Using Email to Grow a Community

How AWeber user Ramit Sethi uses email to grow/nurture his community and how he measures success.
How he values feedback, handles the volume of incoming email and why he believes in being accessible. Very enlightening.

How to Make Money Selling Products with Resell Rights

Video presentation

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Just what is affiliate marketing? Joel Comm provide the answer to a question that is asked time and again.

Blogging for Profit

Blogging is becoming an increasingly popular way for entrepreneurs to earn a living online while doing something they really enjoy. In many cases bloggers can profit with very little effort. There may be quite a bit of work involved in the beginning with designing a method of gaining revenue and promoting the website but once this is established simply maintaining the blog with regular postings may be enough to keep the revenue rolling in. Two of the most popular methods for generating a profit from blogging include advertising methods. This includes advertising with AdSense and securing independent advertisers. This article will discuss these two methods of advertising on a blog.

Using AdSense to Generate Revenue

Using AdSense is one of the most popular ways for bloggers to generate revenue from their blog. This method is so popular because it is also very simple. AdSense is a program offered by Google where bloggers agree to have advertisements on their website and are compensated when users click on these advertisements. Bloggers simply have to create a blog and submit the website address of the blog as well as some other information to apply for participation in AdSense. Once a blog is approved the owner is given code they can simply copy and paste to have advertisements displayed on their blog. Google then serves appropriate advertisements each time the blog is accessed. Whenever possible, the advertisements served on the blog are closely related to the content of the blog because Google crawls the website ahead of time to determine which advertisements are relevant to the content. Blog owners do have some ability to place restrictions on the types of advertisements which may appear on the blog. For example the blog owner can specify adult advertisements are not to appear on the blog and Google will filter these out.

How Advertisements on a Blog Generate Revenue

Many bloggers use advertisements on their blogs to generate a profit. This method of advertising is more difficult than using AdSense but it can be significantly more financially beneficial to the blogger. This method of advertising is similar to the type of targeted advertising often seen in magazines. For example magazines for parents often feature advertisements which will appeal to parents such as advertisements for toys, children’s clothing or foods popular with children. Likewise a magazine for runners may feature advertisements for shoes, athletic clothing, races or training equipment. In these cases the advertisers pay for advertising space in the magazine in the hopes that the magazine’s audience will be enticed to purchase products or services after seeing these advertisements.

Blog owners can use this type of advertising but it can be hard to find willing advertisers. However, there are some factors which may make an advertiser more willing to have an advertisement appear on a blog. One of the most important factors for advertisers is the amount of traffic the blog receives. This is important because advertisers who are paying for ad space are more likely to invest in a blog with high traffic than one with very little traffic.

Another important factor for advertisers is the focus of the blog. Advertisers are more likely to purchase advertising space from a blog with a specific focus of interest to the advertiser’s target audience. Like the examples listed previously of magazines for parents and runners, advertisers want to advertise on a blog which is already reaching the same target audience.

Bloggers who utilize advertising on their website may be compensated in a number of different ways. Some advertisers may pay a set fee for the advertisement to run on the website for either a set amount of time or for a set number of page views. This means the advertiser may purchase space for a set number of days, weeks or months or may purchase space for a set number of times the advertisement is served to website visitors.

Alternately the advertiser may choose to compensate the blogger according to the number of times specific actions occur. This may include users clicking through the advertisement or users making a purchase after clicking through the advertisement. The type of compensation offered will have to be worked out between the blogger and advertiser beforehand to determine a fair method of payment.

Affiliate Marketing Predictions for 2009

Affiliate Marketing Predictions for 2009 by Rosalind Gardner

Anyone Can Sell In a Good Economy: How You Can Ensure You Don’t Have a Sales Staff of ‘Just Anyone’

By Hannah du Plessis

Firstly, you need to employ Driver Promoters to sell for you. Where it is true that anyone can sell, ensuring you have a sales staff of Driver Promoters will raise your sales by between 40% and 400%, depending on your training and the other tactics discussed below. Driver Promoters are fast paced, active people who enjoy taking control. They are friendly but firm and assertive. They believe strongly in themselves and their ability to succeed. They are prepared to take risks, and they can be described as tenacious, persuasive and persistent. They don’t give up easily and get annoyed if something doesn’t measure up to their standards. They are success driven and focus on results. They prefer to work with others by inspiring them to achieve goals. They don’t like to dominate. They are inspirational, and come up with good ideas. They are true leaders. They enjoy quick results, and enjoy accepting challenges.

If your sales staff is made up of Driver Promoters, they can each work individually, or as leaders to lead a team of salespeople to success.

Your salespeople will have to employ the following tactics to get even better results:

Select better prospects: Make sure you ask the right questions of prospects to qualify them first so that you do not waste your time with people who can’t or won’t buy.

Don’t lower your prices: You need to find new and innovative ways to lower the risk in the customer’s mind. Make it an easy entry, add value by adding bonuses and a better customer experience will result.

Focus on the customer: You need to ask a lot of questions so that you can determine a need the customer has. You can use this need in your sales presentation to close the sale. The customer will feel you understand him and his needs, and will trust you.

Go on the offensive. Don’t get defensive. Make sure you are in charge of every aspect of the sales process. Set aggressive goals. Do aggressive marketing.

Improve every aspect of the sales process: You can’t sell by using the same techniques that you used last year and the year before. You need to improve your processes, your training, your people, your presentation, your skills and your technology.

Having the right personality styles working for you together with the right training you can have a winning sales force in any economy.

Ten Steps You Can Take to Grow Your Business

By Hannah du Plessis

During a time when many businesses go under, you can take steps to make sure yours isn’t one of them.

1. Make sure your employees are where they should be

This may sound silly, but there are many employees that are placed in the wrong position. They don’t know it themselves, but there are telltale signs. Things like coming to work late. Rushing out the door as soon as the clock strikes five. Slightly longer breaks than they should be taking. Taking sick leave often; a day here and there.

You really need your workers to love what they are doing. How do you get them to love what they’re doing? You make sure they have the right personality type for the job by giving them a psychometric test. Not only will you hire less often because your workers will stay longer, but you will also benefit by your revenues going up as having a dedicated worker will pay off in the long run. You will also have more harmony in the workplace.

Some workers might just be in the wrong department, for example someone who should be out there selling is sitting behind a desk, or vice versa.

2. Survey your customers

Customer surveys often come up with problems that you didn’t know existed, or something that is working well that you should do more of. It makes sure you deliver the best they can possibly have. You should also ask customers if there is a product or service that they would like from you. After all, you will sell more of what the customer actually wants. You can also find out the customers view of your business and the quality of service they receive from you.

3. Make sure your processes are running smoothly

Do you have the correct systems in place for your data? Or is some of your data getting lost? How about policies and policy documents? General documentation, sorting and storing. Do you have systems in place for hiring?

4. Get to grips with Social Media

Some people are just downright scared of new technology. It really works to meet people as people are needed for business. There are host of Social Media available for you to choose from: Facwbook, Twitter, Ecademy, Ryze, and the many Ning networks. Set up your profile with links to your site, and use an hour or so per day to work them.

5. Make sure your website and blog is working for you

Having the option of having a website is no longer an issue. You simply need one! You should also consider blogging at least twice a week to get your business noticed. By blogging I mean either write an article or go write a journal like entry about your day or week. You can send a link to that article to your database. This way you can keep up with them and let them know what is new in your business. You also make sure that they don’t forget you.

Blogging regularly also helps your website ranking in the search engines as it adds content to your site.

6. Use Google Adwords and make a campaign

It is really surprising how few businesses are actually using Google Adwords. This is a powerful tool that can generate a lot of traffic to your website. You can start small, and use it more as you gain confidence, or you could get someone who knows what they’re doing to do it for you. Whichever way you go, do get started.

7. Run an Email Campaign, or write an online Press Release

If you have anything newsworthy, send an email to your database, or write a Press Release. You could also ask your customers about the economy or their opinion of aspects to do with your industry. Then put this together in an article and send it to your database. Definitely send it out as a press release. There are many places online that you can submit a press release. You never know who would pick it up and make it a big story. That is publicity for you!

8. Track your ads, test them and your email headlines

You would be surprised to know how many people don’t know about this. You need to test, test, test. See which ads got the most response, and which the least. Which email headline brought in the most response? How else would you know where your new customer came from so that you can advertise there again? How do you know which headlines are working if you don’t test them? You will save yourself a lot of time and money by getting this right.

9. Track your customers

Ask a new customer where they have heard about you. Train your staff to do the same. Make sure you include this in your registration form on your website as well.

10. Write a good story about a customer and how you helped them

Stories sell. Especially good stories. So if you write “case studies” of people that bought your product, or used your service, and how well you helped them, you will get someone identifying with that. This will, most certainly, prompt someone to buy from you. Make sure you put these on your blog, or put your articles in article directories online. You get article submitter services that you can purchase that will do this for you.

Five Common Hiring Mistakes Business Owners Should Avoid

Your business should consist of a number of systems that create predictable and consistent results. Hiring is no different. A system in your hiring process will take any guesswork out of the hiring process, and help you find the right person for the job.

Some business owners tell me that they don’t need a system for recruiting new workers. What if there is a disaster or something beyond your control, and you suddenly have to hire 20 people? What if you become ill and someone else has to take over the job of hiring? How can you be sure that they will find the right person? Having a hiring process will make sure that your will find that special person for your business.

It is never too late to create the correct systems, even if you aren’t looking for new employees right now. If you have systems in place, you will be prepared when the time comes that you need to look for someone. Then you won’t have the added stress of creating a system on a deadline.

When you create your system, keep in mind the following mistakes, and build your process t avoid them:

1. Make sure you actually need a new employee. Often a business owner thinks he or she needs someone for a task, when they just need a new system that can be shared by other employees.

2. Hiring a person on the spot because they “just feel right”. This means you are recruiting from an emotional perspective. Your instinct can sometimes serve you, but hiring is not one of them. You need to be objective for this one.

3. Selling your company to the recruit. Your recruit should have done his or her homework, and should know about your company by the time they come for the interview. You don’t need to sell your company. You need to make sure you hire the right person for the job.

4. Hire only based on what you see in the CV and in the cover letter, in other words, hiring on skill only. You need to look at the person’s attitude and behaviour as well. It is a well-known fact that people get hired on skill and fired on behaviour. It therefore makes sense to test the behaviour of a new recruit before you hire them.

5. Not having a system in place with the right resources for the hiring process.

Please share with me some of your stories: What do you find is working, and what isn’t working? I invite you to comment.

Hannah du Plessis is an expert in Psychometric Testing, and can help your business with systems for communication and business relationships.

Biggest Mistakes Business Owners Make With Their Advertisements

During the recession, many large businesses have had to downsize or close. Many of these casualties are in the finance industry. But how does it affect small business owners or home business owners? According to statistics, whether there is a recession or not, a staggering NINE out of TEN small businesses that start today will not be around in ten years time. For seven small businesses or home businesses, the figure is much lower: Five years or less.

How do you prevent the statistics from applying to you? You need to do something different than other businesses in order to survive. It is plain suicide to do things the same way other small business owners do. Marketing and advertising should be your main activity. Businesses that thrive during a recession double or triple their usual advertising budget. And they don’t make mistakes.

Which mistakes do small business owners make in their ads?

Their ads don’t have a headline

If you look at newspapers or yellow pages advertisement, you often see advertisements without headlines. They often have the business name, no headline, or a very weak headline. We see an average of 1,500 advertisements a day. Most people tune themselves out from those advertisements.

They don’t have a powerful offer

For the ad to stand out, it needs to have a powerful offer. You have to remember, you have between 3 and 5 seconds or less to catch someone’s attention get them to act on it straight away. Once they put it aside, you have lost them forever.

No testimonials

If you tell something about yourself in your ad, people are going to doubt what you say. But if someone like a customer says something, and especially if you have more than three people who say something about you, it is way more believable.

Their ads just sound like everyone else’s

Think of what people want the most, and write a free report on it. This establishes you as an expert, and you build up trust which gives you credibility and helps you to establish a relationship with your client. The report costs very little, and people need the information, and are more likely to hang on to the report and keep it with them. No other advertisement does this.

Their advertisements are just general and not unique

Make sure your advertisement makes you stand out. Give powerful headlines that make people think like “Seven reasons why you should ...” or “Don’t buy a ___ until you read this.” “Who else wants to ...” “The Truth about ....” This headline: “Attention Home Owners...” is written to get your target market’s attention. So target people in your headline. Find out what your customer wants, and target that in your headline.

Thinking that less is more

Many people think they have to have fewer words in their ads. They think no-one would read a longer ad. This cannot be further from the truth. Some people take longer to decide based on more information. If they are still reading, and you’ve stopped writing, you’ve lost them.

Not giving your prospective customer enough information

This is really the same as the previous point. We all have a natural degree of scepticism until any doubt is gone. A prospective customer won’t be convinced about what you can offer until you persuade him. So you need to give a prospective customer as much information as he needs.

Thinking that advertising doesn’t sell

If you have a well written ad that pulls in sales, it is like a salesperson that you don’t have to pay. So, if you have a sales letter that does everything a salesperson does: Presenting your offer, overcomes objections, and closes with a call to action, you can let it work for you over and over and over again until it stops working.

It doesn’t take away the risk

Changing to a new provider or service seems very risky to the prospective customer. Take the risk away with a guarantee or giving a lot of educational information.

Not talking directly to your customer

Your advertisement should be written as if you are talking directly to one person. Imagine your ideal prospect sitting right in front of you and talk to him.

Not making it easy for people to call you

Now if you have all the above right, and you don’t make it easy for people to contact you, you have lost your prospective customer. So make sure you have a dedicated phone line for your business, and that you are at the end of that line.

Not having a deadline for your offer

People like procrastinating, and if they don’t have to act, they won’t. As soon as they decide to wait until later, you have lost them.

Offering discounts in your ad

Often giving a discount means to a customer that you can’t get your product or service sold. Rather than discounting, give a reason for the discount, like you are getting in new stock and need to make space, or that you have some products that got damaged through delivery and you are offering these at a discount, people would have no problem buying.

Instead of a discount you could add value to your offer. Say to them that if you get this product or service, I will add an e-book or several e-books on a related topic, or add a couple of low cost products on top of your offer. Or if they get their nails done, they can also have a free pedicure.

In conclusion, make sure you have an attention grabbing headline with an irresistible offer, and you will pull in more clients and grow your business.

Get your free report here for more information on how to write advertisements and sales letters that sell.

List of IM Giveaways, November 10, 2008

November 10, 2008

Giveaways Accepting Contributors:

Keep Christ In Christmas Giveaway
http://www.keepchristinchristmasgiveaway.info/contributor.php?id=31
Launches on: 12/1/2008
Closing Doors: 12/31/2008

Health Giveaway
Based on Health Care Products
http://www.kennethkee.info/ken/go/iberbiz/jv/
Launches on: 16th November 2008
Closing Doors: 30th November 2008

My Lady Web's Free Gift Giveaway
http://www.myladywebsgiftgiveaway.com/go/iberbiz/jv/
Launches on: November 15, 2008
Closing Doors: December 31, 2008

30 Days Of Christmas
http://30daysofchristmas.com/go/75/jv
Launches On: December 01st 2008
Closing Doors: December 31st 2008

Merry Christmas Giveaway
http://merrychristmas.freegiftsgiveaway.com/contributor.php?id=88
Launches on: 11/30/2008
Closing Doors: 12/30/2008

Mr Matco Autumm Event
http://www.mrmatco.com/contributor.php?id=99
Launches on: 11/15/2008
Closing Doors: 12/31/2008

Merry Christmas Giveaway
http://merrychristmas.freegiftsgiveaway.com/contributor.php?id=88
Launches on: 11/30/2008
Closing Doors: 12/30/2008

Santas Big Giveaway
http://www.santasbiggiveaway.com/contributor.php?id=102
Launches on: 11/20/2008
Closing Doors: 12/31/2008

The-Thanksgiving-Giveaway
http://www.the-thanksgiving-giveaway.com/contributor.php?id=73
Launches on: 11/17/2008
Closing Doors: 11/27/2008

Let´s Together Giveaway
http://onlyjv.com/together/go/24/jv
Launches On: November 14th 2008
Closing Doors: November 28th 2008

The 10 Day Giveaway
http://10daygiveaway.com/go/86/jv
Launches On: November 11, 2008
Closing Doors: November 20, 2008

The CJN Giveaway
http://cjngiveaway.com/go/12/jv
Launches On: November 14th 2008
closing Doors: November 30th 2008

I.M. Dream Team Giveaway
http://www.imdreamteam.com/contributor.php?id=60
Launches on: 11/15/2008
Closing Doors: 11/30/2008

Hot Resale Rights Giveaway
http://www.hotresalerightsgiveaway.com/2/contributor.php?id=39
Launches on: 11/10/2008
Closing Doors: 12/1/2008

********

Giveaways Running:

The Wild Fire Giveaway
http://wildfiregiveaway.com/go/23/
Launches On: November 07th 2008
Cloisng Doors: November 14th 2008

Fair Rainbow Giveaway
http://www.internet-marketing-home-business.com/redirect.php?code=7e13d80b
Launches on: NOVEMBER 03 2008

The Great Fall Giveaway
http://bluethunderradio.com/go//14
Launches On: November 01st 2008
Clisng Doors: November 30th 2008

Self Improvement Gifts 3
http://www.selfimprovementgifts3.com/members.php?id=119
Launches on: 11/1/2008
Closing Doors: 11/10/2008

The Lucky Lexxi Giveaway
http://luckylexxi.com/go/11
Launches on: November 01st 2008
Closing Doors: November 14th 2008

The Top Secret JV Giveaway 2
http://householdname.biz/giveaway/go/76
Launches on: November 01st 2008
Closing Doors: November 14th 2008

BigThanksgiving Giveaway
http://BigThanksgivingGiveaway.com/go/mem/iberbiz
Launches On: November 1, 2008
closing Doors: November 9,2008

Thanks For Giving Giveaway
http://thanksforgiving.freegiftsgiveaway.com/members.php?id=59
Launches on: 10/31/2008
Closing Doors: 11/30/2008

Free Giveaway For Dog Lovers
http://www.for-dog-lovers.com/members.php?id=65
Launches on: 10/28/2008
Closing Doors: 11/12/2008

Web2 Marketing Giveaway
http://www.web2marketinggiveaway.com/members.php?id=165
Launches on: 10/25/2008
Closing Doors: 11/7/2008

The Halloween Giveaway
http://www.halloweengiveaway.com/members.php?id=48
Launches on: 10/21/2008
Closing Doors: 11/7/2008

Learn The Internet Stage Two
http://www.learn-the-internet.com/gmw2/members.php?id=85
Launches on: 9/30/2008
Closing Doors: 12/31/2008

Free Ebook Giveaway
http://www.kennethkeecom.info/go/40/
September 01st 2008
December 31st 2008

Top 3 Reasons To Post Articles On EzineArticles.com

Articles are important for a number of reasons. I personally do not write nearly as often as I should. It is not something I feel should be outsourced unless you only care about getting traffic to your website. But here are my top 3 reasons you should be submitting articles to EzineArticles.com on a regular basis:

1. You want to establish yourself as an authority on a topic. People use EzineArticles to get material for their blogs, ebooks and as research for their own projects. If you have a large body of work on a topic, you immediately stand out as someone who has done the necessary legwork and research in the topic, and at the same time become the obvious expert in the field.
   
   
2. You want to get the word out about a particular subject. You may feel very strongly about a subject and not enough is being talked about in that niche. By writing articles and submitting them to EzineArticles.com, the topic will be picked up by many syndication websites in your niche, giving the topic more exposure while getting your name out there as the person to talk to about your subject.
   
   
3. You want traffic that pulls in sales to your own or someone else's product (for commissions). Probably the most important reason that people use EzineArticles.com is for generating buyer traffic to their own or an affiliate product that they are selling. Often, the authors do not use EzineArticles correctly, and are in effective in making sales after they have gotten the reader to their article. If your article doesn't cause the search engine to find you easily, the reader to click through to your website and the product you are promoting to sell like hotcakes, then you are not using EzineArticles.com to its fullest potential.

I highly recommend that you examine the above reasons (there are others, like driving traffic back to your website and doing research, but the main ones are outlined above) and decide if you should be writing articles. Chances are, you want the results of driving buyer traffic to your site while establishing yourself as a credible expert. One of the tools I recommend for submitting these articles to EzineArticles.com and over a dozen other highly sought after article sites is Easy Button Traffic (http://easybuttontraffic.com - it is a great tool, but costs $67 per month: you can make that back with 2 sales of a typical affiliate product) which allows you to submit articles, press releases and videos to hundreds of locations all over the web and drive traffic back to your website very rapidly! It basically takes article marketing to a level only seen by super affiliates!

Do You Suck At Researching And Writing?

One thing about article marketing, you have to put out quality stuff. Do not outsource this if you want to be the expert on a topic. You will look like a fool the first time someone wants to interview you, and nobody will ever buy a thing from you after that.

Davion Wong just released an ebook on the topic of article writing for profits called Article Cash Robots. In it, he outlines the step by step formula for researching the products, subject and then writing a high converting article that pulls buyers into your sales funnel consistently.

The reason he calls it Article Cash Robots is because once you create one of these ACR's, it is working for you 24/7 feeding the search engine spiders and getting posted on blogs and in ezines, each with a link back to your landing page where you make a case for your product! If each Article Cash Robot is getting you 100 visitors to your landing page per month, it should be easy enough to get 2 or 3 sales from each robot per month. So all you have to do is write more Article Cash Robots and make even more money.

For a limited time, Davion Wong is practically giving away Article Cash Robots for less than a large cheese pizza! See what else you can do with your own Article Cash Robots.

With the great content of Article Cash Robots and the submission power of tools like Easy Button Traffic, you can create a system for cranking out cash streams that will consistently bring you more income each month. As someone who just recently decided to leave my job and go full time online, consistent monthly income is music to my ears, and you will find it music to yours as well!

Have an amazing day!

Micheal Savoie
http://twitter.com/michealsavoie

PS - I also recommend taking each article and repurposing it to a video and a podcast and using Traffic Geyser (another submission tool that will reach thousands of websites to drive traffic back to your landing pages) to create video landing pages for the ultimate list building and traffic converting system you can find. The monthly investment for these tools is easily replaced by the commissions you will be earning in a very short time, especially if you are taking action to completion on each article that you do.

http://ourwiz.com/likes/trafficgeyser

It is important that when you write each article that you immediately record the video and podcast and submit them. Only when you have done this a few times will it begin to be easy and you will not even give it a second thought.

I appreciate comments about this article on my blog:

http://productinaweekend.com

Technorati Tags: article marketing, writing articles, converting traffic, ezinearticles, writing articles that sell, selling products by writing, review, repurposing articles, traffic geyser, easy push button traffic, press release, article submission

Motivate Your Affiliates And Increase Your Sales

Nowadays, almost every marketer has his own affiliate program. That’s no surprise; after all it is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your business.

If you are one of those marketers, you’re probably aware of the fact that the major part of the people who signed up for your affiliate program, will never refer any sales… To keep this group of non-productive affiliates as small as possible, it is important to motivate them any way you can.

Here are some tips:

• Interact!
  The key to motivation is interaction. Remind your affiliates of their usernames and passwords, and tell them where to log in to the affiliate center to grab their link and promo tools.
  

• Lead the way
  Many affiliates never bring in any sales, simply because they don’t have the knowledge to set up a successful promo campaign. Tell them what to do and show them where to go to maximize their results. You could write ashort, easy-to-follow marketing ecourse, and allow your affiliates to download this at no cost.
  

• Rewards and bonuses
  Offer bonuses or extra commissions to the top affiliates every month, or attach a bonus to a certain number of referred sales.
  

• Give them everything they need!
  Giving your affiliates nothing but their affiliate link isn’t exactly the best way to motivate them. Make it easy for them and provide a wide variation of promo tools: pre-written email ads, reviews, banners of different shapes and sizes, and anything else that you can think of.
  

• Offer multiple payout options and pay out fast
  Don’t limit yourself and your affiliates to just 1 payment processor. A tool like SmartButtonPro allows your affiliates to choose how they want to be paid their commissions…
  And I assume it goes without saying that the sooner your affiliates can enjoy the results of their efforts, the more motivated they will be.

Basically, if you want your affiliates to succeed, you need to make sure you do everything you can to help them make money from promoting your product. If they make money - you make money!
In reality - their success is your success.

Suggested tools:

• PromoPageGenerator - Create professional promo tools pages fast and easy
  
• Clickbank Affiliate Reward System - Reward your Clickbank affiliates with extra bonuses
  
• SmartButtonPro - Offer multiple payment processors & while securing affiliate commissions

List of IM Giveaways - September, 14, 2008

September, 14, 2008

Giveaways Accepting Contributors:

Murray Secret
http://www.murraysecret.net/amember/go.php?r=35&i=l1
September 19th 2008
October 19th 2008

The Breezy Autumn Giveaway
http://onlyjv.com/autumn/go/46/jv
October 01st 2008
October 14th 2008

The Anything Goes Giveaway
http://lady-angel.com/giveaway/go/642/jv/
September 01st 2008
September 30th 2008

Juggernaut Giveaway Round 2
http://juggernaut-giveaway.com/go/34/jv
Launches On: October 03rd 2008
Closing Doors: October 17th 2008

Social Marketing Gifts
http://www.socialmarketinggifts.com/contributor.php?id=19
Launches on: 9/23/2008
Closing Doors: 10/7/2008

Queen Bee Giveaway
http://queenbeejv.com/go/126/jv/
Launches on: September 20th 2008
Closing Doors. September 30th 2008

Ultimate Giveaway
http://www.ultimate-giveaway.com/contributor.php?id=39

Halloween Giveaway.com
http://halloween.freegiftsgiveaway.com/contributor.php?id=47
Launches on: 9/30/2008
Closing Doors: 10/31/2008

September Gifts Giveaway
http://www.sepgifts.com/contributor.php?id=124
Launches on: 9/15/2008
Closing Doors: 9/25/2008

********

Featured Giveaways Running:

Impact Action Giveaway by Ken MacArthur & Odinn Sorensen
http://impactactiongiveaway.com/members.php?id=10
Launches on: August 21st at 12pm US eastern time.

The WightAuction Massive Giveaway
http://giveaway.wightauction.co.uk/go/180
Launches on: September 08th, 2008
Closing doors: September 18th 2008

The Newbie Giveaway
http://www.thenewbiegiveaway.com/members.php?id=86
Launches on: 9/1/2008
Closing Doors: 9/21/2008

Labor Day Holiday Giveaway
http://laborday.freegiftsgiveaway.com/members.php?id=29
Launches on: 8/31/2008
Closing Doors: 9/30/2008

Best Giveaway
http://www.bestgiveaway.com/members.php?id=39
Launches on: 9/1/2008
Closing Doors: 9/14/2008

Back to School Giveaway
http://www.schooldaysgiveaway.com/members.php?id=271
Closing Doors: 9/30/2008

IM-REI Giveaway
http://giveawayforyou.com/13
Launches on: August 19th 2008
Closing doors: September 23rd 2008

Auto Pilot Cash Streams
http://www.autopilotcashstreams.com/members.php?id=94

How to hire the RIGHT person for the job every time

Hiring people is the biggest, most challenging decision a business owner has to make. This is even more true for entrepreneurs starting new companies. But ... how do you do it?

Most employers concentrate on skill. They read the CV, and hire the person based on their qualifications and work experience. A few companies, usually large companies that focus on sales, use psychometric testing. This focuses on the behaviour of the individual as behaviour is what creates successful sales, not qualifications.

Here's a vital fact: Using behavioural interviewing can increase your chances of hiring the right employee by nearly 60%.

In fact, extensive research supports behavioural interviewing as the most effective interviewing technique available to evaluate suitable applicants. In a nutshell:

Behaviour-based interviewing is an approach that looks at past behaviour as the best predictor of future performance.

And it makes common sense.

I’m sure you would agree that you should hire the right people for your business. Bad hiring decisions are costly. They can damage your business reputation, affect sales and cause good employees to leave. Not everyone is suited to the job - especially one dealing with people, and it is better to find out before hiring them and before they damage your business.

The problem with hiring the right people is that it takes a long time, money and resources to find the correct person for the job. You have to be prepared to invest a good chunk of time in the process — finding candidates, interviewing them, testing them, trying them out — it’s more akin to dating than anything else – it is like a dating dance or ritual that has to take place. And you can’t give that important job to someone else to do.

But once you have done the process correctly, the payoff is enormous. This is especially true for start-ups - those first few hires are going to be key ones. Those people are practically partners. You need them to stick it out through thick and thin, and be as devoted as possible. You need them to create the culture and spirit for future hires. You need them evangelizing the business. You need them taking ownership. You need them to be the driving force of success.

It’s a tall order, which is why you need to invest the time, thought and energy into hiring people properly. And you always need to focus on building a great team, not a bunch of people connected together by the fact that they work in the same office.

As a small to medium sized business owner, I am sure you are thinking that you will not be able to compete with large businesses as you might not be able to afford the psychometric testing. Luckily, that is no longer true. There is a system available for small to medium size businesses where you can have access to psychometric testing at an affordable price.

Psychometric testing will help you to:

• Avoid costly hiring mistakes
• Employ people with the right attitude
• Reduce conflict and workplace stress
• Understand what motivates your employees
• Improve team performance
• Maximize your employees’ strengths and talents
• Make sure the person is the right fit for the job

Psychometric testing will give you the following:

• A short and concise behavioural profile of the candidate
• The candidate’s value to the organization
• How effective the candidate will be on the job
• Are they a good ‘fit’ for the job
• Extra information on validation and behavioural styles

You can also make a job profile, and then select the candidate that is most suited to the job profile.

There is no doubt that finding the candidate with the right qualifications and experience, as well as the behavioural patterns that are suited to your position will give you the right person for the job, every time.

For more information on psychometric testing,

The Giveaways fever continues on Summer

I think that all that are running are included in this list. If you know about another one not showing, leave me a comment....

Giveaways Accepting Contributors on June 13:

Learn-the-internet Giveaway
http://www.learn-the-internet.com/contributor.php?id=46
Launches on: 7/1/2008

Huge Giveaway
http://www.hugegiveaway.com/contributor.php?id=42
Launches on: 7/3/2008
Closing Doors: 8/1/2008

The Great Electric Giveaway
http://greatelectricgiveaway.com/go/44/jv
Launches on: June 24th
Closing Doors: July 15th

Super JV Giveaway
http://superjvgiveaway.com/jv/go/84
Launches on: June 17th 2008
Closing Doors: June 27th 2008

Your Father´s Day Giveaway
http://jv-give-a-way.com/go/33/jv
Launches on: June 15th 2008
Closing Doors: June 25th 2008

Daddys Day Giveaway
http://daddysdaygiveaway.com/contributor.php?id=66
Launches on: 6/15/2008
Closing Doors: 6/22/2008

Massive Monthly Giveaway June 2008
http://massivemonthlygiveaway.com/June08/go/58/jv
Launches on: June 16th 2008
Closing doors: June 30th 2008

Massive Summer Giveaway
http://www.massivesummergiveaway.com/contributor.php?id=11
Launches on: 6/16/2008
Closing Doors: 9/4/2008

Crazy Deals Weekly
http://CrazyDealsWeekly.com/Prod30_a_1174.html
Launchs on: June 4th 2008
Closing doors: July 5th 20'08

The Niche Giveaway Episode 2: Get Started Online
http://www.thenichegiveaway.com/contributor.php?id=111
Launches on: 7/7/2008
Closing doors: 8/7/2008

The Big Video Giveaway
http://onlyjv.com/video/go/40/jv
Launches on: June 10th 2008
Closing doors: June 30th 2008

Wonderful Web Giveaway 2008
http://www.wonderfulwebgiveaway2008.com/contributor.php?id=36
Launches on: 6 / 19 / 2008
Closing Doors: 7 / 10 / 2008

The ARH Mad Fortnight Giveaway
http://arh-auction.co.uk/giveaway/go/16/jv
Launches on: June 01st 2008
Closing doors: June 14th 2008

Fair Rainbow Giveaway
http://www.internet-marketing-home-business.com/redirect.php?code=7e13d80b
Launch date: June first - Ends on June 25th