Folkestone was tax small village in 1066 composed mainly of fishermen and farmers who were cultivating the lands owned by the church at Canterbury. The town was so small that during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, there were only about 120 houses in Folkestone.

By the 18th and 19th century, Folkestone was developed into a soldier’s barracks for the Peninsula Wars and stone houses were built during this period. Today, it has become an important area with the Channel Tunnel connecting Folkestone to Europe. In fact, the coast has a magnificent view of France.

Aside from being an important fishing and shipping town, it is also home to the renowned Folkestone Literary Festival that started in 2002. It has become one of the foremost art and literary festivals in Britain. The festival includes lectures by authors, book launches, live entertainment, art exhibits, book swapping, poetry and book readings and literary competitions.

The Folkestone Literary Festival usually kick-off in November 1 and runs through November 9. Tickets are required for some of the events but most of the activities are free to the public. There are various activities and each year, a theme is selected for the days’ activities.

• Themed Activities
In 2006, poetry was a featured event in the festival including an Open Mic at The Chambers and a poetry and performance event that featured several new and up-and-coming poets who showcase their works in the Leas Club.

In 2007, a History Weekend was featured from the 2nd to the 4th of the month with talks by David Starkey on Monarchy, London in the 19th Century with Jerry White, Great Tales from English History with Robert Lacey and The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire with Peter Clarke.

• Competitions
The festival also features competitions on different literary categories such as the short story and poetry competition. The competitions themselves are grouped in different age divisions, from 5-11 years old to adult participants. The competition is organized by the Friends of the Festival and it accepts entries from all over the world. Last year, entrants include writers form Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

business Movies and Exhibits
The Folkestone Literary Festival is indeed a very cosmopolitan event with film showings and art exhibits. There are art installations and gallery exhibits around the town. Last year, a feature on the environment paved the way for the showing of Al Gore’s documentary: An Inconvenient Truth.

Other partnership activities in the Folkestone Literary Festival are the tours such as the Tours of the Folkestoen Academy, Creative Quarter and the Green Room. These tours offer tons of educational and creative pursuits for the literary enthusiasts. Aside from the many sights, there are also bookshops and souvenir shops as well as eateries scattered around Folkestone.

The Folkestone Literary Festival has diversified its target audience and further involves families and even children with various activities full of fun and excitement. Last year, the festival featured storytelling day for families, family day, and reading sessions for children.

The organizers are also supporting the literary and artistic qualities of Folkestone. The Folkestone People’s History Centre was opened to the festival-goers last year which made known the rich background of Folkestone and its people.

For accommodation in Folkestone please visit: http://www.folkestonehotels.me.uk | Hotels in Folkestone

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With the steady rise in fuel prices here in the United States there has been a dramatic increase in people looking for ways to work from home.

Telecommuting is tax option that employees, and employers are starting to take a real hard look at. Gas prices are not the only reason people are looking to do all or part of their work from home.

Employees are tired of devoting long frustrating commute times to get to work. Companies are starting to lose good employees because of it. People are just tired of sitting in traffic or driving long distances today.

A 2005 Survey conducted by The Telework Advisory Group shows that 45 million Americans already work from home at least part time, and 22 million full time. Broadband Internet service has played a big part in helping people get their work done at home.

Other tools that are assisting people get the job done, computers of course, cell phones, VoIP phone service, Remote Computer Access, and a new one that is really starting to take its place is Web Conferencing Services.

Until recently the costs involved with this type of service has been too prohibitive for all but the largest fortune 500 companies. A lot of these companies are still charging a per minute usage fee, but there are others business there today that offer all the bells and whistles with unlimited seating for less then $30 a month.

Here is a listing of some of the standard features you can find with most business conferencing software solutions.

Voice chat using secure VoIP, Web Cam Video allows other members to see who is speaking,White board drawings allows others to quickly share their ideas, Web browser presentations,allows members to pull up web pages and be able to present it to everyone, PowerPoint presentations, File sharing, Desk top sharing, the ability to record meetings, and password protect the conference rooms as well.

Here are a few of the advantages of using a Web Conferencing Service.

Talk intra-office, inter-office,or with other companies… this solves email worries. Get the person you want in real time. No snoops or filters.

Empower your Sales department in exciting new ways this allows them to do real time meetings with clients and customers no matter where in the world they are.They can present products and services in an exciting interactive environment. You can bring local and global teams together for a fraction of the cost. They can also meet with hundreds of customers in a single meeting.

Train more employees in different locations for much less time and money. They can give and receive feedback instantly, faster than an in person meetings. Cut time and budget on schedule coordinating, room and food reservations for meetings.

Everyone can brainstorm and present on white boards. Upload Power Point or Flash and give presentations easily. These can also be recorded and played back at a later time.

Team collaboration is essential in every business, especially when it comes to creating budgets, presentations or new product lines.

If all of your key team members can not work in the same office then a Web Conferencing Service can bring them all together. They can share their ideas real time with out the hassle of or the worry of email.

No matter where they are, Marketing in New York, Engineering in Connecticut, Manufacturing in Hong Kong, and Product design in Dallas.

Tech support, and customer support is another area that would be perfect for the stay at home worker. Using an online conferencing solution allows your people to quickly handle any questions your customer may have, if they have a problem with your website, one of your tech support people can simple show them what they need to do.

Web Conferencing Services are helping people reach their global audience better then telephone or email combined, and at the same time helping people work as efficiently from home as if they where in the office.

You can learn more about Web Conferencing Services at our website.

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Three Secrets of Marketing

In over 15 years of doing marketing communications work, I’ve picked up quite a few tips on how to best get the job done. From start-ups to Fortune 100 companies, my three marketing secrets make a difference.

1. Consistency Is Key If I had only one piece of marketing advice to offer, this would be it: The secret to effective marketing is consistency, plain and simple. A press release here, an ad buy there, a brochure that looks one way and a website that looks another … these hit-or-miss efforts are doomed to failure and are just a waste of your money.

TIP: Don’t dabble at marketing. If your budget is limited, invest in a good, solid marketing plan and then consistently execute just one part of it until you can afford to do more. Don’t let it fall down on your list of priorities. If you think marketing can be of value to your company, start doing it, even in a small way. And then don’t stop. You’ll see results.

2. Amplify What business You Different As teenagers we desperately want to blend in with our peers, never imagining we’ll one day embrace the very partnership we worked so hard to hide. In business, marketing yourself and your brand is much easier if you have memorable qualities that stick in people’s minds. Don’t be afraid to be distinctive. Barbra Streisand’s strong nose, Warren Buffett’s frugality, Cary Grant’s elegance – these qualities are entirely authentic but hard to duplicate.

TIP: Take a moment to think about your business persona or company. What do you have that others don’t? If you’re not sure, do a quick review of competitor websites or think about comments you’ve received from others. Now how can you amplify those qualities?

3. It’s All About Third-Party Credibility Okay, now I am going to tell you some gossip. Did your ears just perk up? Would you have had the same response if I had said, “Now I am going to tell you all about me.” Probably not. What someone else says about you will always carry more weight than what you say about yourself. When thinking about your company’s marketing, look for ways to build your reputation with others. Reporters, tax bloggers, customers, business and government leaders are all examples of influential audiences who could be spreading your message. It’s your job to make sure they know and understand what makes you special.

TIP: Take a look at the marketing you’re doing. Are you missing any important audiences? What one thing can you do to reach out to them?

This article may be reprinted when the copy right and author bio are included.

(c) 2008 Barbara Wayman, APR, BlueTree Media, LLC.

Barbara Wayman, APR, president of BlueTree Media, LLC, publishes The Stand Out Newsletter, a free monthly ezine for people who want to know how to leverage the power of marketing and public relations. Get your free subscription today at http://BlueTreeMedia.com/ezine.html

Copyright 2008, BlueTree Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Earn Or Make Online Money

I’ve been an internet marketer now for about 3 years and as I started to earn or make online money. One of the things that I have noticed during the years on the internet is all the hype people are using to sell their products or services. I am sure you have notice how so many marketers tell you how you can start making thousands of dollars a week with little or no effort by following there secret program to success. It’s all hype, but I will give it to you straight forward.

What I will tell you is that you can earn or make online money but it will take work on your behalf. You will also have to learn to lower your expectations and stop looking for that get rich quick hype.

I won’t waste a lot of time on fluff in this article. I will teach you what you need to do in order to accomplish the one thing we all want and that is getting paid lost of money for doing what you do online. Let’s get started.

Plan Your Strategy

If you really want to earn or make online money you must remember one crucial thing and that is research and planning. By starting with a plan you will be able to eliminate many problems you would normally face otherwise.

Take time to determine what you wish to accomplish. If you want to earn or make online money then plan your work and work your plan. By following your strategy you will eliminate costly mistakes which will determine your success or failure on building a solid online business.

Build Your Business Based Around Your Interest

The first step in building a successful online business is to find a niche where your passion and interest are. Here’s how you can accomplish this:

1) Brainstorm in the best niche that you are passionate about and believe it will work for you. If you love what you are doing, it’s much easier to build your successful online business.

2) If your having a hard time finding something you are passionate about, then create one. By finding a niche that interests you, you can start looking and digging into it until it becomes your passion.

3) When everything else fails, go for the money. Do some research to find out what niches are in great demand and make lots of money. Find out what people want and sell it to them. By doing so, you will highly increase your chances of success. There are lots of websites where you can go and find out what sells. Start out by doing a little surfing. Perform some keyword research and soon you will discover something that will catch your eye.

Determine Your Targeted Audience

Once you have found your niche, it is now time to explore who your targeted audience are. Your audience may determine the design and content of your landing page. Answer the following questions:

1) Who do you think will want to visit your web site?

2) How will they be able to locate your web site?

3) What’s the range in age, are they male or female, what kind of education do they have, etc…..

4) What do your new prospects want; information, products, services etc.?

5) What is it you want your audience to do once they reach your landing page; do you want them to sign up for something or do you want them to order a product or service?

6) How will you entice and convince them to stay or revisit your web site?
To earn or make online money you must follow your strategy or plan. It is crucial for your business. These questions will help insure you build a strong foundation and promote your business to the right people and maximizing your marketing expenses, improve your web page for costumer conversions and make sure your costumers stay loyal to you.

PS: Hi my name is Marc Martin and I would like to share something I think is very important in internet Marketing. I strongly believe that we all need someone to follow in their foot steps or guide us to success. That’s when I started looking for a person who knows about direct response Marketing. That’s when I found the well known and well respected direct response marketing leader. Her name is Lisa Diane and if you follow her you are sure to succeed take my word for it she has changed my life completely around.

For the last 14 years Lisa Diane has made quite a fortune online through direct response marketing. To be a millionaire you must think and act like a millionaire. Lisa has made a free video possible for anybody who wants to succeed in any kind of business or life in general.

For the first-time ever, Lisa is opening up and sharing her most closely guarded secrets to building multimillion dollar businesses – from scratch.

Today I am offering this amazing CD for FREE!
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Every company and business has great stories. We need to hear them, tell them and internalize them. The biggest challenges, however, are convincing others of the power of storytelling and the impact it can have in the business world. How can we do this?

Start a small booklet of good company/organization stories. Name the heroes and heroines. Ask others you trust to write up some stories for it. The stories should not be long, but all should include the beginning status quo, a character and/or characters, the crisis or challenge the climax and resolution, and how the original status quo was changed. Details are important, but should not be overwhelming.

With all of the easy-to-use desktop programs available today, you can put together a small booklet filled with these stories and give a copy to many of your peers. You will be surprised, once the word is out, how many other people will ask for a copy. It may be even time to start a small magazine or company newsletter that consists of stories.

Before a meeting starts (if you have any way of setting agenda items), ask if everyone would share a quick incident that they have recently encountered, what happened and if it changed their thinking and/or approach. Or ask what was the funniest happening last week. I know it may take some time to get this off the ground — and, I don’t suggest forcing everyone to take part in the beginning.

You will be amazed that if you can continue this quick story sharing introduction, those who haven’t contributed before will start having a story to tell and everyone will look forward to this. I know a company that started adding a half an hour to the end of their weekly sales meetings for a story sharing session. This soon became the most popular part of the meeting and, as storytellers know, the most valuable part of the meeting.

Once the storytelling starts to take hold — and it will if you are persistent and keep it going — the next step would be to call a group of the most enthusiastic story lovers and tellers together to work on the “Grand Narrative” of your company and/or organization. This will define what your group is all about. What describes the mission and goals in a clear and understandable way? It is OK to redefine your “Grand Narrative” even if you are a large, small, or even a one-person company.

Now is the time to take your storytelling plan to upper management. Convincing reasons that you can propose for capturing and using stories are to accomplish any of the following:

  • Share knowledge for succession planning.
  • Promote team development to enhance productivity.
  • Exemplify values to build community.
  • Capture lessons learned to develop best practices.
  • Prompt action to change the company or organization.
  • Record the past to preserve corporate heritage.

Armed with these purposes and the stories that have already been shared and recorded, you will be able to convince the group that storytelling should be a daily occurrence.

Chris King is a professional storyteller, writer, website creator / designer, free agent, and fitness instructor. You will find her storytelling website at http://www.storytellingpower.com and her business website at http://www.creativekeys.biz You will find her new her information-packed E-book How to Leave Your Audiences Begging for MORE! at http://www.OutrageouslyPowerfulPresenter.com

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As a follow up to my previous posts on this blog, I’ll continue to assert the fact that Nigeria is a force to be reckoned with as regards every known endeavor on the face of this planet called Earth, and the internet is no exception, it is left for the rest of the world most especially the United States to fathom this cold hard fact out. Well I would have titled this piece ‘the online conspiracies of the west against Nigeria’ well that would sound cynic and inane. It will look as we are beggars at the rich man’s table waiting for crumbs that falls off his table; when we are kings in the making. However, it has become imperative that we will take on destiny instead of waiting lazily for it to come beckoning at us. But do you know one thing my friend? Your destiny cannot come to you except you shrug off the ashes of defeat, rise to your feet, and then take what rightly belongs to you. Sorry if I have digressed from the main topic of the day, well I was trying to crave your indulgence as is always the case with me. Like I said earlier on, Nigeria remains the biggest internet estate and can compete favorably with India on the third world country category and in the real sense can give the west a run for their money; and as a member of cyber world is not immune to the fistful of online fallacies that pervades the internet daily. But I’ll only deal with this ill wind the as it concerns we Nigerian.

One thing that has remained obvious to we Nigerians especially those who wants to make a decent living doing decent business online is that we are greatly disadvantaged because of some pre-conceived notion of the developed economies against Africa and Nigeria in particular, but I wont dwell much on the bad side as an optimist but will deal on the possible and well established side as a realist. What do I mean by this? The internet has become a real estate and as such many people world wide are reaping the benefits of this innovation and smiling to the bank every other day, so my main concern is to get you acquainted with the common myth that pervades the internet daily and the obvious.

Recently, online FOREX TRADING has become a niche that every person with little or no experience on money matters wants to get involved in within a short period of time (most attend one to two days seminar) and want to start reaping from it, stop! I’ll love to ask, why is it that we still have few people that are rich from trading FOREX with all the hype associated with it? Well have you stooped to think this over? But my friend like I titled this article I’ll love to list the myths, facts and the reality of online FOREX trading. Personally I don’t trade FOREX but I know of an array of people who do; and from the fillers I get daily, it is not as rosy as it sounds. You loose money and you gain money, however the tendency of loosing far out weighs that of gaining if you don’t know the fundamentals of the trade. Knowing the fundamentals is not some thing you gain the knowledge in 1, 2, 3 or even 7 days as those who advertise it in dailies will tell you. What the organizers of various FOREX seminars are after is to gain back what they have loosed trading through levying outrageous seminar fees on the participants. At the seminar they don’t take the time to explain the technical and fundamentals of the market, terms like pips, bull traps, Fibonacci analysis etc are not well explained: leaving the participant more confused than ever. But like I said earlier on, trading with no fore knowledge of the aforementioned points makes trading an experience not worth the venture.

Still on online FOREX trading, it will be unfair if I don’t mention the benefits of this online money making venture even if I’m not trading this very lucrative market (yet). Basically FOREX trading exceeds about 1.3 trillion dollars daily, so it will be mediocre of a person to jump into a market as large as this with no formal knowledge of the happenings. However ,it becomes expedient of the person to get fully into the know of this liquid market before getting his hands burnt in the process of wanting to make 100 pips a day as most of the self acclaimed FOREX experts promise you when you trade on their systems. Like I always do when posting any article, I try to make detailed research (even if I know little or not) before coming to press, and when I do it is in the form of a personal experience. While this FOREX rave reached fever pitch, every person wanted to tap into this market to reap bountifully; I decided to make my own in road. Daily, I hit every search engine on the net for a detailed report, I subscribed to every ezine, news letter, and every available publication that deals with the subject. From my findings I observed that the requirements of this market is quite tasking, however if all these requirements are met, the market is worth the venture, what are the requirements I’m talking of: they include a laptop computer connected to the internet; as you need this to enhance the mobility of the market, a domiciliary account, and a form of identity which could come in form of an international passport or national identity card and a plat form to trade on.

One day I saw an advert on a daily on a FOREX seminar that’ll last for about two days, and within these two days you will be taught all the basics required to start making between 30 to 40 pips daily (note: a pip is worth about 10 dollars). I did not attend the seminar as the seminar fee was too much, not that I can’t afford it but because the money was too much for a seminar that will last a couple of days. So I took the address of the FOREX firm and decided to pay them a visit and perhaps make more inquiries. On getting there I met a lady who looked more like a cleaner than a FOREX expert, as I was expecting to see a person who looked like those who work in wall street or if I want to sound modest like some one who works for one of the banks, then how can such a person teach me the basics of the trade for me to start making 50 pips every day!. I thought may be if she really is an expert as she claims, I figure she should be making good money as a FOREX expert and at least look good for her troubles. Is not like I’m saying that there aren’t people here in Nigeria who are doing good trading FOREX, but what I’m saying is that they are very few, this is the fact and the sooner it downs on you the better. I don’t want to sound cynical but in this business is very good for you to be very truthful to your audience, telling them the reality of every situation, instead of leading them falsely by reporting fallacies and stuff.

On the contrary, FOREX trading is a niche and can not be ignored as it has enriched many Nigerians (the few who know the rudiments of the business) as I know of a guy who takes home close to 30 to 40 pips any time he trades, do you know his secret? He sells when others are buying, and sells when others are buying. He knows where to make his stop loss and quit when it really mattered, he understands the basic trends mostly the fundamental, since with it you have a clue as to how the currencies are performing in the market relative to how the various big economies are faring. One other fact in relation to a myth pervading the scenario is that FOREX is not a vocation as the ‘experts’ will tell you. It is not some thing you do on a part time basis; rather I will say it is more of a career, since most traders do it full time. Why this is so is that you can dwell on a chart a whole day waiting for a favorable signal to begin trading, while you are in your office waiting for the required signal, your boss will be telling the secretary to prepare your sack letter and pay-off. But if you learn the ropes you work smart as a FOREX trader, knowing the best times to trade; then you can jolly well make it a vocation, rather than a career as earlier speculated. The secret is that most FOREX traders don’t trade every day. This is another fact, you only trade when there are auspicious signs. Another secret is contentment (avoid being unnecessarily greedy), when you make a good move that gives you 20 to 30 pips, is usually advisable to quit at that juncture even if you see another favorable trend. Usually such trends end with you loosing the money you already made. So be careful, as it could be very enticing as well as deceitful

The fact about this market is that you make money if you avoid bull traps and interpret the market trends both fundamental and technical, looking at the charts, knowing when to buy and when to sell, knowing the best currency pair (e.g. euro/dollar), knowing when to enter and when to quit and Fibonacci analysis. If you get your self acquainted with all these, then your venture into this market will be worth the while, on the contrary the myth is that you don’t, make 30-40 pips daily by just taking part in a 2 day seminar or workshop as most will call it, most self acclaimed experts introduce you to robots that trade on your behalf, well the truth about robots is that they only function according to how they are programmed. Most robots are programmed using technical analysis, but this market is very volatile and economic trends in most leading economies especially the US can affect the market negatively or positively, for example the recent recession so experienced in the US resulted into a weak dollar and like a virus it spread to other economy especially the Euro zone and Japan: so if your robot was programmed following the reverse you can figure out what happens. The reality here is that you can only make it in FOREX when you master the ropes of the market as it has been noted that about 90 percent of those who go into FOREX exit after a short period of venturing. The fact then is that FOREX trading can be lucrative as well unprofitable. Which ever side of the divide you belong the choice is yours. But I assure you that you can make a difference if you believe in your self, since many plat forms reject registration from Nigeria (another western conspiracy), for example FXSOL no longer accepts registration from Nigeria. So it is left to you to decide how to take this market by storm as I promise to give frequent updates as regards my online experiences since I’ve decided to join the trend of Nigerians making dollars form FOREX trading.

Feel free to post your comments and views on this topic, you can also get a free FOREX manual by one of the world’s best FOREX experts, contact me by email if you are in need of this manual, it is free of charge and will come as an email attachment sent free of charge to your box. You can also get e-books on how to build your internet empire for a token fee, more so many freebies are also included like the e-book ‘as a man thinketh’ by James Allen and another free e-book by Wallace D Wattles titled ‘the science of getting rich’. Just contact me via email for these rich books that will enrich your online money making experience.

http://www.chinemeremz.blogspot.com
chinemeremz@gmail.com
chinaemerekwusi@yahoo.com

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Ghost writer content provider articles work and they work like magic. In fact it is no secret that there is really no other online marketing tool that is as effective as well written keyword rich articles.

So why is it that so many people fail and end up very frustrated trying to use ghost writer content provider articles to generate targeted traffic to their sites? I have written a few articles before listing some of the most common reasons. However today I want to approach this question differently by listing the things that you are actually supposed to do with your articles which most people do not do.

To be able to reap maximum benefits from your articles, it is absolutely important that you use them on your site to build up an opt-in email list. Everybody knows that trying to sell to prospects visiting your site for the very first time is very difficult. I is not unusual for most sites to sell to one person out of every 1,000 who visit their site. So what happens to the other 999 souls? Basically they fly away never to be seen again.

And yet even if just 50 of them opted in for regular email alerts from you on new content or even regular articles delivered via email, it would make a huge difference to your bottom line. Let us even assume that none of the 50 persons on your email opt in list ends up buying (which is highly unlikely to happen). You can still encourage these people to forward emails they receive from you by firstly ensuring that the articles are worth reading and they have the kind of headline that nobody can dare ignore.

The other thing that your articles must absolutely do is that they must address a problem. People are terribly pressed for time on the World Wide Web. Articles that just provide information without focusing on a specific problem that your audience is very likely to be facing, just won’t fly.

That is how you ensure that your ghost writer content provider costs give you an excellent return.

More ghost writer content provider articles.

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“Believe” – Won’t you pause for a moment to know what to believe in. It is the new tagline of Yahoo! Personals – a masterful example of how to achieve the brass ring of branding. One will definitely pause and actively will fill in the blanks and personalize the connection, which is the most effective form of engagement. A strategy should be developed for your company logo design and you have to make sure that your company’s brand identity is paralleled to your company’s logo.

The connection between a company and its branding should be immediate. Your brand should focus the things that will help people see your organization and its strengths clearly. Great branding reaches multiple audience segments. It should not be limited to any particular group of people rather it should appeal different types of people.

Brand your company for a long term of period, you should not be short-sighted about your company’s branding! Great branding lasts over a long period of time and its message doesn’t fade after only a few months. Branding should transcend fads in the marketplace. If your competitors are trying to position their brand as “cool or hip” to meet market demands, let them. You should only try to keep your brand consistent so that it out lives market trends. Your logo should be the brand ambassador of your company, the tagline used in it should propagate the message of your company in a lucid and inimitable style.

The final outcome of this creation is to set unique and compelling visions that summarize what your organization is about. A brand statement with a logo is essential for your organization to make yourself perceived to all. A tagline – that usually accompanies your company logo – can be a very useful way to state what you do on almost every page of your site. Taglines should be a concrete and clear statement about what you do or why it’s important- for instance, “Together, we can save a life” from the Red Cross site.

However it is vital that the information and function that are propounded through the tagline of your logo or the logo itself echoes the brand messages that you want to convey. If you are an expertise on any specific thing then your website ought to have helpful resources on it. If you want to convey that you provide great service, you should have examples, articles, and testimonials about that great service on your site. The ideal is to do more and talk less about your value to actually provide value on your website. There is no more genuine way to brand yourself through your website than to make the site advance your mission itself.

Your company logo should be unique and highlight the uniqueness of your organization. It should communicate what you are all about, and give visitors a sense of your key values and priorities. It should feel like a design that could only be used by your organization. At the end of the day, this is what it means to have an effectively branded organization; and ultimately it is a good logo that will give your company the essence of a brand.

Jennifer is an expert Internet marketing professional with years of experience in various industries such as: Business, Finance, Logo designs Real Estate, Web-Design, Health & Medicine and many more.

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With the weight of the housing, credit and financial woes that are threatening to push the country into a deep recession on his back, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke climbed Capital Hill on Wednesday with some bad news. He told the Joint Economic Committee of Congress that “It now appears likely that gross domestic product (GDP) will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly.” By one definition of the word, six consecutive months of decline in the GDP (the value of all goods and services produced in the United States) constitutes a recession.

The news, however, was not all bad. Bernanke also voiced his optimism for the second half of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. “Much necessary economic and financial adjustment has already taken place, and monetary and fiscal policies are in train that should support a return to growth in the second half of this year and next year,” Bernanke said. He was referring, in part, to the recently passed $168 billion stimulus package of tax rebates for people and tax breaks for businesses as well as the Fed’s aggressive interest rate reductions.

So what does all that mean to you, the small business owner? It means that you should come up with a plan today, just in case the floor drops out beneath you tomorrow. Remember, there is a certain agility that comes with being a small business. You can, with a little drive and discipline, refocus your efforts far more quickly and easily than a large corporation can. That is important. What should you focus on? Opportunities.

The Joys of Diversification

Even in the worst economic times, there are opportunities. It is up to you to grab onto those opportunities and run with them. By expanding your offering of goods and services, you will expand your client base. Repackaging your services and directing your efforts at a different audience is another way to diversify. For example, if you are a web designer with a web design business, you might consider becoming a consultant or offering seminars on Web design, search engine optimization or some other, related topic, anything that would allow you to make money and market your core Web design business at the same time. The key is to break out of your niche ahead of your competition.

Use Customer Service to Stand Out

Business is not only about finding customers, it is about retaining the ones you already have. The key to doing that is solid customer service and the basis of solid customer service is star treatment. The fact is that, all things being equal, the experience that a customer has in your establishment is the deciding factor in whether or not they will return to continue doing business with you. Some of the things you can do are broadening your product and service offerings, providing faster delivery and offering more flexible payment alternatives. Overall, however, make sure everything you do is customer-focused. Communicate with your customers; find out what they need and want and how close you are to filling those things. Then, adjust your efforts to build up your strengths and eliminate your weaknesses.

Market, Market, Market

You might have guessed from the title of this section that when the economy slows down, you need to up your marketing. It is a common mistake-and one that can severely damage your business-to cut back on marketing when the economy goes South. Take a lesson from the natural world. When food is scarce, the lion is neither gentle nor patient. In fact, they are more aggressive about taking down an animal and defending their kill from the surrounding hyenas then they are under normal circumstances (not that the difference really matters much to the recently-grazing zebra they are about to munch on). In lean times, you have to get out there, your marketing needs to be more aggressive, more complete and more meaningful than ever:

  • Touch base with past clients.
  • Use incentives like feebies, discounts and the like.
  • Create a referral rewards program to generate a little word of mouth action.
  • Increase your public relations efforts by getting more involved with your community and setting yourself up as an expert and a market leader. That involves some risk but once you accomplish it, recession worries will be a thing of the past. From this position, you will easily defeat your competitors even in very slow times because customers will have a real, tangible reason to see you.
  • Review your marketing program to date and see if it is as cost-effective and efficient as it could be.
  • Network like crazy.

Ride the Cutting Edge

Are you up-to-date with technology and best practices? Can you describe the trends, problems and opportunities currently facing your industry? If you cannot answer either of these questions in the affirmative, it is time you went back to school. Being up-to-date can help you run your business more cost-effectively and reach new customers in other places, even other countries. Selling online, for example, could take your local business and, depending on what you sell, make you a global player almost overnight.

Sharp Focus: It is all about your goals

Success depends on keeping your eye on your long-term goals while executing your tactics and strategies. Your strategies are the shorter-term objectives that will drive you toward your goals. Tactics are those things you do to achieve your strategies. Everything you do has to be done with your goals in mind as part of an overall strategy. This means, that if you are considering your overhead to stimulate short term profits, think about the effect that this will have down the line. If it does not support your goals, don’t do it. There is always another way.

Improve to Excel: Both sides of the battlefield

It has not been explicitly stated up to now, but everything you have read so far is really about improvement. I have suggested that you take a close look at what you are doing and try to figure out if you can do it better. By itself, that is half the battle. I have never been one to give much credence half the battle. I am more of a whole battle kind of guy so here is the other half: Your Competition. What are they doing? More to the point, what are they doing right (that you can adapt) and what are they doing wrong (that you can exploit)? Perhaps it sounds a tad “cloak and dagger” but they don’t call it corporate espionage for nothing. I am not suggesting that you go to Machiavellian extremes here, but I am suggesting that intelligence on your competition is good and being able to exploit that intelligence is better.

You improve on your products and services, policies and practices; and you improve you competitors as well. If you do these things and you will be able to ride out most economic hard times with little damage. Come to think of it, why wait for the storm clouds to gather and Bernancke to intone that most-feared word: Recession? Why not begin your program of improvement today? In the immortal words of P.T. Barnum: “Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only set their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done.”

Now get out there and accomplish something!

Charles Cooper is the Web Editor and blogger for http://www.gowithabc.com the Web site for America’s Best Companies. He is also a staff writer for America’s Best: The Magazine for Small Business Owners.

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My daughters and I loved watching The Crocodile Hunter. Steve’s Passion and enthusiasm for wildlife conservation were unmatched. But in addition to being a masterful entertainer and educator. Steve Irwin was also a brilliant marketer.

Instinctively he knew that to spread his message of conservation, he needed to first grab his audience by the eyeballs and get their attention.

A skilled showman and communicator, he could make the most mundane animals appear deadly and interesting. Captivating his audience by building suspense and tension that kept them riveted to his message.

With his hyper-animated presentation, colorful language (he introduced the world to his very Aussie catch phrase “Crikey”) and unwaveringly khaki wardrobe he created a consistent and memorable personal brand. He was his own, walking talking USP (unique selling proposition.)

While many wanabes and knock-offs tried to copy his adventurous style and antics none of them ever came close to matching his level of success. He was truly one of a kind.

The Crocodile Hunter was also a master at generating publicity and working the media. Probably the greatest ambassador to the world Australia has ever had. Steve Irwin regularly made the rounds on every major television show imaginable, from small local news stations to Letterman, Leno, Larry King and Oprah. He was a walking, talking news hook. A publicists dream!

Even when his actions stirred up controversy (who can forget the image of him feeding a croc with his newborn baby in his arms…) his ratings and popularity only improved.

And if viral marketing is your thing, Steve was one of greats! The viral buzz his TV antics created around water coolers world wide was simply astounding. His exploits spread via word of mouth like wildfire as folks energetically recreated, described and relived the “close calls” Steve had on the previous nights show.

In fact in a recent blog post Michel Fortin identified three essential response-boosting ingredients for effective viral marketing. Curiosity, scarcity and controversy. (Steve was an absolute master of all three.)

• Curiosity? What’s more “curious” than a man kissing a 14 foot crocodile on the head and saying, “isn’t she a beauty”?

• Scarcity? There was (and will always be) just one “Crocodile Hunter”.

• Controversy? Steve certainly had a knack for stirring up and leaving controversy in his larger-than-life wake.

And boy could he work the backend! His spinnoff products are almost countless…

From toys and games to books and movies, Steve Irwin exploited the “Crocidile Hunter” brand to the fullest. He almost single handedly built the entire “Animal Planet” network on his coattails.

His face, logo and even his catch phrase “Crikey” found their way onto every imaginable product from lunch boxes to clothing lines.

And the amazing part is… he funneled the vast majority of the profit windfall his Croc Hunter brand generated into his beloved Australia Zoo and into other wildlife conservation based programs.

But in spite of the many powerful marketing lessons that can be learned by studying the life of Steve Irwin, I think the most important lesson we can learn from him is about PASSION.

This was the true secret to Steve Irwin’s success. I’ve rarely seen anyone with more raw passion and enthusiasm for his mission in life.

His passion for life, his family, and the wildlife he spent (and gave) his life educating the world about, was evident in everything he did.

And… What Steve can teach us about passion is not just a lesson to apply to your marketing, but one to apply to your own life.

Live with passion.

Live with passion for what you do and communicate that passion to others. That’s the key to real and lasting success.

If you’re not passionate about what you are currently doing for a living… Find something you are passionate about, and do it to the fullest.

As Steve has shown us… Life is short. And the end can come at any moment. But a 44 year life of passion and adventure is far more rewarding than 100 years of “quiet desperation”.

Steve Irwin lived his life to the fullest. He spent his days doing exactly what he loved and he transferred that love and passion to millions of others.

Rest in peace Steve. You’ll be sorely missed mate…

Need to improve your web site conversion? I can improve the conversion rate of ANY website… Guaranteed! (…or I’ll pay YOU $250!) Get your Website Audit now!

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