Phung

Besides providing your home with more living space, a home addition can be a terrific investment. However, before embarking on such a project the homeowner should first consider several important items. These items include: home market values in the neighborhood, financing, size and scale of project, architecture, timetable for completion, personal disruption/inconvenience threshold and the sweat equity commitment level.

Size of Addition and Market Value

Prior to actually breaking ground on a home addition, it is best to first determine what you are looking for in terms of additional living space. For example: How many square feet? What types of rooms? Once this is understood, it is then important to find out the market value of homes in the local area with similar size and features to the new and improved home. With this information the homeowner can then calculate the difference between their current home market value and the new and improved home market value. This difference should represent the maximum budget for the new addition if a positive investment is desired. For example, a homeowner would not want to spend $50,000 on a new home addition that provides only $25,000 in increased market value to the improved home.

Financing

The next important question involves how to fund the home addition. Unless the project is being funded via cash/savings then financing will be required. If current mortgage rates are higher than the existing mortgage, then a home equity loan will probably make the most sense. If current mortgage rates are lower than the existing mortgage, then refinancing the entire home, including the cost of the home addition project, may make the most sense.

Architectural Considerations

Once the financial items have been addressed it is then time to focus on the size and scale of the project, as well as the architectural and aesthetics of the new addition. The addition should be of size and scale such that it aesthetically melds into the original house. It should not be too small or too big. Frequently, homeowners get carried away and add large amounts of new living space without sufficient thought on the outside appearance. From a market value, there is more to a home than just pure living space. A home needs to maintain its exterior aesthetics as well. It is important to consider such items as siding, doors, windows, rooflines, and elevations. All should meld into the existing home exterior seamlessly and aesthetically.

If an architect is not planned for the project, then the homeowner should at least make some sketches of the home exterior with the new addition. The building inspector will probably require them anyways during the permit process. Also, there are many Home Design software packages on the market today that can help create such drawings.

Schedule and Sweat Equity Commitment

The next two items that should be considered include the timetable for completing the project and the homeowner sweaty equity commitment level. Many homeowners assume they can do a lot more than they are either skilled to do or have the time to do. From personal experience, I would suggest contracting out the site/ground work, rough framing, roofing, siding, heating/cooling, and the drywall. All of these tasks require skill, time and brawn. If local laws permit, electric and plumbing may be tackled by the homeowner. However, both require skill and can be life threatening if not performed properly. Other tasks that a homeowner could tackle include installing interior doors, finish trim, painting, cabinet installation, tiling and hardwood flooring. Prior to a homeowner signing up to any specific task however, they should first honestly assess their skill and available time, and compare them to their project schedule. If they dont match, hire the contractor.

Threshold of Inconvenience and Disruption

Finally, a homeowner should consider their threshold for inconvenience and disruption. A home addition, particularly if it involves the kitchen, is very disruptive to todays busy lifestyles. It is also a dusty, dirty and noisy endeavor. In addition, dealing with subcontractors can be challenging at times. For a typical addition anticipate several months of effort and inconvenience.

If after assessing all these issues you are still willing to move forward with the project, contact your subcontractors, pull your permits and get ready for an exciting time. For most homeowners tackling a home addition is a positive experience that provides both new living space and a great investment.

Me_Donovan@comcast.net
http://www.homeadditionplus.com
http://www.homeaddition.blogspot.com

Over the past 20+ years Mr. Donovan has been involved with building homes and additions to homes. His projects have included: building a vacation home, building additions and garages on to existing homes, and finishing unfinished homes. Mr. Donovan's formal education and profession have been as an Electrical Engineer and Marketing Manager.

Larry: Why didnt they tell us?

Bob: Because they themselves didnt know. They knew even less than we knew, if you can imagine such a thing. They really believed there was god, motherhood, the flag and apple pie.

Larry: You mean you knew all along? I didnt! I feel like such a jerk at age fifty-one, but I was fixed on those lies just like everyone else. I didnt want to know anything about the truth. More accurately, I didnt want to know that there really wasnt any truth. It would have been too scary to have nothing to believe in. I guess I wanted security rather than reality. I think I still do but somehow those truths have become so eroded that I cant fake a belief in them any longer no matter how hard I try.

Bob: I know just what youre talking about. The only thing is that now we have nothing left, nothing to replace the old truths. You know - the ones our parents and their parents passed down to us. We had nothing to do with their creation and content. They were blatant constructs of a contrived reality that we didnt partake in. But, they did seem to be an absolutely accurate presentation of our reality. So, of course, we believed in them. It was certainly easier that way. It felt safer. It felt secure.

Larry: But why did we believe in them so easily?

Bob: The beliefs are very seductive, who wouldnt want to believe them? We begin with this character called Mommy, who is just perfect, loving and unconditionally accepting of everything we do. Who would say no to that?

Larry: WOW! Youre right.

Bob: Then we begin to believe in Santa Claus who is totally generous and loving. Notice a theme developing?

Larry: Yes, its all about being loved and accepted and not having to meet anyones expectations. Its all about remaining like a child forever. It has nothing to do with growing up. Its about clinging to childish dependency never having to relinquish the warm cozy world of the child for the harsh world of the adult.

Bob: Exactly! Who would want even a glimpse of reality if it wasnt necessary? It is very unpleasant, and scary. Santa and Mommy are a pretty dynamic duo. Theyre even better than Batman and Robin. So, here you are now suggesting that this is all a crock, which it is. Oh, god, I shudder when I say that. And, then you further suggest that you and I have to create a reality, our own reality that will replace the old one - the one that was constructed for us. Is that what youre saying?

Larry: Yet, it is.

Bob: Well, all you have to do is make something up construct a new reality of your own. But, there is one problemyou will consciously be aware that it is your construction and thus you will know from the outset that you concocted it and that it isnt real. You will probably never be able to believe it since you made it upall by yourself.

Larry: Jeez, we are screwed. We are trapped right in the middle of a constructed reality, trapped right in the middle of a scary constructed truth we had nothing to do with creating. Oh, this sucks! (Larry writhes in agony on the floor.).

Bob: Yet isnt that where you always thought you wanted to be? Right in the middle of the truth and nothing but the truth?

Larry: Yes, or so I thought. But screw that now. Jeez, were really stuck in the middle of nothing. Theres nothing here. No mental games to play. No Great Books that contain the wisdom of the ages.

I always thought it was all a crock. I always knew that Aristotle contradicted the writings of his mentor, Plato. And, Aquinas contradicted Augustine, and Marx contradicted Hegel. And it went on and on and on. But, we were younger and I thought that someday there would be an answer come forth for us.

Bob: Why didnt you stop believing then?

Larry: Because it was too scary to stop. But, you Bob, you Bastard, you sound as though you knew all about this reality stuff and for a very long time. Were best friends. Why didnt you let me in on it?

Bob: Because I wasnt so convinced. I didnt want to know the certainty either. Deep down inside myself I always knew it would be impossible to continue to live with this knowing.

Larry: So are we really screwed? What the hell are we supposed to do now?

Bob: About what?

Larry: About living the rest of our lives.

Bob: What can we do? We have to just go on living and filling in the blanks. We have to kill time.

Larry: How? What do we fill the blanks with?

Bob: With whatever comes along at the moment, just as we did before. The difference is that now we will be aware that anything we use to fill in the blanks will be a fabrication, our fabrication never to be taken seriously. There will be times when we will want to take things seriously and well be seduced into believing again. Even though we know that its our construction, our concoction created a minute earlier. It will be tempting as hell but we cant deceive ourselves any longer.

Larry: Why cant we begin to believe again?

Bob: It might feel good to believe again but it will merely become the new truth for us to begin to doubt and question. Then well begin our circular - endless game of questioningnever getting the right answer even on our death bed. Is that what you want?

Larry: No, god, is this a weird place to be or what? Never again questioning anything. Knowing nothing and knowing that its all a crock. And, I always thought it would be so freeing.

Bob: Its not?

Larry: No, and you know its not.

Bob: A little bit of sugar makes the medicine do down

Larry: How true that is. I never realized it before. And I have always especially loved sugar. Wonder if that means anything? Do you think it means anything?

Bob: Yes it means that you saw Mary Poppins. Did you like it?

Larry: No, I didnt enjoy it. I hate make-believe bull

Bob: See, ever since Ive known you, you never really allowed yourself to enjoy anything. Something eventually and rather quickly, lets you down. Its more like plunge! crash! You become enthused about something and youre very hopeful. Then, just as you are about to get comfortable you crash into conflict. (Long pause) Actually, you should be the one person I know who ought to be comfortable in a world of total uncertainty. (Another long Pause)but youre not.

Larry: Thats because I want certainty more than anyone I know. (Long pause). I think it has to do with my father dying when I was five.

James A. Gibson, Ph.D. 2004 All Rights Reserved Email: modernjester@optonline.net

Bio: James Aloysius Gibson, Ph.D., East Patchogue, NY, co-authored "Eat or Be Eaten: The Truth About Our Species, The Marriage of Darwin and Machiavelli" available via amazon.com. He presented over one hundred stimulating and thought provoking workshops on human behavior. Jim attended Columbia University, NYC, for his graduate work. He taught Human Behavior and the Social Environment for over twenty years on the graduate level at the School of Social Work, State University of New York at Stony Brook and simultaneously maintained a full-time private practice of psychotherapy and supervision in East Patchogue, NY. Jim appeared on local television where he shared his philosophy of human behavior. He and Pat Brozinsky have been in collaboration since 1990. His url: http://www.wild-wisdom.com/

Uncertainty By James A. Gibson, Ph.D.

While many people think of promotional items as marketing gifts and promotional products, they have many other uses. Items printed with a slogan, public service announcement or charity name can make great fundraisers. Printed promotional umbrellas, jackets, caps and other gear are excellent money makers for dance schools, martial arts dojos and other types of instructional businesses.

Why should your organization try to raise money selling chocolate bars and gifts that give you back a minimal return on your investment and offer you nothing beyond the cash you bring in? Items like promotional umbrellas with your organizations name or your message on them offer a chance to promote your charity or PSA for as long as the items last. Heres some of the most popular business gifts to sell as a fundraiser or ongoing money-making effort to help your organization get the word out about your works.

Promotional umbrellas
Printed umbrellas are great sellers for any organization or event because theyre so very useful. Nearly everyone needs an extra umbrella, and will be quite happy to support your organization with a purchase of an item they can always use. Promotional umbrellas come in all shapes, sizes and colors, so its easy to have one printed up in your schools colors, or incorporate the color scheme of your PSA campaign into it. They also fit into nearly every budget, with styles ranging from fold-up mini-umbrellas that tuck into a purse all the way up to enormous double-size promotional golf umbrellas that offer excellent coverage from the rain.

Printed Pens
When you include printed pens as one of your promotional items, youll make it possible for just about everyone to contribute to your efforts. Including low cost promotional pens among your sale merchandise makes your sales brochure kid-friendly, so that even those who have no more than pocket allowance can feel like theyve done something to make a difference.

Printed T-shirts
Got a message to get out there? Theres no better way than to print it on a t-shirt. Printed t-shirts are great sellers at events and rallies, and will be worn long after the day to keep on spreading your message to everyone who sees it. Youll find t-shirts for screen-printing in many colors and styles at companies that provide other types of promotional products to companies and organizations.

Rucksacks and Backpacks
Carry bags are always in demand. A quality rucksack, backpack or conference bag that carries your organizations logo is an excellent promotional item to carry in a fundraising store. If you run a dance school or martial arts studio, your students will really appreciate the opportunity to cart their kit back and forth in a well-made bag that sports the school colors and crest.

Promotional Mugs and Water Bottles
A good mix of high quality and low cost items is essential to a fundraiser. Quality mugs and water bottles printed with your PSA message or organization logo are always excellent sellers for fundraising events. They fit easily into most budgets and offer a great markup for your charitys benefit.

When looking for promotional printed umbrellas and other items to sell for fund raising and organization money-making, youll find that you do better to work with a company that will put their all into making sure you get the best products. Be sure to let the account manager you speak with know if youre raising money for a non-profit cause in case the company offers discounts or extra services to charities and non-profits.

For more information check out the leading promotional gift suppliers online today!

Gareth Parkin is the co-founder of Ideasbynet, the UK's leading online promotional umbrellas and printed umbrellas company based in the north of England. Established in 2001, he has taken the UK gift market by storm by the application of modern business thinking and the latest search engine marketing techniques. For more details visit www.ideasbynet.com

Long-term care insurance policies have a variety of features and it pays to shop around. It is quite easy in the final years of your life to run up extremely large care bills which could threaten your life savings, home and your childrens inheritance. Okay some people do not care about their offspring so much as is evident by looking at the bumper stickers of the deluxe Recreational Vehicle Motor Homes; we are spending our childrens inheritance!

You need to ask yourself not only; How much long-term care insurance should I buy? You need to think on how much you might potentially need. For instance you need a policy, which has an adequate daily allowance. The current average for in home nursing is $135.00 per day. But the norm for coverage ranges between $100 and $150.00 per day.

The waiting and elimination periods also can greatly affect the policy costs and premiums. People usually wait 30, 60, 90 days, as medicare usually pays in the beginning. You will have a slight duplication of coverage. The waiting period concerns the amount of time before you can begin receiving coverage. These are significant factors indeed.

Benefit triggers are also important in these policies. They usually occur when you need assistance with two or three daily living activities such as using the bathroom, getting dressed, taking a shower or eating. Generally benefits are triggered when a doctor has certified you that you in fact need this assistance to function in these daily living necessities.

Benefit or payment stoppages are also crucial which often occur when you are over a severe illness or become a cancer survivor, as is now the norm. Or when you leave a nursing facility and go home. Many good policies remain activated for another ten days to insure you can function again at home if needed. Many policies have a provision which allows you to stop paying premiums once you begin benefit coverage, but not all and some require you to start paying again once you are out of the care facility or you no longer need in home care for your daily living activities.

Most importantly do not buy coverage if you feel pressured, think about it first.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance in the Online Think Tank and solve the problems of the World; www.WorldThinkTank.net/

Everyone wants to provide for the future of their families as well as for their own futures. You want to make sure that you can provide for your family in the event of a tragic loss. You should know that there are many parts to Ohio long term care insurance that you want to think about before you make a decision for sure. It is extremely important that you do your homework. Make sure that you ask knowledgeable professionals for their opinions. Only then can you make an informed decision.

Ohio Long Term Care Insurance - Other Information

First of all, the best Ohio long term care insurance can be found through the place in which you work. You should look carefully at all of the options for Ohio long term care insurance through your employer to see what they offer. They should have several different policies that you can purchase, so you should be able to make a good decision based upon your needs and your familys needs.

You can also go through several private firms, and this might be a better option for your Ohio long term care insurance if you dont know how long you will be at your present job. You might want to be sure that you can get coverage even if you are no longer at the same job. This is an important decision, so consider it carefully so that you can make it with the best interest if your family in mind.

Harry Bernstein has been practicing law for over 18 years. You can find out more about Ohio Long Term Care Insurance at OhioInsuranceAdvice.com.

Leading a downline is a challenging part of any MLM or network marketing business. But effective leadership is a vital part of helping your downline to produce at top levels.

Here are eight success strategies for effective MLM leadership.

1. Ask questions. Effective leadership involves empowering your downline to do things for themselves. Allow your downline to solve their own problems and answer their own questions. Guiding them to the answers is a matter of asking the right questions as an upline:

What do you think you could do in that situation?

What worked out the best for you with this business-building event?

How would you handle that differently next time?

When you are tempted to tell a team member what to do, ask a question instead and allow them to discover the answer for themselves.

2. Find each individuals personal strength. Many times, the network marketing industry is so focused on duplication that we forget the fact that each individual brings a unique set of skills, strengths, and experiences. Invest some time identifying particular ways that a person can be successful with your business even if they are beyond the duplicatable system that you have set up.

3. Lead, dont push. Effective leadership doesnt involve pushing, dragging, or bribing people to success. Leading is about walking out in front of people, successfully working the business so that they will want to follow you on their own accord. Its about making personal relationships with people so that they can ask you questions. Provide the information and tools they need, and then inspire them by successfully demonstrating the example yourself.

4. Manage your time effectively. As a leader, youre constantly identifying the one thing that is the most valuable use of your time, right now. Effective leaders dont allow each of their team members to chat away for hours on the phone. View yourself as a businessperson, and keep each conversation on task.

5. Teach that consistency is the key to success. Help your downline to understand that success is never about one isolated event. Its a marathon - not a sprint with continual and consistent baby steps. Create a list of simple business building tasks, and teach them to keep a log of the tasks completed each day. Whether its 3, 5, or 10 tasks, let them know that success depends on how many of these tasks they commit to completing on a consistent basis.

6. Keep consistent communication. Send team updates or newsletters via email to your downline at least every two weeks. Recognize achievements as much as possible. Everyone loves to see his or her name in print. This, in itself, can be tremendously motivating.

7. Know when to move on. Recognize that you cant make anyone do anything. You can lead, but if one of your downline wont follow it might be a better use of your time to find a more self-motivated person than to beat yourself up to motivate someone who, for one reason or another, isnt working at the business.

8. Take five. Creating a large and successful network marketing team is so fun and rewarding that we sometimes forget to take breaks and that can lead to burnout. Take some time off every now and then, and enjoy the journey.

Would you be interested in a business opportunity that would teach you skills and techniques for motivating your present downline while giving you another income at the same time? Details are here:

Network Marketing Success.

http://www.bestselfhelp.com/network-marketing-success

1. Join a Syndicate and play a System Entry. It's the one thing all lotto experts (including the Lotteries themselves) agree on. But if you want to play alone, here are the other Top 9 tips from LottoMasta International. The statistical examples use a 45-ball lottery for illustration but the CONCEPTS apply to all lotteries.

2. Try to avoid having all 6 numbers under 31. While it is not an absolute rule, payouts are generally much lower. As an example, NSW State Lotto (Australia) had 27 First Division winners in its draw on 9 Oct 2000. Imagine going to bed thinking you had won a million - and waking up to find you had $37,037! Lotto experts refer to this as the Birthday Numbers Syndrome.

3. Play all 45 lottery numbers (or all the numbers in YOUR lottery) - You are GUARANTEED to have at least one ball correct, in up to 6 games. And it only requires 8 games. Win just one ball guaranteed correct, your Lottery is now a 5-from-44 game. The odds for this are 1-in-1,086,008*. While it is still a 1-in-a-million shot, that is a lot better than a 1-in-a-8-Million shot ! And this simple technique takes 2 minutes and costs under $5. ANY edge you can get in a game that requires beating odds of 8,145,060-to-1 is worth having.

4. If you are still using numbers from when Australian lotto was a 40-ball game - add some new games with numbers over 40. The total combinations possible from 40 numbers are 3,838,380*. The combinations possible from 45 numbers are 8,145,060*. If your numbers are all under 40 - more than half the combinations that can win are missing from your games. Has YOUR lottery increased the number of balls?

5. The most probable lottery result has 3-odd lottery numbers and 3-even lottery numbers. This comes out 1-week-in-3 (on average) and represents 33.5% of the 8,145,060 possible combinations. Add 4-odd lottery numbers plus 2-even lottery numbers, and 2-odd lottery numbers plus 4-even lottery numbers - and you cover 81% of all possible results. Put another way, these three game type results win (on average) 8 weeks out 10.

6. A lottery result with no consecutive numbers occurs around 1-week-in-2 on average (47% of the 8,145,060 possible combinations are of this type). A lottery result with just two consecutive numbers accounts for 40% of the 8,145,060 possible combinations. Together, that is an almost 9-weeks-out-of-10 occurrence (87%).

7. Your lottery results are more balanced using games with three high lottery numbers and three low lottery numbers (33% of the possible combinations are of this type). Balanced entries do best - try not to have more than 3 numbers in any set of 15 (1-15, 16-30 and 31-45).

8. The most probable lottery result will have no lottery numbers from the previous week (40% of the 8,145,060 combinations) or just one number from the previous week (42% of the 8,145,060 combinations). That's 82% in total - meaning that this game type result wins (on average) 8 weeks out 10.

9. Get a Lottery Education. Most of the above facts are from 2 books - 1,000 Weeks of Lotto - What Worked, What Didn't (a 20-year analysis of Australia's Saturday Night lottery results) and Winning Lotto Secrets. Both are available from or LottoMasta International, PO Box 196, Bond University, Qld 4229. Most lotto players resemble a golfer trying to hit a hole-in-one - while blindfold! Learn about your lottery!

10. The most important tip of all - Play Sensibly. Money for feeding your family is just that, it is NOT for buying lotto tickets. Play with money you can afford to lose, because most weeks that is exactly what will happen. You can improve your chances, but spending money you can't afford to lose is downright dumb. Do not do it. Please!

Constructing your games using these rules - and using all the numbers in your lottery - is the simplest, easiest, quickest way to improve your lottery results.

In the Lottery, it's true that anything is possible - but some things are more probable than others! Play the high-percentage shots and watch your luck improve J .

* Use Microsoft Excel's Combin function to calculate your odds.

Terry Fisher, CEO of LottoMasta International, PO Box 196, Bond University, Qld 4229, Australia and Double Million-Dollar Lottery Winner. If you have never seen a million-dollar lotto check - there's two on - http://www.lottery-and-lotto.com and http://www.winning-the-lottery.com and http://www.power-ball-pro.com

Executive Summary Introduction

Search Engine Marketing is the process of leveraging the usage of search engines to create website exposure for a company. This exposure normally is used to garner conversions in the form of sales, leads, subscriptions, downloads and any other definition of a user turning into a paying customer. This intent-based advertising is the core of Search Engine Marketing that amounts to the best return on each marketing dollar spent.

Fundamentals of Search Engine Marketing

At its core, Search Engine Marketing leverages user intent by optimizing an organic or paid search listing around that specific users intent. Instead of blind placements on billboards, mass mailings, and the like, Search Engine Marketing serves up specific advertising via ad creative or search listing based on what the user is actually looking for.

The premise of Search Engine Marketing will provide the most relevant result after a keyword query is entered, in the form of a title, description, and URL, whether it is organic or paid. There is much more control over these factors, known as creatives in paid search, but organic search results allow some customizing here as well. Depending on the relevance of your listing and how well it matches to the intent they have in mind, they will chose to either click-through to your site or not.

Why Search Engine Marketing?

Search Engine Marketing, as an advertising and marketing channel, continues to grow its national and international reach and offers businesses and consumers the first true worldwide platform to conduct business. Industry statistics continue to show that more advertisers and consumers are searching to buy and sell what they need.

In a study done by Pew Internet & American Life Project from 2000 2005, using search to find information was done by 90% of all internet users in the US. This number came in second to only Email users at 91%. According to March 2007 data from Neilson/Netratings, about 209 Million people in the US have internet access, which means that about 188 Million of them use search engines regularly.

According to a statistical survey done by Hitwise in March, 2007, of the top 20 most popular websites on the internet, 18 of which are wholly owned by search engines. These websites make up for 26.85% of all website traffic on the internet. They include the search, Email, music and social media industries. The lone exceptions being eBay.com and Wikipedia.org. Of those top 20 websites, the Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN contextual, image and video search interfaces make up for 14.23% of all website traffic.

In a scientific study conducted by Eyetools and Enquiro, the top three organic listings are viewed 100% of the time. The lower positioned listings get incrementally less attention as follows: rank 4 (85%), rank 5 (60%) rank 6 & 7 (50%), rank 8 and 9 (30%), rank 10 (10%). In that same study they found that the top paid search listing is viewed 50% of the time, with lower positioned listings getting incrementally less attention as follows: rank 2 (40%), rank 3 (30%), rank 4 (20%), rank 5-8 (10%).

Based on comScore data from February, 2007, Google is the leading search provider in volume with 3.3 Billion searches per month. Yahoo scores 2 Billion, MSN: 730 Million, Ask: 348 Million and AOL serves 338 Million. These statistics show that the 5 major search networks were responsible for over 6.7 Billion searches per month or about 35.6 searches per user.

Attributes of Pay Per-click Marketing

Pay Per-click advertising works by charging the advertiser a set auction price that they establish for each keyword. Every time that ad is clicked, the advertiser pays that set amount. PPC advertising has both distinct advantages, which at the same time can be considered shortcomings, over search engine optimization and other forms of interactive and traditional marketing.

Advantages:

Being the latest and greatest in interactive and on-line marketing, PPC advertising offers guaranteed placement, complete transparency and analysis down to a very granular level. Through the use of built-in search engine tools, commonly available analytics, and tracking techniques, the marketer can track when the ad was clicked, how much they paid for that click, what that user did after that click on the site, and whether or not that click was converted into a conversion. They can then take that data, analyze their entire campaign, determine how successful their spend vs. return was and make an educated decision on how to improve that effort.

Campaign-wide decisions and changes can be made by quickly analyzing a set of data and making a few simple clicks with PPC thus giving it a distinct advantage over any other type of interactive media.

Shortcomings:

Because it is now considered mainstream, everyone from major international corporations to mom-and-pop shops are bidding on the same industry keywords, driving up click costs considerably. The strategy of taking a loss on a click but taking the chance of a consumer becoming a lifetime value customer is known as volume bidding and is sometimes employed by new companies looking to brand their name causing smaller companies struggling to compete.

Click fraud is another shortcoming where automated robot programs or manual clickers perform erroneous or intentional clicking on PPC ads without any intention to view the site or make a purchase.

Another issue is trust: the users that are aware that they are clicking on sponsored listings tend to assume (correctly) that the site is trying to sell them something. Statistics show that a majority of searches are information-based so not all consumers will want to be overwhelmed with sales pitches on the site.

Attributes of Search Engine Optimization
Coined sometime in 1995 or 1996, SEO is the process of modifying the layout, navigation, content and popularity of a website to improve the chances of ranking higher in the organic or algorithmic search results. Ever since the rise of Google in 2001, external link popularity has become a major aspect of search engine optimization. SEO has some great merits that have helped it stay on top as one of the most effective interactive marketing methods around, but some of the basic aspects of SEO are also shortcomings that must be considered.

Advantages:

Search engine optimization tends to be less expensive than PPC advertising in the long-run. Attaining positive results through good navigation, content and link profile requires a lot of initial optimization work but with time, as those results appear, the long-term costs tend to decrease. SEO has also been known to have a slightly higher conversion rate than PPC advertising, thus improving the return on the marketing dollar.

Organic listings tend to have higher click-through volume which is an advantage over PPC advertising because you are not paying for each click. You can also use log file analysis and server-side analytics software to track the path of the user and various data points such as which keywords they used to get to the site, the conversion rate for organic results and project your final ROI.

Additionally, organic search engine optimization can show results for long tail and obscure search queries that you have never thought about. Google statistics recently pointed out that 50% of all Google queries are wholly unique meaning half of all search traffic is hitting the long tail of keyword search. It is this long tail that is easy to optimize and rank well foryou just have to find it.

Shortcomings:

With search engine optimization - search engine guidelines, best practices and algorithms are often updated and changed. What may have worked a year ago may not necessarily work today making SEO an art form that is incredibly hard to keep up with.

Compared to PPC advertising, SEO is also difficult to change once everything is in place. It may take a year or more to optimize a site to rank well for a particular search term. If that search term is discovered to not convert well after all that time, you cannot simply switch to another keyword. Changes often require the collaboration between multiple departments such as IT, Marketing, Sales, Legal, Copywriting and SEO.

More of the Good, less of the Bad

The basic premise of PPC advertising is to get more traffic out of the good keywords, and less out of the bad.

1. Bidding Bidding is the most basic strategy, where you bid down on bad keywords to get less traffic, and bid up on good keywords to get more traffic. Bad keywords can be defined as words that are less relevant and convert worse than good keywords.

2. Building When a good keyword is in the right position and is converting at a profitable metric, PPC marketers will build-out and expand that keyword, such as using different variations like pens, buy pen, custom pen, and so forth, to get more traffic from similar keywords.

3. Subtracting Negative keywords allow you to make a semantic distinction between two words with the same meaning. For example, if you are a company that has a keyword windows for sale, you would not want to be coming up on searches for Microsoft Windows because that would yield a 0% conversion rate as your website would be totally irrelevant to those looking for information on the operating system.

4. Testing Landing Pages Unique domain landing pages can be built specifically to act as the destination for a specific set of keyword creatives. This method often leads to higher conversion rates because the user is taken to a page that is highly relevant to what they are searching for.

5. A/B Split testing A/B split testing is performed by supplying search engines with 2 unique ad creatives and defining when and where each is shown. This allows the marketer to test which creative will yield the higher CTC Rate.

6. Multi Variant Testing Landing page or multi variant testing involves analyzing multiple landing pages that deliver a different layout, call to action, conversion form or message. Often times, simply moving one part of the page to another area and changing some of the wording can significantly alter usability and conversion rate.

7. Day-Parting Day-Parting analysis is useful when the business has specific limitations or previous testing has shown that certain ads perform better at certain times. If, for examples, your call center is operational only at a certain time, you can select your Click here to speak to an operator ads to only run during those times and not waste money on clicks that will yield to phone calls going to voicemail. Day-Parting allows for maximum return on the marketing dollar in these situations.

8. Geo Targeting A company that sells products or services only in specific geographical area can geo-target ads to only run in the designated areas that you select. This technique allows users that are most likely to buy your products in that geographical location to see and click on your ads.

SEO Techniques

1. Content In the field of SEO, it is often said that Content is king. High quality, useful and relevant content is one of the main aspects of SEO. Simply duplicating other sites content will hurt more than it helps. Good, creative product descriptions and copywriting will also help generate high quality inbound links which are also an integral part of the organic ranking algorithm.

2. Link Profile High quality link development that is highly targeted to the content on the page will be how to get ranked for ultra competitive keywords. The goal is to get backlinks with the keyword you are focusing that page on in the anchor text of the link to point directly to that page. It will further help if that linking site is somehow related to your site and has few other outgoing links to other sites and many back to it.

3. Navigation and Indexation Navigation and indexation are the very basis of any site and are crucial to being listed in organic search results. Search engines will send crawlers or spiders to your site via external inbound links that can only follow text links for navigation. If the site is coded entirely in flash, JavaScript, or images, the crawler will have nothing to read: it can only read HTML text. Further, using strategically placed words in the anchor text of your navigational text links will help the search engines determine what the page you are linking to is about and therefore improve your ranking on that page for the keywords on which is it focusing.

4. Web 2.0 Web 2.0 is a broad definition encompassing image search (Flickr), video search (YouTube), social media optimization (blogs), social media marketing (Digg), and user generated content (Wikipedia). These emerging marketing avenues and venues have provided a new medium for the development of the core SEO premises: content and link development. Leveraging the power of Web 2.0 can bring significant amounts of traffic to your site.

Combining PPC and SEO Methodologies

The experienced internet marketer will understand the need to use both PPC advertising and search engine optimization in their internet marketing efforts as both paid search and organic search is important and heres why:

Studies prove that when a user sees the website or brand name on the search results in both the organic areas and the paid, they tend to have more trust in that brand.

As the trust in the brand is established, the user is likely to click on organic listings which will not cost the advertiser any money.

Increased impressions of a listing will remain in the memory of the user, possibly bringing them back to that brand or search query later on.

If you have multiple pages that are relevant to a specific keyword or broad phrase match; you can optimize a content-rich page to rank in the organic listings while guaranteed results for a less optimized page can be paid for.

Successful internet marketing should use both paid and organic search techniques. The difficulty is how to best integrate the goals to generate the best potential outcome. Here are some of the techniques to use:

Your main (top level) domain should always be optimized with proper usage of keyword focus, content development, code optimization, server-side setup, keyword prominence, link acquisition, and the main purpose of informing and having the full conversion functionality. At the same time, you can build what are called micro sites, which are prettier and more conversion-driven sites on new domains that are built with a specific set of keywords and high conversion rate in mind. This will encourage a greater conversion rate than your main domain that is more content-heavy and broad that will require the user move around the site.

In addition, micro sites that are just one page will rank lower than those with multiple pages that have the feel of real sites. Try and include a few pages connected via text links such as an About Us page, Contact Us page, FAQ page and search function page.

The most valuable aspect of combining your PPC advertising and search engine optimization is the use of paid search data to quantify, measure, and strategize your organic search campaign. Running the paid search campaign will allow you to test various keywords, implement different creatives, and determine how much you are willing to spend and what your potential return may be.

Paid Search Challenges

The PPC advertising challenges facing this particular music download website and its company involve the complexities of scale. The music industry has many possible variants on keywords such as artist names, song titles, album titles, lyrics, record labels and many others. Scaling the keyword development and creative writing for the industry was a major hurdle requiring a significant initial investment. This industry is one with constantly evolving keywords: there are always new artists, songs, and albums being released and the company needed to keep up with each new aspect. Meanwhile, each search engine ad network has a different set of guidelines and interfaces that the company had to mold its campaigns around.

The music industry is highly competitive and keyword bid prices are constantly on the rise. Requiring the need of a campaign management team with a tight focus on conversion and maximizing the ad spend; the bidding and customer acquisition strategy was constantly audited, evaluated, and tuned.

The psychology of the user interested in legal music downloads had to also be taken into consideration with advanced PPC advertising techniques. The psychology of the free music download user is that of an I-want-it-now consumer, and the usability aspect had to be optimized through negative keywords, landing pages, A/B split testing, multi-variant testing, day-parting, geo-targeting, web design and usability testing to match the consumers requirements.

Organic Search Challenges

Scale is also an issue with organic search and search engine optimization. The particular website has over 100,000 unique pages active, 90,000 indexed by various search engines, and adds about 500 new pages per day. Therefore, the IT team, in collaboration with the SEO and copywriting teams, had to figure out a way to automatically add various on-page and code elements such as the Title tags, Meta data, and content.

As for content and copywriting needs, since there are so many different ways to structure content around every aspect in the industry (artist, song title, album, and related information), a copywriting team was required for research and the development of unique, optimized content for each particular artist, song release and album.

The most challenging aspect of SEO for the site has been high quality link development. It is also the most challenging part to do correctly because it is the sole aspect that you cannot directly control. Many links tend to be un-optimized due to the limited amount of inbound link acquisition and the strict amount of control exacted on linking qualities. In this scenario, the company developed and fine-tuned an internal linking structure that best leveraged that attained link profile by imparting relevance factors in its navigational structure.

Other Search Engine Marketing Considerations

Web Design:

Web design can have a significant impact on both paid and organic search results as well as the user experience on the site. By not complying with noted search engine best practices in your HTML code, search engines can potentially decrease your organic search ranking.

The use of complex graphics, on-page scripts or image-based navigation are not search engine friendly and will harm the indexation of your pages and navigational ability of crawlers on the site.

Web design and W3C compliance also impact usability. A website with HTML markup errors can lead to poor user experience due to missing page elements, resolution non-compliance, cross-browser display issues and mobile devise layout problems.

A poor web design may also be unappealing to end-users. Better calls to action, simpler navigation, clearer fonts, faster load times and a Web 2.0 design layout will usually merit a better conversion rate.

Analytics:

Analysis of success and failure is an integral part of any marketing campaign. In the case of the internet, websites, and search marketing, that need is exponentially greater.

A good log file analytics program will help determine which pages are converting better than others and why and also allow you to analyze many small data points on a very granular level. Most modern analytics programs allow you to test:

keyword usage
referring site
time and date of arrival
user entry point
user path
user exit point
bounce rate
time on page
site visited before yours
site visited after yours
click fraud detection
crawler tracking
funnel analysis
conversion rate of each link on the page
ROI tracking
map costs, revenues, and profits

You can use this information in both organic and paid search to determine who is buying and when, and decrease the possibility of those that do not buy from clicking on your paid listings.

Contextual Ads:

Contextual advertising aims to target users by providing related ads near content that is on the webpage. For example, a newspaper site might run contextual ads provided by Google or Yahoo! along the top, side, and bottom of its pages. These ads will be triggered by certain keywords used on the page making them very relevant ad placements.

Contextual advertising is more targeted and relevant to what the user is interested in at the moment than search engine PPC advertising; therefore, it tends to carry a higher CTR but a lower conversion rate. In addition, recent technology updates have allowed smart pricing functionality to automatically discount the amount the advertiser pays for the ad based on the likelihood of conversion as well as site exclusion abilities allowing the advertiser to not have their listing show up on pre-selected sites.

Conclusion

Search engines have been used as marketing tools since their earlier inception but as technology improves, new methods develop, and more ad spend is being pushed towards Search Engine Marketing, the complexities of making it work and the ROI succeed is becoming more challenging. Both PPC advertising and search engine optimization have unique advantages and some inherent shortcoming, but through their collaboration, each ones advantages fill the gaps present with the other.

It is through information acquired from data sharing that both PPC advertising and search engine optimization benefit and combine to become a highly optimized Search Engine Marketing campaign. With branding, implied trust, budget allocation, and various on-page testing, the complete Search Engine Marketing campaign is successful.

It takes the collaboration of a wide range of teams to effectively integrate and operate a large scale and successful Search Engine Marketing campaign. It is this large-scale collaboration that most companies that do not focus on Search Engine Marketing alone tend to fall short and rely on experience and technology offered by a Search Engine Marketing agency.

Gennady Lager is an SEO Specialist for an interactive Online Marketing Firm and SEO Agency SendTraffic.com Send Traffic is committed to providing high quality service and results using proven white-hat SEO techniques and ethical search engine optimization practices and standards.

This morning I conducted a webinar with a few friends over the great nation of Singapore in which we discussed one of the MOST important aspects of your internet network marketing business.

What was it?

Communication and Relationship Building!

You have no business if you don't communicate with your customers, prospects, and downline.

THEY need you to communicate with them for them to be successful.

This communication can come on several different levels.

It can be one on one.

It can be via a group conference or webinar, like the one I just conducted.

But . . .

When it comes to prospecting online nothing beats email.

With the simple push of a button you can have people enrolling into your business each and every day.

It's not theory, it's simply fact.

For it to be effective it MUST be done correctly.

In my book, that doesn't mean you just set up some autoresponder series and let it run while you hope for the best.

NO!

You make your communications in your business on all levels personal for the best response.

Autoresponder series can churn out results, but not at a maximum level.

For your communications with your recruits and prospects to TRULY be effective they MUST be personal.

That's why in Power Prospecting System the one aspect that makes the entire system completely unique and heads and tails above anything out there that has ever been created is the personal touch.

You don't have to focus on it.

It's built into the system for you.

At least once a day I write a personal email that goes out to all of your prospects that will build a relationship for you on autopilot so that you can focus on the MOST important part of the process.

Finding the right leads.

Several users of the system have literally had people join their network marketing business site unseen because of this.

Don't you think that's something to have working for you passively?

In the end it's NOT the person with the most leads that wins, it's the person with the most leads that know and trust you through a personal relationship with them.

For FULL details visit the links in the resource box below.

Daegan Smith is an Expert Internet Network Marketer. "Learn
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EVER Buying a Single Lead?"
==> http://www.internetmlmsuccess.com
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Sharing of business data in small business used to be a nice thing to have; however in todays business environment it is rapidly becoming a necessity in order to compete in the marketplace. Never has the demand for collaboration inside your small business, across multiple locations, geographic regions or with partners and clients been needed as it is today. Many small businesses continue to struggle with the concept of collaboration and how to do it effectively.

When collaboration in the workplace occurs effectively, productivity inside the business skyrockets, suddenly you can do more with fewer resources, both human and technical and the workforce is happy because they can work from virtually anywhere. The flipside of effective collaboration is exactly the opposite, productivity goes way down, dependence on technology support skyrockets, and the added cost is reflective in your human capital and expenses. Your team becomes frustrated and even may leave your firm when the tools are not available to do their jobs effectively, wherever and whenever they need to perform their tasks.

Introducing a new way to share business data! It is not that new actually; Windows SharePoint Services is starting to catch on in the small business market, larger corporations have been using document management systems for quite some time. Just like having your email hosted in house took a little time for the small business market to embrace, now SharePoint Services is making its way into the SMB market.

The added value of SharePoint Services is that many small businesses already own the solution; they just dont realize that they do. Windows 2003 Server or 2003 Small Business Server have SharePoint Services included, however many businesses never implement it, this could be the result of poor IT services or just a lack of awareness of the solution and the power it brings. Small Business need strong outsourced IT services that will introduce new solutions like SharePoint Services to them and help them to understand how these new solutions will benefit them and their business.

How can your small business get ready for Windows SharePoint Services?

First of all, it is important for small business today to be on the same page and moving in the same general direction, without this, no technology solution will ever work. Your team needs to be on the same page as the management and understand the companys end goals and value proposition, once you have this done, then you can begin to mold a technology solution to meet your business needs.

SharePoint Services is a tool to enhance collaboration in the workplace. In order to have the technology work for your business, you need to foster an environment that promotes collaboration. Without this environment, no technology tool will ever work. Business owners today need to make sure that the lines of communication inside their business are flowing in both directions.

Once you have your people factors settled, then the technology can be allowed to enhance that. Still in this day, many people are nervous about what technology can do. The younger workforce has been collaborating and using technology for quite some time, however many people that have been in the workplace for a while, have concerns about technology. The message in your firm needs to be that this technology solution will aid in the employees overall success and when we are all successful, the company is successful.

Windows SharePoint Services offer some of the following benefits to a small business:

Document Libraries are repositories for your team to work together on documents, spreadsheets, presentations and whatever else you need to work on. Inside the document libraries you can secure your information and set rights on what people can do or see, control document versions plus so much more.

Shared calendars are available inside Windows SharePoint Services where you can post corporate events, important dates, meetings or whatever calendar information you need to post. With the calendar and many other features inside SharePoint you can also view this information inside your Microsoft Outlook application on your desktop.

Has anyone on your staff missed an important meeting? With SharePoint you can put announcements right on your main page, so that everyone can see what is happening in your business. New product launches, important information or any other announcement that you may have in the past, broadcasted out via email to your entire team.

Have online feeds sent right to your SharePoint site. SharePoint can link into any RSS feed service. This is great if you want to show items such as road reports, weather conditions, stock prices and any other information you need to see when released. SharePoint will become the portal for your small business to get the information you need.

Another powerful tool inside SharePoint Services is the ability to control workflow process. Does your business suffer from workflow challenges? How does your business suffer when your team skips steps in the process? What if you had a tool that would increase productivity and results by managing workflow? Would your business prosper?

The most important tip to a successful implementation of Windows SharePoint is to keep it simple. SharePoint needs to slowly introduced to your team, include them in the implementation and planning of your site, promote buy-in from all departments in your business. When the entire team is involved, your rollout and adoption of SharePoint Services will be a success.

There are many additional benefits to Windows SharePoint Services; I encourage you to visit the Microsoft SharePoint website. Also, a strong information technology consultant can provide you with additional information on the benefits of SharePoint Services to your small business.

SharePoint will be the way files and information is stored in the future, dont delay, understand how this new technology will affect your small business, prepare for the future, provide the tools for your team to become successful. Do more with less and watch your small business explode.

Stuart Crawford is the Director of Business Development for IT Matters Inc., Calgary, Albertas award winning Microsoft Small Business Specialist. He can be reached at scrawford@itmatters.ca or via their website http://www.itmatters.ca IT Matters is a leader in the Calgary marketplace with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services.