform visitors that they may have free access to your affiliate page by simply requesting your autoresponder. You will then gather a list of visitors who may be interested in becoming your affiliates.
14. Use an autoresponder on your order page. Post a request form for visitors to be notified of special offers or discounts in the future. This creates a very effective mailing list that contains the names of people who are already your customers.
15. Put your links page on your autoresponder. It should contain up to fifty links that would be of particular interest to your visitors. Make sure to add your own promotional copy at the top or bottom of this page.
Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be used creatively, see if you can come up with some brilliant ideas of your own!
To Your Success
Secrets of Email Marketing
Of all the ways to get website traffic and make money online, nothing tops email marketing. One form of email marketing is unsolicited bulk email marketing or spamming, which I think is not worth the trouble. Another form is opt-in email list rental. This strategy can be profitable, however, to get good results you need to pay up and it can get quite expensive. If you want to try it, I recommend postmasterdirect.com. or yesmail.com The best bang for your buck in email marketing is email newsletter classified and sponsorship advertising" or ezine advertising. It is one of the most effective ways to get targeted traffic -- cheap.
Terry Telford who writes an ezine magazine suggests that you locate ezine magazines that your target market actually looks forward to reading. Just visit an ezine directory and search for ezines in your niche market. Subscribe to a bunch of free ezines and read them as they arrive. Look for larger circulation ezines that have a good following. If you like the content in any particular ezine, then hundreds or thousands of other readers probably do too. Place a classified ad and if your site and offer are up to snuff, you'll make a profit nearly every time. If you can swing a top sponsorship ad, that works about five times better than a regular classified ad! Here are two solid ezine directories you can scour and locate lots of ezines that target your particular niche...
Direct Email List Source
http://market.emailresults.com
Ezine Hub
http://www.ezinehub.
An even better way to utilize email newsletters to drive traffic and sales is to purchase "email newsletter solo mailings."
YourHomeJob.com Solo Mailings:
I think this is the most powerful method of online advertising available today. A solo mailing is one time mailing, of your ad alone, to an entire database of thousands of opt-in subscribers. The company I can recommend for this service is YourHomeJob.com. I think they have reasonable prices for this highly effective type of email marketing. Their solo mailing service provides the type of targeted, direct response advertising used by the big boys in the online world.
Tom Hespos in his article entitled "A Bleak Future for Email Marketing?" said, in effect, that when the "average" person receives direct email, he/she deletes it instantly if it a) appears commercial, and b) does not come from a familiar party.
Tom's conclusion is summed up in his article's title -- Are people so inundated that these offers are going to be instantly trashed and never opened? Is it only going to get worse? Solo mailings to newsletter subscribers offers marketers most of the same direct email benefits (it's essentially the same thing), while delivering to an audience via a trusted information resource.
The two most common ways of gathering a solo mailing audience are to make it part of the newsletter opt-in process or to install a secondary landing page with topic-specific special offers after the person has subscribed.
Here are some pointers from Todd Kellner in her article Solo Mailing: The Best of Both Worlds? :
The best way to ensure that your subscribers know where the offer is coming from is to put [Ezine Name] first in your subject line. Because most buyers are not familiar with the distinction between newsletter solo mailings and traditional direct email, CPMs are generally at a much lower rate, for now, than direct-email kingpins such as PostmasterDirect and yesmail.com are commanding. PostmasterDirect, for example, offers several "pinpoint" demographic settings, such as age and geotargeting, which are most attractive to buyers. For you to be able to command similar CPMs, you will need to be able to set up your list in a way where you can pull up the same information, and you will often have to split up your list for targeted deliveries.
If you are unable to do this, it does not preclude you from sending out solo mailings. Keep in mind that it usually will, however, mean a significantly lower CPM. Many buyers will still like the idea of an email with just their offer in it -- some feel that their offers get lost in an email newsletter's content, and they also enjoy more than 7 lines to pitch their product or service. Too many mailings to your subscribers may result in a substantial attrition rate. Keep your offers tasteful and targeted, and watch the frequency rate -- once a week is probably a nice place to start. If you receive an alarming rate of unsubscribes or a large amount of positive feedback, adjust accordingly. The last form of email marketing strategy which I've been using is "email newsletter network advertising." In a nutshell, you pay email newsletter management sites to run top sponsorship ads across their network of newsletters. The traffic can be targeted to just about any niche and it's faster that finding each of the ezines yourself. Although this requires a larger initial investment than running ads in individual ezines, in the long run it is usually cheaper and it requires much less effort. The best advertising resource I've ever found on the web is an email newsletter network.
One last word about email marketing. For a fee, there are some companies which offer services from email templates to email tracking and reporting. One such company I like is SpeakUp! Email Marketing. They make it easy to create professional-looking emails—fast and with no technical expertise. They offer list management allowing you to add new contacts, import your current lists, store additional contact information, update information and group contacts by the criteria you choose. One of their features which I find useful is real time email tracking and reporting which lets you know how many emails were delivered, which addresses bounced, and why—within minutes of sending your email campaign. You also get reports on who opened your email, which links generated the most interest, and who clicked on each one. This valuable information will help you to determine your contacts' interests, the best day and time to send your email campaigns and much more such as how many contacts opted in or opted out and Unsubscribe Comment Box lets you collect comments on why people are opting out and what percentage of your contacts opened .
Alienware Refurbished Laptops - Dreams Come True
Alienware Laptops are one of the costliest gaming laptops available in the market. If it is difficult for you to get a brand new Alienware gaming laptop you can check out for other options. Alienware Refurbished Laptops come at affordable rates. You may be biased about buying a second - hand laptop. A refurbished laptop is different from a “second-hand laptop.”
Buying an Alienware refurbished laptop for a much lower price is no different than purchasing a new laptop. There are few things to look at before you go for a refurbished Alienware laptop.
• Alienware refurbished laptops run several hundred dollars less than the exact same model being sold as new.
• Alienware refurbished laptops are fully inspected and tested by the third party sellers.
• In most cases, warranty is provided with every purchase of Alienware refurbished laptop.
• Before you buy an Alienware refurbished laptop, check the date of purchase so that you could determine when it was sent to the vendor for revamping and when it was marked refurbished and sent again to the market for resale.
• Hardware usually becomes obsolete in a span of 5 years. Never go for a refurbished laptop older than 2 years.
• Remember, there is a difference between a used laptop and refurbished laptop. Used laptops can be found anywhere at very low prices but there is no warranty of the product unlike Alienware refurbished laptops, which are certified and fully inspected for resale.
• When a laptop is refurbished, it is likely that the model has been upgraded. So, check out the new upgraded features of the Alienware refurbished laptop before you take it home.
• Warranty period for a brand new Alienware laptop and refurbished Alienware laptop may vary. Instead of a 1 year warranty for a new laptop, most companies offer a 3-4 month warranty on refurbished laptops.
• Compare the price of the Alienware refurbished laptop with any laptop having same features. You will still find Alienware refurbished laptop better.
• Transact with reputable vendors or credible sources only or you may end up wasting your hard earned money.
Getting an Alienware refurbished laptop is no more a struggle. A huge range of top end Alienware furbished laptops is available in the market including Alienware M5500i R3, Alienware Area 51 series including 5620p, m9750, m3450, m 766 etc. to name a few. The premium Alienware refurbished laptops are not just for the gamers and enthusiasts but to cater the needs of all who are eager to use its highly specialized technology.
04 April 2009
Boost Your Income
I want to share my experience with all of u my friends. About one month ago I am asked by Mr Haris to join his affiliation program. He guaranteed me $125 in 24 hours, I reject his offering. I aware that many affiliate company offer joining money just to trick new affiliate (victim?) to join their program. Understanding my fear, he send me email to visit his web and read the explanation about his program. And here what I found on his web.
The basic idea is to link more then one affiliation company in one affiliate program. The purpose of its program is to serve the need of personal information. If google search for any url on the net, this program give the service to find somebody.
1. Name
2. Social Security Number
3. State
4. Home address
5. Telephone number
6. Email address
7. Birth date
8. Education history
9. Sex
With this database they serve American citizen to find their relative, lover, old friend etc. Every user can query database using name, state, sex and age, when the result appear they asked to pay $2 till $20 to access complete basic personal data. For example, if u wants to find Walter Maxwell, type the name to the search engine and the result will appear. If u wants detailed information you must pay.
For your information, the affiliate company link to this program is :
1. Click bank
2. Reunion also known as Mylife
3. HDpublishing
4. Google Adsense (yes you can advertise your adsense also)
5. Its one more but I am forget, please visit the link for clear explanation.
Have a nice business and happy sharing
What Is Your Latte Factors?
Have u heard the term “The Latte Factor?” mmmm, no, its not about phsyics, math? Wrong again. Yup, that’s it. Latte factor is about coffee but its impact your pocket dramatically. Yes its effect ur wealth. How it works……?
Latte factor talks about how much money are you wasting every day. It originate from American drinking two cups of coffee habit, I think 80% people in the world do. In America, people drink coffee two cups every day, if the price of a cup coffee is $5, each day evey American citizen spend $10 or $300 a month. If someone reduce their spend on coffee , become a cup coffee every day it mean he save $150 every month. If he put that money on the bank account, with the bank rate 4 % annually, he will receive $ 55.000 after 20 years after and its equal to present value $ 27.500.
I hope u got the idea, agree with it and doing it.
Have a nice business and happy sharing.
Blog Walking Etiquette
I was told by my friend, on the cyber he called him self the man, to do blog walking to promote my blog. First I am using blog spot update information (BUI), if u notice its appear on the top left corner when u are log in to blog spot, after know about shout mix box and chat box on the net, I use them. Using shout mix or chat box is more effective than using BUI. Using BUI has its own advantage rather than shout mix box, but now I will share about blog walking etiquette. Well, I prefer to use the term blog crawling or blog surfing rather than blog walking, ups lets talk about the etiquette.
I think blog walking is about socialization among blogger, they visit another blogger blog, introduce them self, make a comment about the posting, etc. By doing this, they can promote their blog and also creating traffic which is important for every cyberman Hey, don’t argue about blog crawling effectiveness to increase traffic here. Even though traffic is important, the purpose of blog walking is making friendship.
When we visit another blog, introduce ur self and give them comment. Show that u looking for friendship. Feel free to speak ur mind about their blog. You can say about their posting or their blog lay out, or their adds, etc. When doing this u appreciates their works. As a blogger, you will be happy if some one appreciates what ur work so do the other.And that’s a good starting point to have friendship.
