Real Truth & Good News

What's The REAL TRUTH When It Comes To Online Income?

A. You can't MAKE MONEY on or off the Internet. Only a government can legally print, coin or MAKE money. We must EARN ours by whatever legal means possible.

B. So many millions of people spend all their usable time, talents and resources trying to MAKE money, when it realistically, practically and legally cannot be done.

C. You won't get rich by next Monday. However, any person with poor or modest monetary means can put a process in motion that will generate significant income in 90 days or less.

D. You will not double your money every week. (If Warren Buffett and Bill Gates can't do it, neither can you!)

E. Nobody's going to flood your PayPal account with money while you sleep. (Despite all the online promotion, it's not true.)

F. The so-called "Internet Gurus" don't care about you... they care about getting their hands on your money.

G. Many MLMers and networking organizations try to alter the successful 5x6 matrix by reducing it to 2 or 3. You hear it and see it all the time. "Get 2 who get 2 who get 2" or "Get three who get three who get three". It is not easier to do. It just sounds easier to do than getting 5.

H. People online and off will lie to you to get you to send them money. (Not just some people... MOST people!)

I. When honest people deal with dishonest people, the dishonest people ALWAYS WIN in the short term! (This is one of the little known reasons why so many people lose and don't earn any real money on the Internet!)

What's The GOOD NEWS About Reality Networkers?

A. You don't have to be victimized anymore - Reality Networkers will work with you and for you if work the system. (Isn't THIS good to know?)

B. You CAN earn money on and off the Internet... LOTS of money! (IF you understand, use and work Reality's 5x6 system.)

C. As a Confirmed Level 1 Member, you don't have to lie or cheat other people to earn money! (It's a fact! Honesty pays and Honesty works at Reality Networkers!)

D. At Reality Networkers, you can get all the help you want... when you need it... from REAL PEOPLE! (And it won't cost you a dime!)

To view this dynamic wealth building program concept for yourself click here.

Lessons from the First SalesmanThe Serpent

The serpent is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made,” Genesis 3:1. The serpent is indeed the original salesman. It is no wonder that when being derogatory about a person’s characteristics one might say that they are slippery like “snake oil”. But (for our purposes) the serpent must have been one heck of salesman. God, as the story in the bible goes, created for Adam and Eve the ultimate in luxury.

Think of the Ritz Hotel, Naples Florida with all expenses paid. Everything, from food to worldly pleasures was merely a touch a way. There was but one rule – do not eat from the forbidden tree.

So let’s review the selling environment for the serpent;

(A) No compelling reason to purchase,
(B) No purchasing authority at the local level (we can assume God’s commandment was the guiding principal),
(C) Not a very big market (although 2 out of 2 would be considered 100% market share) and...
(D) Decision making shared between two people.

The odds were certainly stacked against the serpent being successful in making his sale. As the story continues, the serpent convinces Eve to bite from the fruit and God punishes Adam and Eve by banishing them from the Garden of Eden. How was the serpent able to convince or sell Eve on eating the fruit? Taking into consideration all the elements working against the serpent – he must have been some salesman. Perhaps there is something to learn from this salesman:

1. Get your customer to start talking. The serpent didn’t start his dialogue with Eve about eating the forbidden fruit. Instead, he asks her a question about all the trees in the Garden of Eden. Listening to your customer, or moreover getting them to speak about their issues and concerns, is far more important than you rattling off your pitch. Perhaps by actually listening to your customer, you could, on-the-fly, adjust your pitch accordingly.

2. Deal with arguments one at a time. The serpent jumps on one of the facts that Eve states – that touching the forbidden fruit will kill her. By focusing his argument on this one issue the serpent is able to get Eve to let her guard down. There are always barriers to a close but getting your customer to state them in detail and then dealing with them one at a time until there are no barriers left.

3. Portray a compelling image post purchase. After dealing with the arguments against eating from the forbidden fruit the serpent immediately began to paint a picture for Eve what her world would be like if she ate from the forbidden fruit. Giving tangible examples of revenue generating or cost cutting solutions is critical to selling success. Most folks want to be a hero in their organization (or at least to themselves). How will buying your product/service make them a hero? Make sure customers have a clear image of what will occur once your product/service is deployed. Is their life easier? Are they able to earn more money? Save time? Be clear and specific. The serpent convinced Eve she would be like a God if she ate the fruit – now that’s a compelling argument.

4. Get the customer engaged in a trial. The serpent didn’t ask Eve to take title to an entire forbidden fruit tree, he merely convinced her to take a bite to see what happens. Make sure it is easy for your customer to try out your product/service. Everyone likes to try before they buy and while some services don’t work well in a trialing environment, perhaps you could package a subset of your product/service for a trial. Making it easy for your customer to chew on your product/service will help them get a taste for what it will be like when it is fully deployed.

"You could always learn something from everybody" as the phrase goes. While most symbolic representations of the serpent are indeed that of evil, let us not forget the caduceus or Wand of Hermes - a staff entwined by two snakes in the form of a double helix. The caduceus represents the authority to quickly deliver vital or wise information to aid, assist, negotiate, and enlighten. Perhaps there is something to learn from the serpent after all.

Author Currently Unknown

You Need To Know What You Are Saying

The Overwhelming majority of people in sales, marketing and networking have no idea what they are really saying to themselves and others. You need to know what you are really saying when you speak. For example: When you tell someone you want to go into business for yourself, do you really know what you are saying?

If you don't know, let me tell you. By definition, you are saying, "You want an occupation that generates income. Since you are going into business for yourself, you want to be your own boss. Some people are terrible bosses and that might include you. Why? Because they are or were terrible employees.

A Bad Employee Is An Even Worse Boss

If you do not have a disciplined work ethic, you absolutely will not have a disciplined management ethic. If you do not have a personal work philosophy, you absolutely will not have a personal management philosophy. If you can not work with honesty and integrity with others, you absolutely will not have integrity and/or honesty as your own boss. Now do you understand why so many businesses fail. A bad employee is an even worse manager or boss.

Ask yourself. What are the characteristics or traits of a good employee? You will discover, they are the same characteristics and traits of a good boss. Many people go into occupations (businesses) for the wrong reasons. Just because you don't want to work for someone else does not necessarily mean you have what it takes to go into business (an occupation) for yourself.

Many people need jobs or they will not survive. That's why IMG.Ws does not and will not advocate quitting your job or firing your boss to go into business (an occupation) for yourself. Why? The vast majority will fall flat on their faces. Why? They are not good employees. Many are lazy, deceitful, liars, cheats, deadbeats, immoral, undisciplined, unruly, boastful, lovers of pleasure, unreliable, untrustworthy, disloyal, lack initiative, have bad temperments, poor attitudes, little or no faith or possess a host of other unsavory character traits.

If they are educated or highly trained or skilled, they are too intellectual, socialistic, egotistical, conniving, aloof, introverted, isolated, pedantic, bookish, overly sensitive, fearful, methodical or have too many idiosyncracies. As an employee, they can and will survive on someone's job. As a self-employed individual they will absolutely fail unless they are willing to change. If any of this describes you, be willing to grow, develop and change or fail, the choice is yours.

Truth & Integrity

When you speak the truth you will succeed in business or any endeavor in which you choose to devote your time, talents and abilities. For example, if you exaggerate an individual's problem, to increase your income, you will run into problems.

The individual can sense the lie, no matter how sincere you act. If you are caught in the lie, you may pay a severe price over and beyond the actual lie itself. If you understate an individual's problem, you are failing to state what you know to be true. Thus, you are preventing an individual from making proper decisions.

You must look an individual in the eye and without hesitation deal with the truth. Dealing with and stating the truth allows an individual to act accordingly.

When you have spoken the truth, you have done what is right, even if the individual does not like hearing the truth. When you have the courage to call the truth the truth and speak it without fear or hesitation, you become a much more powerful force. You will discover it is much easier to hold a position on honest facts and absolute truth, than anything else.

Then the question becomes, "What is the truth? Webster defines truth as conforming to fact or reality. In business, government and interaction with others, truth is considered what you know, can prove, have observed or experienced to be an absolute fact. Real truth is the Word of YHVH (GOD). When you know this truth, you refuse to participate in lies, deceit, deception or misrepresentation of facts. Truth is an absolute. It is the same for every man, woman or child. Either it works, or it doesn't. Either it is or is not.

To gain a better understanding of truth, we must define true. According to Webster, true is being faithful to fact or reality; not false or erroneous, being real, genuine, not counterfeit or being honest. Unfortunately, what many believe and consider to be true and truth is not truth at all, but virtue, fidelity, loyalty, being consistent with one's values or being correct or accurate. As an IMGWS Associate, it is important to know truth and the value of truth. This is vitally important because it has everything to do with your personal integrity.

Integrity

Webster defines integrity as uprightness of character; probity, soundness, an unimpaired state or honesty. Contrary to popular belief, integrity does not mean sticking to your personal code of conduct or adhering to what you decide is right or wrong. This is absolute madness, because every individual has his/her own belief, concept or precept as to what is right or wrong. If this were the case, the world would be in total chaos and it is not.

The reason why it is not, is because YHVH (GOD) established universal laws and principles that transcend an individual's or humanity's knowledge, capabilities, abilities, intelligence and understanding. Consequently, these laws and principles cannot be changed or altered by anyone. This is a good thing. It keeps some idiot or a "limped-brained" dictator from interfering with the natural order of all things.

Once you understand this, it is much easier to live a life filled with and controlled by personal integrity. When you live with integrity, you will succeed because you are opened and honest. Your life is uncomplicated and less stressful. You have no reason to lie and you have nothing to hide from anyone, at anytime, day or night. There is no better way to live or conduct your business affairs.

Promote Your Website With Reciprocal Links

What Is A Reciprocal Link

A reciprocal link is a mutual link between two objects, commonly between two websites to ensure mutual traffic. Since the inbound link is a very important factor when search engines decide the ranking of a website both in value and search result, a lot of webmaster use reciprocal links to get inbound links.

So, don't be surprised if you see a "partners" or "resources" page of a website that is full of links. There is a very special type of reciprocal link called a "3-ways-linking" or "multi-ways-linking", which works as "Site A" links to "Site B", "Site B" links to "Site C" and "Site C" links to "Site A".

How to Get Receiprocal Links

To get reciprocal links is very simple and below are 2 common methods:

First: Join a link exchange website and request a reciprocal link with another website. There are many very famous link exchange websites you can leverage, such as, build-reciprocal-links.com etc. These websites also have a functional that allows you to check whether your link has really been put on the other website.

Second: Add a "Link Exchange" page to your own website. If you have regular visitors to your website, and your website has informative or interesting content, you can request a link exchange from your visitors and build up reciprocal links. Some websites even have a website directory that stores websites they have reciprocal links with.

Is Reciprocal Linking Still Effective?

Site reciprocal linking is no longer effective and can actually accrue penalties toward your website/s. Google and other SE's (Search Engines) can easily find these pages and discount them. However, this does not mean all reciprocal linking is ineffective.

Google states on their "link schemes" page that "Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")" is in violation of their Webmaster guidelines. Notice the word "excessive" being used twice in there.

This means that selective link exchanges between quality sites is not against their guidelines and and it still works! But if you have many websites, avoid tactics like "Site A" pointing to "Site B", "Site C", "Site D", and "Site B" points to "Site A", "Site C", "Site D", etc. This will be very easily captured by Google and treated as "excessive reciprocal linking".

What's the Most Effective Ways to Get High Quality Reciprocal Links?

There are 2 ways you can use:

The first method is to use 3-ways-linking or multi-ways-linking described above, and it is very difficult for Google to consider these methods excessive. If you have multiple websites, this is definitely the method you should use.

The second way is a contextual link exchange. The word here is a little bit new. Let me describe it a little bit here. Instead of simply putting a link to the other website, you put the link within the article you have written for your website. Links that appear within content are much more "natural" looking than sidebar and footer links. What's even more important is Google likes contextual links.

Successful Factors for Reciprocal Linking

In order to make sure you have a successful reciprocal links compaign when promoting your website/s, you should pay attention to these factors listed below:

Only exchange links with relevant websites. If your site is talking about web hosting, there is no need to exchange links with a website that is talking about games. Google will put a negative score to your site for irrelevant links.

Content is still the king when it comes to developing your website, no matter how many reciprocal links you have. If you cannot provide good content for online readers, all your effort will result in nothing.

Article by Ivy.Thai
Article Source: Webhostingclue.com

Phishing Scam Alert

Types of Internet Banking Fraud

Nothing’s easier than online banking. Just log in, view your bills, pay them, check on other accounts, and so on. I mean, aside from my grandparents, who doesn’t use the internet to bank these days?

While it’s more secure than ever before, and in my opinion, much safer than the old-fashioned paper-bill method, you still have to keep an eye out for scammers and internet fraud types who are trying to get their hands on your money.

Phishing Scams

Chances are, you know all about these. Phishing scams or “spoofing scams” are not only pretty common, they’re probably the most insulting way thieves get their hands on your personal information. Why? Because you hand it right over to them.

In phishing scams, crooks send a mass email to every address they can find, and they look like they come from your bank. They then ask you to update your profile (personal account number, passwords, social security numbers, mom’s maiden name, birthday, etc.) Before you know it, all of it is in the hands of an internet fraud scammer.

You probably think this wouldn’t happen to you. But it’s not always that easy to spot an internet banking fraud scam. In some cases, good phishing scams can be really hard to discern from the real thing. There may be a graphic or logo from your bank on the email, or the website they link you to is so real looking, even you could be fooled. By the time they’re through, they have all the information needed to break into your account, open credit cards in your name, etc.

Protecting Yourself From Phishing Scams

Bank of America offers the award-winning SiteKeyTM tool, which shows you an image (chosen by you in advance), then asks you to enter another password before you get access to your account. That way, it’s easy to tell if you’re on a bogus site.

What if your bank doesn’t offer this kind of protection? Well, no legitimate bank would send an email asking you to update your personal information. So if you get one, you know it’s one of those phishing scams. Forward it to your bank or the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), mark it as “spam” in your mailbox, or just delete it.

Spyware and Viruses

Spyware and viruses are nasty little programs that are loaded on your computer without your knowledge (usually by clicking on shady-looking pop-up ads). Sometimes they destroy information on your computer. Other times, they bombard you with so many ads, that you want to toss your computer out the window.

Then there’s the spyware that just sits there quietly, disguised as a real application, collecting all your private information. While it’s not exactly like those phishing scams, this kind of internet fraud puts the same secret information into the hands of thieves.

So called "Trojan horses" are also a good way for internet fraud specialists to get their hands on your account. Often times, these are disguised as or embedded within harmless looking software (computer clock setting programs, weather alert software, etc.) But these creatures are just trying to get access to your private information. They can also come in the form of a stand-alone program like a game or a screensaver. So, what should you do? If you don’t have it already, get good anti-virus protection, anti-spywear, and a firewall for your home computer.

How’s Your Bank Helping with Internet Fraud?

Your bank should provide you with protection, too. After all, a good online banking fraud detection and prevention system is good for business. I’m not sure what kind of internet fraud protection your bank offers, but, Bank of America's Online Banking has:

1. Firewalls to help block unauthorized access by individuals or networks.

2. Encryption technology, like Secure Socket Layer (SSL), to help transmitted info stay between you and Bank of America.

3. Secure email via Online Banking Award-winning SiteKeyTM service to help keep the wrong people out of your accounts.

Other Ways to Battle Internet Fraud

The best thing about banking online is how quickly you can access your accounts. Here are some ways you can use it to help cut down on internet banking fraud:

1. Go online often and check your account activity. This will help you detect internet fraud and identity theft almost instantly.

2. Set up email alerts – some banks give you the option to get alerts if your account drops below a certain amount. Then you’ll know if someone’s been messing with your account .

3. If you can, switch to online statements and electronic bills (e-bills) instead of mailed paper statements. This could help cut the risk of mail fraud.

Despite all the fancy internet fraud measures out there, the best fraud detection and prevention system is you. Bottom line is – you control the information you give out – and you’re the person who protects it. Keep all your personal or account information in a safe place, and don’t give it to anyone you don’t trust completely. When it comes to internet banking fraud and phishing scams, it’s good to be a skeptic.

Brit Hall is a freelance writer – and Bank of America customer – who writes articles for young adults about managing expenses, eliminating debt, and other personal finance issues.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brit_Hall

Why Smut & Porn Peddlers Are Losers

Recently, we have been receiving hundreds of emails from porn and smut peddlers from around the world. These poor, misinformed and misguided individuals have no idea what they are doing to themselves.

There is no honor, reward, virtue, glory or success in demeaning women, yourself or others. Smut and porn are degrading and those that peddle them are degrading themselves.

Even those that peddle smut and porn must feel dirty, low, despicable and ashamed. If this were not true, why do they use phony names, locations and pirated email addresses and domains?

Plus, the life and times of those in the porn industry is one of pain and tragedy. Those that put money above principle always lose. All the material acquisition, products or services this world has to offer will not change this reality.

Neither will one's culture or his/her society's lack of moral standards. 6,000 years of recorded history proves this fact. So why lower your personal standards and slide into self destruction? It's not worth it.

To Your Continued Success In 2008

As another year (2007) counts down to the new (2008), all of us at Independent Marketing Group would like to thank all our Associates (active and inactive) for joining our organization.

Our goal for 2008, is to become bigger and better than we were in 2007. We want all our Associates around the world to live long and prosper; not only in 2007 and in 2008, but for each everyday of your life on earth.

May GOD (YHVH) continue to bless us, you and your families and our businesses, so that we may be a blessing to many; not only in our respective countries, but to others wherever they may be.

How To Get More Hits To Your Website

Website Traffic Generation Tips

By: Mike Leinweber

You need to attract people to your website if you want your site to become successful. Website traffic is the technical term for the number of people who visit your website. Obviously, the more traffic your site attracts, the more successful your website will be.

Website traffic can be improved by simply considering several important things. First and foremost, you will need to have a website that people will want to see.

Hence, it is important to understand your targeted traffic.

Who is your targeted audience? Once you know that, start building a website with good attractive content. People will then be more likely to visit your site. The originality of your website is a major factor in determining the amount of website traffic that it will attract. You are not very likely to get traffic if your site doesn't offer something that other sites don't offer. You are more likely to get website traffic if your site is unique in some way and provides something that cannot be provided anywhere else.

A third suggestion would be to keep your web site up to date. You need the data on your web site to be current and relevant. This means writing material which won't get dated, or adding items constantly to keep it fresh. Both strategies are actually a good idea, because you want to have return traffic as well as new customers. The best strategy to keep visitors coming back is to continually update the site news so that there is always something new to read each time.

Another thing you need to do is make your site easily accessible. Keep in mind the keywords that people will search for. If you use these, it will be easy for other people to find your site. If there are links to your site on other sites, people can find your site that way.

Building a website should be worth your while, as long as you're going to the trouble. The number of people visiting your site will increase by simply following these few tips. This is the way to spread your message effectively.

If you're planning to start a new website, one thing to ask yourself is how you will attract visitors to your site. The term for the number of people who visit your site is website traffic. For a number of reasons, it is good to maintain a high traffic site. Think about who your targeted traffic is that you want to draw to your site. Consider your audience. Who's on the other side of that computer screen? The originality of your website is another factor to consider if you want to get traffic. Quality content goes a long way in getting people to visit your site.

For IMG.Ws Associates that market online, why not visit Mike at Click Cafe. Click Cafe's URL is http://www.clickcafe.biz/

How To Avoid The Google Slap

IMG.Ws Associates don't stoop to less than honorable methods and/or means to market and/or sell your product/s, service/s and/or information. When you try to beat or cheat the public, you will always lose. There is a reason for this. People want to do business with people they can trust.

When you use unscrupulous means to market or sell you are telling everyone you are untrustworthy, unethical, unreliable and have a criminal mentality; rather than a business mentality.

On our web pages, we always combine ads and content. Because of our marketing philosophy, we do not use adwords or any other Internet based marketing service.

We build our markets, the old fashioned way - By Hard Work. We want you to succeed online the right way. Don't be afraid of WORK. Honor your commitments and do what is right all the time. In the long run, you will win. The following email we received from Mike Leinweber, will help you avoid problems with Google and any other online marketing service.

Avoid Problems
By:
Mike Leinweber

The Google Slap: It's become one of the most dreaded phrases in an Internet advertiser's vocabulary. Google charges high premiums for links which lead to sites with low or no content. The price is determined by a quality score, so if your site is simply a list of links with no content, or poor content obviously thrown together to avoid high prices, you'll be paying through the nose for those clicks - up to $10 in some cases.

This recent attempt to improve the quality of links has many advertisers wondering how to avoid the Google Slap. To work around the Google Slap without losing hard-earned cash, improve the quality score of your website by adding content. To avoid frustrating visitors to your website, the additional content should pertain to the links on your website. A word soup of keywords and meaningless fluff is not adding value. Instead, content must be relevant, compelling, and preferably unique. Users who are rewarded for visiting your site, are more likely to return again and again.

If you have advertising and content combined on your site you will be considered in violation of Google's terms, so it is very important to separate the two. You may require an email address prior to allowing full access to your site, how to avoid the Google Slap in this case is the provision of preview content, which allows the user to know what providing their email address will get for them.

Another way to improve your rank on Google is to place links to your page on popular websites, thereby increasing the number of visitors to your own site. When doing this, by mindful about how to avoid the google slap, which can happen if you link to ad-only web pages. A wonderful way to avoid the Google Slap would be to place a link to your page on a place like a traffic exchange. Having problems with using google?

That is not uncommon for those just getting started with online advertising. Becoming well acquainted with Google's terms of service is crucial, because it will allow you to avoid unexpected advertising costs while taking advantage of the moneymaking opportunities that internet marketing provides. The internet is full of sites claiming that they can tell you how to avoid the google slap.

However, simply acquainting yourself with google's terms and conditions is the best first step. For anyone trying to run a lucrative online business by advertising on Google, learning these basic rules is well worth the time and effort. Google charges high premiums for links, which lead to sites with low or no content. This recent attempt to improve the quality of links has many advertisers wondering how to avoid the google slap.

So how do you workaround to the Google Slap without sacrificing your hard-earned cash? Participation in link exchanges can also improve your google rankings. Trading links with high traffic websites can increase traffic to your website. Avoid linking to pages with just advertisements but no real content. The beginner may have some problems with using google. But if you obey google's rules and regulations, you will not be loosing money.

To get more exposure for your product/s, service/s and/or information, why not try Mike's Traffic Exchange - Clickcafe.Biz

Understanding Marketing

In previous posts, you learned that businesses are established in order to satisfy a need or a want. It does that by producing a good or a service for a group of people whom we call a target market.

For profit oriented organizations, it is essential that you produce or have access to sufficient quantities of the product so as to meet the product or good cost of production and earn a reasonable profit.

If this can not be done, the business will suffer and, ultimately, will not survive.

What Is Marketing?

The process of raising people's awareness for your product, service or information through proper strategies to enable them to buy it, in exchange of, usually, cash or credit that will provide a profit for you, is the essence of Marketing. For non-profit organizations, the objective of the exchange is not to gain profit, but to obtain customer satisfaction.

Marketing comes from the word "Market."

A ‘Market’ is "a group of potential customers with similar needs who are willing to exchange something of value for the various goods and/or services you are offering." For a more detailed discussion of Markets and Marketing go back to the Information Warehouse and review your Effective Sales, Sponsoring & Recruiting Market. Click here to review.

This means that "Marketing" is a process by which two groups of people (the customers and the sellers) who have needs to be satisfied, are willing to try to satisfy those needs by exchanging products (goods or services), ideas and/or information for monetary or non-monetary returns that include monetary or non-monetary profit. This can be done face-to-face at some physical location (or through someone in the middle) that links buyers and sellers living apart.

The Five Concepts Of Marketing

In order to carry out your marketing activities, which are needed to achieve the desired exchanges with the target market, you have several alternative concepts that can help guide your activities: The production concept, the product concept, the selling concept, the marketing concept, and the societal marketing concept.

These concepts have developed throughout the years in parallel with the continuous development in the concept of business itself. They still hold as optional strategies that you can use at any time depending on the marketing situation you are encountering.

The Production Concept

This concept holds that consumers will favor those products that are widely available and low in cost.

The Product Concept

This concept holds that consumers will favor those products that offer the most quality, performance, or innovative features. Both of the above concepts are old ones. They were developed at a time when companies focused on the production of a few specific products, if not only one. Management would think in the following way, "If we can make it, it will sell." Or, they might say "How could they (customers) know what they want before they see the product?"

The Selling Concept

This concept holds that consumers, if left alone, will ordinarily not buy enough of the organization’s products. By 1930, mass production was under way and companies had more production capabilities. Competition started to appear stronger than before. Companies now had the ability to produce similar but cheaper products.

To answer the problem of how to beat the competition and win more and more customers, was resolved in the adoption of the selling concept where more emphasis was placed on selling the product (no matter how) by undergoing aggressive selling and promotion efforts.

The Marketing Concept

This concept holds that the key to achieving organizational goals consists of being more effective than competitors in integrating marketing activities toward determining and satisfying the needs and wants of target markets.

This concept started a new era of understanding marketing and business. It involved, for the first time, customers. Entrepreneurs (including marketing ones) have started to realize the importance of knowing what consumers think and what their wishes are (in tems of their products).

Rather than making whatever product/s that are easy to produce, or getting stuck on one product without taking into consideration customers' needs, entrepreneurs have now started to incorporate the needs of their customers in their daily business decision making.

Marketing activities have now started to revolve around its newest focus: the customer. This new marketing concept is now based on four main ideas: The target market, customer needs, integrated marketing, and profitability.

The Societal Marketing Concept

This concept holds that the organization’s task is to determine the needs, wants and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that preserves or enhances consumer's and the society's well-being.

This is the fifth and the newest concept of marketing. It focuses on the well-being of the individual and the society by taking them into consideration when marketing activities and efforts are being made. It calls for a balance between the company's profits, customer satisfaction, and society's interest.

What Is A Product?

From previous posts, you learned that products are offered by organizations to satisfy certain needs or wants of customers. Products can be physical and tangible (seen and touched) items called "goods," or, they can be virtual (generated by computerized or electronic means) or intangible (can not be seen and touched) items such as "services, or it can be a combination of both.

Products that are considered "goods" can be stored and produced away from the customer; while those that are considered "services" can not be stored and they are often produced in the presence of a customer. The United Arab Emirates is an open market. It contains local and international products. Each product must have a specific target market that it is aimed at.

ATarget Market is a group of customers who are segmented from the total population due to the similar characteristics, buying habits and behavior and whom the company wishes to contact regarding the product.

The Marketing Mix

Your marketing mix will always involve making decisions concerning the 4 Ps - Product, Promotion, Price and Place of introducting products, services and/or information to the general public.

First: You have to make decisions on the Product: The decisions you have to make here should reflect the needs of the targeted group. What are you offering your customers and in what shape or form are you offering it?

Second: You have to make decisions on Promotion: The decisions you have to make here are concerned with how and with which methods you are going to tell your potential customers and your target market about your product. Promotion includes:

A. Personal Selling

B. Word of Mouth

C. Mass Selling (Publicity and Advertising)

D. Sales Promotion

You will have to make promotional decisions on whether you want to use one kind of promotion or a blend of more than one.

Following is a brief description of each tool:

A: Personal Selling: Personal selling is a very costly tool to promote your product but in some types of businesses it is the most important one. It involves direct communication between sellers and potential customers in the form of a telephone interview or face-to-face meeting.

B: Word of Mouth: Word of Mouth is based on the reputation of your product and how people perceive it to be. Word of mouth is what people tell each other and talk amongst themselves about your product. It is free of charge but you can not rely on it on its own. A bad quality product or a company with a bad reputation can be destroyed by the word of mouth of its potential buyers, even before it is officially introduced into the market.

C: Mass Selling: Mass Selling is the means to communicate with a large number of potential customers at the same time and it consists of: Advertising & Publicity; Advertising is a "paid form of nonpersonal presentation of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor," while Publicity is unpaid.

D: Sales Promotion: Sales Promotion involves the use of leaflets, brochures, coupons, signs, special offers, discounts, and samples, etc., It is important to realize that the best way to promote your product is to choose a Promotional Mix (a combination of more than one promotional tool) that best suits your potential customers, your own promotional budget and the availability of enough resources.

Third: You have to make decisions on Price: The decision you have to make here is: what is the right price for this product?

Finally: You have to make decisions on the Place: The decisions you have to make here should reflect how you are going to provide the product to the target market. You have to deliver the product at the appropriate time and location keeping its quality intact.

Every IMG.Ws Associate, in your effort to develop a marketing strategy, has to design a specific Marketing Mix for the targeted customers you are seeking. To do this, you have to develop a product or have access to a product, service or information that is appealing to a certain target group.

Then you must find a way to deliver your product, service or information and reach your group’s place. You can let your targeted customers know about your product, service or information by using one or more of the promotional tools discussed in this blog and, last but not least, a price will have to be set to reflect the buying ability of the target market.

As an IMG.Ws Associate, the marketing strategy of your business; either online or off line, should reflect the decisions you have made concerning the Marketing Mix that best represents you, your company and product or service to the market you have identified that needs, wants or you can use what you have to offer.

Understanding Maslow's Heirarcy Of Needs

Maslow's "Heirarchy of Needs" was essentially developed from a paper written by Abraham Maslow in 1943 entitled: "A Theory of Human Motivation".

It was partly based on concepts and ideas from Kurt Goldstein's organismic theory of personality. Maslow eventually expanded his observations or conceptualizations to include what he learned from studying innate curiosity that is present in the vast majority of human beings.

Even though Maslow's "Heirarchy of Needs" has been largely debunked over the years, it is still being used, because many believe it is true.

In fact, it is the basic underpinning of business developmental philosophy within the highest levels of the world's largest and leading corporations. As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you are also at the highest level of management within your enterprise. Therefore, understanding Maslow's "Heirarchy of Needs", should help you develop a more comprehensive and realistic business and self management philosophy.

The reason why we have included Maslow's work in our monthly blog series is because you may have been exposed to Maslow's philosophy without even realizing it. As stated previously, the fundamental principles described in Maslow's "Heirarchy of Needs" is still widely used throughout the Western world and the global business community. You can review Maslow's "Heirarchy of Needs" at Wikipedia.Org .

Since many in the academic, business and government community believe motivation is an internal process through which human wants, needs and desires are satisfied, it is important to know what systemic process is being used to encourage self motivation.

When given a certain job, one is expected to do the best he/she could. Unfortunately, people vary in the way they perform their duties. Some are more willing to do a good job than others. Some are more encouraged to produce a quality work than others.

Understanding how to make people work at their best, how to motivate them, has always been a challenge. In business, motivated employees are key links to improved product quality that results in greater productivity and higher levels of customer satisfaction.

From a business perspective, there are many reasons why people work. They all stem from the fact that people have so many differing needs that need to be satisfied and fulfilled. People work to satisfy those needs, or some of them, through a hierarchical process that determines, according to Maslow, which needs are considered more important than others. Below is an overview of Maslow's "Heirarchy of Needs".

Maslow categorized human needs into five kinds:

Physiological

Safety

Social

Self-esteem (Ego) and...

Self- Actualization.Self Actualization

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

According to this theory, every need becomes active or aroused only when the lower need is reasonably satisfied. Following is a brief description of each level of needs:

Physiological Needs: The lowest level in Maslow's hierarchy. It contains the basic needs for food, drink, shelter and rest. Once these needs are satisfied, they no longer motivate the person's behavior.

Safety Needs: The next higher level needs become the ones that motivate. These are the needs for protection against danger or deprivation and the need for security.

Social Needs: These needs will become motivators once the physiological and safety needs are reasonably satisfied. These are the needs for affiliation, friendship, belonging and giving and receiving affection.

Self-Esteem Needs (Ego): These are the needs that people have for self-confidence, independence, achievement, recognition, and appreciation.

Finally, Self-Actualization Needs: These needs are the highest level of needs in Maslow's hierarchy. They begin to motivate the person's behavior only after all the previous levels have been reasonably satisfied. This level is about the need to become someone you know you are capable of becoming. And the need that motivates you to do special things. The needs at this level are rarely satisfied as you always aspire for new things.

The Significance of Maslow's Hierarchy

People's needs are important to know because it is an unsatisfied need that creates motivation. People's needs are so different and it is vital to identify those ones that are not satisfied, if motivation is sought.

As businesses become more aware of the importance of motivation, new methods are introduced by these businesses to take into account the needs of employees to enjoy work, display their creativity and feel a sense of achievement and responsibility.

Many theorists argue that designing jobs with workers' needs in mind will increase quality, productivity and will reduce absenteeism, turnover, and production cost. Job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment and team working are examples of such job design methods that incorporate employees' needs.

What is currently motivating you to build and develop your business? What motivated you to become an IMG.Ws Associate? It may be some of these needs as expressed by Maslow, or you may have entirely different reasons for doing what you are doing to increase your income or improve your lifestyle.

Answers to these questions are important for two reasons:

1. Right reasons or good reasons almost always lead to success and personal growth, even if you fail initially.

2. Wrong reasons or bad reasons almost always lead to failure and personal depravity.

That old adage "Know Thyself" is still true..

Understanding Business Management

Previously, we identified a lack of business management skills as one of the reasons why so many fail in home based businesses. In this post we are going to identify some of the key elements of effective business management.

In order to save time and provide our Associates with the best possible information on this topic, we are going to use a course written by Omar A Badran on business fundamentals.

Since there are so many people that would like to own and operate a traditional business, we have chosen his course because of its simplicity.

We are not going to include illustrations or graphics because we can not accurately reproduce them and the text editor at this blog does not allow bitmap reproductions. In addition, they would take up unnecessary space.

Lets begin. Any business can not operate without people. These people, whom we call employees, could be either part of the Management team (Managerial employees) or part of the working force (Non-managerial employees).

All managerial employees perform basic functions. The five management functions are Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Leading (or Directing) and Controlling. It is useful to classify management work into these five functions as they provide us with an organized way to describe many of the important activities they do.

Planning - The management function that involves setting goals and deciding on which methods to use to achieving them.

Organizing - The management function that involves arranging the resources of the business in such a way that its activities systematically contribute to the business's goals.

Staffing - The management function that involves recruiting, selecting, appraising, training and developing employees.

Leading (Directing) - The management function that involves providing the motivation and leadership that is necessary for ensuring that the firm's employees do their jobs and accomplish their goals.

Controlling - The management function that involves ensuring that activities are providing the planned results.

Managers, therefore, are involved in certain activities, associated with each function, which could be identified as follows:

Planning:

Setting goals.

Deciding for the future what is needed and what might happen.

Making decisions on the best methods to use to accomplish certain tasks or goals.

Identifying what steps, and how many steps, are needed to do something.

Organizing:

Delegating some of their work to other employees.

Giving each employee a distinct task to do.

Coordinating between departments and between people.

Staffing:

Recruiting or helping in recruiting employees to the organization.

Selecting the right person for the right job.

Appraising their employees' performance within a period of time.

Providing the right guidance and environment to help employees in their career development.

Designing and providing training sessions and workshops the employees to help them acquire new skills and to update their existing knowledge.

Orienting the employees about the organization (Who is who, location of departments, job information, policies, regulations and special instructions of how to do certain tasks.

Leading (Directing):

Using different styles of leadership to direct their employees to do the required work.

Guiding their employees, speaking on their behalf, and setting good example.

Motivating their employees to do their work.

Handling grievances and conflict between employees.

Controlling:

Designing control systems to ensure that employees are doing their jobs as expected and that their work behavior is acceptable.

Setting standards of work to know how exactly one has to do one's work.

Observing employees' work.

Measuring employees' work performance.

Meeting with employees to see how work and performance could be improved.

In order for any business to function, it needs an internal structure that shows who is in charge, who makes decisions, who carries out the decisions and how decisions and information are communicated. The structure will establish the formal relationship between the people who will be working together within the business.

Knowing the answers to all four questions above would provide a clear idea about the relationship between the employees (Managerial and non-managerial) and between the different departments (the different areas of specialization’s) that are existing within a particular organization.

In order to clearly see this formal relationship, and to see how the business is organized, one could represent this formal structure by means of a simple diagram called an organizational chart.

Each business (or organization) has its own specific structure. As the relationship between people and/or departments differs from business to business due to the different nature and culture of each business, hence the existence of different graphical representations or different organizational charts.

An organizational chart provides an easy way to understand the structure of a business. You will discover that in organizations, fewer people are found at the top, representing top management and middle management, while the more you travel downwards, the larger the numbers of employees are.

The more levels found in an organizational chart, the greater the height of the chart. Such organization is a tall organization. A flat organization is one with much lesser organizational levels, probably one or two only.

In general, the greater the height of the organizational chart, the smaller the spans of control of its managers. The span of control refers to the number of individuals a manager supervises.

Establishing departments in organizations is the most common method of establishing formal relationships between individuals. Establishing departments, also known as Departmentation or departmentalization, could be done in different ways depending on the most suitable structure design the Management of the organization thinks would best help in achieving organizational objectives/goals.

Three such ways to establishing departments are by Function, Geography and by Product.

By Function:

Departments here are established to perform specific tasks. There are six basic business functions that organizations could do: Personnel (or currently known as human resource management), Finance, Purchasing, Production, Marketing(including Sales) and Research & Development.

By Geography (Territory):

Departments can be established according to the location in which business is done (i.e. according to the geographical market area).

By Product:

Departments can be established according to the goods and services produced especially if the business finds it difficult to coordinate between the many different kinds of services and business functions.

Next - Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs

Falling For The Work Smart Not Hard MythThe Number 10 Reason Why So Many Fail In Home Businesses

The biggest myth circulating in the business community today on and off the Internet is this notion of working smart not hard. In modern technological and industrialized societies people rarely work hard when compared to societies that have little or no industrial or technological development.

In their misguided and uninformed attempt to amass millions by working smarter not harder, thousands of business-minded individuals began to believe that working smarter meant using more technological aids. Others, began to believe working smarter meant cutting corners, reducing learning curves or entering into a battle of wits with potential customers.

A small, but growing, number began to believe working smarter not harder meant scamming potential entrepreneurs with pyramid schemes, junk moneymaking programs or crash and burn business ventures that were designed not to last. Others began scamming their customers.

Naturally, some of these people earned some money, but in the end they all eventually failed. Well, you ask, "What does working smarter not harder really mean?" It means you have to grow intellectually, psychologically, spiritually, emotionally and sometimes physically to meet whatever challenge you are confronting. This translates back into that four letter word no one likes or wants to hear...work.

Working smarter also means you have to grow in knowledge, wisdom and understanding in order to succeed in your endeavor. For some this means using more technological aids to help their business/es grow. For most, it means solving problems for others. A select few will have to use their ingenuity to design and develop new products and/or services.

For others it will mean replacing old concepts and procedures with new methods and/or techniques in order to realize greater profits or save more time or minimize physical or intellectual effort. Many will need to gain greater understanding of their market, market trends and/or the needs, wants, or desires of a targeted group of people. All this requires work and when you engage in this kind of work professionally or personally, you are truly working smarter not harder.