Atricle Dump - Internet and Businesses Online

Hosted PBX, Is It Right For You?
“Order Now!” “Your Business Will Fail If You Don't Have This New Technology!” “Your Competition Has This Tool, Why Don't You?” Does any of this sound familiar? Does it make you cringe? It seems to be impossible to keep up with all the new trends in business today. It's hard to know which trends are just flash in the pan gimmicks and which are valuable tools that your business can actually benefit from. It's important to do your research. Find out what these tools can do for you and make sure it is right for your business. One of these recent trends is the hosted PBX service. These “virtual” phone systems can automatically answer, screen and route all incoming calls to your office, home and/or cell phone. Although they have been on the market for some time now, hosted PBXs have recently been getting the attention of more and more small and medium sized businesses. Is this technology right for your business?What Can It Do For Me? First you have to ask yourself, “How will my business benefit from a hosted PBX?” A hosted PBX service has many different aspects that a business owner can take advantage of. A good service will have numerous different features and packages that can help your business project a more professional image and boost productivity. Here are 4 basic features of most hosted PBX services. See if they can benefit your business.1 - 800 - Toll Free Number 90% of Americans report using a toll free number and studies show that using a toll free number in your advertising can increase your response by 30%. So the first advantage to your business using an “800” number with your hosted PBX is that consumers will call you before they call the company w

r some, ebooks are "bottom-feeders" in the world of publishing. They see such content as lower quality and without prestige.

I have a folder of all the books I've collected through reviewer duties and as free downloads. I haven't read 10 percent of them. However, it could be a different story when you pay for an ebook. Knowing that you bought the book might force you to read it. But then again, I have shelves of printed books that I have yet to read.

Why would I want to buy ebooks and let them rot on my hard drive where I naturally save them after downloading them? Same reason for printed books? I don't think so, because you can see and touch them. It's easier to scan printed pages than to scroll electronic books.

Fee-based newsletters

Most of the fee-based newsletters I've seen have a free newsletter distributed by the same people. Organizations use the free newsletter to entice readers into subscribing to the fee-based newsletter. Like Glatzer says, you're establishing credibility with your audience through the free newsletter, and when they see another offering from you, they might jump at it. Glatzer publishes Absolute Write, free Absolute Markets and Absolute Markets Premium Edition newsletters. Free Absolute Markets comes out every other week and the premium edition comes out in between those issues.

Glatzer explains the difference between the free and premium editions. The free markets contains a small sampling, about 10 markets covering mainly magazine-related work plus contest listings or an article in alternating issues. The premium edition has many jobs and lists markets for various types of writing including international markets. It also includes interviews with magazine editors and an in-depth look at a high profile magazine on a monthly basis. She also lists calls for writers from editors who know her and those calls won't be found anywhere else online.

Glatzer decided to offer the fee-based ne

Introducing Coaching Into an Established Culture
For organisations who have dramatically changed their working environment or culture (such as the Health Service or Civil Service) the introduction of coaching can be viewed as one change too many. However, coaching can help organisations deliver change in a more positive way by coaching leaders in how to deal with change positively. There is also confusion over what coaching is and what its purpose is.Coaching can also help leaders to work effectively within teams through openness and understanding of the real issues that may prevent the efficient standards of delivery that are now required in many organisations.A recent series by the BBC, where Gerry Robinson took on the task of trying to reduce waiting lists in the NHS, highlighted this issue. Gerry Robinson has a very successful track record with improving the performance of large multi national companies. He believes that “any business no matter how large can be made to work well”. The series itself highlighted that real positive changes failed to materialise because, although there were many good ideas within the organisation about how to improve things, these ideas often failed to get off the ground, for a whole variety of reasons – often for amazingly petty reasons. Robinson became very frustrated about how even simple, practical ideas to improve things go absolutely nowhere, due to bureaucracy, self-interest and sheer bloody mindedness - you could say there was ‘analysis paralysis’ and nothing got done as it might fail. Channels of communication across departments were blocked and there was little belief that positive change could actually happen. It was refreshing to see a coaching model being used by Mr. Robinson – he identified

In pursuit of a paid model for content, many businesses offer newsletters for a fee or ebooks. These models offer pros and cons. Some organizations send out two newsletters: fee and free. The free version has the basic, watered-down contents found in the fee version to entice readers into wanting more and paying for it. But is it worth the time and energy to do this?

Ebooks are also a way for businesses to make money. But do they sell when it’s been proven that people prefer reading printed copy to electronic text? Read on to hear from several experts in the field about what people are willing to pay for and whether or not offering fee-based content is right for your organization.

Too much information!

Considering there are so many free newsletters and information out there, why should readers shell out the dough for these premium newsletters? Reading online is harder on the eyes because of the light emitted from the monitor. People overcome this by printing out the newsletter.

I can't hazard a guess on how many free newsletters are out there. So why would a person pay for a fee-based newsletter? Jenna Glatzer, editor-in-chief of AbsoluteWrite.com, says, "You have to offer something different and better than what the free newsletters are doing. Personally, I wouldn't pay for newsletters that are just for entertainment, but I do have paid subscriptions to a handful of newsletters that are specific to my line of work and appropriate for my level (not beginner). A paid newsletter that has all the same sorts of free-reprint articles that all the other sites have won't work. You must find a corner of the market that no one has claimed yet and be the most reliable source of information on it."

Joan Stewart, publisher of The Publicity Hound, started her subscription newsletter seven years ago, long before there was as much information on the Internet as there is today. She says, "Content must be king. If you can supply good content that can’t be found elsewhere, and it’s well-written and easy to read, and leads readers in other directions where they can find even more info than they could possibly need, you will keep your customers happy.

"If I had it to do over again, I would have never started my subscription newsletter. It started as an 8-page print newsletter, but the postage and printing costs were killing me," she says. "About two years ago, I reverted from a print newsletter to a PDF document. It's in the same format, but it’s now emailed to customers. My free ezine, The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week, is still far more profitable, several hundredfold, than the subscription newsletter."

Charging for ebooks

Considering there are no printing and paper costs to the publisher for ebooks, how can they charge as much as they do for them? Higher prices equal higher perceived value. However, I've seen many ebooks cost more than a paperback, and the content isn't always better quality than print. Yet, they sell.

What justifies the higher cost of ebooks when there are no printing costs involved with them? Christopher Knight, publisher of Ezine-Tips, says, "What justifies the higher cost of ebooks when there are no printing costs involved with them? Christopher Knight, publisher of Ezine-Tips, says, 'That would be a fallacy in perception logic because the printing cost is not relevant to the market perception of a paperback versus an ebook. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that some people even value an ebook as higher value than a paperback because they can take their data with them on a personal notebook computer, whereas it's hard to travel with a pile of paperback books.'"

Glatzer points out that whether a piece is written in print or ebook format, it is the same amount of work for the writer. "Of course, ebooks have a smaller market, so the problem is that if the ebook is priced very low, it won't be worth it for the writer to spend the time writing and promoting the book."

If it is worth it, however, ebooks provide many benefits to those who download them: The readers aren’t taxed, don't incur shipping costs and don’t need gas money to go to the bookstore. As soon as people buy your ebook, they instantly download it and have it in their "e-hands."

Stewart says, "The biggest justification is that the information is immediate. If a customer wants information NOW, they can get it NOW, and they're often willing to pay the hefty price. My ebook, How to Be a Kick-Butt Publicity Hound, sells for $97. The most I could expect to get for the same book in hardcover is about $25. Another justification for the higher priced ebooks is that live links in the ebooks take visitors directly to Web sites with related content."

E-format versus print format

Research on ebooks indicates people still prefer paper over ebooks. What's the point of pursuing ebooks and fee-based newsletters? Glatzer shares her experience.

"I've written two ebooks and 14 print books, so that shows you where my bread and butter comes from. However, I had my newsletter first. It was thriving, yet I had nothing to sell my readers. I was barely breaking even with advertising costs and often paying hosting fees out of pocket. I'd received so many letters from readers asking for advice about how to do what I had done—make a living writing for magazines—and finally decided to write a book about it. I knew I had a built-in audience among my subscribers. The ebook sold well, but my goal was to take it to print. When a publisher made an offer on it, I took it out of circulation as an e-book and expanded it for the print publisher. That became Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer, and the print book has far outsold the ebook.

"The second was a niche book for greeting card writers and artists. It contained market info for just that field, so it was such a specialized book that I didn't go after conventional publishers for it. Plus, the time factor was crucial: contact info changes so often that I wanted to get the book out ASAP, and I wanted to be able to update it when needed. I briefly had it out as a print-on-demand book, but I took it off the market as soon as it became dated and just continued selling it as an ebook.

"Since then, I've stuck to conventional publishing and just a few giveaway ebooks for publicity. But I think the market for ebooks is decent if you have a specialized topic and a built-in audience."

Based on Glatzer's experience, when you have a free newsletter, you already have an audience … unless you try to sell a book on home makeovers to your audience that subscribes to your pets newsletter!

Timely matters

Ebooks have an advantage over print in that their content is up-to-date and piping hot. If something changes, it's quick and easy to modify the ebook and put the new version up for sale. The publishing process for printed books can be a lengthy one.

Time can impact content depending on the topic. Some industries such as sports and history have experienced little or no change in over a decade, while others like technology are moving at megahertz speed.

By the time an author of a book related to software writes it, and the publisher prints it, a new version of the software is available, rendering the brand-new book outdated. However, many users don't upgrade every version, as this stings the cash flow. Often, tips and steps given in books covering earlier versions of software are applicable to the newer version.

Knight suggests selling in both formats (print and ebook); that way all your bases are covered and you reach more channels for the same product.

eContent = lower quality?

M.J. Rose, Wired columnist and author of both print and electronic books, has commented that people thought she wasn't a real author when she published her ebook. For some, ebooks are "bottom-feeders" in the world of publishing. They see such content as lower quality and without prestige.

Fee-based newsletters

Glatzer decided to offer the fee-based new

Tips For Answering Interview Questions
Most people will agree that no matter how many times you have been through it an interview is a very stressful situation. Probably the biggest unknown is what questions will the interviewer be asking, and how should you best answer them. There are some right and wrong answers to give to these questions.For starters, the questions that will determine the basic skill needed for the job are typically not the ones that determine who gets the offer. They simply are covering basic job responsibilities and requirements. Most applicants will have these covered, but it's the other questions where the interviewer is learning your personality that will likely be the deciding factor. These are also the most difficult to prepare for since you have no idea what topics they would entail. These are likely the questions you will be answering in your head over and over after you leave the office. Don't stress too much about these though. Try to be yourself and answer the interview questions in a way that lets the interviewer know that you will be bringing alot of enthusiasm along with the required knowledge to the job.There are many helpful techniques that you can use to your advantage when answering interview questions. Some interview products are available, such as aids, that will give a list of the most asked questions so that you can practice a 'mock' interview ahead of time. However, you don't want to come across as being too rehearsed in the interview. You want to have confidence in your abilities and what you can bring to the job. It can be helpful to develop a personal tone to your message so the employer knows you are a great match for the team. Remember that a large part of the process is finding out how

od content that can’t be found elsewhere, and it’s well-written and easy to read, and leads readers in other directions where they can find even more info than they could possibly need, you will keep your customers happy.

Charging for ebooks

E-format versus print format

Research on ebooks indicates people still prefer paper over ebooks. What's the point of pursuing ebooks and fee-based newsletters? Glatzer shares her experience.

"Since then, I've stuck to conventional publishing and just a few giveaway ebooks for publicity. But I think the market for ebooks is decent if you have a specialized topic and a built-in audience."

Timely matters

Knight suggests selling in both formats (print and ebook); that way all your bases are covered and you reach more channels for the same product.

eContent = lower quality?

Fee-based newsletters

Glatzer decided to offer the fee-based ne

Developing Your Sales Personality Is a Fine Art
Picasso was a very interesting guy.I’m especially impressed by how prolific he was, churning out sculptures and paintings galore, into his 90’s.Most people look at a Picasso drawing, consisting of a few lines, and they think: “Any kid could do that!!”Of course any kid could, or anybody else for that matter, but they don’t. Picasso’s work seems deceptively easy, but that’s because it already exists.He had to conceive and execute it. Somewhere in that process we can infer a genius was at work.The artist makes something out of nothing and so does the salesperson. He creates, seemingly out of thin air. And to many, he seems overcompensated.What the seller does also looks easy—after the fact.But observers don’t see the work that supports the sale, the mental rehearsals before approaching a prospect, breaking down various barriers just to identify and then to reach a decision maker or influencer, customizing a sales presentation, and incessant follow-through.Like the artist, the salesman is also an illusionist, creating an impression of intimacy with a prospect that he has only just met. This takes talent and effort.“Breaking the ice” is the metaphor we use, quite rightly, for initiating a relationship with a client; not “Strolling in the park.” Ordinary folks generally don’t have this skill of warming people up, especially strangers..I dealt with two “professionals” today, highly educated and highly paid non-salespeople.The first was a negative, dour, and hostile communicator, and she got the same in return from me. She made no effort to be warm.The second professional was much more open and I made it my job to make her laugh and to

end the time writing and promoting the book."

E-format versus print format

Research on ebooks indicates people still prefer paper over ebooks. What's the point of pursuing ebooks and fee-based newsletters? Glatzer shares her experience.

"Since then, I've stuck to conventional publishing and just a few giveaway ebooks for publicity. But I think the market for ebooks is decent if you have a specialized topic and a built-in audience."

Timely matters

Knight suggests selling in both formats (print and ebook); that way all your bases are covered and you reach more channels for the same product.

eContent = lower quality?

Fee-based newsletters

Glatzer decided to offer the fee-based ne

To Blog or Not To Blog: While Making Money Online
One of the biggest crazes associated with making money online these days centers around blogs. Only in the last year or so has web-logging or “blogging” (a fancy way of referring to an internet diary which can be make public) really been a major way of communication on the world wide web. Its initial intensions were to provide internet users a place to share their feelings, opinions and ideas. Of course, everything in the world these days that starts out simple with good intensions becomes tarnished by the desire to make money. I hate to admit it, but I am not an exception to this rule, either.I became an internet marketer about 7 months ago and like most affiliate marketers, my roots began through reading eBooks. Many of the recent “updates” to these money-making programs focuses on using blogs as a means of an inexpensive (free) place to create landing pages (pages which you link your potential customers to in order to promote your product).There are three main ways to promote products:1) Promote products by directly linking to the seller’s website. This is fairly competitive these days.2) Create your own landing page by having your own website.3) Create your own landing page by having a blog or using a free website.I have tried direct promotion with little luck in the past. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is irrelevant and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) services (like Yahoo Overture and Google Adwords) is very competitive. This is because services like Adwords will only allow one sponsored URL per search. High niche keywords and unique keywords are required to even compete (and be seen) if you plan on having a modest advertising budget. A landing page is much more

t go after conventional publishers for it. Plus, the time factor was crucial: contact info changes so often that I wanted to get the book out ASAP, and I wanted to be able to update it when needed. I briefly had it out as a print-on-demand book, but I took it off the market as soon as it became dated and just continued selling it as an ebook.

"Since then, I've stuck to conventional publishing and just a few giveaway ebooks for publicity. But I think the market for ebooks is decent if you have a specialized topic and a built-in audience."

Timely matters

Knight suggests selling in both formats (print and ebook); that way all your bases are covered and you reach more channels for the same product.

eContent = lower quality?

Fee-based newsletters

Glatzer decided to offer the fee-based ne

Yellow Page Advertising Gone Bad
Many people believe that yellow page advertising is the best possible advertising for a new business, but let me tell you I have heard some horror stories in my past. In fact let me tell you about one story, which is pretty much unforgivable. I was told by a Yellow Page Advertising Representative that the book closed in two days and if I did not get my Ad in now I could forget it until next year. I found out later that this was a lie, and the representatives in the area told that to everyone. Actually the book did not close for two months.This was not an off brand yellow page advertisement book; this was the actual phone company Yellow Pages. The lady who was selling the advertisement scribbled a bunch of stuff on a piece of paper and took my order. Then she had me sign it and I said but I can read it how are you going to make sure you got it right, she said not to worry that she would write it up when she got back.It turns out later that they put me in the wrong category. You see I was in the pressure washing business and we specialize in cleaning concrete for large property management companies, big box stores, restaurants chains and government agencies. Instead my Ad appeared under Driveway Cleaning. The representative, said there was nothing I could do because I had signed a piece of paper approving it.Needless to say, since it was the phone company they added the bill to my phone bill and when I refuse to pay because of their mistake, they sent it to collections and attempted to turn off my business phone. From that day on I have warned every small business-person I have ever met in my entire life not to advertise in the Yellow Pages, do not trust them. The yellow page adverti

r some, ebooks are "bottom-feeders" in the world of publishing. They see such content as lower quality and without prestige.

Fee-based newsletters

Glatzer decided to offer the fee-based newsletter because there wasn't anything like the Absolute Markets Premium Edition with its 50 pages of markets. She believed that a $15 fee for a yearly subscription more than pays itself if writers land one assignment from the newsletter's resources. Furthermore, it saves the writers' time spent searching for job listings. In determining what to charge, Glatzer and her colleagues researched what publishers charged for similar newsletters in other fields such as casting calls for actors.

In determining how much to charge for her fee-based newsletter, Stewart asked herself, "How much would I be willing to pay?" The Publicity Hound, her eight-paged, bi-monthly, fee-based subscription newsletter costs $9 per issue or $49.95 for a one-year subscription (six issues) and has more single-copy buyers than subscribers.

Selling ebooks and fee-based newsletters

If you decide to sell ebooks and newsletters for a fee, Glatzer recommends getting lots of reviews and interviews for ebooks. For newsletters, she says, "I think you need to establish credibility by offering free samples first. Make it easy for people to subscribe by offering multiple payment options."

Joan Stewart promotes articles in the fee-based newsletter in almost every issue of the free ezine. She also uses auto responder messages for people who buy single copies. About a week after the purchase, they receive a message thanking them for their order and asking if they would like to subscribe. Stewart shares her list of what works and what doesn't work when selling ebooks and fee-based newsletters:

What works:

The product must be content-rich.

It must include lots of links to other resources.

Even if it includes hotlinks to other products, it must cover topics that readers would be interested in.

The product must be top-quality, which means free of typos, and it must be easy to read. (16-point type for ebooks.)

What doesn't work:

Information that's outdated. Special reports and ebooks must be updated at least once a year. I have a special report called "Fly High with Publicity in In-flight Magazines." It includes contact info for 30 in-flight magazines. It's a real pain to update this annually, but readers will jump down my throat if I don't.

Products that are little more than sales pitches for other things the author sells (consulting services, etc.).

Products that don't promise what they deliver.

Lousy customer service. Buyers expect a human being to reply to their email messages or answer the phone if they have problems downloading the product, or other concerns. I have bought ebooks from some well-known Internet marketers who refuse to return my phone calls when I call them for help. I no longer buy from those people.

Steer clear of joining discussion groups solely for spamming the list about your ebook or newsletters. "It irritates the heck out of people," Glatzer says.

She promotes her fee-based newsletter through advertising in other writing-related ezines and some paid Google ads; she also advertises it in her own free newsletters, and she sponsors writing contests and conferences in exchange for newsletter mentions. Glatzer says, "We do a lot of promotion for the site and all newsletters in general; people subscribe to our free newsletters for a while, so they can determine we're worth the bucks!"

Fee-based newsletters are out there and won't go away soon. Authors churn out ebooks every day in spite of data supporting that people heavily prefer print over electronic versions. Ebooks prices continue to equal or surpass printed books.

Knight ends the discussion. "The best will survive and rise to the top as they always naturally do, while those who don't step up to the plate and innovate like mad will get left in the digital dust." Amen.

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So if traditional marketing is no longer effective, then how will you get the word out about your products or services? Part 2 of a two-part series.

Are you a professional sales person? Would you like to earn more commissions, make more sales and well, just sell more? Would you like to be the top sales person where you work? Would you like to be the top dog and always post the best results? Well have you considered that you could sell more if you would stop telling and start listening more to your prospect?

Running your Ebay business has never been easier, or more rewarding. However many businesses trading online or on ebay do not succeed straight away. If you decide to start your own eBay business, there are several factors that will help to determine whether or not your venture is a successful on

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