What's Driving Your Revenue in 2013?

Revenue growth, more than any other metric, is the key driver of long term company performance. If you agree that statement then you've likely initiated the arduous task of deciding which key initiatives will drive your 2013 revenue expectations.

We all know the drill, it's time consuming, complicated, and many times contentious. Teams are digging into the numbers, rationalizing departmental contributions, allocating budgets, trying to determine how to get the most out of the limited resources.

In the current business climate, good planning not only requires an honest assessment of the gaps between stated goals, and actual results, but consensus about how you'll fill those gaps moving forward. The goal is to prioritize, agree to and translate the strategy into the critical activities that will deliver future revenue goals.

A starting point, based on more experience with this ritual than I care to admit, are outlined below which can help you get more clarity around the key questions early in the process. These should be open dialogs, (no slide decks) with someone facilitating and recording the discussion, outcomes and a written review of what was discussed. Position this in a way that minimizes departmental politics and finger pointing, yet considers real alternatives or refinements to what currently exists.

The goal is to get as much of the pertinent information, on the table, so everyone has the same picture as to where you are, and what actions are needed for future success. One would think this is a natural and common discussion that takes place every year. But I can assure you these discussions do not happen as often as they should, and they can be helpful and serve as a valuable reference point as you get deeper into your planning.

What factors have been successful in driving and/or inhibiting revenue growth?

What is working and what is not?

What should we do more of and what should we do less of?

What's different with regard to 2013 drivers from last year?

What do we collectively believe the associated amount of, and time to, revenue impact for each of these changes?

How can we improve how we monitor our progress in an open, direct and more measurable way?

How to better align sales and marketing to ensure your pipeline will deliver?

How can we refine and align our sales process to the customers buying process and make sure everyone is on the same page regarding, key deliverables, time-frames, roles, responsibilities and group and individual accountability?

What assumptions have we made, and have we done an adequate job of objectively testing those assumptions to ensure they'll work when they meet the realities of the market?

Collectively review all your current pipeline stages for consistency of definition, time-frames, and expected results with all key marketing/sales stakeholders.

Distinguish between leading and lagging indicators, how and when the team will monitor these metrics, and agree which are most significant relating to next year's revenue goals, with more focus on the leading indicators.

I hope you'll find these suggestions helpful as you plan next years revenue strategies.

IT Leads: Outsourced Telemarketing Assistance

Plenty of IT companies are toughing it out just to make sales. And for these IT companies which are sometimes under tight financial constraints, that task becomes even tougher. With limited resources and ability to apply enhanced marketing techniques, making a sale becomes practically not viable. Nevertheless, with the help of outsourced marketing services, that dilemma can now be helped. Numerous IT business entities have discovered their profits thanks to those services, and one of those with such capacity for sales is IT telemarketing lead generation. With a marketing tactic like this for your business, getting more prospects and clients for your IT company becomes quite a walk in the park.

Outsourced telemarketing services are desirable possible alternatives for most commercial entities, and not just the ones which do Information Technology. A few of these services are IT appointment setting and IT lead generation. Telemarketing firms with professional telemarketers are able to yield best-quality leads which could be utilized for a specific campaign, particularly yours. If IT appointment setting is also their asset, then you will perform well to have the said agency do both of these services. By combining these IT leads with your telemarketing campaign, you could attain great results and see sizable enhancements.

Telemarketers are very capable sales persons who are skilled in the technique of making a sale via the telephone. When it comes to promoting IT solutions, you can depend on them to carry out the job well. IT appointment setting is just another means for them to use their capacities and is one of the best techniques to take when performing business to business transactions. Although in the absence of quality IT leads to make calls to, then what's the point of having those capabilities if they got no idea on whom to contact to? IT lead generation can give several good-quality IT leads for usage and when it does, these telemarketers would be fast and begin calling. They struggle to look for prospects and clients that are interested within the market solutions which you offer and perform appointment setting. In doing so, they're able to attain pertinent data regarding some concerns which the prospect's firm might be having, ask queries on how they're handling with such issues and reply correctly whilst advertising your business and what it could do to alleviate such troubles. They also attest if the prospect has the capacity to purchase and if they really are in the industry and seeking for service. If after some time the prospect accord to a personal (or even by telephone) appointment, then this sign of genuine interest can result in a quality business deal both of you.

IT telemarketing programs like lead generation and appointment setting go successively to give you one of the best marketing means applied by most companies which also have outsourced services. With its sales capacity, telemarketing has been hailed as one of the finest marketing methodologies known to mankind, and is able to facilitate harassed business organizations in making more sales and looking for more prospects.

Electronic Program Guide - Convenience Is Key To Business Success

Gone are the days when one needs to buy a newspaper just to be well-informed of the different shows in his favorite channel. With the invention of the interactive electronic program guide or EPG, we can now enjoy quick updates about the TV stations that we love. What's more these updates can be directed to our mobiles, tablet PCs and social calendars on time.

This advancement is also beneficial to people whose business is to provide programs to all kinds of audiences. When your interactive electronic program guide is empowered, you can keep all your customers updated while keeping the sanity of your customer support team members intact. They need not answer the calls of your clients requesting for show schedules again and again. They would also be free from attending to complains about inefficient TV programming guide. This is because your company will be provided with menu filters that will make it easy for your customers to find and select the shows they are tracking. Thus, the extra time and efforts of your staff can be channeled into other profit-generating activities.

If you want to provide this feature to your clients or subscribers, here are some ideas which you must bear in mind. Firstly, electronic program guide can be interactive or non-interactive. The latter is simply a non-interactive menu that holds scheduling information provided by a cable or satellite TV provider. This is often shown in a specific channel. The interactive electronic program guide, on the other hand, allows audience to navigate scheduling information interactively. This means they can select or navigate shows by time, title station or genre. Keypads or keyboards would be used for the interactive navigation since these information are directed to your customers' mobile phones, tablet PCs and laptops. The centralized information provided here covers one to two week's time of program schedules.

Although this is provided in exchange for a fee, your customers will definitely take advantage of this. This is because it provides many benefits that will suit the busy lifestyle of today's generation of audience. It has changed the way people quickly find their preferred shows. Searching of shows by category and on-screen personalities is made possible by this software. If there is a new show in the schedule, they can learn about it through the detailed description that is provided with it. At times, there are pictures in picture functions which allows them to check on the schedule guide while watching a certain show. More so, your customers can take advantage of the recording of a number of shows that is played online.

In this modern-day and age, getting behind of what technology has to offer can mean lost sales for your company. With the interactive electronic program guide, you can engage more customers and soon boost the rate of your monthly sales. Providing new programs would not suffice if these additions cannot reach your target market. Be open to the use of this software that will make the life of your customers and business operations easy.

Banner Advertising - The Options

When it comes to banners there is a plethora of choices from digital banners that you see on most websites, probably this one too, to outdoor display banners.

For the purpose of this article I'm going to discuss the different options of physical advertising banners that are available on the market today.

Masts - A banner mast is generally constructed from steel and they are usually made to order, each mast can have one or two rectangle banners either side of the mast promoting your brand.

Post Mounted - The banners come with brackets and arms and are easily attachable to any existing lamp post, very similar to banner masts but obviously without the mast.

Wall Mounted - Again these are similar to the above two but are installed to walls rather than posts, the way that wall mounted banners have been designed means that they can be used for small or large banners and actually this kind of setup is suitable for banners up to 5 meters square.

Pop-up - These are brilliant for outdoor events like golf days or country shows, you simply unpack them from their carry case and the self-erecting design does the rest, this type of banner system is the only one on the market that can be erected in under 20 seconds, not bad for the impatient ones amongst us!

Portable Frames -This type of banner frame is generally made from Aluminium to reduce the weight so they can be easily transported and come in all sizes up to 9 metres wide and 1.5 metres tall, great for short term advertising on a large scale.

Permanent Frames - The permanent frames are made from sturdy steel frames and have varying types of bases from ground sleeves to base plates. They are designed to last and withstand all the outdoor elements; you tend to see this type of banner outside some of the larger supermarkets.

Cafe Barrier - These are everywhere these days, almost all cafe and bars that have an outdoor area will uses this form of advertising. The width of this banner is usually between 1 and 2 metres and several are generally used together to form a outdoor area separated from the public.

I'm sure there are many more types of banner that I've not covered in this article but these are by far the most popular, if you're still unsure of which type of frames or stand would be best for you, why not type in 'banner masts' in Google and I'm sure they'll be a list of suppliers that will be happy to help you through your decision.

A Banner History

Banners have been around for hundreds of years, even the word comes from the Latin word bandum - meaning a cloth from which a military standard or flag is made. They've been around so long that most western European countries have evolved the word into their language, for example the Portuguese word for a banner is bandeira.

So who uses them?

If you go back a few hundred years they were used to display a coat of arms and in the Christian church they were and still are used in processions. Back in the 1840's the trade unions started to use banners during the May Day parades and still do to this day.

In the age we live in now they are used by almost all sporting teams and their supporters and nearly every business that does some form of advertising.

If you think the about the last time you walked down a busy high street, you can probably remember seeing them, but there are hundreds of different types of banners, from ones attached to lampposts and walls to ones in shop windows, you'll be surprised if you start looking for them how many there actually are.

These days most external advertising ones are made from PVC so they can last longer without the colours fading in external weather conditions. But they can be made from almost any material, some from no material at all! If you look on most websites they will have advertising web banners on them either at the top, side or bottom of the page, in fact have a look at the page you're on now and you'll see at least one I'm sure.

One advancement in the types available is the new advertising light banners, they work by shining a light on buildings creating adverts, the evolution continues.

So why are outdoor banners so popular?

Well it's quite simple actually, if you think of the cost of other forms of advertising compared with the cost of a large banner, well, it's a lot cheaper, not only that but professional outdoor advertising banners can be used over and over again and last for years, which makes their return on investment extremely good, a no brainer if you will.

So what does the future hold?

Well as time has moved on, banners have evolved from cloth to PVC to digital and now to light, so one would have to say they're going to be around in some format for many years to come.

Feather Flags And Outdoor Events

Feather flags are one of the best ways to promote your brand at outdoor events or even better a great way to promote a prestigious event and associate your business with it.

You may remember this summer and the months leading up to it that Jessica Ennis was everywhere as she was the pin up girl for the Olympics. One company, I won't say which but I'm sure you'll remember, rolled out a country wide campaign using feather flags to almost all of their forecourts. The flags were branded with Jessica's image and the London 2012 Olympics without the petrol stations logo or name. I remember several times seeing them and thinking that the whole country is behind the GB team and had a heightened sense of patriotism. Now although the feather flags did not promote the company directly, the power of association was incredible. A stroke of marketing genius I think, associating a brand with a nations pride and all for the cost of a few hundred flags.

Other events like the Great North Run or the Great Manchester Run, use feather flags to directly promote their brand whilst providing information to the runners. Yet again I won't mention their name, but the prominent private health care sponsor places the flags every mile to indicate to the runners where they are in the race and on every flag they have their logo, another example of promoting your brand with an event. Speaking from experience I would also say that as a runner in these events, the mental image of the flags has been burnt into my memory, such was the agony and joy of reaching each milestone!

Now these are obviously large events that are out of the scope for most companies wishing to promote their brand, but the same principles apply to smaller sporting events. If you consider the cost of the flags, the number of people that attend sporting events and the reusability of them, they offer one of the best returns in investment in outdoor marketing. So why don't you use them for school sports days, market festivals and any other outdoor event you can think of.

If you think that they may be hard to put up or that there only suited to certain floor types then you'd be wrong, feather flags usually have either a spiked, concrete or weighted base and a slide on flag that enables them to be erected in seconds, so there really is no excuse.

business

business

How Do You Vote for Your Business?

U.S. citizens cast their vote for the next President, Vice-President, and a host of congressional leaders this week. Attention focuses on this once-every-four-years activity with a virtual obsession.

Yet, there is a more important vote you as a business professional cast and more often than every four years. While government leaders are important, your leadership in business has a significant, daily impact on you and the people around you.

How do you vote for your business to increase sales with greater productivity so you can get out of the office earlier to do what you love with those you love?

Here are three significant ways to vote for your business daily:

Vote with Your Attention

You discover ways to make money daily, but have you made any time or energy lately?

These two components comprise your attention. The strategic use of your attention is paramount to achieving your business dreams.

Vote for your business by paying attention to these two most important Work Positive factors:

Positive Thoughts

Avoid the TV remote and cast your vote for positive reading or listening material in the morning. Visualize the day's schedule with positive outcomes. You shape your mental attitude for the day as you do.

Positive People

Who are those customers, team members, and suppliers that bring positive value to your business? Cast your vote for them, offering little time or attention to the negative squeaky wheels.

Vote with Your Intention

Somewhere along the way of choosing your current business profession, you aligned yourself with the mission, vision, and values of an organization. Whether your own business or another's, these guiding principles steer decisions and drive outcomes. Whether written or oral, they are partisan magnets for your intentions.

Orient your intention to the company mission, vision, and values. Vote along those party lines with your intention and attention for maximum productivity. Otherwise, your intention is the road to nowhere.

Vote with Your Actions

Voting for your business is more than a mental, social, and emotional pursuit. It's physical.

As you act, understand that change happens so quickly that completely finishing with perfection is elusive. Voting for your business is daily; more than every four years.

Vote for a GPS system-listen to feedback and persevere-so you recalculate as you achieve your dream of increasing sales with greater productivity so you can leave the office earlier.

Is Being Friends With Your Boss a Good or Bad Thing?

The key to answering this question is dependent on how competent you are at your job. Like any good workplace relationship where there is an imbalance of power, the fundamental business relationship needs to be a good one.

Think of the relationship between a customer and supplier. If the fundamental business arrangement is flawed, it doesn't matter how much two parties like each other, the relationship just won't work because it doesn't have a solid foundation. However, if the individuals in the customer-supplier relationship happen to respect each other as individuals, they are much more willing to work through the business issues to get to a working relationship that is mutually beneficial. The same is true when working with your boss; your focus needs to be on gaining respect for a job well done.

Here are some key things to keep in mind to help build a solid work relationship with your boss while letting the friendship component be completely separate.

Make their job easy for them, always present issues with your proposed solution - even if it isn't accepted it shows initiative and ownership.

Recognize differences in your personalities and do your 50% to bridge the gap (in any good relationship each person needs to contribute by doing their 50%). However, make sure you communicate your needs to your boss to allow him/her to do their 50%. Your boss can't read your mind and may be unaware of something they could be doing differently to allow you to be more productive at your job.

Keep them in the loop based on their preferences, not yours.

If your boss likes lots of detail then give him/her lots of detail; over time, once you've gained their trust, you'll probably be asked to provide less. However, let your boss be the one to make this decision.

If your boss doesn't need all the details, just that they are "covered", then give him/her a minimum of detail. You can always take time to review work in more detail at an appropriate time to ensure they understand the depths of your talents. Choose the appropriate time for this based on your bosses ability to provide you with the attention you need.

Ensure your boss is aware of skills you don't currently use in your job. Your boss is the number one person that can open doors for you, so make sure they know more about you than you are able to showcase in your current role.

In summary, trying to manufacture a friendship to help solve fundamental issues in the working relationship will likely result in the opposite effect and exacerbate the situation. If friendships develop at work, so be it. One of my closest friends in the world started off as someone that worked for me. The friendship developed over time, but was only made possible because of the high degree of respect that I had for the work that she delivered.

Tips - Ten Years Later, Still Thinking Rather Than Doing

Have you had a client tell you they finally got around to implementing advice you gave them ten years ago? It sometimes happens in the tips business when it comes to creating products like booklets, videos, books, audios, classes, or other formats to share a person's expertise.

You may even be that person who is still kinda sorta thinking about the possibility of one day getting started on looking at all that you've got on your computer's hard drive (not to mention all that memory in your head!) to maybe do something with some of that - if the stars and planets are aligned just the right way and, well, you get the idea.

On a practical level, while it's true that each person has their own work styles and perspectives on valuing their knowledge and considering ways to share it, think about the missed opportunities to help others and yourself. It comes down to the idea that you are being selfish by not sharing what you know with those who can use it to improve their life.

The frequently heard concern is lack of time. In ten years?? Really?? The truth is not lack of time. You know that in your heart of hearts. The truth is about the choice you make about your time, simple as that. You can write five how-to tips in just a couple minutes, even with the editing process. A top-10 list takes you a few minutes longer. Doing a top-10 list of tips for each of 10 days gets you 100 tips. The odds are high that this barely made a dent in your day time-wise.

That list of 100 tips becomes the cornerstone for a whole product line, one product at a time. Is this looking more approachable to you? Maybe you're already distracted by the tips that have started to flood your consciousness as you're reading this article.

Now, back up. Capture ONE tip. That's right. ONE tip. You know you can do that, right? Write it down or type it into a file on your computer. That one tip is something you'd suggest to a client or a reader of your work or a member of your class or audience.

Then add ONE more tip. That is how this gets done, and gets done now rather than ten years from now. It's the same approach that many people use to successfully drop weight, one pound at a time. Otherwise it all gets to be too big a project to imagine at all much less to begin on the journey.

No matter how long it's been since you thought about doing an information product, you can start it now, today. One of the most challenging aspects of many things is merely getting started. That may even be something you teach to those people who are part of your professional community. Get started, one at a time. Not rocket science yet often difficult to apply to our own life.

In fact, by now you may be laughing to yourself about the irony of this, since you were one of the people who proudly told a consultant you hired that you finally implemented their suggestions, ten years later. They will understand, just as you do now.

3 Unique Ways To Make Money In College

As a college student, I know how much extra income can benefit a student going to college. Aside from providing a sort of "safety net" it also opens all sort of windows for fun and new activities. Here are 3 that are sure to bring in a few extra bucks between classes.

1. Sell T-Shirts - This doesn't mean make a basic design and sell it on the internet. If you go to a school where sports are a large part of what the school is used for, you can make money selling t-shirts. Wait for a home game during a large event such as a football or basketball game, football games are best. Why? Because people tailgate early in the day and walk around. You can use this to your advantage. Make a basic t-shirt that emphasizes the home school's team beating the away team in some way. Make it stand out, the more absurd the better. Then grab a few friends and walk around wearing one and a stack of them under your arms. Sell them for a reasonable price that doesn't require you to make change such as $10 or $15 dollars. People WILL buy these shirts. The best part is, that once you sell to a few people, these people who already bought one are basically free advertising to the ones that don't have one. People will be looking for you to buy one before you know it. This is also a prime time to sell because people will be drinking and more likely to make an impulse buy, and also they will be in an environment where school spirit is off the charts.

2. Sell Notes Online - This one is great because not only do you put cash in your pocket, but you also raise your GPA at the same time. If you bring you computer to class, or even if you don't, diligently take notes on the lecture and put them online. There are tons of sites out there where you can upload documents and other students have to pay a small fee to download them. Don't wait until it's time for exams to do this, although that is probably when profits will be highest. The best part about this is you only have to do it once! Students taking the class the following semesters will still want those notes.

3. Buy and Flip Items on eBay - This one requires money to start, but probably the potential for the most profit. You'd be doing exactly what it sounds like, search and buy items cheaply and then sell them for a profit on eBay. Tons of people are doing this nowadays and making a lot of money. Once you have your system down, you won't even have to put much effort in to turn a profit. People are looking for the items your selling.

Evan has been writing articles for years now specializing in health, nutrition, and dieting, but only just beginning to put them online.

Don't Hold The Line at The Metal Detector

If you have ever traveled by air, you are probably quite familiar with the headaches that long security lines supply. The way that the security lines are set up at airports is as efficient as it gets. Everything is set up for our safety and was meant to move at a quick and steady pace. So why all the long waiting? Sometimes things get backed up due to larger than usual crowds.

Sometime the airport is short on employees. However, the most common (and most frustrating) of all hold ups is the people who are totally unprepared for making it through security in the timely fashion they were meant to. If you are the guy who has his identification at the bottom of his bag, the woman who has carried on tons of liquid baby formula, or the couple that just had to travel with $100 worth of change in their pockets, I am talking to you! You are causing unnecessary delays in my travel plans and I hope that you will at least take the time to read this article so you can figure out how to make it through the security line without leaving the rest of us fuming behind you.

Tip 1: Wear shoes that are easy on, easy off. For anyone who has flown post 911, you already know that the airport security will make you remove your shoes before you go through the scanner, so please, do not wear boots that lace up to your shin or high heels with straps that take you ten minutes to unclasp.

Tip 2: Dress for the occasion. If you must wear clothing that has metal buckles or buttons, keep it to a minimum. Of course you have to wear pants so those metal pieces are okay by me, but just because you are a fan of Metallica does not mean that you have to deck out in chains and such. Keep it simple and just wear your favorite bands tee-shirt. And speaking of metal, please remove the body piercings. I get that if you leave them out for too long you risk the hole closing up. But let's be real; the amount of time it takes to go through airport security will provide little risk of the hole in your tongue closing up. I have piercings too so this is not a bigoted statement in the least. I simply pop out my navel ring for enough time to not back up the line and presto, back in it goes on the other side! Also, if you are wearing a shirt, a pull over and a jacket, remove the top two layers. They are going to demand that you do so anyway.

Tip 3: Make your laptop easy to get too. Many people travel with their computers and this is fine. I do too. However, airport security is going to request a peak at your machine and if it is tucked in a bag under you swim suit and snorkeling gear, it will take way too long to get to it. Instead of packing it with your other items, give it a home of its own. Laptop bags are fairly inexpensive so you should invest in one before taking your computer on a trip to Cancun. This way, all you need to do is unzip your case and let the security agent see what they need to see; case closed (pun intended).

Tip 4: Read the TSA regulations before you pack your bags. Again, in this post 911 world we are living in, there have been a ton of additions to the "do not carry onboard" list. There are restrictions on how much liquid you can bring through security, toiletries that you can have and much more. Even if you are not planning a trip, check out these regulations anyway as they are a pretty good read. My head is still spinning trying to figure out why anyone would try to carry a harpoon on an airplane! So much time is taken up when people have to take items out of their bag that are not allowed on board. Then they have to fill out forms to have the items mailed to them. And while we are on the topic of carrying on items, PLEASE do the bag check before you get in line. Every airport has a box that you can put your bag in to test its size. If the bag does not fit you have to check it instead. However, if you get all the way to the head of the class with the oversized luggage, the security people will have to take the bag themselves and try to fit it into the allowed space before making you go back to check it. So, save yourself (and me) the time and take the bag test ahead of time.

Sales Training: How to Recognize and Handle Different Personality Types

If you are a small business owner or manager, chances are you play the role of salesman quite often. The better you are at sales, the more successful your business will be.

If you're taking a "one size fits all" approach when you deal with prospects, chances are you're limiting your sales potential. You need to recognize different personality types and modify your presentation accordingly.

I divide prospects into 4 personality types and to make it easy to remember, I use animals and their behavior to help remember them.

The animals are: Owl, Love Bird, Cow and Rhino

Owls are Wise. They get that way by asking questions. They want to know all of the details.

So, if you are dealing with an Owl, you better know your product. The good thing is, if you answer all their questions, they are usually ready to buy.

Many salemen get along great with their customers. They talk sports, remember the names of their kids and treat them to lunch whenever they can. These clients are Love Birds. It's called relationship selling and it works. As you discover common interests with your prospect you make a connection. When two people find out they have things in common they tend to trust one another and we all know that trust is a very important factor in closing a sale.

The Cow personality type is a bit tricky to deal with. Cows have a herd mentality. They take their direction from what others around them do. They like recommendations and are probably the easiest to sell. But there's a problem with cows. After a sale, if they talk to friends or even your competition, they may have 2nd thoughts - you know, buyer's remorse, and want to cancel or modify their order. So you better make sure they understand features, terms and conditions.

The Rhino is our fourth personality type and can be the most difficult to handle. He's usually busy and wants to get to the "bottom line" or price asap. He doesn't have patience to listen to your sales presentation and will want to take control of the conversation. So how do you handle a Rhino? By being a Rhino. Show him that your time is valuable too. Get to the point quickly and convince him that the benefits of your product or service are worth taking the time to review.

To be successful in sales, you have to be able to recognize and handle all 4 personality types. Ask yourself this question. What personality type am I? Chances are most of your customers will be a lot like you. To be a top sales person, you need to be able to sell all types of prospects. To do that, you need to recognize and adapt to all four personality types.

Once you master this concept you will be on your way to becoming a top producer.

Read our blog. It contains great marketing ideas for direct mail advertising that can be read in a minute or less.

A Pollster Called Today - I Gave Them a Song, But No Dance

Do you ever get tired of telemarketers? I know I do. What bugs me the most is that many telemarketing companies actually are exempted? Did you know that all political campaigns are exempted from telemarketing rules? That shouldn't surprise you because, well, it's the politicians that make all the rules. When I am called by a political campaign, especially one that I don't want to talk to, or is perhaps on the other side of the issues then I usually give them a hard time, play around with them, or give them false and misleading information.

You might say this is unethical, or that I lack character but I totally disagree. You see these people are calling me unannounced, and they're wasting my time, so it is they who are unethical, not I. You see my point yet? Some people say that you should be respectful of all people, but when it comes to telemarketers I wholeheartedly disagree. They aren't my friends, and I don't even believe that I should tolerate them because they are being disrespectful to me, simply by the fact that they are wasting my time.

The other day, it was right before the November 2012 presidential elections. A pollster called me, and wanted to know who I was can vote for, for president. You see, I had half a notion to tell them that; "it's none of your damn business," but because I've been barraged by these political calls all week, I chose a new tactic, I decided that I needed to find a way to get them to take me off their list. So here's what I came up with.

I told them I couldn't vote because I was convicted of attempted murder and that was a felony. The pollster at first didn't believe me because, well, I started laughing. So, he played along with me and said; "no really who do you plan on voting for?"

I told him; "seriously, I can't vote because I tracked down a telemarketer bothering me on the phone, but I wasn't trying to take-out the person, just knock some sense into them, so I was wrongly convicted, as I wasn't trying to murder anyone - by the way, where are you calling from, can you give me an exact location, maybe an address too?"

Then all of a sudden the line went dead, which makes me think that maybe some of these telemarketing pollsters don't exactly have the right statistics after all? Yes, doesn't make you think that perhaps all these polling numbers we are reading in the newspapers and watching on cable TV are bogus? Because real people don't want to be harassed, and at some point they simply hang up, or give the pollster telemarketing company a song and a dance.

Needless to say, the pollster wasn't about to give me their address, and they came in under caller ID blocked. They have all the information about me, but I have none about them, and they are asking personal political questions which quite frankly are none of their business. The only reason they want this information is to sell me their candidate, or put the information I give them in the newspaper or on the TV for their own political advantage. Quite frankly they can go to an underground place with extremely high ambient temperatures if you get my drift.

It seems unfortunate that these politicians know no bounds, and their campaigns think that they are above the law, that they can call up and harass Americans to know end. Personally, if these politicians would do their job, and do it right, they could get reelected without all this extra nonsense, but they don't do they? Are any of them any good? No, the answer to that question isn't pretty. Please consider all this and think on it.

Increase Your Earnings With The Best House Company Possibilities

It is quite possible to begin a cash spinning business through the world wide web. However, you need to stay away from the create quick cash techniques that want you to invest to be able to get started and earn more. For following in the internet of business, you need to acquire proper knowledge as well as education regarding various online elements.


Further here, I have outlined some of the very best home business opportunities that can help you in beginning a profitable home-based business.

1. Affiliate Marketing 
With the help of your web page or web page, you can quickly promote various goods and solutions. This is one of the best opportunities for all those people who are in active pursuit of some excellent extra cash generating opportunities. Though it will take a while, but it will help a lot in generating a excellent sum of cash over the timeframe. You need not need any prior encounter to be able to carry on an online online business. You can create use of content promotion, blogging as well as Google Google AdWords to be able to market the goods and solutions. Normally, the small businesses create use of PPC, PPP and PPL marketing to be able to help to create extra cash.

2. Freelance Services 
This is one such field, where you can turn your interests into part-time or regular profession. Most of the outsourcing business opportunities consist of photography, videos and modifying, web developing, software programming, copywriting and graphic developing. Freelance workers provide complete expert solutions to the customers from all around the globe. In return, the clients pay the freelancers through the broker websites like Elance, Cl, oDesk and many others. This is one of the best home business opportunities and do not even need much of an investment. You just need to get a PC with online access and expert outlook in regards to your activity.

3. eCommerce 
This is one of the best home business opportunities for all those who have the ability to sell any service and product via weblog or web page, and that too at competitive rates. To be able to begin eBay, you should have some basic promotion plus business encounter to be able to begin up the home-based online business. Some of the best ideas for beginning an online business consist of clothing, antique items, furnishings, toys and other items of daily or occasional use. You just need to get linked to a number of international shipping as well as delivery agents to be able to process the purchases quickly.

So, these are some of the best possible home business opportunities that can help you in creating a heap of extra cash in a straight forward and efficient manner.

4 Items to Add to Your Online Marketing Strategy in the New Year

If you're wondering where to spend your hard-earned marketing dollars for the coming year, this article offers 4 online marketing strategies that will give you the best bang for your buck.

1) Website: If you haven't developed a business website, now's the time. There's no excuse for not having a business website in 2013. Whether you sell items online or not, websites have great marketing value. Most consumers locate and research businesses online before dealing with them personally. If you already have a website, have professional look at it to determine whether it's working up to its potential. Is it being indexed by the search engines? Does it have enough content for both search engines and customers? Are there keywords? Is there meta-data? Is there more you can add to it to make it a more effective business tool? If you can't answer these questions, hire someone who can and who can then fix it for you. A website may be the first impression your business presents to potential consumers. Be sure you have one that's maintained on a regular basis.

2) Blog: Blogs are a great addition to any online marketing strategy. First of all, they are indexed by the search engines more quickly than websites so you can use them to drive traffic to the website. Secondly, they are more dynamic. You can easily update a blog with news, updates and announcements about products, services, your business and industry. Lastly, you can use them to interact with consumers, asking and answering questions, getting feedback and more.

3) Press Releases: Press releases may sound "old school," but they work. Now, press releases can be posted online where they will stay, forever driving traffic to your website. Submitting press releases to local media outlets gets your business known among reporters who might need your expertise on a related story at some point. Consider this: If your business is lawncare, wouldn't you like to be the business owner local reporters interview when there's too much rainfall or too little rainfall?

4) Google+ Local: Businesses have found quite a bit of marketing success on Facebook and Twitter. Google+ Local offers more marketing power. First, because it's Google, with a Google+ Local business page, your business will be found more quickly by the search engines and by customers. Secondly, Google+ Local has special fields that help people find the business' physical location. This is more important than ever as people increasingly depend on mobile devises such as mobile phones and tablets to search for businesses. Lastly, the Google 1+ button allows your customers to do your marketing for you. They can share your page with their friends, multiplying the effectiveness of your Google+ Local page. This just scratches the surface of what Google+ Local offers businesses.