If you're short on time, you can view a quick video on this topic.
Many people use Google Alerts as a automated tool for acquiring news stories and doing research on various topics. You can even use Google Alerts to search for job or business opportunities. Place 2 to 3 words within "quotes" for each alert. Then you automatically receive an email with results found anywhere on the Internet. You can use Google Alerts to track how your company fares in the public eye or keep up with friends, family and associates. Just create an alert with their name in quotes.
Former New York City Mayor Koch endeared himself to people with his famous line "How am I doing?". That's a question you can and should answer about yourself, using Google Alerts. What do hiring managers, human resource professionals, recruiters or business associates see when they type your name into Google or any search engine?
By creating different Google Alerts with different variations of your name spelling, you receive feedback on what type of information people are viewing about you. This also provides intelligence on whether you should make adjustments to profiles you may have on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or articles mentioning you or your company name etc.. Oh did you think that information about you was private? Think again.
Your web presence should reflect the name you use on your resume or bio. Google Alert intelligence is also valuable, if you have a similar name to someone else. Talk about a case of mistaken identity, if that person has a less than acceptable Internet web presence. Consider making your name more unique by adding a middle initial, generation qualifier or certification distinction (i.e. Al Q. Brown - Jim Smith, III - C. E. Reid, CSI).
Related article: "5 Quick Ways to Grow your Internet Web Presence"
Find Out What Others Are Saying About Your Business
Gee. I wish I could be in on the ground floor of the next technology tsunami. Shoot. I missed that opportunity. Bugsy Segal looked out in the desert and saw opportunity that became Las Vegas. Thomas Edison found over 900+ ways not to make a light bulb, until his patience and persistence paid off. Sitting at his desk as an ordinary office worker, Rod Colon's extraordinary vision with millions of people leveraging human social networking to self empower the masses for success, has impacted many lives globally. William H. (Bill) Gates III worked in a garage to develop a piece of software that changed the fortunes and lives of every person on earth.
Microsoft's surface computing technology will revolutionize the way people live and work. Surface computing will do what the telephone did for communication and what television did for engaging the masses. Everyday input devices are history, with their selfish way of taking up precious desk space. Any mechanical object that moves will eventually break. No more computer mouse, keyboard, scanner, credit card readers etc.. Which means there is a money savings on replacements or repairs. The main input devices for surface computing are our fingers and our imagination.
Based on how surface computing works with proven technology components, it has a serious potential to create opportunities for teachers, product designers, lawyers, test engineers, building superintendents, business administrators, doctors, product managers, restaurant/office workers, program managers, travelers, software engineers, taxi drivers, people who entertain at home, recruiters, sales/marketing persons, hotel workers and many other professions.
Wake up software developers who think your skills are tight. Now is the time to get hot with developing applications for surface computing. And you too entrepreneurs that call yourself visionaries. Pick up the phone and call your investor angels that you brag about to friends, as being available in your trusted network.
Investors are not off the hook either. Is your investment portfolio complete by including surface computing? Let's talk if you're interested in exploring the potential.
Are you an Entrepreneur considering another profit center? No one is suggesting you delineate away from your core profit centers. Consider putting together a consortium of investors and/or distributors that "want in" on a sure bet. Laugh, if you will. Then those with the "show me" mindset can cry later when the surface computing market successfully saturates.
Microsoft Surface - Exclusive Review
Microsoft Surface at the Rio in Las Vegas
by Bruce Newman
Affiliate marketing is usually defined as the reward for each customer brought to a target website; in short, an Internet-based marketing method of driving traffic to a particular site. To clarify this further, let’s say I’m an affiliate for a website that sells pet products. For each customer who I bring to that website, I will receive some reward – usually money. (This may also require that they purchase at least one item.)
Is it worth my while?
The answer is both yes and no. It depends on the terms of the affiliate agreement and the amount of effort you are willing to expend. If it was so easy for these companies to just bring in business, they wouldn’t need an affiliate program. However, every company knows that generating new business is hard; it’s expensive, time consuming, exhausting and a slow process. They have calculated that it helps to have an unpaid (or minimally paid) sales force providing them with leads (and customers). The question for you to determine is, “Are the rewards worth my effort?”.
What is required from me?
Sometimes being an affiliate can initially be very easy and profitable. If you have a network of friends with a need for the affiliate product or service that you represent – such as pet supplies, you can easily make a few dollars. But what happens then? What is required for you to continue to provide new customers? And, how will you do it? These are questions you must be able to answer before becoming an affiliate of any program.
How much money can I make?
You can make a lot of money as an affiliate, particularly if you are an affiliate member for several websites and have an effective operating strategy. Having a solid networking tree is also quite helpful. Unfortunately, few affiliates fall into this category. Some affiliates enjoy a solid secondary income stream. However, most affiliates make little to no money, usually because of a lack of effort or difficulties with the company they are an affiliate for. We will discuss this further in another article.
Why become an affiliate?
Being an affiliate can supply you with a secondary source of income. Even if you are employed in a job, an affiliate income can make a significant difference in your total income. Possibly, as you continue to refine your strategies and affiliate agreements, it can even become a primary source of income. In any case, it requires work on your part. Just remember, money won’t come rolling in once you sign up as an affiliate without your effort.
Next week, we will discuss how to select an affiliate program(s) from the many programs currently available.
Bruce Newman is a long-term ETP Network member and Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC which matches the specific software products and services needs of companies to rated outstanding consultants who can meet those needs. It has an extensive and well-supported affiliate program that offers up to $225 for each company that registered by an affiliate which signs a contract with one of its referred consultants. Additional product and service information is available at: http://www.prodinst.com
Video Affiliate Marketing Part 1
There is much chatter within our Inbox, in the form of different communications. Email comes from coworkers, managers, family, friends, spammers, event invitations, community service messages, social networks, people wanting to connect with you, soccer moms, PTA, politicians, alumni, clubs, associations, shopping specials . . .and the different types of emails seems endless. Please make the noise stop mommy.
The noise in our "out of control Inbox" seems deafening at times. We clean out that pesky little Inbox. A little while later we peek in the Inbox. Oh nooo. It's filled up with more noise.
The paradox is, we need many of the emails we receive. The question is how to control the flow and separate emails that are important from those that are useless. There is hope. Different email systems provide various tools to squelch the noise and control the flow.
It can be as simple as color coding emails; red for coworkers - green for family - light blue for friends. Now your Inbox is a little more under control with relevant emails standing out. Gmail, Outlook, Thunderbird, Lotus Notes and Incredimail allow color coding or tagging of emails.
For more sophisticated email organizing, you can use filters or rules. My favorite is creating a reverse spam filter which is explained in "Waiting Room for Spam Gives Back 2 Hours". This keeps my Inbox clean all the time.
Creating filters or rules is a 2 step process.
- Create and name folders off your Inbox. Each folder will display underneath the Inbox
- Set the rules or filters to automatically place incoming emails into appropriate folders
Microsoft Outlook #01: Message Rules and Automatic Sorting
MS Outlook Tips - Color Coding Email By Sender
Are you ready for this? Now you can thumb your nose at all suppliers of oil around the world. No more reliance on Mobil Oil, Exxon, Citgo, Hess, British Petroleum (BP), Venezuela, Middle East, OPEC or any other oil cartels. Ethanol fuel is ethyl alcohol, the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. As a fuel, it is a biofuel alternative to gasoline, and is widely used in cars in Brazil. Because it is easy to manufacture and process, and can be made from very common materials such as sugar cane, it is steadily becoming a promising alternative to gasoline throughout much of the world.
How about having your own gas pump in your own back yard or driveway? Does fuel at around $1.00 a gallon sound good? And the U.S. Treasury Department actually provides a free permit to allow small property owners to make up to 10,000 gallons of their own fuel.
Drum roll please . . . Efuel100 is taking orders for 2008 4th quarter deliveries of the first home ethanol micro fueling system. Efuel100 is also offering money making opportunities for people to become dealers or investors. The EFuel100 Microfueler apparently works by mixing table sugar with ethanol yeast mix. The MicroFueler has a distillation-only mode, which allows the consumer to convert discarded beer, wine or distilled drinks into ethanol. Any combination of discarded alcohol can be poured directly into the MicroFueler fermentation tank to be converted into ethanol.
Beyond the prospectus, do your homework before investing in any emerging technology. I will, because what Efuel100 is offering provides 3 exciting opportunities. I want in.
Make Your Own Ethanol At Home with the Efuel 100 MicroFueler
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