Against Closed Eyes In Marketing

My brothers and I were nearing the end of a week-long archery hunt for whitetail deer in the state game lands of Kentucky. We had seen only a few deer and none close enough to shoot. As the week progressed we noticed that most of the sightings were in one particular area, but since only one of us would hunt there at a time, the deer would always slip through out of range. On Friday, we decided that all three of us would hunt that area, to ensure that at least one would get an opportunity to make a kill.

The “hotspot” consisted of two thickets, separated by a dirt trail usable by vehicles and a strip of hardwoods. One of the thickets had small saplings and brush, and the other a field of tall weeds. In the morning the deer would leave the saplings, walk across the trail and through the hardwoods, and finally disappear into the weeds. There they could remain safely hidden. Our strategy was to make sure any deer crossing through the hardwoods would be within range of one of us. We took positions about 20 yards off the trail and about 50 yards from one another.

By the time the sun came up, all three of us had our climbing tree stands locked in place and were ready for action. All was quiet and uneventful until about eight o’clock. At that time, I eased out of my seat and stood up, expecting deer to begin moving through shortly. Moments later, I began to hear a clanging noise coming from farther down the trail in the direction of Titus’s stand. Two hunters came into view. One had a tree stand strapped to his back, and the other was carrying a folding stool used for hunting from the ground. I stared in disgust as they walked noisily past Titus and continued down the road in my direction. I couldn’t imagine what bow hunter would be foolish enough to be walking around the woods at this hour when deer are typically on the move.

When the two men reached the point on the trail that was directly in front of my stand, they stopped. After talking to each other in whispers for a few minutes, one of them continued down the path toward Merv’s stand while the other removed the stand from his back. I waved at him from my tree to let him know that I was there, but he did not notice, even though I was in plain sight just 20 yards away. However, he did not begin to set up his tree stand as I expected he might, but instead lit up a cigarette. I shook my head in disbelief. A perfect morning, a perfect spot, and another hunter was sitting in my shooting lane smoking a cigarette.

I stayed silent, not wanting to scare any deer within earshot, and hoping the hunter would finish his cigarette and move on. No such luck, for he had other business to take care of as well. Taking a quick look in both directions, he lowered his pants and began to squat beside a bush in plain view. Desperately wanting to get his attention without frightening any deer that might be lurking nearby, I whistled.

The hunter jumped to his feet and pulled up his pants in the same motion, his head turning from side to side as he looked to see who might be nearby. I waved my hand again, but his gaze never traveled far enough up the tree to see it. Grasping his pants to keep them from falling down, he stepped into the trail and took a long look in both directions. Seeing nothing, he shrugged, returned to the bush, and resumed his squatting.

Restraining myself to keep from laughing, I whistled again. This time, the hunter paid no attention, apparently satisfied that he was surrounded only by wildlife.

Meanwhile, the other hunter had reached the spot in the trail that was directly in from of Merv and had sat down on his folding seat to wait for deer. Like me, Merv waved his hand to try to get his attention, but the hunter would not look up.

While our visitors entertained Merv and me, I could see Titus was having some excitement of his own. He was standing up in his tree stand and was watching some movement in the small saplings. Less than 60 yards away from the foul smell below my stand, three deer were making their way toward the hardwoods. Just as my visitor was pulling up his pants, Titus let an arrow fly at one of the deer. It ran a short distance and toppled, and the two remaining deer fled back into the saplings.

Although both the arrow shot and the running deer were audible to me, the man below me still paid no attention. He once again strapped his tree stand to his back and continued down the trail in the direction taken by his partner. He was just out of my sight when he met the other hunter, who had finally spotted Merv in the tree stand above him, and both of them reappeared and retraced their steps back up the trail. They again walked past Titus and me, and this time a deer lying on the ground as well, and still noticed nothing.

The hunters were nearly out of sight when my eye caught some more movement back in the saplings. The two remaining deer were on their way back! I readied my bow and waited a few tense moments until the larger of the two deer gave me a clear shot at 30 yards; then I drew and released the arrow. My shot was high and struck the doe in the spine, dropping it instantly. The smaller deer circled and then made its way toward Merv. Minutes later, he shot an arrow as well, but unfortunately it struck a twig and missed the target. The deer ran into the saplings and this time didn’t return.

After waiting a short while to see if more deer would appear and exchanging a few words using our two-way radios, we gathered our kills and headed back to the house, chuckling all the way.

Eldon Martin operates FultonPA.com - the unoffical guide to Fulton County, Pennsylvania.

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Laser technology is used in almost every scope of life, from the miniscule lasers in CD players to the lasers used to scan groceries in the checkout line to the massive lasers in aeronautics design. The discovery of laser technology and the subsequent building of ever-improving lasers have benefited the human race tremendously, particularly through medical advances. Medical lasers cause medical procedures to be quicker, better, and easier than their traditional counterparts. The only drawback is increased cost.

In 1917, Albert Einstein was the first person to suggest the basics of what would become lasers, by discussing the theory of Stimulated Emission, which is a type of electron transition in which a photon is emitted from an atom causing a chain reaction with other atoms to repeat the action. In fact, the word laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by the Stimulation Emission of Radiation. Charles Townes, an American physicist, further developed the idea with microwave (invisible) light in the mid- to late-50’s and Theodore Maiman built the first working optical (visible) light laser in 1960. Improvements and variations on hundreds of kinds of lasers continue to be made since the 1960s. Those involved in quantum mechanics have been studying some form of lasers, either in theory or in reality, since the 1920s. Uses for laser technology are widespread and are included in such important fields as medical/surgery, communications, design, manufacturing/industry, and research.

Medical/Surgery

The advancement of medical lasers has vastly improved the ease and success of surgery. The cost, however, is greater than that of other treatments, though scarring is much less with lasers and lasers work much more quickly than older surgical options. Incisions are more precise and easier to control. Some medical areas in which lasers have deeply refined treatment options are in laser eye surgery, oncology, neurosurgery, cardiology, dermatology, veterinary surgery, and dental surgery.

Communications
Televisions, telephones/ cellular phones, and computer systems all benefit from the use of lasers. Lasers are able to carry the huge amounts of channels and frequencies required by these high-tech devices. Lasers have proven the best communication device to have in the space age.

Design

Lasers have transformed the world of design by making it possible for designers to perform with precision that was previously unavailable. Lasers are used to design digital and three-dimensional objects with much more ease and accuracy through scanning, cutting, copying, and digital archiving. From designing a building to designing landscape, lasers prove to be the best option for fast and easy design.

Manufacturing/Industry

Lasers have improved the manufacturer’s ability to produce tenfold. For example, with a laser cutter, a clothing manufacturer can have fabric patterns cut much more quickly and more accurately in no time. A jeweler has much more precision on his side when employing lasers to work on fine gems. Airplane designers can construct an aircraft much more efficiently and with greater results using laser technology.

Research

The use of lasers in research enables scientists to uncover much more detail and detect very slight movement when studying matter. The lasers can be tailored to only respond to certain colors or movements and, in that way, they provide much more specialized work in research environments.

The world of laser technology is always expanding by producing new applications and ways to benefit people. The dependence that the modern culture has on lasers is amazing considering that it was not prevalent until the past forty years.

If you need more information and resources about laser related topics, vist: www.laserx.info

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The wish to have or be something, especially one that seems difficult to achieve is an innate desire in every one of us. The quest of all mankind, whether it is admitted or not, is for a life of significance.

For any youth to live a life of significance he or she needs a focus to achieve his or her dreams or goals in life but many who have eyes perish for lack of vision and sometimes we need to be blind before we can truly see. Most young people are dreamers, living tin their dreams and forgetting that a dream is not something that you make up from, but something that wakes you up. Some sleep while they live; others live what they dream.

Someone once said, “Almost the whole world is asleep. Only a handful of people are awake, and they live in a state of constant amazement”. Awake people are passionate about living and experiencing life on this planet of wonder - - planet created by an act of wonder. We need awake people to stimulate us and to draw us out of dearness. The best dreams come to pass when you are awake.

Awake people are interesting and sometimes energetic. They are the kind of people you just like to be around. They seem to sense the awesomeness of life and they have a tendency to make it contagious. The reason many people fail is not for lack of vision, but for lack of resolve and resolve is born out of counting the cost.

Leonardo da Vinci who became one of the greatest artists in the world, some claim the greatest, exclaimed: “oh God, you sell us everything for the price of an effort”. He was an illegitimate son; brought up by his father’s family and thought to be of no account. The made him all the more determined to prove himself by his own efforts; life responded to his demands.

George Bernard Shaw once said, ” some men see things as they are, and ask why, but I dream of things that never were and ask why not”. Is there a dream you have had, is there a vision in your heart, stay awake and work earnestly to achieving it. The bigger your demand on life, the bigger the response. Life itself sets no limits.

Goethe expressed it in this say:

“Are you in earnest! Seize this very minute:

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it!

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Only engage and then the mind gets heated:

Begin, and then the work will be completed”

From: Bobola Oniwura

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Everyday more and more people looking for a work at home opportunity and the possibility of braking free from the corporate world without losing their current lifestyle and even improving it, realize that the world of forex currency trading could be the answer to what they have been looking for.

Some of the great reasons why FOREX trading is such a great way of entering the capital markets are; it’s easy accessibility thanks to the widespread use of the internet, the fact that currency trading is all commission-free and also the low transaction costs involved. All the best forex brokers will facilitate you a trading account with these characteristics and even Mini Forex traders (i.e., traders starting with accounts having a capital as low as $250), who are just starting in this field, can buy and sell currencies online always commission-free.

When trading the forex markets you don’t have to worry everyday about fees you may have to pay your broker; there are also none of the usual fees to which futures and equity traders are used to pay every day the enter a trade; no exchange or clearing fees, no NFA or SEC fees.

You may be asking how forex brokers make money if they don’t charge you fees for placing trades. They make money thanks to one characteristic of currency markets, this is, they are over-the-counter markets and trading them involves a bid/ask spread and that’s how the brokers make money. Thankfully the currency markets are capable of offering you a round-the-clock liquidity and this way you will receive tight, competitive spreads both in intra-day and night trades, without worrying about having big spreads in prices.

Once you have decided to enter and learn how to trade forex, always remember that practice and more practice makes the master and one of the best ways to get a feel for the market is to paper trade. No one wants to experiment with their own hard earned money; this is why many brokers came up with an innovative idea that would take all the risk from trying out forex trading. This way of trading is called simulation trading or paper trading as mentioned above, and the premise is simple. The program is an exact copy of the broker or trading systems real-time trading program. The main difference is that they allow you to “play” the market just as you would if you were actually investing, but obviously without the persistent worry of losing your money. You can do a simulation trade with a set amount of money, usually around $50,000 dollars. You can practice setting bid and ask prices, and using their various analysis tools provided by the broker software, which is the same you would have in a real account.

From all these facts you can see there are many advantages, and lots of money to be made, if you decide to enter the world of forex currency trading and learn the basics of the markets behavior.

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of forex trading , visit:

=> http://www.1-forex.com

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If you own a shop in the middle of the desert, and nobody walks past… obviously you’re not going to attract many customers.

If you own a vegetarian café in the middle of a meat-eating suburb… you could get very skinny… very fast.

And if you run ads where either:

a) The wrong people see them

Or

b) Not enough people see them

Your phones aren’t going to ring… and nobody is going to come into your store…

No matter how good your copy is.
No matter how good your headline is.
No matter how good your offer is.

And I see people make this mistake all the time. For instance, about a year ago I was chatting with a guy I know who sells computer gear to businesses… and he was thinking about placing an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald.

What’s wrong with this? My guess is 90% of the people reading the Sydney Morning Herald are NOT business owners… and therefore 90% of his advertising dollar is wasted.

What’s the alternative? Place ads in business publications where you are reaching 100% of your target market.

Or alternatively, rent a list, and direct mail the decision makers within the specific companies you want to approach.

You may pay more to reach each individual: however every single person you communicate with is a potential client. It makes a lot more sense… doesn’t it?

And here’s a tip for those businesses who sell products to the general public (like property, clothes, entertainment, home improvement, food or anything else).

If you want your ad to be seen then place it:

a)On the right hand side of the newspaper. Research has proven that right hand side pages get a better result than left hand side pages.

b)In the early general news… as far forward as you can. I always go for page 3, 5 or 7. And pay the loading (usually 30 - 50%) because my experience shows it’s well worth it!

But don’t take my word on it. Implement these strategies, measure the results and see what results you achieve in your business.

Chat with you shortly,

Scott Bywater
Copywriting That SELLS
http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au
1300 88 21 91

Scott Bywater, Copywriting That SELLS

Visit my web site for your complimentary copy of my ebook (valued at $29.95) and free subscription to my valuable ezine “Copywriting Selling Secrets” where you’ll discover how to write ads and sales letters that make people line up and practically beg you to take their money.

Here’s the address: http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au

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One of the biggest thrills that you will get as a business owner is getting a large order from a great customer. The sort of order that lets you ring the cash register and take your business to the next level. Unless, of course, you can’t afford to pay your suppliers. Then you risk losing the client, the order and this big opportunity.

Going to the bank to try and get financing is often an exercise in futility. Unless your business has strong assets, three years of operating history and audited financials, there is little chance that a bank will provide financing such as a business loan, line of credit or letter of credit. However, there are other alternatives. If you own a company that is a distributor, reseller, importer or wholesaler you should consider purchase order financing.

Purchase order financing provides you with the necessary funding to pay your suppliers, deliver the products and ultimately make the sale. As opposed to most bank financing, it is relatively easy to qualify for. The main requirement is that you have purchase orders from good customers, make at least $50,000 a month in sales and have profit margins of 20% or more.

The transaction is relatively simple. Once you know you’ll get the purchase order, you set up an agreement with the financing company. Once the agreement is in place, the financing company will take care of paying your suppliers and ensuring proper product delivery. The transaction is settled once the customer pays for the product, usually 30 or 60 days after delivery.

Usually, purchase order financing is used in conjunction with invoice factoring. This enables you to streamline your cash flow and reduce your costs, since invoice factoring is cheaper than purchase order funding.

Purchase order funding lets you make sales that you cannot afford to make (or lose!) and provides you with the financial platform and backing to grow your company.

About Commercial Capital LLC

We are a business financing company that can provide you with purchase order funding, purchase order financing or a letter of credit.

Copyright (C) 2006 - Commercial Capital LLC - Article may be reprinted if it is not modified and if all links are kept intact.

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Meet a Cabernet cowboy named Jack. He rides the range in Monterrey County, on the 700-acre Galante family cattle ranch and vineyard in Carmel Valley, admiring the rows of vines that produce his estate grown Galante Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon and other premium varietals.

Jack Galante comes from a long line of historical Carmel residents, including his great grandfather J. F. Devendorf who founded the town of Carmel and later built the historic Highlands Inn. Since the beginning, when the Galante ranch was planted with grapes in 1983 to the development of the winery in 1994, Galante Vineyards has been rounding-up awards and accolades nationwide for their top-notch reds, to become recognized as one of the premier cabernet producers in Monterey County.

As a native Texan, I was immediately drawn to Jack and his partner Dawn, for their down-to-earth, cowboy style all blue jeans, boots and big smiles. But beyond the Texas charm are bold wines that speak for themselves, revealing hints of the heat of Carmel Valley with layers of fruit and earth.

Jack believes quality fruit is the secret to great wines. Our philosophy is to grow the finest grapes possible and let them speak for themselves through the wine. He points out that the extreme temperatures of the upper Carmel Valley (Cachagua) result in a long growing season with extraordinary hang time, producing cabernet sauvignon grapes that ripen slowly for intense, rich wines.

Seek out a bottle of the 1998 Galante Red Rose Hill Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyard is aptly named, rising above a field of crimson roses, among the thousands of rose bushes growing on the ranch today. The wine itself is bold and rich in color, with a burst of dark berry and cherry fruits and medium tannins for a single-vineyard Cab that drinks well now, and should improve with age through 2008. Or sample the 1999 Rancho Galante, a vineyard blend of nice fruit, soft tannin that is easy drinking and pairs well with chicken, pork or beef.

As we head off into the sunset, Jack leaves us with a Galante Vineyards cowboy philosophy to remember, “Never follow good wine with water…unless you’re out of good wine.”

Eve C. White writes for websites such as DailyLuxe and LivingLuxe on all topics fine wine related.

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How long should you promote an affiliate program before you make
the decision that it just isn’t going to work for you? Let’s
face it, no matter how well a particular product may do on other
websites, it just might not be right for yours. Statistics show
that only a small percentage of affiliates for any given program
actually make any money. What happens if you are one of those
that falls into the category not making money? Is it time to
take down the site and let the domain name registration expire?
No way! But it just might be the right time to make some changes
to your strategy. Analyze your website and the programs that you
have signed up for. Determine which of those REALLY appeal to
your target audience. I said REALLY because I want you to look
at the programs from the viewpoint of your visitors, not from
the viewpoint of which ones are supposed to make you the most
money. There’s a lot of advice out there on which programs to
pick for your website, highest commissions, monthly payout,
online reporting, etc, etc, etc. The fact is that you don’t
always have that choice to make. You need to concentrate on the
products that your visitors will be the most interested in. What
programs compliment your website’s content and theme are much
more important than signing up for every program promising to
make you rich with only one sale. I’m a great example of the
above information. One of my websites caters to a highly
targeted audience. I have tried many affiliate programs and
advertising solutions on that site over the past two years. You
know which program consistently beats all others? Amazon.com! I
get paid quarterly not monthly (make that a month or two after
the quarter has ended), I only get credited for that visit, not
repeat visits, and up until about a month ago had to wait until
Monday of each week for my emailed statistics. Believe it or not
boys and girls, Amazon.com doesn’t fit into the ‘model affiliate
program’ mold that we read so much about. Now, I’m not trying to
be hypocritical here, I too feel that you should do your best to
find quality affiliate programs that offer all of the above
benefits and then some. I’m just trying to tell you that if you
find a program that really appeals to your target audience, you
CAN make some money with it. Don’t pass up products that your
visitors would really be interested in just because the program
doesn’t have the highest commissions. Because if your visitors
do purchase from a particular program and you can show
consistent sales you will be able to appeal to the merchant and
ask them to consider increasing their payout to you. This
happens a lot in this industry, especially if it is a good fit
for both sides. Worse case you might be able to get away with
telling them that if they don’t cooperate with you, you’re going
to change to another program. Chances are they don’t want to
lose your business, and they will work something out for you. So
now we’ve done the easy part and dumped the programs that we
know aren’t appropriate for our site. What about the ones that
are fairly targeted to our content and that our visitors might
be interested in? How do we know when the amount that we are
going to earn doesn’t justify the time and effort to promote a
particular program? I once read that you should give at least
3000 impressions to any given program before making the decision
to keep it or drop it. I don’t quite agree with this statement.
According to this, I post a banner on my site, and if it hasn’t
made me any money by 3000 impressions, dump it. We all know (at
least I hope we do!) that there is much more to being successful
with affiliate programs than just adding banners to your
rotation. So how do we set a benchmark? This has to be
determined by you. It is based on your website, your visitors,
the program, and the amount of effort you have put into
promoting the program. Have you blended the product offerings in
with your content? Have you given personal recommendations for
any of the products? Have you displayed the links and/or
graphics prominently so that the majority of your traffic has a
chance to see them? Have you mentioned new product offerings to
your newsletter subscribers? If you can answer yes to the
majority of the above questions, then you can make a
determination as to how long to try the affiliate program. If
you’ve done these things and your visitors have passed right by
the offerings for a decent time frame and nothing has
happened…its time to move on! Find another program and give it
the same due diligence. If you do this with each and everyone of
your targeted programs, you WILL find a program that will
perform for you! This process should be familiar to you…many,
many internet marketers preach this concept…simply known
as…TESTING!! Your online career is a series of continual
tests. Try one product, if it doesn’t work for you, get rid of
it and try another one. After you have done this testing, then
and only then, can you say “When” to an affiliate program.

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The one year anniversary of the start of your web business rolled around, and you had 8,126 hits to your web site by 3,712 people for the calendar year. That averages out to about 10 visitors a day. In analyzing these figures, it shows that some of those people were intrigued enough to visit other pages on your site during their visit. Like a robust meal, some came back for seconds and maybe even thirds.

Statistics show, that only a small percentage of the people visiting a web site actually buy something. Now if you’re selling a “high ticket” item, that could have resulted in thousands of dollars worth of sales, and may be perfectly acceptable. A “low ticket” item, on the other hand may have only netted a small amount, and made a small profit or barely recovered the costs.

The web site selling the “high ticket” item must balance their production capabilities with the demand. Maybe they can’t handle any more customers. The person selling the “low ticket” items has their work cut out for them.

So let’s concentrate on what the “low ticket” person has to do. The pundits say that you must sell yourself first, and the product or service will be an easy sale. Well this is true to a certain extent. You must however have something that is saleable, at a competitive price.

Let’s talk about price. Yesterday I was browsing through an online Garden Supply Store - yes it is getting to be that time of year. Common items were typically priced at almost double what I could get them for in our local store. While I got some good ideas, that vendor lost a sale. Prices must be competitive - and if you add shipping and handling, the differential is even higher. So, the concept of selling locally available items at a higher cost just doesn’t make sense. The online entrepreneur is going to have a very difficult time competing with the chain stores.

So does that mean that there is no market for an online entrepreneur? No! There must however be a product line that is not normally available in local outlets - in other words a niche market.

Services are usually strong - especially online services. Find a niche here and you will usually succeed. But what kind of services sell? There are many kinds, but they usually don’t take the form of affiliate programs that thousands of others are trying to sell. But, you might argue, affiliate programs are a great deal. With very little investment, you can be up and running in a very short time.

But why should someone buy from you, something that is being hawked all over the web? This is where the advice of the pundits comes into action. You must sell yourself first, and do something that sets you apart from the others who have exactly the same product or service.

Your own web site is a great start. You can have your picture there, a short bio and list your reasons for joining the program. If you can sell yourself, the affiliate sale is a lot easier. But to do this, you must be able to entice your visitors back. If you can get them there enough times, the odds of you making a sale greatly increase.

There are a number of ways to get them to return. Content that is continually updated is a great start. If you have information of interest to them, they will come back. A guest book where you can capture their email address is a real plus. You can then notify them when the content has changed, and you are building a valuable mailing list. Running a contest is also a good draw.

If you can get your visitors back for seconds, or even thirds, you have a much better chance of selling your product or services. Who knows - you might also get a lot of new visitors by “word of mouth” which is always one of the strongest forms of advertising available.

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I watched much of the Detroit Pistons versus Miami Heat series and I did not like what I saw from the Pistons. The Pistons had a mismatch in two very key areas, one of the biggest being at power forward with Rasheed Wallace. Just as no one on the Pistons could guard Shaq, no one on the Heat could guard Wallace but the difference in the series was that the Heat took advantage of their mismatch and the Pistons did not. Posting up Wallace could have done two things for the pistons. It could have put Shaq in foul trouble if the Heat choose to put Shaq on Wallace at some point in the game. It would have also freed up cutters and shooters giving the Pistons more easy looks.

Instead of posting up Wallace the Pistons consistently went to Tayshun Prince, a good but young player that should never get more touches than Wallace. They also choose to have Wallace shooting three pointers the whole series.

Another mistake the Pistons made that cost them the series was not posting up Billups more. Billups spent sometime in the post, and when he did he was very effective, getting Jason Williams in foul trouble in almost every game. This makes me wonder about Flip Saunders coaching ability. It is good to have a game plan but sometimes you have to know when it is not working and do something different. The Pistons decision to stick with their game plan sent them home a bit too early.

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