Sapujagat

A few years ago mankind would not have even dreamt that a new world called the cyber world would develop and revolutionize the way the world lives. Today most people cannot even think of an internet less world or complete; the World Wide Web enables e-commerce, travel, education, treatments for ailments, banking, social networking, marriage, dating and more. Its not just about spreading knowledge or playing games the World Wide Web has erased all boundaries and helped human beings reach out to others world wide.

At the dawn of a new year, 2007 one often takes a moment to reflect on the year that was. The year 2006 brought with it many changes as well as concerns as far as the cyber world is concerned and websites vied with one another to gain Numero Uno slot. Webmasters fine tuned Read the rest of this entry »

Like any business, a person has to work to make money in an MLM residual income business opportunity. Many people believe that a residual income means they will not have to work at all. This is why many MLM businesses fail. There are some points about MLM residual income that every person needs to know before getting started so that they do not fail prey to misconceptions.

MLM�s are popular because the way they work is designed so a person can earn money from a one time sale over and over. If a person sells to one person and that person buys products on a monthly basis they are still earning that residual income. Read the rest of this entry »

Yoga is a family of ancient spiritual practices dating back more than 5000 years from India. It is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy. In India, Yoga is seen as a means to both physiological and spiritual mastery. Outside India, Yoga has become primarily associated with the practice of asanas (postures).

Yoga as a means of spiritual attainment is central to Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and has influenced other religious and spiritual practices throughout the world. Hindu texts establishing the basis for yoga include the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and many others.

The four main paths Read the rest of this entry »

Are you Satisfied with your Website Design?

Before you answer this question about your website design back up and ask yourself this questions. What does the word “satisfy” mean?

We’ve all heard the word “satisfy” in the forums we read, news articles, television and radio etc.

The word satisfy could apply to almost everything we do. Are you satisfied with your relationship with your significant other? Satisfied with your verbal grasp of the English language? Satisfied with your financial portfolio? Satisfied with your parenting skills? And, most important, are you Read the rest of this entry »

Good writing is like sex. Two people are involved – the writer and the reader. Bad sex usually satisfies only one person, most preferably, the writer – the person who leads. Good sex not only satisfies both people, it pleasures them. So, like sex, writing must have all vital points that reach unto this pleasure – movement, foreplay, sensitivity, rhythm and climax. When a writer carefully and logically includes all these aspects, the reader is pleasured, satiated and gratified, but when a writer ignores them, the reader feels that the writer is impotent and he abandons him after that one night. Good writing is about making a person desire to read.

 It is essential to understand that those writers who write for themselves may possibly be never published. Sometimes, the writing that is hard-worked looks beautiful, mildly interesting but never exact. An ideal reader looks for few details in the entire 60,000 word novel or the 2000 word piece, and that is story and how well it is managed without afflicting it.

The most necessary detail to observe while writing is that you should never utterly confuse the reader. A reader’s mind is fragile. He is quick as the words flow under his eyes and a picture is slowly being screened in his mind. But if a disturbance in the flow arises, the reader tries to wait for the turbulence to sustain and if it carries on even a while longer, he’ll feel tired and he’ll shut off that flow and go back to sleep. Your partner is bored. You were impotent.

Let’s imagine a plausible sentence – “The apple is red.” The same can be written in many a ways according to the writer’s intellect and preferred style. For instance, a good writer might write just exactly that – “The apple is red.” A writer who writes for himself might write – “The apple is brick-red, like hue in a twilight cloud.” There is nothing grammatically wrong with the sentence or with the structure. It is perfectly germane. The ‘wrong’ thing here is that it is clarifying when it should be just stating. Clarification is needed when the situation isn’t intelligible by the word only. Good writing should point out and not reach that terminal. Can’t understand? Allow me.

 A man is hunting in the woods. He has his faithful Labrador by his side. They spot a winter-dyed rabbit. Instead of pointing at the bunny, Bruno scampers and takes a bite out of it. It defies the whole purpose of the dog. Instead of pointing (stating), it is eating it (clarifying it). I repeat: good writing should point out and not reach that terminal, because loss of exactness can destroy the rhythm, little by little.

Writing is a blend of time management (movement), bad prose (foreplay), good prose (rhythm), language (sensitivity) and story (climax).

Time Management:

Being realistic, I would say that time has nothing to do with writing in particular. You have to devote possibly all of what you can afford to spare. Every time you write and give it a hundred percent, you’ll improve indefinitely because there is no labeled margin, as such, that mars the progress of a writer. There is a simple theorem to success in life: ‘Hard work.’ There is also a simple theorem to success in writing: ‘Unrelenting hard work.’

Bad Prose:

Bad prose is unidentifiable. It needs a very sincere, persevering eye to spot it. It’s like finding tiny specks of blue ink on a black cloth. Bad prose is almost inconspicuous to the writer’s eye; but they do the required damage to the story, all the same. It is the husk on the corn, the unnecessary stuff that can be done without. Observe this small para –

“The wind was leathery. It howled and screamed, drawing black. Darkness combed like poetry, little by little, mounting the sky and reeling before a star, like the million leaves that tend to sew in and out a bark’s height. My eye skimmed the window across, washing it with sight. Time was unessential, old and religious, but still, I somewhat liked her to be punctual. And she stood there. Not a breath late.”

There is nothing unethical about it. It doesn’t flout any fence in writing. What it does is, is that it includes author intrusion, the husk. The author comes into the story and it skims away the tangibility of the story. The same para could have been deducted of author intrusion and still be written as -

“The wind howled into the dark, poetic night that spread open, like a pall. I watched in patience as she stood across in the window; sad curves on a silhouette.”

This sentence touches the mind without confusing it beforehand. You remove the husk and you get the corn to eat. As simple as that.

Good Prose:

Good prose is about writing the truth, and then, exaggerating it a little. The complete truth is always deficient, the stereotypical truth is always too common – the exaggerated truth is beautiful and sufficient. There are only few writers, who can write the “exaggerated truth”. Truth unleashes a more visible reality, and exaggeration grasps that reality and fills in the vacant spots. For instance –

If you’re writing about a scene set in the desert, the truth would be: hot, rasping sand… a harsh sun like melting glass… a cruel, scalding wind that raises soot-like clouds from the underneath. This is the utter and complete truth that would come to mind.

The exaggerated truth would be: a cawing vulture speckling the sky… deep screwed faces in the sand… a breeze hissing at the mounding dunes…

Ands so on. It feels right and complete, and it is prevented from being ideal. A scene can only be appealing if it isn’t ideal. It needs to ripen; it needs to be a bit exaggerated.

Language:

The way a man dresses tells the contemplating neighbor where he’s headed. It is a language in his clothes that the neighbor can identify. But he were to wear beach sandals and Bermudas and head off to the royal ball, it wouldn’t be preconceived. It would come as a ridiculous and disgusting shock. That’s exactly what bad language does. It shocks the reader’s preconceiving notion. It takes away the coherency and the direction.

Good language is the tool that takes a lot of practice and compulsive diligence to acquire. Below, I have listed a few golden rules that an efficient author observes while writing. Observe –

1. Use “Hope”, “seeming” and words that suggest a thing instead of conveying it, as little as possible. They confuse the tendency of a reader to understand.

2. Try not to be passive. Passive sentences lengthen and eventually, bore the reader.

3. Whenever words like “suddenly” or “immediately” come in a story, the reader gets ready and aware. The author gets deprived of shocking his partner. The element that was intended to be created loses its momentum. Use it scarcely.

4. Use almost all poetic devices, but strictly avoid rhythm and alliteration. They make a sentence look stupid and ludicrous.

5. Vocabulary has its own technique. Try not to infuse big, preposterous words in your writing when demonstrating feelings. For example, it is stupid to say – ‘he was insipid and emotively ductile.’ instead of ‘he felt sad and morbid.’

Another thing most authors try to do is a play on words – a clutter of giggles, the singing and soughing wind, etc. This can either make a sentence intensely pacifying or just inane. It should be replaced by the ‘exaggerated truth’ which can efficiently fit in here.

6. Every story should encompass any or even some kind of dialogue from the protagonist, at least; else that character would not be alive or real for the reader. Dialogue should always be dealt with a frank mind and not a hesitating hand. Writing demands a little liberality and all of it, is fiercely enjoyed in the dialogues.

Story:

The most endemic question a person faces before he starts writing is: what should I write about? Unfortunately, this question has no definite answer.

Let me relieve you of a notion: creativity is not inborn. Neither is imagination. It is worked upon and implied in thought. It all concludes to writing… but cleverly.

Ideas are always there. There is an idea in everything we see around. It is important to remember how you can remember and construct a story from an idea.

Okay. Let’s take three ingredients to make an idea for a story: a place, a genre and a protagonist. Let the place be my room, the genre be horror and the protagonist be an old lady. Now, let’s move on to the next step – laying emphasis.

The old lady + my room. My room has walls, a fan, a cupboard, a chair, a ceiling. Let’s take these elements and construct ideas. Do remember that the genre is horror.

Ideas:

Idea from wall – Maybe the old lady lives inside the wall all day and comes out at night through the wall, to haunt the house.

Idea from fan – Maybe the old lady is hanging on the fan for some thirteen years, in the derelict house.

Idea from cupboard – Maybe the talking head of the old lady is hidden somewhere in the cupboard. The head howls and screams every night.

Idea from ceiling – Maybe the old lady is buried in Hell and the ceiling is a gateway to hell.

Idea from chair – Maybe the old lady died rocking in her old armchair and now, nobody can move that chair, because even after her death, her weight is prevalent there.

This is logical and theoretical imagery. It helps to bring out the hidden depths of creativity and often, writers stumble through such a process onto very puissant subjects to write on.

One last thought: Good writing isn’t something about the writer. It is anything and everything about the reader.

Most Internet marketing methods are risky and many will not have any affect on traffic to a web site. Some online marketers will sell you anything from banner impressions, to mass email campaigns (spam), to popup ads. All these marketing tools can work, but they are also extremely risky. Some people I know find pop-ups and spam so annoying that they will never purchase anything from a business that uses them. These plans are probably not the best customer acquisition strategies, and more likely they are a total waste of money. So why would anyone bother risking money on marketing strategies that probably will not increase traffic to your website? Why not concentrate on what does work? - The search engines.

Have you ever been contacted by online marketers who promise to deliver a “ton of traffic” to your website” ? I get these emails every day. Here’s a quote from one I used to get 10 times a day (until I automatically filtered it to trash):

“Hi I visited www.metamend.com, and noticed that you’re not listed on some search engines! I think we can offer you a service which can help you increase traffic and the number of visitors to your website.

I would like to introduce you to thispromotioncompany.com. We offer a unique technology that will submit your website to over 300,000 search engines and directories every month.

You’ll be surprised by the low cost, and by how effective this website promotion method can be.

To find out more about thispromotioncompany and the cost for submitting your website to over 300,000 search engines and directories, visit www.thispromotioncompany.com. (…)”

Have you ever received one, and wondered why they were contacting you? First off, how did they find your web site? What search engines are they referring to? If they really could deliver on their promise, then they would have so much repeat, and word of mouth business, that they wouldn’t have time to be calling or emailing you. Lastly, how many people actually believe that there are 300,000 search engines?

While it’s true you need traffic from the search engines, you don’t need to use spam techniques to get it. You need real results, and not false hope.

Increase Web Site Traffic,.. Naturally

It is true that the best way to obtain lots of targeted traffic (customers) is to acquire it based on relevance, via the search engines. Various studies show that anywhere from 83% to 92% of first time visitors to a web site find it through the search engines. That’s an incredible statistic. If you are not acquiring those customers as a result of a relevant query, then they will be disappointed. They may be disappointed with the search result, but more likely, they will be disappointed with your web site.

In the online world that’s your first impression. We all know how important a first impression is. You can never get a bad one back, and a good one will carry you a long way. You have to make sure that the search engines are sending you visitors that are looking for your products or services. If your web site matches their interests, they will remember it, and come back, even if they do not make a purchase on that visit. If they find it irrelevant, they may have subconsciously formed a negative opinion of your online business, through no fault of your own.

Search engines provide a continuous stream of targeted visitors to your website, and for the most part, it’s free of charge. Some engines do charge a listing fee, but most do not. The only thing the search engine asks is that each web site operator makes an effort to provide relevant and good information to web surfers for a particular search phrase. If a web site does so, the search engines will reward the site with increased good quality traffic.

Search engine traffic is a win-win situation for any online business. It doesn’t take much to improve on most web site’s search engine traffic - it just takes optimization. Did you know that as of January 1 2002, there were 160,000,000 domain hosts in use worldwide? Did you know that 88% of the web pages worldwide are not indexed by the largest search engines? 88% of web pages are not optimized. How can any business survive on the Internet if it is not optimized for the search engines, and thus can never be found? How can they exist if over 83% of first time visitors never find their web site? How much more money could a web site operator earn if they ensured their web site was even partially visible?

If you have an informative web site, the search engines want to send you lots of customers. That’s because the more web surfers find what they want, the more they’ll use a particular search engine and recommend it to their friends. The search engine also benefits, as it becomes known as a resource that gets its clients - the searchers - to their destinations quickly and efficiently. The more people recognize how well the engine works as a resource, the more it gets recommended, and used. As the popularity increases, so do the engine’s revenues from advertising.

What Does Your Web Site Need To Receive Traffic From The Search Engines?

Small web sites with only 1 or 2 pages set themselves up for failure, simply because they usually don’t have enough content of interest. There are of course exceptions, where the 1 or 2 pages are each as long as a book. But these are awfully frustrating to read, and no one will be satisfied with them. Most often 1 or 2 page sites are simply too short to provide any useful information, so the search engines don’t take them seriously. Among other factors, the search engines examine how deep a site is. The more meaningful content present, the more weighty the site is viewed as, and the more importance it is given.

If you are wondering about whether to bother, ask yourself this: Why does your company have a web site? What does the company do with it? Think about it. Most companies today have web sites, and most market the web sites to facilitate customer acquisition, to increase their customer base, and to improve customer retention rates.

There are a number of reasons for having web sites. Many companies use theirs to enhance their customer service. Using a web site as a marketing vehicle is a great way for a company “to put the word out” about products, services, or offerings.

Most importantly, remember that your web site is an online resource that your clients can use to find answers to frequently asked questions, “how to” tips, and to educate themselves. When including content on a web site, always remember that the knowledge shared may be common to you, but it’s likely that you are an expert in the eyes of your clients. People visit your web site for your product or service, but also for information. If they find useful, relevant, information, they will keep coming back, and will likely make purchases. People like to buy from experts.

Instead of thinking of your web site as nothing more than an online billboard or business card, think of it as an online menu, that lets people get an idea of what it is you do, and how you do it. Develop a content rich website, optimize it, and let the search engines increase your website traffic, naturally. If you optimize each major web page within your site, you will increase the rankings in the search engine results and therefore receive targeted traffic for each of those pages.

Doing each of the above - ensuring relevant content is present, and optimizing the pages - will ensure that the search engines have what they need so they can do their work. It will also ensure that they can send you targeted traffic (customers), so that you can get that 83% of first time visitors your online business needs to survive.

About The Author

Richard Zwicky is a founder and the CEO of Metamend Software, www.metamend.com, a Victoria B.C. based firm whose cutting edge Search Engine Optimization software is recognized as the world leader in its field. Employing a staff of 10, the firm’s business comes from around the world, with clients from every continent. Most recently the company was recognized for their geo-locational, or GIS, and phraseology and context search technologies.

articles@metamend.com

by: Brian Moore

Among the various foolproof methods used to boost traffic to your site (ezine advertising, and search engine submitting, to name a couple) one method seems to be forgotten about by many new Internet marketers. That method is writing press releases.
Press releases are a way to get your business exposed to more and more would be customers. They are written as a news article and submitted to editors who would then print them or follow up with you for a story.

An example of a successful press release can be found at http://www.allprobizops.com/successrelease.html. Take a moment to read through that article and then take a closer look.

You’ll find that this press release, just like any good news article, answers some basic questions for the reader. Not only that, there is a specific formula involved in constructing the piece.

Here are the questions:

Who…will bring or brought about the event?

What…is going to happen or has happened?

Where…will or did this take place?

When…will or did the event occur?

Why…will or did it occur?

How…will or did it happen?

Now, here is the formula. If you plan to write a great press release you must know and understand how to build it:

First is the headline. Choose the words carefully to convey several things at once to the reader. They must be brief and to the point. You say what the news is about in ten words or less.

The words of your headline must be exciting and dynamic. Don’t be afraid to make a bold claim your headline, say for example, “Thousands of People Reap Thousands in New Internet Business.” Just be sure – very sure – you back this up with proven facts in your article.

The next component in the formula is the opening. This is where, in no more than two sentences, you capsulate your information – tell what the article is going to be about in bite size. Answer the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” questions as briefly as possible. Save details for later.

Analyze this part of your press release carefully. To be successful the article must be able to peak the readers’ attention at this point. In other words, if they read nothing further, they have all the information they need to take action.

Now, shape the third element, the body. Elaborate on your opening. Add descriptions and benefits, quotes and testimonials. Be sure all of your quotes begin and end with quotation marks and give credit and credentials to the persons you quote.

For instance, instead of ending a quote with, “says Barbara Smith,” end it with “says Barbara Smith, six figure online entrepreneur and highly praised lecturer on small business on the World Wide Web. Isn’t the second way much more powerful and convincing (provided of course, it’s true)? That’s giving credit AND credentials.

Finally, close your press release with a short call to action. Use a sentence to summarize, then tell your readers how they may get more information. Don’t go for the jugular here, though; wait for a follow up contact to make your final sale. But do use action producing words like “get” and “now” (”Get more information “now” by phoning [your name] at [your phone number]).

A few final words are important now. Let me combine them with an exercise to help you remember the five “w’s” and one “h” of successful news writing. Make sure you thoroughly consider these questions as you plan and write your release:

Who…will benefit from reading your press release?

What…do you want them to know?

When…is your information available?

Where…can they find more information?

Why…is your information valuable in the lives of your readers?

How…is your information unique? It’s going to be submerged in a sea of press releases your intended publisher will have to review.

These are the best means I know to get your press release published once it’s submitted to an editor.

P.S. More on this topic can be found by reading Dr. Randall Hansen’s Guide to Writing Successful Press Releases at http://www.stetson.edu/~rhansen/prguide.html.

P.P.S. Directories to find places to submit your press release can be found near the end of the same web page.

by: Adrian Austin

If you are tired of your present job, laid off, want to spend more time with family, and want to be your own boss, it is possible to work at home. Home jobs can include finance relates jobs such as bookkeeping, writing jobs such as copywriting, computer related jobs such as graphic artist, customer service related jobs such as sales, and professional related jobs such as architecture.

In trying to decide what kind of home business to start, you should do research to see if the business can be successful. Look at competing businesses and see what they charge. Read books, and search on the Internet. Also if you live with people, make sure you have their support for your home business. Have a spouse help with the kids. Explain to the kids how they can help make the business a success. Make sure you have enough money saved before you start to work at home. If you were a regular contributor to the household income, have at least six months’ salary saved.

A mission statement can help define the purpose of you work at home business. A mission statement consists of your goals for the business. Define your business and write where you hope to be in six months, a year, and so on.

You can also write what income you hope to make. A mission statement can be changed as your business grows. Try to set a regular schedule for your business. You will feel more professional if you have certain times devoted to your work. Set aside a place to work. Try to make a home office and have the necessary office supplies. Don’t be shy about setting prices. You shouldn’t overcharge, but you shouldn’t under price your work either.

When you work at home, it’s important to keep up with your bookkeeping. Send out invoices as soon as possible. Record your expenses such as phone and Internet bills. Network with other people in your field.

Besides online communication, attend meetings, conferences, and trade shows. Choose a good business name, but don’t choose the same name as another business. Determine what business structure you want, sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation.

If you need financing, look at loans, lines of credit, and grants. See if you need insurance coverage for your business. Determine if you need to set up a business account at the bank in addition to your personal account. Figure out how much you need to spend on advertising with online and print ads, products( pens, paper, clocks, calendars) with your business name on them, sales kits, and other promotional ideas.

The biggest part of starting your home business is to have persistence and patience. There will be failures and setbacks, but as long as you do the proper research and listen to your customers, you can have a profitable home business.

by: Sylvie Minson

No matter how great your idea is, if the market isn’t ready for it, or if it’s already saturated, you just won’t profit from it, at least not at the moment. So how do you know if it’s just another great idea or a money tree ripe for the picking? How about some basic market research.

There are a few ways you can go about this. You can hold a focus group, you get a bunch of people together, explain the concept to them, with mock ups if you can, and see what they think. Let them talk openly about it, often amongst themselves without your input, and then have them fill out a questionnaire.

This is a very expensive technique, but often produces good results, as you get more than just opinions, you also get ideas on how you can improve your original concept and so on.

You could invest in a direct mail campaign, and offer something to the recipients in return for answering your survey. This too can be very costly, up to $20 per person, and the end result isn’t nearly as good as what you get with a focus group. As few as 1 in 100 people will return your mailing, maybe more depending on the reward.

You could use the telephone and conduct your survey that way. Keep in mind, however, that people will initially assume you’re a telemarketer trying to sell them something.

You could survey people coming in and going out of your local mall. You’d have to set this up with the mall management first, but it’s not an uncommon practice. In fact, where I live there are always people at the mall wanting you to take surveys.

You could also do some research online, post your question(s) in a forum - one that allows such things, be sure to read their TOS and don’t overload the board. One question at a time works best, with follow ups if and when you get a response to your initial query.

I’ve seen this done often, generally by programmers inquiring about the usefulness of a new program idea they’ve come up with. They generally ask, could you use a program like tihs, adn what kind of features would the program ideally have. The response quality is usually very good.

When it comes to your survey give a brief description of your idea, then ask:

Could you use this product/service?

If yes, how often do you think you’d use this product/service.

Do you know anyone else who could use this product/service.

Does $X seem like a reasonable price for this product/service - or alternatively - What do you think might be a reasonable price for this product/service?

Given what we’ve told you about the product/service, what improvements could be made to make it more useful to you?

That’s it, just a set of very direct questions for a basic market research study. Make sure the person being surveyed feels comfortable giving honest answers, and opinions, and don’t waste their time.

You can also check and see what the competition is in the market for similar offerings - assuming there are any similar offerings. You can look at how they’ve positioned their product, and position yours differently, what demographic they’re targeting and so on. Oftentimes you can also see just how profitable a product really is, if you look deep enough.

Competition in the market, however, doesn’t guarantee your product or service will make tons of money - on the other hand it also doesn’t guarantee it won’t. A lot of that has to do with how you market it.

Getting this kind of information from average people, getting their opinions, and their input on what they’d like to see in such an offering, is probably one of the best things you can do to ensure your success.

by: Jakob Jelling

In the past, if you wanted to send money electronically through a wire transfer you only had a few options available to you. You could go to your local bank to conduct the transfer, or you could use the services of a company such as Western Union. But nowadays more and more companies are set up to provide wire transfer services, especially online. Companies such as PayPal, for example, allow almost anyone to send money worldwide through their website – and all you need is an e-mail address and a credit card. In addition, most local banks that provide online banking services now allow their patrons to send wire transfers through the Internet.

So what exactly is a wire transfer? Essentially, a wire transfer is the transfer of money from one bank account to another. The transfer is always conducted by a third party, such as a bank or a wire transfer service provider. Because the transaction is carried out electronically, the money is never physically seen or touched by the person who sends or receives the money.

Even with the advent of communications technology and alternative online banking services, however, most people prefer to carry out a wire transfer through the traditional route. This remains true for many reasons, but the main reason is that it is easier to trust a bank that has a well-known name and a physical presence outside of the web than a new company that operates almost exclusively over the Internet. And if you already have a bank account, a wire transfer is very easy to accomplish.

Usually all you have to do is contact your bank by phone or through the Internet. You must then provide the bank with the following information: name of the person or company to which you want to send money, as well as the routing number, account number, phone number and address of the recipient’s bank. The next step is to determine the amount of money you wish to transfer and when the transfer needs to be carried out. After the bank receives this information the wire transfer will go through. Some banks allow this to occur immediately if you’ve initiated the transaction online, while other institutions require that you phone or fax them before proceeding.

After you have sent the wire transfer, it is a good idea to confirm that the transfer has gone through. This is the only way you’ll know whether or not the intended recipient received the funds. You should make sure you have sufficient funds in your account as well, otherwise the transfer won’t go through. Also, find out what fees you will have to pay to make the transfer – this type of transaction is never free.

By Jakob Jelling