This is what i share

Social Media and the Need for New Business Models

2011-03-06T07:37:00.001-08:00

Social media is not about conversations on Twitter and Facebook nor check-ins on Foursquare or Places, or flipped videos on YouTube. It’s about using this opportunity to build bridges to a new genre of customers and the people who influence their decisions. Our mission now is to pave paths to future relevance.

via briansolis.com

Successful Brands Take Risks | Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

2011-02-26T07:03:00.001-08:00

The story of the talents

One day a man was going on a long trip. He needed his servants to take care of his property while he was gone, so he called them to him. To the first servant he gave 5 Talents of money (Equivalent to about $1,000). This man went to work at once investing the money until he had doubled it. He now had 10 Talents instead of 5.

The master gave the second man 2 Talents. He probably thought the man was capable of managing that amount of money. The second man was also successful and doubled his money. He began with 2 Talents and now had twice as much.

The third man was not as capable as the other two, but the master gave him 1 Talent with the expectation that he would manage it well. However, the third man feared taking a risk. Unquestionably he too could have increased his money, but decided the risk was too great and dug a hole in the ground where he buried the 1 Talent.

After a long while, the master returned and asked for a report from his servants. The man who had received 5 Talents brought his money and showed the master that he had doubled it. He was happy to show his master the results. The master was well pleased and said, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful and wise. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

The man that had been given 2 Talents showed the master that he too had doubled his money. He received the same words of praise as the first man who had produced 10 talents; and shared in his master’s happiness.

The man who had received 1 Talent dug up the Talent he had buried and brought it to the master. He accused the master of being a hard man to work for. He said he had been afraid to take a risk; so he just buried his 1 Talent in the ground to protect what he had. He gave it back to the master saying, “See, here is what belongs to you.”

The master was very angry with him and called him a wicked, lazy servant. He said the man should have at least put the money with bankers and received some interest. The master took his 1 Talent away from him and gave it to the man who had 10 Talents; and punished the 1-Talent man because he had not properly invested the Talent he had been entrusted with.

via personalbrandingblog.com

Obliquity - Melih Arat

2011-02-19T02:21:00.001-08:00

There are three phases of happiness. The first phase is a momentary feeling. It is like eating the cake, for which the taste is fleeting. The second phase is the state of the mind, like feeling good when you help somebody. In this phase the period of happiness lasts a little longer, however, it is still very short. The third phase is eudaimonia, which is the happiness we feel when we fulfill our potential. It is something akin to being a good parent or climbing a mountain. With reference to this model, an oblique-indirect approach might provide more and long lasting happiness for people. It is best to prefer fishing as an experience rather than the outcome of catching 100 fish because the journey is more important than the destination.

via meliharat.com

altaegitimbulten@gmail.com

Some mails which are making spam

2011-02-09T01:56:00.001-08:00

There are some mail addresses making spam. This list is generated from Outlook blocked mails feature.

acaidestek@gmail.com

adana@platon.com.tr

akaytek@ekomailing.com

anitevdenevenakliyat@windowslive.com

askatesi@afrodizyak.gen.tr

b.duransel@checkupbilgimerkezi.com

best_tanitim_sektor@yahoo.com

bilgi@srv1.maxiposta.net

bilginolsun@tabelaimalat.tk

birbilenesordunuzmu@gmail.com

bothaharvey@altavista-sexygirls.blogspot.com

chndgn@hotmail.com

davet@vipdukkan.com

denge_diksiyon_egtm@yahoo.com

duyuru@evlilikenstitusu.com

duyuru@prizmail.com

egitim@iltemegitim.com

egitimbati_mrk@ymail.com

egitimsetlerimiz@mynet.com

ekopanel@ekomailing.com

eticaret-bounces@devnokta.com

finans_san_cd@yahoo.com

gunesbal@sunucu2globalmesaj.com

ihtarlar@kuranindir.com

imesegtm@gmail.com

info@artelektronik1.com

info@bosphorussend.com

info@digitatek.com

info@ekomedya.info

info@kanadakulturmerkezi.com.tr

info@personelshop.com

info@pukodanismanlik1.com

ingilizceegitim@mynet.com

kitunion@gmail.com

kurumsal@fuldent.com

matbaa@atasevmatbaa.com

neslihan@sadecedogal.com

news@gezclub.net

noreply@badoo.com

noreply@toplumailmerkezi.com

omercolak41@gmail.com

pietra@ekomailing.com

satis@eveofise.com

seckinurun@yahoo.com

seoanalizi@mynet.com

sistem_kariyer_sm@ymail.com

steelpipesupplier@163.com

teoman@eventista.com

ticaretberlin_ithalat@yahoo.com

tresan@ekomailing.com

tumata@ekomailing.com

www.merlintravel.com.tr@gmail.com

x360@ttmail.com

yazilimsatisplatformu@ekomailing.com

zealb317@archouma.com

Tools for Getting Things Done - Getting Things Done Wiki

2010-10-23T15:50:00.001-07:00

GTD Software Tools for PC & Mac (alphabetical order)

5PM is a web-based project management tool with an intuitive web-interface. Though it packs a lot of features, it's very easy to use.
Accomplice is a free Windows application that helps you get things done, and even lets you sync some of your activities with other people across a secured internet connection.
Actiontastic - is a Quicksilver-friendly, iCal/PDA-syncing action contextifying machine.
aTask - is a easy to use next action, project- and timemanagement tool. Runs on Windows.
Bill Kratz's Setting up Outlook for GTD - not technically software, but his Contacts-As-Projects approach is unique and useful.
BillsTrust - turns every bill into a 2 minute action, even your handwritten ones. They automatically pay by the due day, all you need to do is fax or scan it to them.
Bontq - web based task tracker system for project management.
Checkvist - online collaborative outliner and task list manager with group work support, notifications, and extensive use of natural keyboard shortcuts.
ConceptDraw Mindmap - This "is an extremely powerful, flexible office tool, which handles the basic task it sets itself and a fair few more besides" (from PcPlus rewiew). Runs on both Mac OS X and Windows.
A speed up mac os x software.
donForget - Managing day-to-day tasks can be fun, with this simple to use list and tasks manager. It includes a dashboard to evaluate your work and rewards every step of the productivity way with a Badge system much like Foursquare.
EasyTask Manager - Easy Task is a To-Do / Task Manager list that supports the GTD (“Getting Things Done”) method. Runs on Windows or Mac.
eProductivity for Lotus Notes - For Lotus Notes users, eProductivity is the ultimate GTD implementation tool for Lotus Notes. used by David Allen and many others, it makes getting things done in Lotus Notes easy. Runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux.
FunkyTools - A free, full-featured, online application witten in Silverlight. Allows easy entry and management of tasks.
FusionDesk - is elegant and flexible task management tool that allows you to easily do GTD and track your work time. It has both a paid and a free version.
Get It Done - GTD task manager software - Simple but powerful Web 2.0, iPhone, and Android task manager software runs online on Windows and Mac
GTDify - Getting Things Done! - GTDify is a simple web-based application to help you implement David Allen’s Getting Things Done™ methodology.
Getting Things Done add-in for Outlook - Produced in parternship with the David Allen Co.
Ghost Action - A to do list manager for GTD with synchronization of actions, contexts and projects to iCal. Mac only.
GoalEnforcer - A visual goal mapping software, it can implement complex goal plans as well as simple to do lists. The new hyperfocus zone is a good match for GDT "Next Action."
GoalsOnTrack - A full-featured goal tracking and time management web application for reaching personal and professional goals.
GTD for Lotus Notes - Free template for Lotus Notes
GTD on wikidPad - A quick set-up guide for extracting contexted Next Actions from projects, using the windows (or Linux with Wine) desktop wikidPad.(Self-link)
GTDGmail - Plugin for firefox to use GMail as a GTD tool easily
GTD-PHP - PHP/MySQL for web site hosted GTD system
Gtd on Rails - Simple web-based GTD Tool designed for personal use.
GTD Tree - Windows application for GTD.
iGTD - Application for implementing GTD under Mac OS X. Allows task recurrence, file attachments, and tagging. Optionally add new tasks or open file attachments through an integrated, systemwide menu bar Also supports "Quicksilver":http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/.
iKog - Simple text to do list system. Supports GTD contexts. Cross-platform - Python 2.4+.
Information Management Tool @ Getting Things Done is ideal for fans of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. Get all tools needed to create your own structure of a logical and trusted system outside of your head, merge individual to-do lists and project plans into a strategic plan, organize your project data to keep everything in one place and under control.
Instant Boss - Time management & productivity boosting tool based on a concept from 43folders. Implements the (10+2)*5 concept of timing work/break cycles where you work in 10 minute bursts followed by 2 minute breaks, repeating this 5 times for a total of 1 hour. Provides audio & visual alerts for when you should be working and when it is ok to take a break. The work and break time lengths and number of cycles can be adjusted to suit your needs. Freeware/Donationware. Windows only.
Jello Dashboard - The best Outlook GTD plugin - and it is free.
Joe's Goals - A free Web 2.0 daily goal tracker to monitor your consistency.
kGTD - an OmniOutliner-based GTD environment with tight iCal integration and support for contexts, tickler files, review lists and a bunch more.
Macro for good recurring tasks in Outlook 2003
mailxel - personal mail client and mail archive using the GTD approach
Manymoon - Free and simple task management application that includes ability to share tasks with others!
Midnight Inbox - Application for GTD implementing the five processing stages, with the main types of electronic document: projects, email messages, files, contexts and tasks. Claims that 'clean lines and elegant typography make it the best in its class for keeping lists and notes'. MacOSX 10.4
MindManager - Visual "mind mapping" software for Mac and Windows. Used by David Allen and employees of Davidco as an efficient way to capture ideas and tasks, visually organize lists, conduct creative brainstorming, plan and manage products. See ResultsManager by www.gyronix.com for more examples of how to apply mind mapping to GTD.
MonkeeBiz - A simple to-do list service with daily email reminders, automatic task scheduling, and Twitter integration.
MonkeyGTD - A GTD system based on TiddlyWiki (TiddlyWiki is a personal wiki that works offline).
MyInfo - Personal-reference information manager for Windows. Excellent as a general-reference filing system for electronic documents.
MyLife Organized - New hierarchical to-do list outliner with GTD roots. True NextActions and Contexts. Collaboration using FTP and LAN sync. Sync with PocketPC edition and Outlook. Import/Export from MindManager. Flash USB drive compatible. Lightweight yet powerful tool.
Next Action - A todo-list tracking tool written as a single page application in Javascript, saved on your hard drive/USB key.
NextActionCards - Preprinted task cards on business card stock, to use to capture tasks and task info while out and about, and then later enter into computer or PDA program
Nexty - Nexty is a easy to use GTD tool created in PHP. It can be installed in a local server or in a online web server. The core idea behind this software is simplicity. I wanted to make a GTD tool that is the most easy to use.
Nirvanahq.com - Nirvana is a beautifully designed, lighting fast web app that makes organizing your life a breeze - freeing your mind to do it's best creative thinking. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, iPhone, Android.
Nozbe - Online Getting Things Done productivity system featuring quick web2.0 interface.
OpenNTF Productivity Extensions for Notes - Template for Lotus Notes
Penzu - A free online diary and personal journal with extra privacy features.
Pimki - A wiki based PIM with contextual todo's. Written in Ruby and release as open source.
Planner mode for the editor emacs. Not specifically designed for GTD, but fits the system very well.
Propel'r - a soon-to-be-released web-based GTD project management application that lets you do collaborative GTD.
pyGTD - text based todo system written in Python. Works on Windows, Linux and Mac.
Qlockwork - easy-to-use time-tracking software integrated with Outlook - automatically writes all your activities into an Outlook calendar, and generates reports showing where time was spent. Works on Windows.
Ready-Set-Do!- A set of applescripts that comprehensively integrates all of one's files and programs into David Allen's GTD workflow. Has some nice Quicktime movie tutorials and a Sync iCal ToDos plug-in. Mac-only.
Remember the Milk - Very clean and powerful todo list and task manager with a lot of nifty features.
ResultsManager - Implements GTD for MindManager mind mapping software. Creates dashboards to sort Next Actions by context, by project, etc. Pro version syncs with Outlook.
Simple GTD - Simple GTD is a completely free web-based tool which help you in organizing your stuff and will assist you to applying "GTD Principles" in your daily life.
Siphon - Siphon follows the 'Ideas anywhere' thought, allowing you to enter ideas either from a Windows client, a PocketPC client, or the website itself.
TaskBin - a group task management tool for getting things done and sharing tasks. An online to do list for effective group management and team management. "Learn More":http://taskbin.com/todolist/tasks_sign_up
TaskFreak! TaskFreak! is a simple but efficient web based task manager written in PHP. GTD compliant.
TaskPad - Intuitive task manager with full synchronization for iPhone, iPod, iPad and easy to use web site. No monthly fees.
Taskpaper+ A simple, uncluttered task/todo manager, based on the Taskpaper concept. All your precious data is stored in plain text files, using a very logical wiki-like syntax. Tasks can be quickly added, deleted, archived, filtered, searched and tagged. Very faster, very focused. Browser-based, includes tiny, portable, local server.
Tasktoy - free & lean GTD-centered web-based todo & project tracking. Mobile access, can be fed via email.
TaskTiger - A task and time management software. Supports automated activity tracking, multiple filters, task due reminders etc. Take a visual tour or read the wiki for the full feature list.
TaskWriter - free & simple GTD-centered web-based application.
tedium - Web-based todo manager with customisable tag- or date-related views
Things - Things combines powerful features with simplicity, based on the GTD methodology. Mac/iPhone.
Thinking Rock - Free Java software based on the GTD methodology. Very simple to set-up and use. Windows/Mac/Linux.
Tinderbox - The tool for notes is a perfect tool for capturing everything and revealing it in a GTD centric way. Customizable to fit any workflow, simple or complex GTD templates. More Discussion and Links
The GTD toolbox - Software developers team present new project in GTD software, and review advantages and disadvantages of other systems and software.
Todoist - A simple web-based todo list manager to help you get organized.
ToDoList - a simple todo list which works with Vista.
Toodledo- Full featured todo list manager.
Tracks - A web-based GTD application written in Ruby and released under the GPL. Check out some Screenshots
tracks.tra.in - Another free hosted version of Tracks.
Trog Bar - Automatically recommends/prioritizes tasks in a GTD-friendly Windows sidebar. Processes email like tasks. Direct Outlook integration.
Tudumo - Windows GTD - tag your actions - very simple looking but awesome filtering.
tweeto - Browser based todo list manager that works both online and offline.
uOrganized - simple, but powerful and friendly application to organize your tasks and your notes using a calendar, structured in folders and sub-folders, 9 types of alarm actions including Free SMS and Email notification, Computer Shutdown and many more
Viira Outlook GTD Suite - The first integrated BlackBerry-Outlook GTD system. Offers an inbox, projects, contexts, day tasks, next actions and more. Seamless wireless sync between Outlook and BlackBerry. Free trial available.
uTodo - FREE and fast GTD software with due dates, tags, categories, easy filters. Fully keyboard enabled.
Vitalist - Online GTD.
wikiGTD - This GTD-related MediaWiki extension creates custom tags for you to insert dynamic Next Action lists, Projects, and Contexts. This software is actively being developed; the current version (0.3.0 as of May 2005) is suitable for web developers and power users.
What's Next - cross-platform application focusing on simplicity and a streamlined user experience. Quicksilver-like matching of projects, context and action names.
ZenList- A free hosted version of Tracks! (note: This is discontinued from Nov 2006)
Zoot- An unstructured database implementation with a powerful text engine, outlook integration and a host of features. The Zoot Forum has several ideas on implementing GTD on Zoot.
Doit.im - Doit.im is built on the Adobe AIR platform,supports cross-platform usage,can work well in OS of Windows, Linux and Mac.Doit.im is a powerful, clear and easy yet free task management tool.
Mac-How - Everything about Macintosh OS

via gtd.jeffsandquist.com

iDEAL

2010-09-24T01:47:00.001-07:00

iDEAL is an Internet payment method in The Netherlands, based on online banking. Introduced in 2005, this payment method allows customers to buy securely on the Internet using direct online transfers from their bank account. iDEAL processed 4,5 million transfers in 2006, 15 million transfers in 2007, 28 million transfers in 2008 and 45.4 million in 2009^[1]. iDEAL is owned by the Dutch organization Currence, which also owns PIN and Chipknip.

The participating banks in iDEAL are: ABN AMRO, ASN Bank, Fortis, Friesland Bank, ING Bank, Rabobank, Royal Bank of Scotland and SNS Bank^[2]. Together these are serving the vast majority of the Dutch online banking market.

Giropay

2010-09-24T01:45:00.001-07:00

Giropay is an Internet payment System in Germany, based on online banking. Introduced in February 2006, this payment method allows customers to buy securely on the Internet using direct online transfers from their bank account. The system is similar to the Dutch iDEAL payment system, the Interac Online service in Canada and Secure Vault Payments^[1] in the United States. giropay is owned by giropay GmbH.

http://blog.softlayer.com/2010/three-walks-of-speed/

Three Walks of Speed

2010-09-03T00:39:00.001-07:00

Web Hosting Companies like SoftLayer and their competitors usually fit into one of these three categories:

Mr. Safe – always taking the slow path, never doing anything innovative, always playing it safe, never leading the way.
Mr. Stationary – a little more adventurous, but not wanting to get in too much of a hurry. He could move a little faster, but why use all that energy when he can sit back and enjoy the ride.
Mr. Hurrysome – fastest walker, always a step ahead of everyone else, a leader with new technology services like CDN, Data Transfer Services, covering more ground per second than anyone around him, always the first to arrive.

Nokia is discontinuing the Ovi Files service

2010-09-01T23:27:00.001-07:00

Nokia is discontinuing the Ovi Files service, effective October 1, 2010.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

Please make sure to uninstall the Ovi Files Connector installed on your personal computer. To do this, execute the standard Windows or Macintosh uninstall procedure that came with your computer. You will not lose any files as a result of this service discontinuation. Ovi Files simply creates an 'online mirror' of the files saved on your Windows PC or Mac, so your original files will remain intact. The files on your computer are always treated as the master version, even if some are selected as 'Anytime Files.'

You will still be able to share content between your phone and PC using another Nokia product, Nokia Ovi Suite. With Nokia Ovi Suite installed on your PC, you can do the following: sync your contacts and messages; transfer videos, photos, and music; back up your Nokia and update your device software. Please note that this is not a direct substitute for Ovi Files as Nokia Ovi Suite requires a wired connection between your PC and mobile device. For more information visit www.ovi.com/suite.

Top 10 Reasons to Use Social Media for Business

2010-09-01T06:29:00.001-07:00

1- Brand Recognition: Using social media allows your company to reach the highest number of potential customers possible. Getting your name out there is incredibly important - studies have suggested that customers need to hear a company's name at least seven times before they will gain the trust and respect needed to become a customer.

2- Brand Monitoring: Having a social media presence allows you to better understand what current and potential customers are saying about your product or services. Through active social media monitoring, you have the opportunity to address negative comments and correct false or inaccurate information about your brand.

3- Be Forward-Thinking: Your target audience is becoming savvier when it comes to the using social media sites in their daily lives. If you want to appear relevant and in-step with the latest advances in technology, your potential customers will want to see you on these sites as well.

4- Find New Customers Through Friends: You shouldn't neglect your personal social media accounts as potential avenues to promote the activities of your business. Posting regular updates relating to your business and activities can remind your friends of what your company does and either to use your services or refer one of their friends.

5- Find New Customers Through a Company Profile: Your company profile is a great opportunity for you to post regular updates on your activities, but also about important news and trends in your industry. This will catch the attention of new customers interested in your industry and increase your reputation as an expert in the field. It's critical to post regularly if you want to increase your followers or fans and convert them to potential leads.

6- Generate Site Traffic: By updating regularly on sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn with posts that link back to your site, you can create additional traffic to your site. Social media bookmarking tools like Digg, Stumbleupon and Slashdot can also generate additional traffic to your site if you create frequent articles and blog posts.

7- Links for SEO: Many social media bookmarking sites use NOFOLLOW tags that limit the outbound link value of posts made on their sites. There are still many leading social media sites that allow DOFOLLOW tags including Slashdot, Digg, Furl, Mixx and FriendFeed. However, you can see benefits from posting to social media bookmarking sites that use NOFOLLOW tags if people read your posts and link back to your Website.

8- Increased Search Engine Rankings: Social media profiles frequently rank highly with major search engines. Using brand names and keywords in your profiles can help you to generate traffic for your social media sites and company homepage.

9- Integrated Social Media Results in Search Engines: Search engines like Google and Microsoft Bing are increasingly interested in indexing and ranking posts and other information from social media sites. Videos from popular Internet sites like YouTube can also be optimized for indexing by the major search engines.

10- Niche Marketing: Social media allows you to reach very specific subsets of individuals based on their personal preferences and interests. You can create social media strategies based on reaching individual interests or even create unique social media profiles to target these audiences.

Preparing an Online Questionnaire - How to Conduct an Online Survey

2010-07-31T06:11:00.001-07:00

Review the basic objectives of the study. What are you trying to discover? What actions do you want to take as a result of the survey? This helps you double check the validity of the data collection mechanism. Online Surveys are just one way of collecting and quantifying perspectives.

Visualize all of the relevant information items you would like to have. What will the output report look like? What charts and graphs will be prepared? What information do you need to be assured that action is warranted?

Rank each topic in items 1 and 2 according to the value of the topic. List the most important topics first. Revisit items 1 and 2 again to make sure the objectives, topics and information you need are appropriate. Remember, you can't solve the problem if you ask the wrong questions.

How easy or difficult is it for the respondent to provide information on each topic? If it is difficult, is there another way to obtain the information by asking another question?
This is probably the most important step. Online Surveys have to be Precise, Clear and Concise. Due to the nature of the "Web" and the fickleness associated, if your questions are too complicated and are not easy to understand, you will have a high "drop out" rate.

Create a sequence for the topics that is unbiased. Make sure that the questions asked first do not bias the results of the next questions. Sometimes providing too much information, or disclosing purpose of the study can create bias.
Once you have a sequence of topics, you can have a basic layout of a survey. It is always prudent to add an "Introductory" text to explain the project and what is required off the respondent. It is also professional to have an ending "Thank You" text as well as information about where to find the results of the survey, when they are published.

Determine the type of question that is best suited to answer the question and provide enough robustness to meet analysis requirements. This means do you use open-ended text questions, dichotomous, multiple choice, rank order, scaled, or constant sum (ratio scale) questions. There is a fine line you need to walk here - Generally tougher analysis requirements will lead to more complicated questionnaire design. However there are a couple of tools available to make life easier: -

Page Breaks - Avoid having a huge scrolling survey. Introduce page breaks as necessary. Please also refrain from just having one question per page. This increases the time to complete the survey as well as increases the chances for "drop outs".

Skip Login - Use Page Skip Logic to make your surveys "Smart". Avoid using text like, "If you answered No to Q1 then Answer Q4" - this causes respondent frustration and increases the "drop out" rate. Design the survey using the Page Logic so that the correct questions are automatically routed based on previous responses.

Write the questions. You may need to write several questions for each topic, selecting the best one. You might also be better off dividing the survey into multiple sections.

Sequence the questions so that they are unbiased.

Repeat all of the steps above to find any major holes. Are the questions really answered? Have someone review it for you.

Time the length of the survey. A survey should take less than five minutes. At three to four questions per minute, you are limited to about 15 questions. One open end text question counts for three multiple choice questions. Most online software tools will record the time taken for the respondents to answer questions.

Pretest the survey to 20 or more people. Obtain their feedback... in detail. What were they unsure about? Did they have questions? Did they have trouble understanding what you wanted? Did they take a point of view not covered in your answers or question?

An easy way to do this is to create another survey, with a few "open ended" essay questions along with your main project. Let's call this the "feedback survey".
Email the "Project" survey to your test group and then email the "feedback" survey also after that.
In that way, you can have your test group send you comments regarding the functionality as well as usability of your "Project" survey by using you "feedback survey"!

Revise your online questionnaire incorporating the feedback that you got.

Send the Survey out to all your respondents!

via esurveyspro.com

Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Nuts and Bolts

2010-07-31T06:05:00.001-07:00

Here are general recommendations:

Keep it simple. Your customers want to respond to your survey, but you should make it as easy as possible for them. How you invite them to participate, the way you ask questions and what design template you use will affect participation rates. In many regards, the simpler the better. Also, write your questions clearly so that people who are not native speakers of your language can understand the questions.

Keep it short. Choose the length of your survey based on the type of product or service you sell, how much they spent for your product or how often they use the product or contact your company. Generally speaking, about 20 to 30 questions are appropriate for an image-based survey and no more than ten are appropriate for a transactional survey (more on what these two types of surveys are in the next section). Any survey over 40 questions will have a high abandonment rate.

Keep your implied promises. If your goal is to identify what your organization can change to improve satisfaction levels, you need to be willing to respond to survey results. Your customers will view the survey as a mechanism by which they can affect change. If they don't see any improvements, they will become disillusioned and will view the company negatively. This means you need to concentrate on measuring concrete factors over which you have control, such as response time, delivery policies, support professionalism, and order accuracy. Avoid generalized questions such as "Do you think XYZ is a good company?" One respondent may think "good" refers to skill, while the next may think it means morally good. In both cases, you can't learn enough from this type of question to make any concrete changes.

via esurveyspro.com

DEVELOPING AN ACTION PLAN THAT RECTIFIES WEAKNESSES & BUILDS ON THE STRENGTHS

2010-07-31T05:29:00.001-07:00

A five-step process can be used to make these longer-term improvements.

Step 1: Spot the gap

Look at the customer satisfaction data to see where there are low absolute scores and low scores relative to the competition

Pay particular attention to those issues that are important to customers

Assume the scores are correct unless there is irrefutable evidence to the contrary – and remember, perceptions are reality

Step 2: Challenge and redefine the segmentation

How do satisfaction scores vary across different types of customer?

Are segments correctly defined in the light of the customer satisfaction findings?

How could a change in segmentation direct the offer more effectively and so achieve higher levels of satisfaction?

Step 3: Challenge and redefine the customer value propositions

Are customer satisfaction scores low because the customer value proposition (CVP) is not being communicated effectively to the market?

Are customer satisfaction scores low because the CVP is not being effectively implemented?

Is the CVP right for the segment? How could a change in CVP achieve a higher customer satisfaction index (CSI)?

Step 4: Create an action plan

Describe the problem

Think through the issues that need to be addressed and list them out

Identify the root cause of the problems

Identify any barriers that could stop the improvement taking place
Set measurable targets

Allocated resources (usually money and people)

Assign people and time scales to the tasks

Measure and review progress

Step 5: Measure and review

How has the customer satisfaction index (CSI) moved?

Is the movement significant/real?

Has the action recommended in the plan, taken place? Has it been enough? Has it had enough time to work?

Revisit the steps – spot the gap, challenge the segmentation and CVP, more action

Many of the issues that affect customer satisfaction span functional boundaries and so organisations must establish cross-functional teams to develop and implement action plans. One of the best ways of achieving this involvement by different groups of employees is to involve them in the whole process.

via b2binternational.com

Customer Satisfaction Surveys | B2B International Business-to-Business Market Research Consultants

2010-07-31T01:59:00.001-07:00

In customer satisfaction research we seek the views of respondents on a variety of issues that will show how the company is performing and how it can improve. This understanding is obtained at a high level (“how satisfied are you the ABC Ltd overall?”) and at a very specific level (“how satisfied are you with the clarity of invoices?”).

High level issues are included in most customer satisfaction surveys and they could be captured by questions such as:

What is your overall satisfaction with ABC Ltd?

How likely or unlikely are you to buy from ABC Ltd again?

How likely or unlikely would you be to recommend ABC Ltd to a friend or colleague?

It is at the more specific level of questioning that things become more difficult. Some issues are of obvious importance and every supplier is expected to perform to a minimum acceptable level on them. These are the hygiene factors. If a company fails on any of these issues they would quickly lose market share or go out of business. An airline must offer safety but the level of in-flight service is a variable. These variables such as in-flight service are often the issues that differentiate companies and create the satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Working out what questions to ask at a detailed level means seeing the world from the customers’ points of view. What do they consider important? These factors or attributes will differ from company to company and there could be a long list.

via b2binternational.com

200+ Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter

2010-07-24T07:02:00.001-07:00

The twitter train is pulling up, are you on board yet? Twitter is one of the most revolutionary messaging systems to come out in my opinion since AOL Instant Messenger back in 1997. It allows groups of users to simultaneously engage in conversations all at the same time, similar to being in a “chat room” in AOL. As a marketer this can be a golden tool if utilized properly for personal reputation management reasons.

Many underground conversations go on within Twitter that never make it to the blogosphere or news sites. It can be a dynamite location for link bait ideas, breaking stories, and general topics you might not think about on a daily basis. You might even find yourself obtaining clientèle through it. I really could go on and on with what you could do with Twitter.

Now with that said, it is worth pointing out that one of the more frustrating things with Twitter is that there isn’t much organization within the social profiles themselves. Aside from the visible friends list, it is hard to capture who is within your industry, and who might be twittering about relevant things that you want to follow.

via marketingpilgrim.com

Top Internet Marketing Gurus to Follow on Twitter

2010-07-24T07:01:00.001-07:00

Do you Twitter? Are you visible? If your answer is yes, continue reading.

As you know by now, Twitter is one of the most revolutionary messaging systems of the moment. You’ve probably already heard about some amazing Twitter stories.

So if you Twitter, follow people who knows what they are talking about. Here’s a list of 55 top Internet marketing gurus you should follow:

via internetmarketingprofitscenter.com

How To Develop A Facebook Page That Attracts Millions of Fans

2010-07-23T02:01:00.001-07:00

Over the past few years Facebook has witnessed a dramatic rise in new user adoption and with that rise has come the opportunity for brands to interact directly with existing customers and engage new ones. At the end of 2007, Facebook announced the launch of Facebook Pages and last week they launched a revised edition which includes a number of significant upgrades. This week, those pages will be going live for all. There are numerous ways for brands to leverage Facebook but the overall branded experience is becoming increasingly integrated into a single offering as the new Pages product highlights. So what are the primary benefits and changes for the new branded pages?

Pages Are Profiles for Brands
One of the primary reasons for launching Facebook Pages was that many companies were using user profiles for their companies, in turn violating Facebook’s terms of service. While I’m sure there were many other reasons for launching Pages, the easiest way to understand them is through viewing them as “Profiles for Brands”. This means brand pages can essentially do everything that users can do.

Pages Have Access to Users’ Feeds
This is probably the single most important feature within the new Facebook Pages product. Many in the press have described this as Twitter for Facebook. It’s an accurate description but for those that don’t understand what Twitter is, this makes things more confusing. Essentially when Facebook users become a “fan” of your branded page, they will be notified of your status updates anytime you update the status on your brand page, via the primary news feed on the homepage.

The News Feed is Now Real Time
This is actually an update to the site homepage but it will have a significant impact. Previously Facebook cached the homepage for at least 15 minutes in addition to automatically filtering all feed stories. This means that any feed story which made it to the news feed previously would stay there for a fairly long period of time. The news feed has since been redesigned to stream stories instead displaying the automatically filtered stories as “Highlights” on the right hand side of the page.

Pages Can Integrate Multiple Applications
Earlier this week I posted the example of a robust branded Facebook page which integrates an application into the experience. Pages could previously integrate basic applications but now there is space to integrate applications that are just as robust as those with standalone canvas pages. Not sure of what “canvas pages” are? A canvas page is the space in Facebook below the Facebook header and to the left of Facebook’s sidebar ads. Essentially you can now post applications which take up the full width of the page. I’ve gone ahead and posted a photo of the canvas area in the photo below.

via allfacebook.com

En gözde şirketler, en büyük şirketler ve öğrenciler

2010-06-16T12:55:00.001-07:00

Realta – En Gözde Şirketler 2010 anketi sonuçlarına göz attığımızda ilk sırada yer alan firmaların çok da değişiklik göstermediğini görüyoruz. İlk beş firma, Turkcell, Turk Hava Yolları, Unilever, Mercedes Benz, Microsoft, Turkiye İş Bankası olarak sıralanmış. Diğer taraftan, Forbes Türkiye dergisi de Haziran sayısında Türkiye’nin En Büyük Şirketleri araştırmasını yayınladı. Bu iki araştırmayı karşılıklı değerlendirdiğimizde ilk sıralarda yer alan firmaların ve sektörlerin yakınlığı dikkat çekiyor. En Gözde Sektörler sıralamasında; Bankacılık, Hızlı Tüketim, Bilgi Teknolojileri, Otomotiv, Gıda, Telekom şeklinde sıralanıyor.Türkiye’nin en büyük şirketleri de Garanti Bankası, İş Bankası, Akbank, Koç Holding, Sabancı Holding, Yapı Kredi Bankası, Halk Bankası, Türk Telekom, Turkcell, Vakıflar Bankası şeklinde olduğuna göre iki araştırma adeta birbiriyle örtüşüyor.

via blog.erakbas.com

22 Educational Social Media Diagrams

2010-05-25T00:58:00.001-07:00

Everyone learns differently. Social media marketing has a lot of moving parts and processes which make it hard to get up to speed. This challenge is only compounded by the ever-changing nature of the market, in which new applications and opportunities arise daily.
Reading tons of blog articles, while important, takes a lot of time. Sometimes it is easier to see concepts visually to get a basic understanding and then do further research on the topics that are most relevant to your business. In today's post we collected some great visualizations of social media concepts including monitoring and content distribution.

via blog.hubspot.com

About 9rules

2010-05-22T14:41:00.001-07:00

Our Mission, Our Values, Our Brand

9rules is a place where members and readers can connect, build relationships, and learn new things. 9rules started in 2003 with a set of 9 rules:
Love what you do.

Never stop learning.

Form works with function.

Simple is beautiful.

Work hard, play hard.

You get what you pay for.

When you talk, we listen.

Must constantly improve.

Respect your inspiration.

via 9rules.com

PR Pros Use Twitter to Reinvigorate Brands, Engage in Conversation | PBS

2010-05-22T05:18:00.001-07:00

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts operates luxury properties in countries all over the world, from the U.S. and Canada to Asia the Middle East and Africa. Aside from traditional promotions, one of the ways it connects with current, past and future guests is via its main Twitter account. Several accounts are also maintained by individual properties.

"We push out news and information; we think that's valuable," Mike Taylor, Fairmont's public relations manager, told the Hotel Marketing Strategies blog. "We include package and rate offers. We don't see Twitter primarily as a distribution tool. But if we have something that's a great deal we're going to let people know about it."

In terms of results, it has seen hotel occupancy rates rise after tweeting "online only" discounts, and it's been able to reach out and promote its brand.

"Twitter has introduced us to people we otherwise wouldn't have a relationship with," he said. "So it's sort of that global neighborhood concept where these people wouldn't have reached out to us or vice versa if we were not participating."

Other Twitter PR success stories include Comcast, Dell, JetBlue and Shaquille O'Neil. They have all reinvigorated their brands using the service. All are near becoming social media case study cliches.

Some in the hospitality industry take it one step further: The Roger Smith Hotel, for example, is connected to every corner of the social web. But its innovative use of Twitter is where it really shines. The New York City boutique hotel attracts travelers based on its regular -- and charming -- use of Twitter.

"I really found the genuine ability to connect with people valuable," Brian Simpson, the hotel's director of social hospitality, told Techipedia, "and we have continued to use this as just one of many pieces of the funnel hopefully driving people to be more involved with us outside of just booking a room."

These successes are well documented. However, many businesses, organizations and individuals have trouble converting the case studies of others into success for themselves. As it turns out, public relations thought-leaders suggest it's less about the tool itself and more about learning to adapt and adjust to the new medium.

via pbs.org

NPS, CEM and Brand «

2010-05-01T07:10:00.001-07:00

From the perspective of experience = brand however, it is worth taking a look at the 10 lessons these CEM pioneers taught us. Good food for thought.

Listening. Quality is defined by the customer (we now have more effective ways of listening, online)

Reliability. Little else matters to customers when a service firm is unreliable.

Basic Service. Fundamentals not fanciness; performance not empty promises.

Service Design. Service design must be a fluid process of continuous improvement – ‘If it ain’t been fixed it will break’

Recovery. Encourage complaints, respond quickly & personally, develop a problem resolution system.

Surprising Customers. Exceed customer expectations, especially with assurance, responsiveness & empathy.

Fair Play. Airline example – ‘An industry that charges one customer $300 and another $1,300…with the only difference the timing of the reservation…cannot and will not earn the confidence and loyalty of customers.’

Teamwork. Service team building cannot be left to chance.

Employee research. As important as customer research.

Servant Leadership. Serve the servers, inspiring & enabling them to achieve.

via strikeachord.wordpress.com

Corporate Ethics and Governance

2010-04-22T06:36:00.001-07:00

AMD's Worldwide Standards of Business Conduct

AMD's Worldwide Standards of Business Conduct (WWSBC) support our commitment to high ethical standards and compliance with laws, regulations, and company policies. These standards apply to all AMD directors and employees worldwide and are one of the key components of the company's compliance and ethics program. They reiterate our values and outline guidelines on a broad range of workplace, business practice, and conflicts of interest principles such as employment and labor practices, privacy, employee safety and health, business and accounting practices, political activities and contributions, insider trading, antitrust laws, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The WWSBC are currently available in eight languages: English, Japanese, German, Malay, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian. All employees worldwide receive copies of and training on the WWSBC.

via amd.com

Blue Ocean Strategy

2010-04-17T06:18:00.001-07:00

About Blue Ocean Strategy

中文 | Deutch | English | Español |Francais | Italiano | 한국어

Companies have long engaged in head-to-head competition in search of sustained, profitable growth. They have fought for competitive advantage, battled over market share, and struggled for differentiation.

Yet in today’s overcrowded industries, competing head-on results in nothing but a bloody “red ocean” of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. In a book that challenges everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne contend that while most companies compete within such red oceans, this strategy is increasingly unlikely to create profitable growth in the future.

Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries, Kim and Mauborgne argue that tomorrow’s leading companies will succeed not by battling competitors, but by creating “blue oceans” of uncontested market space ripe for growth. Such strategic moves—termed “value innovation”—create powerful leaps in value for both the firm and its buyers, rendering rivals obsolete and unleashing new demand.

via blueoceanstrategy.com

Can Data Centers benefit from Supply Chain Management concepts? - Green (low carbon) Data Center Blog

2010-04-17T02:41:00.001-07:00

Land is not an expense, it is an investment. So, land should be looked evaluated on its ROI, not it's overall cost, including land improvements.

Which then led me to think why is it data centers don't use more supply chain management concepts which would address issues like land cost in the overall solution and most likely save you much more than the cost of the land?

Supply Chain Management is defined as.

Supply chain management (SCM) is the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers (Harland, 1996).^[1] Supply Chain Management spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption (supply chain).

Another definition is provided by the APICS Dictionary when it defines SCM as the "design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand, and measuring performance globally."

via greenm3.com

Special Report: The World’s Largest Data Centers « Data Center Knowledge

2010-04-17T02:19:00.001-07:00

The mega-data center has become a staple of our global technology infrastructure, serving as the backbone of the digital economy. The growth of the Internet is driving an enormous appetite for network capacity and data storage, creating a new class of data centers that can scale along with the Internet.

So who has the world’s largest data center? We’ve seen a lot of huge data centers in our travels, and have identified 10 that we believe are the largest found anywhere. These data fortresses range between 400,000 and 1.1 million square feet.

via datacenterknowledge.com

The E-Bomb: The New Threat

2010-04-12T05:38:00.001-07:00

The ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP) effect was first observed during the early testing of high-altitude air burst nuclear weapons — a rather radical way of creating an E-bomb. The threat of the E-bomb increased in 1994 when Gen. Loborev, Director of the Central Institute of Physics and Technology in Moscow, distributed a landmark paper at the EUROEM Conference in Bordeaux, France. In this paper, Dr. A. B. Prishchepenko, the Russian inventor of a family of compact, explosive-driven RF munitions, described how RF munitions might be used against a variety of targets including communications systems. The concepts “went public” in articles in Russian naval journals and in other professional journals and magazines.

On June 17, 1997, the US Joint Economic Committee (JEC) held a hearing called Economic Espionage, Technology Transfers and National Security, in which it heard about a new class of weapons — radio frequency weapons (RF) — and the impact of these new weapons on the civilian and military electronic infrastructure of the United States. This was followed up by a further hearing in February 25, 1998. In June 2000, James O’Bryon, deputy director of Live Fire Test & Evaluation at the US Department of Defense, flew to a conference in Scotland to address the issue. “What we’re trying to do is look at what people might use if they wanted to do something damaging,” he said. The UK magazine, New Scientist published a popularist article on the subject on 1 July 2000.

The Tec

via web.archive.org

CPM vs. CPC vs. CPA

2010-03-29T23:51:00.001-07:00

Cost-Per-Thousand
CPM pricing was actively promoted by the big portals such as Yahoo and AOL. It was a great revenue generator for them that had the added bonus of being largely risk free. That is, the advertiser did all the creative work and made the payments while the only thing the portals had to do was display the ad as often as they could until the advertiser's budget was exhausted. It's this one-sided nature of the CPM model that has pushed advertisers to seek an alternative that can offer them some sort of guarantee of performance.

Cost-Per-Action
CPA then seems to offer the best guarantee for advertisers. After all, with such a set up, the advertiser only pays when the prospect has performed a specific action such as registering or requesting information. And just to be explicit, the upside of this is that an ad can be displayed and clicked on many, many times with no cost to the advertiser. The problem here is that now all the risk has been shifted to the publisher since they now must give up their ad inventory and hope that the advertiser's message is compelling enough to result in "actions".

Cost-Per-Click
CPC sits in the middle of the online pricing spectrum. It involves risk from the advertiser's side in that they pay for every click on their ad. This forces them to make sure that the ad is relevant to what is being offered so that a click has a good chance of turning in to an action. At the same time, the publisher takes on the responsibility of displaying the ad in appropriate places so that it will receive clicks. No clicks, no revenue. It's a very simple formula for both sides.

via allthingssem.com

Sales Forecasting

2010-03-22T05:58:00.001-07:00

Sales forecasting, an Introduction:

     Forecasts are the raw material of planning. For most businesses, the sales forecast is the first step. It can be the basis for developing plans to run the business and plan future strategy. If sales can be reasonably anticipated, costs and inventory can be controlled, and customer service enhanced. Sales estimates provide this help.

    Even if much of the content in this paper is familiar, a review will probably provide additional information that is helpful in learning about forecasting strategy and tactics. In recent years sales forecasting has become an important business endeavor. It is essential that company personnel and small business owners understand forecasting methodology.

     Forecasts can be classified in several ways: by purpose, as either operational or strategic; by type, as quantitative (statistical) or qualitative (judgment); or by method, that is, by forecasting technique.

via zeromillion.com

How to Conduct Market Research

2010-03-22T05:47:00.001-07:00

Work Out What Information You Need Before You Start

Market research is no different from any other research project. To be successful, your research project needs a clear scope and that includes a problem statement.

What question are you looking for an answer to?

In the case of a new product or a new business, the question or questions are generally:
Who will buy the product,

Why will they buy it, and

How much are they prepared to pay?

Before you start knocking on doors and showing people your product, take some time to really think about what it is that you want to ask of the market and design your research project accordingly.

via how-to-start-a-small-business.com

Self-Hosted Versus Hosted Exchange by The Web Hosting News

2010-03-13T03:32:00.001-08:00

Traits of Self-Hosted Exchange Server

Large initial investment - You will have to purchase the hardware, software, acquire IT engineers and resources, and properly train all of the staff that will be managing your Exchange server. You may also experience a significant amount of time from when you make the initial investment to when the server goes live and becomes functional, especially if your staff is not completely training on how to handle the server.

Ongoing expenses - The responsibility of maintaining and upgrading the Exchange server is yours, and after a while it can prove to be a surprisingly expensive server to maintain and run.

Complete freedom over the customization and performance of your exchange server - Where managed servers have to deal with specific limitations placed upon them by their providers, running your own server will allow you to have total control over yours. You will be able to add, remove, and customize features as you see fit.
This will allow you to offer enhanced mobility services, VoIP, internet faxing, Outlook Web Access.

Large personnel commitment â€“ Take a moment to analyze the size of your company. How many staff members are you willing to dedicate solely to your Exchange server? Large companies may already have a large IT department that it can use to assign resources to the Exchange server with, but if your business doesn’t, you will have to bring on the staff to do it.

It is not that a self-hosted Exchange solution is always a poor choice or a bad option, as it certainly can fit the bill if a business has the resources to allocate to it. The reality is that you will have greater control and freedom when hosting the server yourself, but you will also have to dedicate more time and resources to it.

Traits of a Hosted Exchange Server

Low start up investment - You may have to pay a small startup fee, but compared to the large investment required to purchase the server, software, and hire the appropriate staff, it is a drop in the bucket. As well, Hosted Exchanges are often set up in a matter of minutes once you’ve paid your startup fee, giving you access to your new toys quicker.

Financial predictability - You will generally be given a monthly, quarterly, or yearly price. This makes budgeting a much easier task as there are fewer variables to consider and less guesswork involved. On that level, it’s nice to know exactly what your financial obligations are.

Completely managed server - Just as the advantages of a managed web host include the fact that you don’t have to maintain the server or the software, a Hosted Exchange server generally comes with maintenance included. This absolves you from the responsibilities of monitoring security, uptime, server resource usage, and software upgrades.

No outside commitments - You will not have to worry about staff allocation or the hiring of additional staff with a Hosted Exchange server. The company that owns the server takes care of all of the support obligations, including staff training and certification.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of hosting solution. If you prefer the control and knowledge knowing that you and you alone handle the processes and maintenance of your server, the additional expenses and requirements shouldnâ€™t be much of an issue. However, if you prefer for something to ”just work” and don’t want to have to deal with the hassle of maintaining it or making the large initial purchase, you are going to want to use an exchange server that is provided by an external company.

via thehostingnews.com

Dont let your fire go out

2010-01-30T05:55:00.001-08:00

via classics2.tumblr.com

5 Great Ways to Conquer Self Doubt

2010-01-18T05:21:00.001-08:00

Celebrate your successes: When a situation in which you doubted yourself turns out better than you expected, don’t just nod and smile and move immediately on to the next thing. Take a moment and reward yourself for a positive outcome. Do something you enjoy like going to your favorite restaurant or eating a delectable dessert. Taking the time to cement positive emotions in your mind will hopefully make the doubt disappear more quickly next time.

via zenhabits.net

Ready to Drink Coffee - Zenith report

2010-01-18T03:27:00.001-08:00

Zenith's Ready to Drink Coffee 2007 report provides full country market totals by volume and value, five year forecasts and company/brand profiles. The report provides a comprehensive market commentary that addresses: a broadening of target groups, product characteristics, health issues, functionality and RTD coffee, future developments and an assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

From Starbucks to Campina, Douwe Egberts, Emmi, Kraft and Nestl� � RTD coffee has seen increased focus, especially in West Europe. The resulting marketing boost and product launches are expected to help drive forward growth over the coming years.

Zenith's 2007 Ready to Drink Coffee report covers:

Market context: global beverage volume shares by sector and segment, 2006

Market context: soft drinks shares by volume and value, Japan, North America and West Europe, 2006

RTD coffee volume sales by country: West Europe, North America, Japan, 2004-11

RTD coffee value sales by country: West Europe, North America, Japan, 2004-06

RTD coffee consumption per person by country: West Europe, North America, Japan, 2004-11

Organic RTD coffee summary

Fairtrade RTD coffee summary

Analysis of caffeine content in popular beverages

Examination of caffeine/coffee consumption benefits

Regulation of caffeine content

Functional RTD coffee innovations

Full regional overviews addressing: product history, key indicators, companies/brands, distribution, trends, innovation and packaging

Leading company/brand profiles

via zenithinternational.com

The One Thing Internet Cant Ignoere

2010-01-11T04:27:00.001-08:00

via makeuseof.com

"Eti bana Browni ver" viral campaign

2009-12-30T03:31:00.000-08:00

"Eti bana Browni ver" campaign has opened their blog. See it here http://etibanabrowniver.blogspot.com/

The Lazarus Effect

2009-12-10T09:25:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

5 Basic SEO Marketing Tips to Make Your Ranking Better

2009-11-21T14:01:00.001-08:00

SEO is a powerful tool to increase brand visibility and presence on the web. As the Internet is now a primary source of information and goods, it only makes sense to be as visible as possible in order to attract and meet the needs of your customers. There are many ways to approach SEO efforts, and it can be difficult for businesses just starting out. Luckily, there are many resources available to assist in SEO efforts, especially for small businesses. In this week’s top five we’re providing some tips for effective SEO marketing.

via toptut.com

Why Email Marketing is Dead

2009-11-21T13:03:00.001-08:00

Most bulk email is boring

This is really the same issue as the previous one.

Self-centered content is dull. It’s like getting cornered by that awful friend of a friend at a party. You know the guy.

“But enough about me. What do you think about me?”

It’s hard to ditch the guy at the party. It’s very, very easy not to read or open an email.

I get dozens of messages every day that are so boring and self-centered I can’t be bothered to unsubscribe. I just set up a rule to automatically throw them in the trash as they come in. Or I let them pile up in the spam filter until I feel like deleting 20 or 30 at a time without looking at them.

And I’m one of the nice ones. Many people will just mark you as a spammer for the crime of being boring.

And my guess is that those are the folks who are getting caught in Gmail limbo — people who failed one too many times to engage their readers, and got unfairly marked as spam.

Now that’s pathetic.

via copyblogger.com

Improve Efficiency and Agility with SAP Business All-in-One

2009-11-09T00:50:00.001-08:00

Looking for the most effective way to improve efficiency and business agility with SAP Business All-in-One? Learn how SAP Consulting and SAP channel partners leverage proven methodologies, industry expertise, and best practices to help your midsize company achieve a smooth, affordable implementation with minimal risk.

via sap.com

Top 10 Premium Wordpress Themes And Why You Should Choose Them

2009-11-08T04:57:00.001-08:00

WordPress is free, which is part of it’s appeal, as are many of the enhancements that can be installed to change the look and function of WordPress, including its themes. However, although there are hundreds of free WordPress themes that you can download and use quite easily, sometimes it’s wise to invest in a premium theme instead. Why? Here are 5 reasons:

1. Customization

The best premium themes are far more customizable than the best free themes. If you want to have the most options for design and search engine optimization without having to learn HTML backwards and forwards, a good premium theme is definitely your best choice.

2. Support

It’s common for the developers of free themes to offer very limited support. And sometimes they offer no support at all. The developers of the best premium themes have more incentive to offer support and will usually have both detailed instructions that are updated frequently and an active user forum. Even the best themes can have technical glitches from time to time, so having good support is manditory when using any WordPress theme.

3. Updates

There is also less incentive for developers of free themes to fix bugs and update their theme when WordPress goes through one of it’s many upgrades. Sometimes they’ll stop offering the theme altogether. Purchasing a good premium theme will usually give you a lifetime of bug fixes and updates so any issues with be corrected in a timely way.

4. Quality

There are very few free themes that come close to the quality of the best premium themes. Everything from design elements to search engine optimization is covered by a good premium theme.

5. No unwanted adware

Free themes sometimes contain hidden code that inserts ads or other things that benefit the theme’s creator instead of you. The best premium themes do not have adware and often you can purchase a license to remove the companies’ logo, etc. so you can ‘brand’ your site and your client’s sites as your own.

via toptut.com

Uncovering Steve Jobs' Presentation Secrets - BusinessWeek

2009-11-05T04:56:00.001-08:00

Steve Jobs does not sell computers; he sells an experience. The same holds true for his presentations that are meant to inform, educate, and entertain. An Apple presentation has all the elements of a great theatrical production—a great script, heroes and villains, stage props, breathtaking visuals, and one moment that makes the price of admission well worth it. Here are the five elements of every Steve Jobs presentation. Incorporate these elements into your own presentations to sell your product or ideas the Steve Jobs way.

via businessweek.com

Mechanism Design for Internet Advertising

2009-10-26T01:42:00.001-07:00

via scribd.com

The 7 Secrets of Internet Marketing

2009-10-26T01:39:00.001-07:00

To be successful at Internet marketing, you must understand the essential secrets of Internet marketing. These secrets can allow you to achieve success by finding the right audience, communicating your message properly, and leading consumers down the path to purchase. These secrets include:

via businessknowhow.com

ForFlipFlops.jpg (image)

2009-09-25T07:31:00.001-07:00

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

Nice Socks :)

Year 2000 problem (Y2K)

2009-09-11T20:29:00.001-07:00

The Year 2000 problem (also known as the Y2K problem, the millennium bug, the Y2K bug, or simply Y2K) was a notable problem for both digital (computer-related) and non-digital documentation and data storage situations which resulted from the practice of abbreviating a four-digit year to two digits.

In computer program design, the practice of representing the year with two digits becomes problematic with logical error(s) arising upon "rollover" from x99 to x000. This has caused some date-related processing to operate incorrectly for dates and times on and after January 1, 2000 and on other critical dates which were billed "event horizons". Without corrective action, it was suggested that long-working systems would break down when the "...97, 98, 99, 00..." ascending numbering assumption suddenly became invalid. Companies and organizations worldwide checked, fixed, and upgraded their computer systems.

Libertarianism

2009-09-06T10:48:00.001-07:00

All forms of libertarianism support strong personal rights rights to life and liberty, but do not agree on the subject of property.^[8] The best known^[9]^[1]^[10] formulation of libertarianism supports free market capitalism^[11] by advocating a right to private property, including property in the means of production,^[12] minimal government regulation of that property, minimal taxation, and rejection of the welfare state, all within the context of the rule of law.^[13]^[14]^[15] A number of countries worldwide have libertarian parties which run candidates for political office.

AceMoney - The Personal Finance Manager

2009-08-29T19:16:00.001-07:00

AceMoney helps to organize and manage personal finances quickly and easily. It supports all the features required for home or even small-business accounting needs:

Manage multiple accounts of different types
AceMoney supports checking, savings, credit cards, loans, debt accounts. You can even create your own account type, such as a cash allowance for your kids!

Create and manage budgets
The program has more than 100 predefined spending categories. Setup budget limits for every category and track the difference between actual and budgeted values.

Track performance of investments
Track 401k, Stock options, Employee Stock Purchase Plans or any other investment activities. You don't need to enter the stock quotes manually: AceMoney will download them from the net!

via mechcad.net

CV 4 Me – Create your CV online!

2009-08-29T19:13:00.001-07:00

A CV is your personal marketing profile. In just two minutes, it needs to attract an employer to want to interview you, so it needs to really stand out from other candidates' CVs.

CV4Me is an interactive tool that will create a CV for you. Once completed, you can save your CV to your computer, or to your ow

via www2.careers.govt.nz

About Exploratree & Enquiring Minds - Exploratree by FutureLab

2009-08-29T19:06:00.001-07:00

Exploratree is a free web resource where you can access a library of ready-made interactive thinking guides, print them, edit them or make your own. You can share them and work on them in groups too.

The Exploratree web resource has been developed by Futurelab and emerged out of our work on the Enquiring Minds project. It provides a series of ready-made interactive 'thinking guides' or 'frameworks' which can support students' projects and research. Thinking guides support the thinking or working through of an issue, topic or question and help to shape, define and focus an idea and also support the planning required to investigate it further. Exploratree guides can be used as a basis for whole class discussion, or emailed to individuals or groups to complete. They can also be used as a presentation tool to share your findings and thinking with others. As well as providing a set of ready to use thinking guides, which are completely customisable and shareable, Exploratree also enables teachers and students to create their own simply and easily.

With Exploratree you can:

Use our ready-made thinking guides

Make a new thinking guide from scratch

Use it to set class projects

Print them out (they can go as big as A0)

Change and customise thinking guides, you can add or change text, shapes, images etc.

As a teacher, you can set up the sequence that you want the thinking guide to be revealed in, so that you can stage the thinking activity

You can fill in a thinking guide and complete your project on the website

You can present your project

You can send your thinking guide to a whole group of people

You can submit a thinking guide for comments, so it can't be edited but just reviewed

Work in groups on the same thinking guide

via exploratree.org.uk

International English Language

2009-08-29T19:03:00.001-07:00

IELTS is the world’s proven English test. Over 1.2 million candidates take the test each year to start their journeys into international education and employment.

IELTS is recognised by more than 6000 institutions across 120 countries.

You can rely on IELTS - the test that sets the standard.

via ielts.org

http://www.ielts.org/ILINK|%200,|

The Elements of Style - by William Strunk, Jr.

2009-08-25T11:44:00.001-07:00

The Elements of Style (1918) (aka Strunk & White), by William Strunk, Jr., and E. B. White, is an American English writing style guide. It is the best-known and most influential prescriptive treatment of English grammar and usage, and often is required reading and usage in U.S. high school and university composition classes. The original, 1918 edition of The Elements of Style detailed eight elementary rules of usage, ten elementary principles of composition, “a few matters of form”, and a list of commonly misused words and expressions.

The Rhythm Of The Night - Miller Beer

2009-08-23T20:15:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

A huge wall advertisement by The Miller Beer

Internet Marketing Textbooks.

2009-08-21T21:00:00.001-07:00

E-Marketing 2nd Ed. (2001)
by Strauss and Frost. Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0-130-32264-4
(formerly called Marketing on the Internet in its 1st edition)
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

Principles of Internet Marketing (2000)
by Ward Hanson. South-Western Pub. ISBN 0-538-87573-9
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

Strategic Electronic Marketing (2001)
by Brad Kleindl. South-Western Pub. ISBN: 0-324-01319-1
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

Internet Marketing, 3rd Ed. (2000)
by Charles Hofacker. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 0-471-39051-8
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

Advertising on the Internet, 2nd Ed. (1999)
by Zeff and Aronson. John Wily & Sons. ISBN: 0-471-34404-4
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

Customers.com (1998)
by Patricia Seybold. Times Books. ISBN: 0-812-93037-1
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

Marketing and the Internet (2001)
by Eloise Coupey. Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0-130-16975-7
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

E-Commerce (2001)
by Rayport and Jaworski. McGraw-Hill HE. ISBN: 0-072-46521-2
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

The Internet Marketing Plan, 2nd Ed. (2000)
by Kim Bayne. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 0-471-35598-4
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

Internet Marketing (2000)
by Paul Richardson. McGraw-Hill HE. ISBN: 0-072-42793-0
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

Electronic Marketing (2000)
by Reedy, et all. Harcourt College Pub. Pub. ISBN: 0-030-21107-7
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

Strategic Marketing for a Digital Age (1998)
by Bill Bishop. McGraw-Hill NTC / AMA. ISBN: 0-844-23441-9
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

Webonomics (1998)
by Evan Schwartz. Broadway Books. ISBN: 0-553-06172-0
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

E-Commerce Management (2002)
by Sandeep Krishnamurthy, South-Western Pub. ISBN: 0-324-15252-3
Publisher's Page, Amazon.com Page

via marketingterms.com

Learning by Simulations: Distribution Calculator

2009-08-21T20:25:00.001-07:00

In such cases the Distribution Calculator offers a reliable solution. The user simply enters the degrees of freedom, the test statistic or the level of signifance, and the program calculates the probability or the test statistic, respectively. The Distribution Calculator offers calculations for the normal distribution, the t distribution, the chi-square distribution, and the F distribution. As can be seen from the screen shot you may select for one-sided or two-sided tests. The probabilities beyond the critical values are colored in red.

via vias.org

Upper Critical Values of the F Distribution

2009-08-21T20:19:00.001-07:00

More specifically, a test statistic is computed with and degrees of freedom, and the result is compared to this table. For a one-sided test, the null hypothesis is rejected when the test statistic is greater than the tabled value. This is demonstrated with the graph of an F distribution with = 10 and = 10. The shaded area of the graph indicates the rejection region at the significance level. Since this is a one-sided test, we have probability in the upper tail of exceeding the critical value and zero in the lower tail. Because the F distribution is asymmetric, a two-sided test requires a set of of tables (not included here) that contain the rejection regions for both the lower and upper tails.

via itl.nist.gov

Consumer Buyer Behaviour

2009-08-15T09:31:00.001-07:00

If a marketer can identify consumer buyer behaviour, he or she will be in a better position to target products and services at them. Buyer behaviour is focused upon the needs of individuals, groups and organisations.

It is important to understand the relevance of human needs to buyer behaviour (remember, marketing is about satisfying needs).

via marketingteacher.com

The Top 4 Misapplications of the 80/20 Rule - Stepcase Lifehack

2009-08-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

December 6th, 2007 in Featured, Productivity

The Top 4 Misapplications of the 80/20 Rule

Eighty percent of the output comes from twenty percent of the input. That is basically a summary of the Pareto Principle, or as it is more commonly known, the 80/20 Rule. The rule comes from Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist who noticed that 80% of Italy’s wealth was in the hands of 20% of the population.

via http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/the-top-4-misapplications-of-the-8020-rule.html">lifehack.org

Is Your Business Idea Feasible?, Starting a Business Article - Inc. Article

2009-08-12T05:56:00.001-07:00

Making a critical evaluation of your business concept at an early stage will allow you to discover, address, and correct any fatal flaws before investing time in preparing your business plan. As you work through this phase, Phase II of business development, you will identify factors that are essential to your venture's success while compiling the detailed, in-depth information you need to write your business plan, thereby immensely shortening the next phase in the process.

via inc.com

No Excuses! Time to Leverage Social Media Technology in Customer Service | CustomerThink - CRM, CEM & Social Media

2009-08-08T15:54:00.001-07:00

The New Consumer

The phenomenal growth of online social networking and mobile communication is creating a cultural shift in our society. Specifically, these new media are creating a more demanding consumer. Because it is much easier to get information on any topic at any time of day, consumers now expect more immediacy and convenience. Because there are multiple, if not endless, sources available to validate or negate information from businesses, consumers also demand more honesty. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, because the community aspect of social media fosters strength in numbers, consumers demand to be heard.

via customerthink.com

David Ogilvy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2009-08-08T15:46:00.001-07:00

David MacKenzie Ogilvy, CBE (June 23, 1911–July 21, 1999), was a notable advertising executive. He has often been called "The Father of Advertising." In 1962, Time called him "the most sought-after wizard in today's advertising industry." ^[1] He was known for a career of expanding the bounds of both creativity and morality.

Human multitasking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2009-08-03T03:41:00.001-07:00

Research on human multitasking

Since the 1990s, experimental psychologists have started experiments on the nature and limits of human multitasking. It has been proven multitasking is not as workable as concentrated times. In general, these studies have disclosed that people show severe interference when even very simple tasks are performed at the same time, if both tasks require selecting and producing action (e.g., Gladstones, Regan, & Lee, 1989; Pashler, 1994). Many researchers believe that action planning represents a "bottleneck", which the human brain can only perform one task at a time.

The term "multitasking" was originated in the computer engineering industry. It was used to reference the ability of a microprocessor, which is the brain of the computer. Multitasking means to process several tasks simuntaneously (from article "You say Multitasking like it's a good thing" by Charles J. Abate, March/April 2009 issue of NEAtoday). Microprocessors can't literally perform several tasks simultaneously. "They are inherently linear in their operation and can perform only one task at a time".

FreeMind - free mind mapping software

2009-08-03T03:13:00.001-07:00

FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map) software written in Java. The recent development has hopefully turned it into high productivity tool. We are proud that the operation and navigation of FreeMind is faster than that of MindManager because of one-click "fold / unfold" and "follow link" operations.
So you want to write a completely new metaphysics? Why don't you use FreeMind? You have a tool at hand that remarkably resembles the tray slips of Robert Pirsig, described in his sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance called Lila. Do you want to refactor your essays in a similar way you would refactor software? Or do you want to keep personal knowledge base, which is easy to manage? Why don't you try FreeMind? Do you want to prioritize, know where you are, where you've been and where you are heading, as Stephen Covey would advise you? Have you tried FreeMind to keep track of all the things that are needed for that?

via freemind.sourceforge.net

Planogram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2009-07-30T12:49:00.001-07:00

A planogram is a diagram of fixtures and products that illustrates how and where retail products should be displayed, usually on a store shelf in order to increase customer purchases^[1]^[2]. They may also be referred to as plano-grams, plan-o-grams, schematics (archaic) or POGs.

Internet Marketing Acronyms

2009-07-30T12:45:00.001-07:00

Internet Marketing Acronyms / Abbreviations / Initialisms

AJ - Ask Jeeves

AOL - America Online

ASP - Application Service Provider

AV - AltaVista

B2B - Business to Business

B2C - Business to Consumer

CPA - Cost Per Action

CPC - Cost Per Click

CPS - Cost Per Sale

CTR - Click-Through Rate

DH - Direct Hit

FFA - Free-For-All Link List

HB - HotBot

IM - Instant Messaging

INK - Inktomi

LS - LookSmart

MSN - Microsoft Network

NL - Northert Light

NSI - Network Solutions

PFI - Pay For Inclusion

PFP - Pay For Performance

PPC - Pay Per Click

PPCSE - Pay Per Click Search Engine

PPL - Pay Per Lead

PPS - Pay Per Sale

PV - Page View

RON - Run Of Network

ROS - Run Of Site

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

SEP - Search Engine Positioning

UV - Unique Visitor

WWW - World Wide Web

Y! - Yahoo!

via marketingterms.com

The 101 Ways to Measure Portfolio Performance by Philippe Cogneau, Georges Hubner

2009-07-29T17:35:00.001-07:00

Abstract:
This paper performs a census of the 101 performance measures for portfolios that have been proposed so far in the scientific literature. We discuss their main strengths and weaknesses and provide a classification based on their objectives, properties and degree of generalization. The measures are categorized based on the general way they are computed: asset selection vs. market timing, standardized vs. individualized, absolute vs. relative and excess return vs. gain measure. We show that several categories have been exhausted while some others feature very heterogeneous ways to assess performance within the same sets of objectives.

Keywords: performance measurement, portfolio, funds, Sharpe, alpha, Treynor, market timing

via papers.ssrn.com

McGraw-Hill Ryerson Canada - Higher Education

2009-07-29T17:26:00.001-07:00

Retailing Management by Levy and Weitz is the best-selling textbook in the retailing market.

Retailing is a high tech, global, growth industry that provides challenging and rewarding career opportunities for college graduates. This book and its corresponding tools and exercises were written to expose students to the excitement of retailing and prepare them for a career in retailing and related fields.

via istudycalculus.com

GAMS - General Algebraic Modeling System

2009-07-29T17:18:00.001-07:00

The General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is a high-level modeling system for mathematical programming and optimization. It consists of a language compiler and a stable of integrated high-performance solvers. GAMS is tailored for complex, large scale modeling applications, and allows you to build large maintainable models that can be adapted quickly to new situations.

via gams.com

Corporate Innovation

2009-07-29T17:06:00.001-07:00

Risk Taking Is Acceptable to Management
Management must recognize the risk/reward relationship and find organizational mechanisms for handling it. And it must communicate a clear understanding that reasonable risks are acceptable, since they are the handmaidens of progress. On the innovative front, two methods are available for dealing with risk: diversification and cheap failures. They can and should be used in concert.

via studymarketing.org

Viral Ebay Part 2. Dear Laura

2009-07-28T17:32:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

This is the second part (response) of the eBay viral named Dear Manu.

Mumin | Viral Ebay Part 1. Dear Manu

2009-07-28T16:50:00.001-07:00

via microblog.erakbas.com

Psychological Marketing Business Tactics: Big And Small Business Ideas

2009-07-25T05:23:00.001-07:00

Are you losing customers because you don't know how the brain works?

Do you really understand how the marketing brain works? Are you harnessing its immense potential to make your business generate greater revenues? Wouldn't your strategy and tactics be vastly different, if you understood these psychological marketing ideas?

If you don't understand the simplicity and predictability of the brain, a lot of your business could be walking out the door. And you may not even realise it! Here's your opportunity to learn the psychology behind what makes your customer's brain tick. Then you can use this information, to keep them stuck to you like glue!

via psychotactics.com

Leadership and Management | shmula

2009-07-20T12:53:00.001-07:00

John P. Kotter, in a 2001 Harvard Business Review article, claims that most organizations are Overmanaged and Underled. He explains the differences between Leadership and Management, which I summarize below:

Leadership Management

Cope with Change Cope with Complexity

Set a Direction Planning and Budgeting

Aligning People Organizing and Staffing

Motivating and Inspiring Controlling and Problem Solving

via shmula.com

Burger King Whopper Freakout

2009-07-19T06:58:00.001-07:00

via whopperfreakout.com

Overmanaged and Underled | shmula

2009-07-19T05:12:00.001-07:00

As I mature and become more aware of the subtleties of business, I am slowly learning the meaning of Leadership. For most of my career and, in part, my education, I have aimed to be become the best — technically — in the field of Operations, Logistics, Supply Chain, Lean Manufacturing, and Six Sigma. I haven’t achieved my aim — and, indeed, view that pursuit as a lifetime goal — but I am now at a place where I feel some sense of achievement in those areas that I mentioned and have become painfully aware of those areas where I need to grow.

via shmula.com

The Gemba is the Dojo | shmula

2009-07-18T11:10:00.001-07:00

What is The Gemba? What is The Dojo?

Gemba is the Japanese word for “the actual place” or “the place where virtue or truth is found.” In a business setting, Gemba is often referred to “the place where value is added.” For example, in a factory, the production floor is where value is added.

The Dojo is a place of training. The Dojo is formally a place where martial arts is taught, but generically refers to any place where teaching and learning happens. Historically, the learning and teaching had to do with more holy or spiritual teaching.

via shmula.com

Paris department stores | Store Gallery | Retail Week

2009-07-18T10:58:00.001-07:00

The recession is taking its toll in France in the same way as the UK, but this has not prevented Paris’ major department stores from continuing to offers customers show-stopping visual merchandising.
Le Bon Marche’s food hall is among the world’s most glamorous, while the current renovation programme at Printemps is restoring the shop to its full Belle Epoque glory.

via retail-week.com

Learning by Simulations: Distribution Calculator

2009-07-18T10:12:00.001-07:00

When performing statistical tests, one needs to check whether the test statistic is greater or less than the critical value. While most statistical programms automatically create a default table of critical values, it is sometime necessary to look into distribution tables. However, retrieving a critical value from a distribution table is prone to mistakes due to the symmetry considerations which have been taken into account to reduce the volume of the printed tables.

via vias.org

Making Sense of the Financial Mess | GOOD

2009-07-18T09:49:00.001-07:00

We tried to make sense of the financial mess we’re in. As you can see, we couldn’t come up with anything satisfying, so we want your help. We’re offering $500 to the best global finance infographic we receive, as judged by a prominent economist.

via good.is

Chamber Search

2009-07-18T09:31:00.001-07:00

What can you find at a local Chamber? Local Chambers can help you with tourism questions, relocation resources, business relocation or startup opportunities, public affairs, & community based interests. Visit your local Chamber today. You never know what you'll find!

Flowchart software - Create Online Flowcharts with Realtime collaboration

2009-07-18T09:29:00.001-07:00

ou can collaborate with your colleagues in real-time. All collaborating parties can chat and design a flowchart at the same time.

Flowchart.com does not require any software download, it works with your favorite browser such as: Fire Fox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Konqueror, Google Chrome.

Flowchart.com works on any Operating System.

via flowchart.com

Free Gantt Chart Template for Excel

2009-07-18T09:28:00.001-07:00

A gantt chart is a common tool for project planning and keeping track of the status of individual tasks within a project. This type of chart was invented in 1910 by a mechanical engineer named Henry Gantt, and there are now a great many software tools that use gantt charts in project planning. Excel is a popular tool for creating Gantt charts, but for more advanced project management activities, you may need a tool such as Microsoft Project or a project management add-in for Excel. However if you want to create a project schedule and you know how to copy/paste/insert/delete in Excel, my Gantt Chart Template is a MUCH more cost effective solution, and in my opinion, much easier to use.

via vertex42.com

Sample Marketing Plan - Marketing Plan Pro

2009-07-16T13:17:00.001-07:00

via paloalto.com

Good sample

Index of management articles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2009-07-08T14:17:00.001-07:00

This is a list of articles on general management and strategic management topics. For articles on specific areas of management, such as marketing management, production management, human resource management, information technology management, and international trade, see the list of related topics at the bottom of this page.

A great list.

12 Steps for New Product Development

2009-07-08T13:21:00.001-07:00

New product development can play a variety of roles in defining corporate strategy to gain competitive advantage. This variability makes the process of new product development subject to the emerging organizational issues of the day. In general, a long-run, focused, and ongoing strategic commitment to attractive market opportunities should define the role of new product development. New product development should be integrated into an organizations strategy and significantly contribute to its perpetual renewal. Achieving this integration re¬quires the dedication of intellectual resources at all organizational levels. This intellectual process begins with a responsiveness to the business environment.

via studymarketing.org

Leadership Tools that leaders use to maximize profits and ensure quality growth.

2009-07-08T12:15:00.001-07:00

Leadership tools are essential. Successful business leaders aren't interested in abstract, warm and fuzzy, "theories" about leadership. Leaders like you seek out real tools that achieve quality results.
Rest assured, you've come to the right place to meet all of your leadership training and resource needs.

via leadership-tools.com

Reader - Sourcing Reloaded

2009-07-08T12:01:00.001-07:00

In today’s risky global business environment, supplier networks are the ultimate lifeline for many companies — delivering the far-flung materials, goods, and services that drive worldwide commerce. The sourcing function has thus become an indispensable contributor to strategic goals and competitiveness in every industry. But charting a course that positions the corporate purchasing department as a catalyst for growth is no easy matter.

via strategy-business.com

Harvard Business Online

2009-07-07T17:21:00.001-07:00

Harvard ManageMentor® is an online performance support tool used by thousands of managers from leading organizations worldwide.

via elearning.hbsp.org

Free Term Papers, Research Papers, Custom Essays, and Book Reports

2009-07-07T17:20:00.001-07:00

Free Term Papers, Essays, and Book Reports

Are you having trouble writing your term paper, research paper, or essay? If so, you're not alone! Writing an original paper can be difficult and time-consuming, but OPPapers.com has a huge online library of free essays and free term papers on almost any topic.

via oppapers.com

111 Ridiculously Obvious Thoughts on Selling

2009-07-04T15:27:00.001-07:00

111 Ridiculously Obvious Thoughts on Selling

On 24 January 2006, Tom spoke to a group at GE Energy, and he posted seven PPTs and two PDFs for the occasion. Among them were a PowerPoint presentation titled 89 Ridiculously Obvious Thoughts About Selling Stuff, and a PDF document titled "90 Ridiculously Obvious Thoughts on Selling." By 28 January, four days later, the piece had grown into "111 Ridiculously Obvious Thoughts on Selling," and made available on our website as a simple PDF. It was then picked up by our friends at ChangeThis to be produced as a manifesto. Thus, Tom's collection of sales theorems evolved into its final form, which you find below.

via tompeters.com

Free Tutorials about Microsoft project 2007.

2009-07-04T14:25:00.001-07:00

Do You know when and how to use Microsoft Project 2007 in your project? These tutorials are not just about how the tool it self works but also how and when you should use the features in Your project. All the tutorials are free and new are freequently added. These tutorials will not guarantee that you will run a successful project or be a great manager but it will increase you possibilities of understanding and work more efficiant with the project management software.

via project-blog.com

Best tutorials about Ms Project 2007.

Interbrand | Best Global Brands List | 2008

2009-07-04T08:05:00.001-07:00

BEST GLOBAL BRANDS 2008
Each year the Best Global Brands generates increasing amounts of interest from companies and practitioners associated with brands.

via interbrand.com

Like last year, Coca Cola is the number one.

Production Distribution Game - "The Beer Game"

2009-07-04T07:45:00.001-07:00

The Beer Game was developed to introduce students, managers and executives to concepts of system dynamics. The purpose of the game is to illustrate the key principle that "structure produces behavior." Players experience the pressures of playing a role in a complex system and can see long range effects during the course of the game. Each player participates as a member of a team that must meet its customers' demands. The object of the game is to minimize the total cost for your team.

via systemdynamics.org

Simulation von Supply Chain Management-Systemen: The Beer Game - Universität Klagenfurt

2009-07-04T07:43:00.001-07:00

Im letzen Jahrzehnt haben viele Unternehmen ihre logistischen Prozesse einem Reengineering unterzogen. Seit einiger Zeit erfolgt nun eine verstärkte Integration der Logistiksysteme von Unternehmen, Kunden und Zulieferern mit dem Ziel einer Gesamtoptimierung der Wertschöpfung. Hierfür hat sich der Begriff Supply Chain Management (SCM) etabliert.

Check out this website I found at beergame.uni-klu.ac.at

Jean Baudrillard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2009-07-04T06:53:00.001-07:00

Baudrillard was a social theorist and critic best known for his analyses of the modes of mediation and of technological communication. His writing, although consistently interested in the way technological progress affects social change, covers diverse subjects — from consumerism to gender relations to the social understanding of history to journalistic commentaries about AIDS, cloning, the Rushdie affair, the first Gulf War and the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

Igor Stravinsky

2009-07-04T05:54:00.001-07:00

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Russian: Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский, Igor' Fjodorovič Stravinskij) (17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music.^[1]^[2]^[3] He was a quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the century.^[4] In addition to the recognition he received for his compositions, he also achieved fame as a pianist and a conductor, often at the premieres of his works.

Year 2000 problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2009-07-04T05:09:00.001-07:00

The Year 2000 problem (also known as the Y2K problem, the millennium bug, the Y2K bug, or simply Y2K) was a notable computer bug resulting from the practice in early computer program design of representing the year with two digits. This time code ambiguity caused some date-related processing to operate incorrectly for dates and times on and after January 1, 2000 and on other critical dates which were billed "event horizons". Without corrective action, long-working systems would break down when the "...97, 98, 99..." ascending numbering assumption suddenly became invalid. Companies and organizations worldwide checked, fixed, and upgraded their computer systems.

Anger management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2009-07-04T04:08:00.001-07:00

The term Anger management commonly refers to a system of psychological therapeutic techniques and exercises by which someone with excessive or uncontrollable anger can control or reduce the triggers, degrees, and effects of an angered emotional state.

One technique for controlling anger is finding agreement with another person rather than a conflict. In some countries, courses in anger management may be mandated by their legal system.

The use of deep breathing and meditation can be used as a means of relaxation. Other interventions include learning empathy, stress management skills, forgiveness, changing how you speak about yourself or others and improving optimism. As the issue of anger varies from person to person, the treatments are designed to be personal to the individual.