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When doing an interview there need to be at least three people involved. The person being interviewed, you, the interviewer and someone to work the camcorder. It could be argued – I would so argue – that an extra person to handle the sound is a great benefit but this is a policy of perfection.

Interviewing for video is a skill that can be acquired with practice. The key to successful interviewing is research, research and yet more research.

Before you interview a subject you need to know as much as possible about the person you are interviewing.

And you need to read everything that anyone has ever written about the subject.

This is what the Internet is for. Typically it contains everything written in recent times.

The more information you can get, the more research you do, the smoother the interview will go.

Having said that it is vital that you, the interviewer, both asks questions and knows when to shut up.

The problem is that often you will find yourself knowing more about a subject than the person you are interviewing, and the temptation then is to show off your knowledge.

This is fatal.

The viewer is not interested in your views. It is the person being interviewed – the interviewee – who should be the center of attention. And before you ask, yes, this is a major problem for me. I cannot keep my big mouth shut.

Be prepared for interviews that go smoothly and those that get a bit ragged. Three examples.

I had an hour interview with Bill Gates in Sydney for Australian television. My questions were well prepared. He would listen to the question, stay quiet for a moment and then give a cogent, grammatical answer. Amazing. As an interview it went like a dream.
On the other hand, I got one very wrong. The interview with the late Tony Hancock, perhaps the greatest British comedian of his day, took place in the Sebel Town House in Sydney. It started as a shambles for I had not done enough homework. It evened out after a while and in the end worked reasonably well. As it happens it was the last interview given by Tony Hancock.

Then I did a series of interviews with members of my family. I stayed out of shot and just let them ramble on what they thought about their siblings. It was electrifying stuff. If you were a member of that family.

Write all of your questions down and create supplementary questions in case an answer, a good answer, is not forthcoming.
Avoid questions that invite the single word answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

If you ask ‘Are you in favor of premarital sex?’ you will probably get a single word reply, which is not the idea at all.

Phrase your questions so that they lead the person being interviewed into expanding their views. ‘Your book suggests that you are against premarital intercourse. What are your views on this?’ is much more likely to elicit a full and frank comment than the first question.

To avoid a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer use the tried and true journalist technique of asking who, what, why, how and when questions.
None of these can be answered with a straight ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Before the interview starts, you, the interviewer, must meet the subject and establish some sort of rapport. There are interviewers, a few, who can go in cold and get a good result. But they are few and far between.

The preliminary chat is, as it were, part of your research.
With it you will establish the ability of the person being interviewed to talk, to express themselves, to answer questions. It is possible that this preliminary talk will end in you modifying some of your questions.

In your preliminary chat avoid asking the specific questions you will be asking in the interview.

Instead, indicate general areas of interest. If you ask the specific questions the filmed interview will give an impression that it has been rehearsed.

Before you start your interview have your key questions laid out and ready. You need a certain amount of flexibility but most of the time you will find that your first and logical thoughts or question order is much better than one you compile while winging it.

There are two main way of handling an interview.

The first is where the question is not heard and the questioner not seen. Instead, you get answers that are obviously directed at someone who is out of shot.

A series of answers like this can be edited together from either one person or several, to provide the effect of a continuous interview.

In this sort of interview you ask the question and then you keep your big mouth shut. If some sort of reaction is needed nod or shake your head vigorously or smile encouragement. If you speak you will have to be edited out afterwards. Which is not always easy.

This technique can be seen being used to magnificent effect in the movie ‘When Harry Met Sally’ which contains a series of such interviews with married couples describing their lives together. Magic.

The other type of interview is where you are both on screen in the manner of a normal conversation. This sort of interview can easily be covered with one camera.

Shoot the interviewee’s answers first and then shoot the interviewer from where the interviewee has been sitting, asking exactly the same questions. At the end you do a series of ‘noddies’ that can be used for cutaways.

The key to making such an interview work is to get the person relaxed. Try to film them in a familiar surrounding so that they do not feel threatened. Keep the camera work and the lighting as unobtrusive as possible.

The first question should be a sound level check and should be totally innocuous.

Start the interview very gently in a chat mode and always move from soft to hard questions imperceptibly.
Do not start like gangbusters or the interviewee will clam up or, in the worst case, walk off. It happens.

At the end of the interview I always ask ‘Is there some question you would like me to have asked that I have missed out on?’

This allows the subject to expand on a point or deal with an area they feel has been skipped. It is quite remarkable how often you will get an excellent and usable response after that last question.

Start off with a long shot of the person being interviewed facing the interviewer. The interviewer’s back appears, which gives a three-dimensional aspect to the shot and gets the scene in context for the viewer. Change the shot sizes in rhythm with the questions. New question, new framing.

Another form of interviewing on video is vox pop – from vox populi, Latin for the voice of the people – are quick interviews with people in the street to demonstrate public opinion on a subject.

What you want to end up with is a series of statements that can be cut rapidly together and, in the end, give a clear indication of the current attitude on a subject.

To make the interview more interesting change the shot size as a new question is asked. That is, switch off, zoom in from, say, mid shot to close-up, and then resume filming again.

Use different backgrounds and different eyelines.

Work out how many interviews you want and then shoot to that number with perhaps a 50 per cent safety margin. Do not go on shooting after that point. You could be getting useful footage for another scene rather than wasting your time. In vox pop moderation is the key.

Note carefully that subjects can move backwards and forwards when making a point and may even wave arms around in the air and you need to be prepared for this so they are always in shot. That the camera does not cut off parts of their bodies. Armless interviewees may be harmless interviewees but that is not the point of the excercise.

Gareth Powell has done many interviews for newspapers, magazines and television. He writes about making videos on his site, Digital images, http://www.pixelates.com

Babyboomers whose children have left home, commonly known as “empty-nesters” are buying inner city apartments in record numbers.

Director of Acton Special Projects, Marc Drexel says the trend is towards quality rather than mass developments.

“The empty-nest market is growing and expanding with people wanting to reward themselves with a quality lifestyle property”.

Typically this group of buyers is seeking 2 big bedrooms, rather than 3 small ones with generous open plan living areas. These developments often include lifestyle features such as a gym, coffee shop, resident caretaker and even a rooftop library!

Drexel says Acton has 15 different developments under way at the moment worth in excess of $500 million with prices for individual apartments ranging from the low $200,000 mark to over a million dollars.

“The major inner city renewal has spurred the market on,” he said.

With this growth many investors are also speculating by purchasing “off the plan”. A 2.5 % depreciation against the structural cost of the building is an incentive and savings can be increased to between 5 and 10 % through discounts offered by the developer.

But Drexel also warns “be careful, selective and look for a point of difference, something unique such as location or architectural integrity so it stands out from other projects”.

Drexel believes negative gearing is no longer popular with a new trend towards “neutral gearing”.

This trend is supported by Trevor Hoddy a partner with West Perth accountants, HLB Mann Judd.

“We don’t see at lot of negative gearing compared to five years ago and we’re seeing more a move into managed funds, such as property trusts, where there is greater liquidity and less risk.”

He says the reason for this is low inflation, generating poor capital growth and soft rental returns.

When considering investing into property consider these 10 Tips

1. Determine whether a property investment fits your financial goals, objectives and personal asset profile.
2. Look at the extent of your gearing (ratio of debt to equity or assets) compared to your other financial resources. If you are spending $300,000 – $400,000 on a property – how big is your debt? How much risk is there compared to your other financial assets?
3. Look at what income your asset will need to generate to service the debt.
4. Determine if there any shortfalls between the income generated and the cost of servicing the loan. With negative gearing the shortfall between the income generated and the interest costs on borrowing and the maintenance costs on the asset are serviced from other income sources. You need to look at whether you have the resources from other income, either investments or salary, to maintain or pickup this difference. The benefits of negative gearing are that this shortfall can be offset against other income, reducing tax liabilities.
5. Assume the property is vacant. What impact will this have on your cash flow?
6. If you’ve borrowed money now at 9 or 10 %, what happens if this increases by 1 or 2 %? With an increase in interest rates do you have the ability to service this extra cost?
7. Negative gearing into investments is only effective if the long-term investment is linked to income and capital growth (the growth in the value of the asset). This is influenced by a combination of inflation and net after tax benefits. For example a $20,000 negatively geared tax deduction will yield a $10,000 tax benefit. This is the real cost, so each year the value of the investment must increase by this amount plus inflation. There is also a capital gain tax is on top of this. If growth is less than inflation then you’re going backwards.
8. Ask yourself are you comfortable with the level of debt? Consider whether this matches your psychological risk profile.
9. How liquid is your investment? Put simply, how soon can you turn your investment into cash? Often property may take some time to sell and a more liquid option is to invest in listed or unlisted property trusts.
10. Have a solid financial plan and seek the help of an expert or a registered financial planner.

Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries.

You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com. Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom’s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com.

Working from home was once seen as the role of amateurs, part-timers and those seeking an alternative lifestyle. With running a business from home you were always facing a credibility problem, especially with clients or potential clients from the big end of town.

But with changes in technology and a little smart planning, an increasing number of business people are enjoying the benefits of telecommuting and working from home.

There are some great benefits. You tend to be much more efficient, spending far less time in non-productive situations caused by travel and traffic.

There’s also the opportunity of having more time with the family and in your own comfortable environment. It’s also more flexible.

Then there’s the dress code. You can wear what you want.

But there are down sides. The lack of social interaction with others. The isolation and discipline of working on your own. And all those other temptations to take you away from revenue generating, meaningful work.

What about if clients drop in to see you and you’re still in your pajamas at 3 p.m., your work area is a mess and the kids are running amok.

The major problem though, is clearly separating work from downtime and home life. With your business literally only steps away from home, everyone faces the temptation of overworking and never leaving the office.

So if you’re thinking of setting up your home office, here are 10 tips to make it work.

1. Physically separate your work area or office from the rest of the house. Avoid setting up in leisure rooms such as your bedroom, lounge room or kitchen. Many find a separate entrance helps.
2. Have discipline and treat going to your office as if you’re going to work. Make the mental switch that you’re working. Dress as though you are working.
3. Don’t overwork. Try not to spend all your time in the office. Try to stick to set office hours and aim to achieve your work in a reasonable amount of time rather than dragging it out over a long period.
4. Have a comfortable work environment. Set yourself up with a good desk and most importantly chair. Don’t skimp on poor and cheap furniture. It will cost you in the longer term as you become frustrated with the level of comfort. Buy the best your budget will allow. Allow for good lighting.
5. Have a separate work phone line and fax line. There’s nothing more frustrating for clients when they’re faxing through important details to find the line engaged. Mobile phones are highly recommended.
6. Set yourself up with email. This is an essential tool of the trade and great for communicating. Set up a separate line, but if you must compromise share the email line with your fax.
7. Buy a decent computer, fax and printer. Again, essential tools for the home office.
8. Avoid meeting important and unfamiliar clients at your home office. Meet on neutral ground such as a coffee shop or a professional location. Business clubs often provide meeting rooms for members free of charge.
9. Get out of the office regularly. Network at least twice a week with potential or current clients.
10. Plan enough storage for your business. It’s uncanny how much paper you accumulate in the so-called “paperless” office. Always keep good financial records and put in place a simple and efficient filing system.

Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries.

You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com. Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom’s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com.

Colour is essential to building a strong brand.

Many of you know my passion for wearing red ties. I believe congruency with your personal and corporate brand is essential for professionals in the services-based industries, especially consultants, coaches, speakers and trainers.

A Special Report by Mairi Macleod in the New Scientist Magazine on 18 May 2005 argues red is the colour if winning is your game.

She reports the Washington Redskins, Manchester United and the Welsh rugby team have all been playing with an unfair advantage. Just seeing their red kit is seemingly enough to cow their opponents into submission even before a ball is kicked.

The report highlights how Russell Hill and Robert Barton of Durham University in the UK tracked success in four Olympic sports: boxing, taekwondo, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling.

According to the report, in these sports athletes do not wear national colours, but are randomly assigned either red or blue.

The article journals of 441 bouts, reds won 242 and in all four sports reds triumphed in more contests. And the red advantage was higher in close encounters: 62 per cent of red-garbed competitors won these. But in pushover contests there were similar numbers of red and blue winners.

“If you’re rubbish, a red shirt won’t stop you from losing,” Barton says in the article.

The same is true in soccer. Five teams in the Euro 2004 competition who had predominantly red in one of their two kits all did significantly better while wearing red, scoring around one extra goal per game.

Such effects could be due to instinctive behaviour, says Barton. In animal displays red in particular seems to vary with dominance and testosterone levels. Human competitors might experience a testosterone surge while wearing the colour, he says, or feel submissive when facing a scarlet opponent.

Evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar from the University of Liverpool speculates that primate eyes may be particularly sensitive to red. “The significance is then a matter of context,” he says. Red fruit is good; red competitors are bad.

Performance director of the Great Britain taekwondo team, Gary Hall, says most of his athletes don’t have a strong colour preference. But he says that if red is an advantage the sport should consider changing kits. “We should take out any anomaly like that,” Hall told New Scientist.

Source: New Scientist Magazine on 18 May 2005

Colour is essential to both personal and corporate branding.

Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries.

You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com. Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom’s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com.

Your web site has been up for a few months and you are making money hand over foot. While surfing sites one evening, you are shocked to find a competitor using your design. You find out your designer sold them the same design. They must be breaking the law, right? It all depends on whether you own the copyright to your web site design. Many site owners are shocked to find out they do not.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a method of protection for authors of original works such as literature, computer programs, music, artistic pieces and photographic images. The protection provided by copyright arises under Title 17 of the United States Code. A copyright gives the owner the exclusive right to do or authorize others to: reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, publicly display and generally use the material that carries the copyright in exchange for something, typically a royalty or fee. The copyright owner often grants this use through a license agreement, but can sell it outright.

Who Can Claim Copyright?

Copyright protection is created IMMEDIATELY upon the creation of a fixed form of the material in question and granted to the person that created the material. For instance, I automatically own the copyright to this article upon completing it. I am not required to file for an official copyright with the US Copyright Office to prove that I am the owner of the content. However, if I want to sue a person for using my article without permission, I must first register it.

What If I Hire Someone To Create A Web Site For Me?

If you hire a person or company to handle the design of your site, the complexities of copyright become a major issue for you. Specifically, the issue of “work for hire” is critical in determining whether you own the design.

“Work for hire” refers to the relationship between your business and the person creating your web site. If this person is an employee of your business and creates the material within their scope of employment, then your business owns the copyright. However, what happens when the designer is not an employee? In such a situation, the following must occur for the copyright to automatically transfer to you. The work must be specially ordered or commissioned for use as:

1. A contribution to a collective work,

2. A part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work,

3. A translation,

4. A supplementary work,

5. A compilation,

6. An instructional text,

7. A test,

8. Answer material for a test, or

9. An atlas.

It is my opinion that the design of a web site does not fall into any of the above categories. As a result, you do not own the copyright to the design and can do nothing about the fact that one of your competitors is using the design. Obviously, this is not the answer that most site owners want to hear. So, what can you do to protect your business?

When you hire an outside party to design, alter, amend or improve your site, you must have them sign a written contract. The contract must include a clause clearly establishing that the copyright to the material produced is vested with you, not the designer. You should then file the contract with your important documents as some designers “forget” that assigned the copyright to you. Presenting a copy of the contract and noting that it allows for the recovery of attorney’s fees usually solves the problem.

The issue of copyright ownership of a web site or aspect of a site pops up often. Finding your design being used on another domain is bad enough, but it can get worse. If you sell your business, the attorney for the party purchasing your business will always ask about the copyright of the site as part of the due diligence process. More than a few business deals have fallen apart when the lack of copyright ownership is discovered. Obtaining copyright at the outset of your business effort will avoid serious problems in the future.

About The Author

Richard Chapo, Esq., is with http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com offering business law advice to California businesses. This article is for general education purposes and does not address every facet of the subject matter. Nothing in this article creates an attorney-client relationship.

I work with people who have left the corporate world and have established or want to establish themselves as Independent Business Consultants (IBC) in their area of expertise, whether that be HR, Marketing, IT or sales.

One of the most common assumptions many of them make is that they don’t need any help and they become a “lone ranger”. This is often based on a set of beliefs such as

* “I can do everything myself”

* “I can’t trust anyone else to help me in my business”

* “I can’t afford to pay anyone to help me”

* “I’ll get someone when I’m more established.

However, leading and managing a successful consultancy is about more than just delivering the consultancy services. A consultancy business is an entity made up of systems, processes and infrastructure as well as what you actually deliver – your products and services. As the delivery person of your services you may be 100% capable. However, that is not all that’s involved in running your consultancy and making it an ongoing success.

There are many other functions and roles that have to be fulfilled in order for your consultancy to be successful. Functions such as finance, sales, marketing operations and administration to name a few; Roles such as bookkeeper, invoice writer, PR person, researcher, sales person and client manager etc. All of these important roles and functions need to be performed whether you are a global corporation or a 1 person consultancy. None of these functions can be ignored and you may not have the skills and knowledge necessary to perform each of the roles to a good enough standard. Equally if one of the main reasons you established your own business in the first place was to DO what you love doing, then in reality do you really want to be doing all the other “stuff” as well?

Some people just get busy doing a bit of sales a bit of marketing and a bit of admin, which usually just means answering emails. And for a short time that may work.

However, over time you forget who you’ve sent which invoices to or if you’ve even sent them at all; your VAT and tax affairs get dumped in a shoebox “to be sorted out when I’m less busy” and you stop going to new events and arranging meetings because you are “busy” delivering for your biggest (read only) client. Very soon though that client project is complete, the pipeline of new prospects is empty and the taxman has knocked at your door.

If only you had got some help!

In establishing your consultancy you need to decide at the blueprint stage what you want to do and are skilled enough to do and what you’re not. Then you need to decide what support you can get, from whom and to help you with what. Yes it may cost you but what will it cost you to not get help?

The issue of cost is often the reason (excuse!) for not hiring someone to help with those functions or tasks that you are good at or do not want to do.

But imagine for a moment you are a first time house buyer with 3 children both you and your partner work and the most DIY you have ever done is change a light bulb. After a few months in the house you decide that you would like to redecorate, convert the loft into a bedroom with an ensuite bathroom and sauna, install a new kitchen and completely landscape the garden.

Do you consider doing it all your self? Well maybe but unless you are a bathroom fitter, landscape gardener, carpenter and farm out the children for a few weeks the answer is probably a sensible no. So what would you do?

You might

* Decide on your budget +/- 10%

* Prioritise the order you want to or need to get things done

* Research local companies who offer these services

* Get some quotes and references

* Draw up some blueprints

* Plan the timescales for completion and how everything needs to integrate

* Start

Now if having done all the research and planning your costs exceeded your budget what could you do well for example you could arrange a barter situation where,

* you baby sit for the gardener’s children in exchange for hours on the garden

* you offer consultancy to the plumber’s partner in exchange for the new bathroom to be installed

The point is there are many ways to achieve the goal of getting the right help for your business at the right time. But struggling with everything yourself is not a great solution. We all need help in certain areas and assuming we don’t will catch us out at some point.

And as the saying goes if you don’t invest time and money to get it right the first time when will you have time and money to rectify it second or third time.

So don’t be a lone ranger ask yourself

What functions do I want to perform and are skilled enough to perform within my consultancy?

What support do I need to ensure that I have a successful consultancy from now on?

Who do I know that can help me?

©Beverley Hamilton 2005

About the Author

Beverley Hamilton MD of One Step Further is a Business Coach to Independent Business Consultants. To learn more, subscribe to Quickstart, her free weekly newsletter for consultants who want to grow a profitable business consultancy and still have time for a life, go to Quickstart You’ll also receive a complementary 5 part ecourse Discover The 5 Most Common, Incorrect Assumptions Independent Business Consultants Make

She is also the author of Take Control of Your Time: 7 Straight Shooter Strategies for Success

With the arrival of syndication or RSS technology, many claim the email newsletter is dead. Not true. Newsletters continue to offer companies a marketing tool that allows them to build and retain relationships with their clients.

RSS complements, not replaces the email newsletter. Some readers refuse to read email newsletters and only view content in RSS feed readers. So cover your bases by offering both options.

The same thing applies to weblogs, also known as blogs. These online journals are updated on a daily, weekly or whenever basis. When you release a new issue, keep your bases covered by linking to your newsletter and its feed in the blog.

By the numbers: email marketing prevails

In October 2004, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) released the Internet Activity Index (IAI) stating users go online for two primary reasons, content and communications — 40 percent for each. Pew Internet and American Life Project’s data from November 2004 indicates 59 percent of adults have been online and 92 percent send email. This data supports the idea that email marketing is still the most effective use of the Internet for marketing purposes today.

Web pages are static and require users to search for them. Once found, the page must be bookmarked, or it will be lost again. Email, however, lands directly in a user’s inbox, avoiding spam filters and must be actively deleted to be lost. If the email also satisfies the second most common use by supplying valuable information to the reader, then it has a greater impact.

Email marketing fuses email and research into a single channel and provides marketers with a powerful, yet affordable, tool. This type of marketing remains inexpensive, supple and easily tailored for any given demographic. You might think that email marketing reaches a small audience, and other more traditional marketing channels will provide better saturation, but that is rapidly changing.

Internet World Stats indicated 182 million users used the Internet as of September 2004. About 25 percent sign on each year, and in 2005, we’ll reach one billion users. According to Burst! Media, 60 percent of those connecting to the Internet from business use it for email. The second reason is to check the news, followed by looking up weather information.

It’s the content, baby

When a newsletter full of valuable information arrives in the user’s inbox, it capitalizes on these two main uses: email and information.

When applied in a business-to-business application, email newsletter marketing has even more power. Almost 60 percent of employed people have Internet access at work. Eighty percent of professionals and managers use the Internet, and 70 percent of those in sales, technical or administrative support positions use it. Therefore, email newsletters in a B2B application miss only a small percentage of your target market, the decision makers. And even this small gap is rapidly closing.

Internet use in the workplace is growing at a vigorous 54 percent rate annually. Soon, email newsletters will saturate a market as completely as direct mail, print, radio or television advertising.

Not all email newsletters are effective, however, despite the impressive demographic support. Here are tips on how to maximize your capitalization on Americans’ Internet use patterns.

Ask permission

An effective email newsletter gains a readers’ permission before putting them on the mailing list. Such marketing builds communication and goodwill without annoying the reader.

We know about spam all too well and we don’t want to put such email in people’s inboxes. Spam causes serious and expensive overloads to both ISPs and individual recipients. Since it is poorly targeted, it is ineffective. Therefore, build your mailing list by asking people to opt-in to receive your newsletter.

As you know, opt-in email asks users to agree to become part of an email list, and they are not subscribed to the newsletter unless they take action. Such lists are powerful because they indicate every person on the list has given permission to have their email addresses included in the marketer’s database.

Content is king (or queen)

The second most important hallmark of an effective email newsletter is its content. People will give permission to send them your newsletter if you give them something in return, like content that helps them in their lives. Newsletters distributed with information that is relevant to the audience’s lives are anticipated and eagerly read.

Many marketers, whether professionals or otherwise, reflexively want to tout their own company’s achievements. They want to climb onto the mountaintops and scream about how great they are, how many sales their company made, the partnerships they are forming, and how their product is the best thing to happen since sliced bread.

The problem with this is these marketers are distributing information that is important to them, not to their readers. Select articles or other content that pass the following litmus test: Does the content provide value to my customers, or is it self-serving?

Once your newsletter is in tip-top shape, make the most of your online marketing efforts by integrating all available options including email newsletters, RSS feeds, blogs, and a Web site. It’s a cheap and effective way to reach your prospects and clients.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl’s notes, eNewsletter Journal, and The Remediator Security Digest. She is also a PC Today columnist and a tour guide at InformIT. She is geared to tackle your editing, writing, content, and process needs. The native Texan resides in Plano, Texas, a heartbeat north of Dallas, and doesn’t wear a 10-gallon hat or cowboy boots.

Business card size works well for invitations
to special events.

What do you visualize when you think about invitations? More than likely you are thinking about a wedding or a party. You may even think about a verbal invitation that is extended to you for a business event. Invitations come in all sizes and shapes and for almost every event. So how can you get your invitation to your business event noticed? Here are three easy steps that may help increase the attendance at your events.

First, network with those that you would like to attend your event, ask them personally about their calendar. If they have some time free, and then if you can set an appointment with them at the date and time of your event. This will generally yield a yes. Let them know that you will phone and remind them a couple of days ahead of time, just to confirm their attendance. You may then give them a business card invitation at that point so they have a printed reference.

Second, phone everyone you personally know (everyone that is relevant to you gaining more business) and ask them if they would be available on the date and time specified for the event. If they respond yes, tell them why you would like to see them at that specific time. If they still agree, follow up with mailing one of your business card invitations.

Lastly, you will need to ask previous clients to attend. Ask if they can attend at the date and time you have selected, if not, ask if they know anyone else in their organization that can take their place. If they do, simply book them in and tell them you will send a reminder.

It is actually quite easy to get the invitations noticed, the most difficult thing is to make sure those agreeing to attend actually make it to the event. You will probably find there is a 20 to 30% fall-out. If you plan for this fall-out, you can determine how many people to invite in order to fill the room.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people’s attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the “Networking Queen”. Blueprint for Networking Success: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprint for Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2005. For more information visit http://www.BlueprintBooks.com

There is some speculation about how much money you can earn online without your own product. Although marketing your own digital product on the Internet can be very lucrative, there is no reason why you and I can’t profit mightily using creative methods that offer real value to Internet surfers. Here are five simple ways you can start exploding your online income through affiliate programs starting today.

1. Write marketing articles filled with valuable, practical
advice and back-end them with free viral special reports promoted through article resource boxes. You can also capture
e-mail addresses via an autoresponder address in your resource
box as well.

What creative incentive can you give people to pass on your viral ebook? What methods aren’t other people using? Catch their eye with powerful, information-rich article content and then blow their minds with a killer incentive that gets them sharing your ebooks with everyone! Simply tie multi-tier affiliate links into your ebook content and start earning more and more commission every time it is given away.

2. Create a “super-affiliate” blog or website. If you’re strapped for cash, you can start out with your own blog. Forget what doesn’t work and add valuable marketing information to your website or blog on a regular basis, and make sure you allow people to use your articles (and other viral marketing materials) as long as they don’t change any of the article content.

If there are affiliate links within the text, allow them to change your links to theirs, thereby giving them an incentive to carry your articles in their ezines or on their websites or blogs. Try to come up with unusual ways to keep people coming back, and never promote products that you wouldn’t buy yourself.

3. Become a special report specialist. Write informative special reports that are five to twenty pages in length, and develop creative methods to get people giving them away for free. Tie in multi-tier affiliate links, as well as links to recurring and residual income opportunities.

A powerful viral special report is like a floating website that goes from person to person, earning you more and more money as it is spread all over the Internet. A great way to profit from this method is by creating special reports that are preludes to related informational products that others are selling.

4. Create your own affiliate directory. Only add affiliate programs that you would join, and put a creative spin on your
directory as well. What makes your directory different from
everyone else’s? How can you monetize this directory using methods 1, 2, and 3? How can you monetize this directory with
your own autoresponder and ezine?

5. Start your own Internet marketing forum. Give marketers a good reason to go there. Again, tie this concept into the above methods, and see how you can expand on these ideas as well! The secret is to create something of value that people can’t do without!

These are five simple ways you can begin profiting in no time,
even without your own product! Combine them in whatever manner you so choose and have fun as you grow more and more profitable online!

**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners**
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed below.
Feel free to substitute your referral link in place of ours in the resource box. Thanks!

Wanna learn how to generate thousands of highly targeted visitors, absolutely free? => http://www.iwantchoices.com

During the last five years, home prices have increased nationwide. In some parts of the country, notably California, home prices have doubled or even tripled. The median price of a home in the Los Angeles area is now nearly $450,000 and in the San Francisco area, the price is approaching $600,000. As the economy continues to improve, the price of housing continues to rise in California and elsewhere. Many people who have owned their homes for more than three years are suddenly finding themselves with hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity. Of course, equity is only a theoretical gain, and if the price of housing goes down, equity can go away. You only get to keep your equity as cash if you sell your home. Many homeowners are doing just that.

Home equity loans are increasingly popular these days, and many people with large amounts of equity in their homes are borrowing against it and using the money for home improvements, dream vacations or other luxury items. Others are simply cashing out and moving elsewhere. While prices on both coasts are rising at a breathtaking rate, price increases in most of the country are still more modest. A homeowner in California who bought a home five years ago for $200,000 may have a home worth $500,000 today. If that homeowner were to sell that home and move to Texas, or Iowa or even parts of Florida, he or she could buy a comparable or even larger home, pay cash, and probably keep a healthy profit to invest. For most Americans, the equity in their home is their single largest asset. Examining that equity to see if it can be used more wisely would be a sound move, particularly as real estate experts warn of a housing “bubble” that may soon reduce prices to more realistic levels. Should this “correction” in the market take place, homeowner equity could be seriously reduced.

Obviously, selling a home and moving just to pocket the equity is not something that suits everyone. While it may make sense from a financial standpoint, it will mean finding a new employer, finding a new home, finding new friends and moving children to new schools and friends. Anyone considering such a move would be well advised to carefully consider all of the ramifications of simply picking up and moving. On the other hand, the opportunity to extract several hundred thousand dollars in cash from a home is a rare one, and investing it wisely could go a long way towards financing a better lifestyle or a more comfortable retirement. Homeowners should be aware that there might be capital gains taxes to be paid on the sale of a home. Those considering selling their home to extract their equity would probably benefit from a consultation with a financial advisor.

©Copyright 2005 by Retro Marketing.

Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a Website devoted to debt consolidation information and HomeEquityHelp.net, a site devoted to information on home equity loans.