Business, economic development - the unofficial Chamber of Commerce

I spent a lifetime in retailing and I’m still at it in retirement; albeit virtually.

You know how it goes.

You put up a web page and throw in some stock.

Your page begets another and another and another until one day you’re looking at a site that’s got more stock than Bloomingdales.

But you can’t stop…

The old sourcing skills are making a comeback, sharpening their talons, and coaxing you to duck and dive, bob and weave to find still more stock at even better prices.

So you build another virtual retail store and then another and another and another until you’re looking at an empire.

Then you diversify.

If you are upmarket, you go downmarket.

Why not?

There no shareholders breathing down your neck or smart ass vice presidents demanding that you pull in the reins.

And so you build a bargain basement store and another and another until you’re looking at Wal-Mart.

Expending your energy in this way is fun; it’s therapeutic, and if you go about matters in the right way, it doesn’t cost a thin dime apart from hosting fees - and it can be hugely profitable.

In between times you are still knocking out the odd bestseller just to keep your hand in.

But even now you can’t stop.

You dig deep into the inner recesses of the psyche and draw down expertise that has been rusting away for eons in the vaults of the supraconscious.

Ideas leap out at you from nowhere; you create courses on creative writing, starting a business, offline marketing, online marketing, maximising on retirement, and what have you.

So you build more websites and more websites and more websites and now you are busier than ever you were when you thought you were working.

So how am I doing with all these third age activities?

I’m not hurting.

Most mornings my inbox is crammed with cute little messages like ‘Invoice from Clickbank’ and ‘You have money at PayPal’ and so forth.

But don’t take my word for it.

Visit one of my stores and judge for yourself.

You’ll find an address in the resource box…

Jim Green is a retiree, entrepreneur, and published author with a string of bestselling hard copy titles to his bow including his latest ‘Your Retirement Masterplan’ ISBN 1857039874. You’ll get a taste of what he gets up to at this website http://howtoproducts-xl.com

VoIP is turning out to be the technological innovation of the century. VoIP is registering over 100% growth annually and the chief patrons as of now seem to be businesses because with the ‘PROPER’ application of VoIP they are able to cut down their operating costs by almost 40%. The key word here is ‘PROPER’. This article will shed some light on the factors which play a vital role in the successful implementation of VoIP as a business tool.

To make a successful transition onto VoIP you should:

• Not discard your existing system altogether, but build up a hybrid system which combines both VoIP & PSTN as there are quite a few rough edges still existing in the domain of inter-operability between the existing system and VoIP.

• Do a proper survey of all the VoIP service providers and ask about their service quality with special emphasis on the type of algorithms they employ because the voice quality depends to a very large extent on the algorithms. Also get to know about their ASR (answer seizure ratio) it is a measure of the number of calls properly terminated, that’s why it can give you an insight into the quality of the routes the service provider uses, so a good ASR would mean that the VoIP service provider is offering quality services.

• Look for players who have expertise in various applications of VoIP like video conferencing, toll free numbers, DID( direct inward dialing number), calling cards because if the VoIP service provider is able to handle applications of various hues that would mean that the system used is stable and that he has an all encompassing expertise of VoIP.

• Make sure to ask about customer support services, as initially you would need a great deal of expert help to get your VoIP bandwagon rolling.

As with anything new, a proper approach can guarantee that you reach the objectives you had set out for and in the case of VoIP it’s even truer. Follow these rules and the transition of your business onto VoIP would surely be easy.

VoIP Phone Service
ALEN
voip-traffic.com

Maybe no business requiring little or no capital pays as big as the online brokerage business. Perhaps this also explains why this business attracts so many rogues, dreamers, time-wasters and even mischievous people. Knowing how to avoid these characters is one of the keys to your success.

As a broker you will be putting buyers and sellers into contact with each other. Once the two parties know each other, they may kick you out of the deal. The best way to ensure that you remain a party is to sign a Non-Circumvention and Non-Disclosure (NCND) Agreement with them. The widely used NCND Agreement is the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) NCND 500.

Parties entering into this agreement agree not to circumvent each other on any transactions with any sources and/or principals disclosed by each other’s parties, without prior approval. They also accept not to disclose or permit to be disclosed the identity of any sources and/or principals already identified by other parties. Essentially the spirit of this agreement is to do what is fair and equitable. The NCND therefore will prevent partners from bypassing you to work with each other and so deny you commission.

Get a lawyer to handle your legal matters. You would be surprised to learn how lightly people take contracts signed over the net, especially the NCND, even despite supplying their details, signatures and company stamps. Partners who are not serious will back out if they learn you have a lawyer. Those who agree to go ahead under this circumstance are likely to be serious.

However before signing anything with anybody, you must first check their credibility. Ask all prospects to supply proof of previous performance. By requesting this evidence, you may avoid people who would waste your time. Is this enough cover for you? No!

Let sellers make you offers under penalty of perjury. One disheartening occurrence in the online brokerage business is that people will sell you their empty dreams. Once you are bound by an NCND and the party makes you a phoney offer, you can let your lawyer sue for perjury. You will be forwarding offers to buyers and when the seller is unable to supply, you are accountable to your buyer who, often, do not take kindly to failures to perform. But are all the buyers serious?

Not at all. One of the banes of the Internet is that it can make anyone appear important. Don’t take anybody on their own words. If you have a product and a buyer show up, ask for an LOI (Letter Of Intent) and BCL (Bank Capability Letter). Supplying the LOI only on the end buyer’s company’s letterhead shows the seriousness to purchase the product. The BCL, issued on the letterhead of the buyer’s bank, demonstrates that there are enough funds to cover the payment. Your bank will check the availability of funds from the buyer’s bank. This saves not only a lot of embarrassment but also heartaches.

As a broker you gain is only from commissions. When one is in view, ask for a commission protection agreement, usually called a Fee Protection Agreement, FPA, from whoever is to pay you. It is common to see parties default in the payment. Should that happen, the FPA will be your legal document to sue for your money.

To enable discussions between a buyer and a seller proceed smoothly, they often ask for all parties to sign an NCND Agreement so that the broker can step aside without fear of being sidelined. Making this concession ensures the smooth running of the discussions but could be disastrous for the broker. Yet this does not mean that the broker must stand between the buyer and the seller, wheeling back and forth messages between them. No serious buyer or seller will accept this. A broker, instead, should give a buyer and a seller direct contact to each other but insist that they send him copies of the messages they exchange. This is to enable you follow the discussions. Should the parties fail to comply, you must insist that they do so. If they persist, don’t hesitate to withdraw your offer.

Receiving copies of mails exchanged between your buyer and your seller is crucial for some reasons. First of all, it enables you to know how the business is going. Sometimes matters stall as a buyer or a seller might prefer to give his attention to another business and you will need to prod the discussions. Also, when you don’t participate in the discussions and all of a sudden one of the partners informs you that the deal did not go through, that leads to a lot of suspicion. But the worst doubts come when, worried by the silence, you ask the parties for a feedback only to be told that the deal has fallen through. But that is even better than when you leave a buyer and a seller to discuss between themselves and in the heat of the negotiations they omit you in the apportioning of the commission. If you are lucky, all the parties may decide to give you is a token fee.

Working online means receiving emails, often with attachments. Virus-infested mails abound these days. You must therefore protect your computer and the valuable data stored on it with the latest anti-virus programmes. Many are available, like Norton, McAfee, etc. Buy the one which will automatically remind you constantly to update the program online and free of charge. This will allow you to avoid the attack of new viruses. An outdated virus scan program cannot detect them.

You are serious about your brokerage business and you want to take it far. Your dream is legitimate and achievable. So take these steps so that neither man (or woman) nor virus can disturb it.

My name is Akoli Penoukou. I was born in Lome-Togo (West Africa) in 1953. I went to school in Ghana (West Africa) up to the high school diploma level. I taught French there for one year and then returned to Lome to work. From there I went on “adventures” in Nigeria (West Africa) and Germany. Back home in 1983 I began my business career.
This began with a West German import and export company which represented major German manufacturers like Henkel cosmetics in West Africa. I started as Executive Secretary and ended up five years later as Manager. Then I founded my own company in 1987 which I ran part-time. The activities of the firm having increased dramatically in three years, I diversified into imports and exports. The brokerage business and trade representation constitute the main thrust of my buinsess now.
I have trained as a freelance writer for children and adults and have published in newspapers and magazines such as “Aim” and “Clubhouse” in America.
Hobbies:writing, reading, gardening, languages, music, traveling, and teaching. I am married and have 3 children.

I was speaking with a potential client the other day and asked THAT question…”Who is your target market?” As a provider of telecommunications equipment, his response was, “Anyone who has a phone!” While that may seem like a good answer, the reality is that it is completely unfocused and undoubtedly wastes thousands of dollars in marketing costs and tens of thousands of dollars in opportunity costs. After all, would you rather spend your valuable time with a prospect who buys 70% of the time, or one who buys 15% of the time?

The reality is that no matter what business you are in, no matter what product you sell, you can take a look back at your customers and very quickly determine the characteristics of those most likely to purchase your product or service. Why is this important? Let’s say you do sell telecommunications equipment like my prospect. When you examine your sales history, you find out that 80% of your customers have between 10 and 20 million dollars in sales, have more than 15 employees and are sole proprietorships. So you now know with indisputable proof that for whatever reason, a sole proprietor with $12 million dollars in sales and 20 employees is much more likely to buy from you than a partnership with $5 million in sales and 10 employees. How important can that be when planning your lead generation and conversion tactics?

Let’s briefly discuss defining some prime market segments, specific geographic markets, sizes and trends, characteristics of people and 12 very important reasons to profile your target customers.

1 - You will know how to communicate your message with a minimum of confusion when you know who your customers really are and deliberately set out to attract them.

2 - You will be better able to decide how to market your product or services to best reach prospects most likely to buy.

3 - You will know what additional services that your prospective customers or clients will want and expect from you.

4 - You will know what your target customers are willing to pay.

5 - You will know what your target customers will expect in terms of quality.

6 - You will know where large groups of target customers are located so you can market to them directly and cost effectively.

7 - You will know who else is after your target customers.

8 - Your customer will help you define your true market.

9 - You will be able to identify where it’s not only possible to possible to survive, but to prosper.

10 - When human needs aren’t being met, you’ll find a widening gap in the market and the key to opportunity.

11 - You will learn simple techniques that will help you gain insight into consumer behavior.

12 - It will be very important because you’ll be able to conceptualize your overall market.

Does this mean that we sell ONLY to our target market? Of course not! And does it mean that you give up on those outside your market? Again, a resounding NO! What it does give you is a place to start. When you aren’t sure WHY people outside your customer base aren’t buying, the first thing to do is to target prospects that have the same characteristics of your current customers.

The second, later thing to do is to find out WHY those outside your base are not buying and see if you can change that. It may be as obvious as no one under 30 buying your wrinkle reducing cream, but most likely it will be much more complicated. Once you are able to determine the reason for a particular group ignoring your sales message, you can address that issue.

Greg Beverly is a sales coach dedicated to helping create abundance for all who seek it. Find out how YOU can become a sales champion and live the life of your dreams by visiting http://www.salessuccess.yougethelp.com today.

How can you get more done?

Can you really do more than you already do? Is there still room left on your plate for even one more thing? The truth is I don’t know anyone (successful) who has too little to do. Not one of my many clients–nor any of my friends, acquaintances, or people I meet on planes–none of them has ever said they have too little to do.

Doing more to get more done is simply not an option.

The answer to doing more is doing less.

Less?

Do less?

Are you kidding? How’s that going to help? “I don’t get enough done as it is,” you say, “and there’s always more to do at the end of a day!”

Ask this transformational question: Is each activity you currently do providing the greatest possible payback? Or like many people, are you spending much of your precious time doing things which produce a relatively lower return? The key word is relatively.

To do more, you’ve got to figure out what not to do.

For most people, 100% of our time is filled with 1) routine day-to-day matters, 2) things we told other people we would do and 3) responding to (sometimes trivial) interruptions. To try to make something important happen, we end up shoving that thing into our schedule.

How well does that work? How well does a five pound bag hold ten pounds of stuff? You get the idea–not very well at all. And, of course, all the important stuff ends up spilling out onto the floor.

For some people, the bag is so full–there are so many to-dos on your to-do list, your reach the uncomfortable state of overwhelm. Your creativity gets totally locked out and your mind can’t even consider other, perhaps more important things.

You’ve got to figure out what not to do.

I’ve done casual research on this subject asking audiences of executives what things they do that they know they shouldn’t. This list of guilty pleasures includes answering emails as they come in throughout the day, handling the company finances, interviewing all candidates for all jobs, purchasing, filing, writing marketing copy and advertisements, signing all the checks, exercising final say on small product changes, and so on.

That’s not to say these things aren’t important–some are, even vitally so. The question is–are these the most important things for YOU to be doing, especially at this point in your organization’s development?

Often when I ask these questions, people respond by saying there is no one else who can do THAT as well as they can.

This thinking is typical of what Adam Smith called “absolute advantage.” Smith advocated doing all the things which you do better than anyone else. It is obvious, commonsense thinking. The trap for someone who is by nature highly and broadly capable is that you can end up doing everything, reluctant to let go of anything.

To the rescue is 19TH century economist David Ricardo’s Law of the Comparative Advantage of Nations. In a bold, counterintuitive bit of reasoning, Ricardo said to maximize wealth, each country should devote its energy to producing goods they sacrificed the least to create. In other words, Comparative Advantage says to produce the goods which create the highest value per unit of work. Everything else, regardless of how much better you do it than anyone else, should be done by others.

Assume your company makes a sophisticated high value product and you can sell as many as you can make. The product uses several cheap components, which by the way, you can also make better and cheaper than anyone else. Ricardo says that given limited resources (your time, for instance) it is a mistake to manufacture any of the components; each unit of time spent making the cheaper components instead of making the high-valued product costs you money –opportunity cost. To make the most profit, spend ALL your time making the high-value product, and purchase the components.

Ricardo’s law boils down to this: do the thing which brings the GREATEST RETURN–and nothing else. That which brings you the greatest value, and only that, is your comparative advantage.

Keep a list of all the separate things you do during the course of a day/week/month. You may think you know, but each time I ask an executive to try this exercise, they are surprised by the outcome.

Make a notation of what you are doing every 15 minutes. Keep this record for as long as you can–at least two or three days; a week or even two will reveal even more. (You must write this down. The process won’t work if you try to keep it in your head.)

What have you been doing? Have you been squandering your comparative advantage?

Is each action on your list HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE? Is each thing on your list MAKING YOU MONEY, or CHANGING THE WORLD (at least a little bit?)

No? Most people spend at least some of their time doing low-contribution activities. For most people, even if they consider what are doing important, there are usually even more important things they should do instead.

Once you’ve understood how you actually spend your time, you have three possible courses of action:

You can dump things–there are always some things which are of such little value that no one should be doing them.

You can delegate important things to capable people in your organization or outsource them to firms which specialize in those things.

Lastly, YOU can do the things which make the largest difference.

Apply Ricardo’s principle of comparative advantage. Figure out what specific actions contribute the most and do only those, offloading or dumping the rest. Do the same analysis for each department and each member of your company and create extraordinary results.

To do more–to get more done in terms of value–you have to do less.

(c) Copyright Paul Lemberg. All rights reserved

Paul Lemberg is the president of Quantum Growth Coaching, the world’s only fully systemized business coaching program guaranteed to help entrepreneurs rapidly create More Profits and More Life. To get your copy of our free special report with detailed steps on how to grow your business at least 40% faster, even when you aren’t sure what to do next, go to Paul’s business coaching website.

Click here if you are interested in Quantum’s Business Coaching Franchise opportunities.

Been shopping for online loans lately? It can be a tangled confusing mess that nets a person nothing but spam and aggravation. Like any other business decision, it’s wise to shop around, ask questions and make informed decisions.

Taking out any kind of loan can be intimidating, but once one is educated on the various loans and what is expected, the intimidation factor is erased. An informed consumer ready to take out a loan and no longer helpless to the banks or online lenders, is much better than one at the mercy of them.

For example the term “payday loan,” can be an odd term for some people. Not understanding the terminology of “payday loans” or “cash advances” can make one wary of such loans when it might be exactly what they need.

There are two types of bad credit personal loans, secured and unsecured. A homeowner may qualify for the secured personal loan and non-homeowners may apply for the unsecured bad credit personal loan. Bad credit should not affect one’s ability to obtain a home mortgage loan. The interest rate for a home mortgage loan will depend upon that person’s credit rating. If the credit score is 600 or above, the borrower is usually required to pay a 5% down payment. Credit scores that fall below 580 necessitate down payments of 20% or more. However, reputable bad credit mortgage lenders do not require unreasonable down payments of 50%.

Debt consolidation loans are another option to consider if one has a history of bad debt. These loans consolidate debts into one loan, allowing a person to make one monthly payment they can afford. Unsecured debt consolidation loans are not tied to one’s assets, and can eliminate annoying calls and letters from creditors, as well as helping to avoid filing bankruptcy.

It’s not easy shopping for online loans but with due diligence one can find the information needed to meet one’s needs. It’s important to understand the different kinds of loans as the different loans have different terms and different interest rates. One should not get caught up in a relationship where only dependence on the lender is your only avenue. Education on loan terminology will go a long way for one’s financial needs and security.

Connie Barker is the owner of several financial websites including: http://www.onlineloanreviews.com

Nikki Pilkington, of Milton Keynes based Internet marketing company NikkiPilkington.com tells us more about how article writing can help us sell more from our website.

Everyone focuses their web marketing efforts on search engines, and while this is a large part of traffic generation, it’s not the be all and end all of selling from your website.

One of my Weekly Tips a week or so ago was to write articles, and become an expert. Becoming an expert in other people’s eyes is sometimes as simple as being the person to write the article they read.

So here are 7 reasons why you should become An Expert to attract more visitors to your site.

1) By having an article out there, on other websites, in ezines and given out to potential clients, you’re branding both your website and yourself. Every article should include your name, business name, website address and email address, as well as a short sentence about what you do (called a resource box).

2) By writing about topics that you know about, you will become known as an expert. If people read enough of your articles, and find that they are helped by them, when they have money to spend then they’ll come to you.

3) Writing articles and submitting them to other websites may mean that you get a headline on the front page of their website. This is extra exposure for you and your company.

4) If a website archives its articles, you’ll still be getting advertising (for free!) days, weeks and months after you wrote the article. I still get visitors to my website www.nikkipilkington.com from an article that I originally wrote in 1996!

5) If your writing style is good, it may attract the attention of other online publishers, or even offline magazines, and you may be asked to write other articles, or even to speak at seminars. Not only is this work usually paid, it also spreads the word about your business even more.

6) If you write articles regularly, start up a mailing list so that anyone interested in reading them can sign up. Make sure that you send your articles to your mailing list before you send them anywhere else - give people a reason to be part of it! This gives you a list of people looking forward to your articles, and who will most probably visit your website after reading.

7) If you advertise in local media, writing an article is a good way to make your advert stand out - more advertorial than blatant advert. The reader gets advice and information, and in return they’ll remember you - build loyalty and when they’re eventually looking to spend money on the services you provide, they’ll think of you first

So there you have it - great reasons to write an article on something related to your business right now!

If you would like a list of places to submit your article to once it’s written, please email me and I can provide a list to you.

Nikki Pilkington is owner of Milton Keynes based Internet Marketing company NikkiPilkington.com, and writes articles, hints and tips to help people looking to promote their website for free. For more of her articles visit www.nikkipilkington.com and sign up to the newsletter.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nikki Pilkington is owner/manager of NikkiPilkington.com, an internet marketing consultancy based in Milton Keynes, UK. She has been marketing websites for almost ten years and specialises in high search engine placements and opt in email marketing

Let us renew our hope in humanity. It’s so easy to lose faith when someone cuts us off on the highway, when a ‘friend’ blows us off (for the second time) and fails to show, when we get burned in a business deal, when a co-worker doesn’t do what they said they were going to do, or when a colleague fails to keep their promise, etc.

At the same time, we DO encounter people showing heroic acts of kindness in our day-to-day lives. I’m talking about the simple things. In my case, there have been many examples:

* When I was running in the pouring rain, without an umbrella, wearing a spiffy suit, on my way to a meeting, a kind lady (a stranger) offered me her umbrella, gave me her address, and trusted I would return it when the rain died down.

* One day I had left my clothes in the Laundromat’s drying machine. When I returned to get my clothes, I was expecting a big piled-up heap of clothes to be thrown on the table, as usual. But this one time, some stranger had neatly folded ALL of my clothes right down to the socks and put it in a neat little pile beside the drying machine.

* I had lost a very nice leather-bound binder that was as good as new and would have made a really nice accessory. A couple days later I got a kind note from a stranger saying they had found my binder and that they would keep it in a safe place until I picked it up.

These random acts of kindness prove that people have an enormous capacity for good. I’m sure we’ve all seen this in action during the wake of the Tsunami disaster where so many Tsunami Heroes rose to the occasion risking their own lives to help save the lives of others.

And yet, when people don’t meet our standards of proper conduct and common courtesy, it can sometimes be so easy to lose hope, become bitter, and develop a hardened heart. I myself had an unspoken rule that came down to: “three strikes and your out.” It was pretty ruthless when I think back. Although I didn’t follow that rule right down to the letter, it was pretty close. So if someone failed to come through for me three times in a row (didn’t show up for a meeting or came really late, failed to honor their word, or kept avoiding an important issue that needed to be addressed) they were basically ‘cut-off’ from my life. Needless to say, I lost a lot of friends (and business) that way.

Life is not a baseball game. Life is life. It’s an unsolved mystery. Shit happens…but if it didn’t we’d all be constipated. We need to renew our hope in humanity and embrace people with a wider-vision of who they are so they can eventually expand and grow to fill that space. If we don’t give people much space we will continually be disappointed as people keep coming short of our expectations.

It is far better to make the extra effort to look for the good, to look for the Buddha within, than to look for the bad. Nelson Mandela could have come out of jail a very bitter man. Yet he CHOSE to hope! Here is an excerpt from my book, Psychology of the Hero Soul, which illustrates the point:

“Nelson Mandela, a man who suffered years of cruelty and injustice in the hands of his enemies, was still able to see a ray of hope in humanity. In his autobiography, he wrote: ‘I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or is religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than it’s opposite. Even in the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to the limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps just for a second, but it was enough to reassure me and keep me going. Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.’”

Let us renew our hope in humanity. And if we are to err, let us err on the side of compassion, generosity, and tolerance.

Sharif Khan is a professional speaker and author of “Psychology of the Hero Soul,” an inspirational book on awakening the Hero within and developing people’s leadership potential. You can reach him at sharif@herosoul.com or by visiting http://www.herosoul.com

Sharif provides inspirational keynotes and leadership development workshops that entertain, educate, and empower. To book Sharif as a speaker for your next event call:
(416) 417-1259.

The internet is the information super highway, this phrase has been used so many times it should be nominated for the Internet Cliché Award. People who go to the internet are subdivided into groups, but generally, they are out to search for information. Whether it’s for gaming, for business, fun or anything else, the internet has provided us with information that has proved to be very beneficial.

Through the recent years, many people have learned the secrets of Search Engine Optimization. More and more sites have seen the effects articles have done for the traffic of their sites. Some have even created sites devoted entirely to providing articles that could be read by their website visitors and have links that could lead to many sites that are related to the topics and subjects of the articles.

For example, the sites may feature many articles about a whole lot of topics. As a website visitor reads the articles they have searched for, they can find at the end of the article a resource box that can be clicked on to link them to the site that has submitted the article. Of course the article would be in relation to the site. Lets say if the article is about rotating the tires, the resource box may lead to a link to a site that sells tires or car parts.

A resource box is what you usually find at the end of an article. They will contain the name of the author, a brief description of the author, a brief description of the sponsoring site and a link. If a reader likes what they read, they would have the tendency to find out where the article came from to read more. The resource box will be their link to the source of the article and this will entice them to go to the site and do some more reading or research for the subject or topic they are interested in.

But like the article itself, the resource box must also be eye-catching to demand the attention and interest of the reader. While the resource box encompasses only a small space, providing the right keywords and content for your resource box will provide more prodding for the reader to go to your site.

Now we know what resource boxes are, what are the benefits of having a good resource box? Mainly its driving traffic to your site. Many sites would allow articles to be placed in their sites because they can make use of the articles to fill their pages. They also get affiliation with other sites that can be beneficial for them as well. For the sponsoring site, when you get people to click on your resource box, you generate traffic that can be counted upon as potential customers.

So what would be a good content for your resource box? Basically it is keywords. Learning about the proper keywords that people are mainly searching for. There are many tools you can find in the internet that can help you in determining what keywords to use.

Resource boxes can also make use of all the creativity it can get. You only get a small space for your resource box so you had better make the most of it. Try to catch the attention of your reader with resource box content that will make them take a second look. Unlike TV ads, you don’t have visual aids to drive your point in. But you do have the power of imagination of a reader. With the right content, you can make them think and, ultimately, click through to your web site.

Another tip is to use keywords that should be related to your site. Do not mislead your potential website visitors. Build your credibility so that more people would get enticed to visit your site and browse what you have to offer. Make the people click your resource box by providing resource box content that makes a lasting impression. You only get one chance to wow them and hundreds of chances to repulse them.

Never underestimate the power of the resource box. It may be small in size but they will provide a significant aid in driving traffic to your site. A boring resource box will never get the job done. Be fun and creative but at the same time show that you have a great deal to offer, too much to ask for something that couldn’t fit a paragraph? Yes and no, there are many tips and guides that can help you in doing this, the first step is realizing how important a resource box could be in making people click your link and be directed to your site.

Discover the best kept secrets of writing successful articles that literally send a massive surge of highly targeted visitors flooding to your web site. Traffic for Words reveals all.
http://www.trafficforwords.com

The NIT and the NCAA Tournament both begin tonight as 14 teams start play in the National Invitation Tournement, while Hampton and Monmouth officially start the NCAA Tournament by participating in the play-in game.

Below is a look at both college basketball games on ESPN national television for Tuesday night.

NCAA Tournament

HAMPTON vs. MONMOUTH (-4, 124) (at Dayton, OH) (ESPN)

It is no surprise that Hampton is meeting Monmouth in the play-in game as these two clubs have the two weakest RPI’s in this year’s tournament. Hampton is the worst team in the Field of 65 with a RPI of 284 and the Pirates needed to win four games in four days last week in the Mid-Eastern Conference tournament. The Pirates won outright in the finals, 60-56, as a 5-point underdog versus the top team in the conference, Delaware State, who had a solid RPI of 123.

Hampton started the season just 1-7 SU as they were missing some key players in November and December; however the Pirates finished with a solid 15-8 SU run over their past twenty-three games. Hampton played an incredibly weak schedule as they faced only seven teams ranked in the RPI top 200 and they went just 2-5 SU in those seven games.

Monmouth also pulled an upset in their conference tournament and beat the top two teams, Central Connecticut State and Fairleigh Dickinson, to ensure a bid. Monmouth has the second worst RPI in the Field of 65 this year. Monmouth’s RPI is 144 and they were 7-8 SU versus the top 200 opponents they faced.

Both teams have solid defenses as each club lead their conferences in field goal percentage allowed. Hampton allowed just 39.1 percent and Monmouth permitted only 40.8 percent in conference games this season.

NIT

VIRGINIA at STANFORD (-4 , 129 ) (ESPN)

Both Virginia and Stanford have struggled down the stretch as Cavaliers were 1-4 SU (1-3-1 ATS) over the past five games while Stanford was 2-4 SU (1-5 ATS) over their final six games.

There have been no recent head-to-head meetings between these squads; however they did have three common opponents this season (Gonzaga, Virginia Tech, and Arizona). Virginia lost both games versus Arizona and Gonzaga and was 3-0 SU/ATS in three meetings versus in-state rival Virginia Tech, including a recent win in the ACC Tournament last Thursday.

Stanford lost both games versus Gonzaga and Virginia Tech and also went 0-3 SU (1-2 ATS) in three meetings versus conference rival Arizona, including a loss last Thursday in the PAC 10 Tournament.

Overall, Virginia was 3-2 SU (4-1 ATS) against common opponents this season, while Stanford was 0-5 SU (2-3 ATS) in those same games. Virginia was outscored by an average score of 63-69 per game and outshot 43-45 percent from the field, while Stanford lost by average score of 70-76, but outshot their opponents 46-45 percent overall.

Stanford has the edge of playing this game on their home court, where the Cardinal were 10-3 SU this season. Virginia was just 4-11 SU away from home, but the Cavaliers do have a slightly higher RPI of 80, while Stanford finished with a RPI of 86. Virginia also fared better against quality teams, going 5-12 SU versus the RPI Top 100, while Stanford was just 2-9 SU versus that same level of competition.

Steve Merril is a documented member of the Professional Handicappers League.
Read all of his articles at http://www.procappers.com/Steve_Merril.htm