Benefits of Web-Based Conferencing

I recently graduated from college, and instead of taking a corporate programming job, my friend and I started our own web development company. Everything was going great...we were both working from home and enjoying small successes. However, we soon realized that text messaging could only go so far, especially when we hired several employees. Text messaging was slow, and was "noisy" when several people were in a chatroom. We quickly needed a solution.

Fortunately, we discovered web-based conferencing. Web-based conferencing has several flavors, including peer-to-peer direct conferencing, remote server hosting, and shared remote hosting. They all have their own benefits and disadvantages, which will be explained. First, general web-based conferencing has several advantages over call conferencing, which is done on phone lines. Web based conferencing includes audio and video, and displaying presentations such as powerpoint, making it far superior to call conferences.

However, web-based conferencing does have several drawbacks. If users in your internet meeting dont have sufficient bandwidth, the call conference can become laggy for all participants. Fortunately, broadband penetration is growing by leaps and bounds throughout each country yearly. Throughout the coming years, this issue will slowly disappear, as less and less dial-up accounts are used, especially in business settings.

As stated, web-based conferencing does come in several flavors. The cheapest is peer-to-peer direct conferencing, in which one computer acts as the host and others connect to that computer. This is a great solution for a business in which the main office has an excellent internet connection that can be utilized. However, direct hosting usually does not support as many features such as powerpoint sharing among clients, that remote hosting can offer. The big disadvantage of remote hosting is the cost, which can be hundreds of dollars a month in membership fees.

Whichever conferencing solution you find will surely increase productivity for your online meetings. Web-based conferencing is a huge improvement over chatrooms, due to audio, video, and slide sharing. It has greatly helped my business, where all programmers work from home, and can surely help for you as well.

Dan Goggins is an entrepreneur who is interested in real estate, computer programming, and family life. You can read about his experiences and advice about Video Conferencing.

Angels on Assignment

Recently it has come to my attention people are noticing Angels popping up in the strangest places. Several years ago you would only hear about Angels at Christmas time 'Peace on Earth' that kind of thing. Now they are everywhere. In all forms of art and in each generation's music. Have you thought about the reasons why?

An Angel is a representative of God ... right? Maybe God is trying to get our attention. Wonder why ? Is it we aren't taking the time in our busy days to notice and acknowledge what miracles are occuring around us every moment of the day?

Our lives have become so hectic and let's face it...totally out of control with stress. No one has dinner as a family anymore.Way too busy for that. What value is there in sitting across the table in asking your child "What kind of day did you have and what did you do today ?"Have we become so busy we have lost total contact with what is really important ? Where is the love, the glue that holds a family together ? Where is the magic of looking deeply into your own child's eyes with true love and caring ?

Maybe there is a reason God's Angels are popping up in the strangest places. A top of the line lingerie line is now associated with Angels parading their models with huge white wings. When you really stop and think about it...Angels are showing up in whatever form will get the attention of men, women, teenager, adolescent and child that will hold their interest.

Maybe, it is time to stop and wonder why these Angels are on assignment and what they are trying to tell us.

? 2005 Sharae Taylor

Sharae Taylor is a well known Intuitive Angel Artist whose paintings are in world wide collections and her works have been exhibited with other well known Angel Artists Andy Lakey ,Donna Terody Sheratan,Gary Markowitz, past art editor of "Angel Times" magazine and K. Martin Kuri, Angel Artist and Author. Sharae has also participated in many Angel Expos and Angel Conferences with other well known Angel Authors like Alma Daniels author of "Ask Your Angels" . Her Angel paintings are featured in the newly released "Angels" DVD by Llewellyn and New World Music and was featured in the February 2005 issue of Planetlightworker.com. Sharae is a published author in magazines and ezines. To view Sharae's Angelic art and for further information visit her website at:http://www.angelsbysharae.com

How to create your own Unique Selling Proposition

Why would a prospect buy from you rather than from your competitor?

How do you outsell your competitors?

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is very important as part of your business planning. This is especially so if you decide to set up a home business in the highly competitive internet arena. What in your product or service creates the "incentive" for prospects to do a click through to buy?

Here are a few specific examples that you can consider in creating your own USP...

* Providing better quality product. For instance, your competitor may offer 10 features but you offer 20 for the same price.

* Lower priced product. For the same product or service, you offer it in a lower price. For instance, your competition offers to arrange and deliver a bouquet of flowers for $50. You offer the same for $40.

* Your guarantee is better than your competitor. Your competitor offers a 30 day trial versus your 90 day trial.

* Better customer service. You offer online email support and a guarantee that you will answer all emails within 24 hours. However, make sure that you are able to deliver on your promise!

* Special knowledge or tool that no one else have. You may possess some special knowledge or proprietary tool which is of value to your customer. This is especially if you also give your customers F/R/E/E and specialised information they can't find anywhere else, they'll buy from you.

* Give people added-value related products eg. software. Most people like to find good deals on software for their computers. If the software is free, that is even better.

* Your product is niche and tailored to the specific need of a particular group. For instance, if you are in the business of selling garments, you may wish to cater to the group that wears larger sizes. Your USP is to provide quality and yet trendy clothes for this target market (whose needs have been sadly neglected).

* Better value packaging. You may throw in more freebies, bonuses or even, consultancy services to create a premium packaged solution for your customers.

Obviously, in order to create your own USP, you must first research on what your competitors are doing. Study their sales proposition intensively. Also, find out what your customers need and what problems they are facing. See if your better value product can meet their needs or fill a gap. Get feedback before launching your business. To do surveys, you can check out www.createsurvey.com or www.surveymonkey.com.

After deciding on what your USP is, you may even include your proposition as part of your headline copy. This will be what makes the prospect decide to read the entire copy of your sales page.

In conclusion, taking your time to evaluate and doing plenty of research to create your USP will definitely pay you dividends. You want to have the greatest possible chance of success once you roll out your product or service.

Evelyn Lim is an Online Business Entrepreneur. This article is extracted from her regular newsletter that teaches readers tips & strategies for Mapping To Success. To subscribe to her newsletter or to find out more, please visit http://www.e-BizMap.com or her blog at http://www.EvelynLim.com .

PR: Ouch! Tells the Tale

Ever get the feeling that your public relations program isn't doing much about the behaviors of your important outside audiences? Those audiences whose actions have the greatest impacts on your business?

Chances are your PR effort is focused primarily on communi- cations tactics and not on the process needed to really move those key audience perceptions, and thus behaviors in your direction.

Which means you've missed out on the sweet spot of public relations.

Ouch!

That sweet spot can be summed up in just two sentences:

People act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired- action those people whose behaviors affect the organization, the public relations mission is accomplished.

Now there's nothing wrong with communications tactics. They are necessary "beasts of burden" that fit in nicely at the proper time, as you will shortly note.

So, if you believe it finally may be time to utilize that PR sweet spot, you could start this way.

Just who are your most important outside audiences? Customers and prospects, of course. But what about employees, minorities, residents, political and labor union leaders, the trade and business communities, among others?

Rank them in order of importance to your operation and let's work on your #1 external target audience.

Nothing can happen until you know what members of that audience think about your organization. And that means interacting with them while asking lots of probing questions and monitoring their perceptions. Have they heard about your company, its products or services? What do they think about them? Do you detect negativity, inaccuracies, misconceptions or even disturbing rumors?

With that kind of information, you're ready to set down your corrective public relations goal. Examples might be to counter that rumor with the truth, or correct an inaccurate belief, or clarify a hurtful misconception.

Now, you need the right strategy, one that gets you from here to your goal. Happily, there are only three strategies you can use in dealing with an opinion challenge like this: create perception (opinion) where there may be none, change existing perception, or reinforce it. Your goal will lead you to the correct strategy choice.

It's time to put on your writer's hat and prepare a really responsive message for delivery to the target audience. Above all, you must be convincing when you state that the unfortunate misconception, inaccuracy or rumor is untrue, and then lay out that truth creditably. Strive for clarity, persuasiveness, believability and, if at all possible, a compelling tone.

Your "beasts of burden" are standing by patiently ready to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. Because there are so many such tactics, you must choose carefully, and check just as carefully that each tactic has a proven record for reaching people like those who make up your target audience. Tactics range from radio and newspaper interviews, newsletters and press releases to emails, op-eds, speeches and many, many others.

What about progress? Are you making any? Best way to find out is to re-monitor perceptions/opinion in that target audience now that your communications tactics have been underway for six to eight weeks. Interact again with target audience members using the same questions you used the first time around. What you want to see are perceptions beginning to reflect the corrections in the message carried by your communications tactics. In other words, you are looking for opinion/perceptions that have been altered in your direction.

Talk about early-warning systems! When you pay attention regularly to your most important external audiences, you will be continuously aware that certain behaviors may be getting ready to exert negative pressure on your business. Which gives you time to spersuade the stakeholders who make up that target audience to your way of thinking, thus moving them to take actions that lead to the success of your organization.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.

Robert A. Kelly ? 2003.

About The Author

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks about the fundamental premise of public relations. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net. Visit: http://www.prcommentary.com.

Teaching Kids the Value of Money

My husband and I have a 12-year-old daughter who wanted to go to a winter retreat with her church youth group last year. Price of trip ? $45. I told her I'd talk to her dad about it. "HOW much is it?" he asked, "didn't she just go somewhere with the youth group?" "Yes," I replied, "and also to two friends' birthday parties. Another one is coming up this weekend." We both agreed that was a lot of money for us to spend for our daughter to have fun with her friends.

But the retreat was a church activity. So we should have forked out the money for her go, right? Well, maybe. In the past year or so our daughter had made a lot of new friends and had been asked to be involved in a lot of new social activities. Last summer was the first year we could afford to let her go to summer camp for a week. It pleased me more than anything to tell her she could go.

The more we've let our daughter go do things with her friends, the more she takes those things for granted, and expects more. She then resents doing something so menial as her household chores. So now we make sure her chores are done before she goes anywhere. "Room's not clean, laundry not started? Better hurry and do them before you go do something with your friends. Don't have time? Then I guess you're out of luck." But that was only the start. Whenever the attitude starts in she's given a warning and then privileges start being taken away, one by one.

You have to figure out what works for you. You may have to teach each child individually, because each is motivated differently. If your children cheerfully hand over their allowance every time they don't take out the garbage, you should take some other privilege away.

Resist the urge to give your children too much allowance. Don't buy them things that they can save money for themselves, like designer clothes, CD's, magazines, make up, video games, etc. Even young children can be taught to save for small things. Almost nothing makes me more sad than seeing children who take their allowances for granted and never have to work for it. Parents aren't doing their children any favors by teaching them to expect everything to be handed to them. We sacrifice, and they don't appreciate it. Why should they? They don't have anything to lose.

So did our daughter get to go on her retreat? We decided she could go if she paid $20 of the $45. She was not happy about it. She only gets $3 a week allowance, and she was saving her money for a new CD. She stewed about it for awhile, and then forked over what money she had. We worked out a payment schedule for her to come up with the rest of the money before the weekend of the retreat, and we let her do extra chores to earn a few more dollars. Are we guilty of child abuse? Our daughter thinks so, but her dad and I know better.

About The Author

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For more inspirational articles and tips for everyday living, visit her web sites at http://www.creativehomemaking.com and http://www.christian-parent.com

The Different Cell Phone Accessories Available

Where do I start?

Always start with the essentials. If you intend using the cell phone in the car it is important to purchase a hands free car kit. In many states it is illegal to drive while on the cell phone unless you have the car kit or ear piece installed. Pricing will vary depending on the manufacturer but of all the accessories this is the most important and could be a life saver to you and other road users.

Leather covers are a good protective for your cell phone screen and I urge any person who works in the building industry or similar to purchase a cover. Just like a watch face your cell phone face will scratch and crack quite easily and especially for those who carry their phones while doing manual labour.

Cell phone keypads are ideal to protect the actual buttons on the cell phone. Once again they are not very expensive and are ideal for manual workers. They are simple to install but check with the cell phone manufacturer just in case they have recommendations.

Antenna's or boosters are ideal for people who travel such as sales people or any person for that matter who travels from state to sate. Different area's have different signal strengths and remote regions tend to have a poor signal. The booster is cheap and can help with the signal and stop the annoyance of dropped calls.

For Fun

If you are looking for cell phone accessories for fun you have plenty to choose from. Changing face plates is very popular and not expensive to do. There are endless amounts of face plates to buy from exotic colors to movie themes etc.

Ringtones are by far the most popular accessory to add to your cell phone. The ringtone industry is as large as the actual cell phone industry. Be careful when choosing ringtones, once you sign up to download many companies do not tell you that you need to unsubscribe if you do not wish for any more downloads to be sent. Each download is accompanied with a price and if you forget to unsubscribe you could be in for an unwanted expense. Apart from that ringtones are fun and ever changing.

Can you only buy brand named accessories?

All cell phone manufacturers will recommend their own brand accessories but shop around. You will find equal quality third party brands. Remember some of the well known cell phone manufacturers have these third party companies make their accessories only to badge it as their product.

Cell phone batteries:

It is always a good idea to have a second battery on stand by. Batteries do not last forever and many people get caught out when their battery fails to charge. A spare battery is ideal if you are using your cell phone as your main point of contact or if you simply cannot do without your cell phone on a daily basis.

Can you get third party batteries?

Yes you can but of all accessories I do not recommend buying third party batteries unless recommended to you from a friend who has tried it. They be up to 30% cheaper than the branded types.

Data Cables

Cell phones today are becoming more and more like computers with all the different functions available. You can upload your phone information such as notes or photos to your home computer but you do need a link or data cable to do so. Data cables are not expensive but are generally forgotten about until the last minute.

Overview

Accessories are widely available on the Internet and you can expect to get good discounts online. Remember to check with the manufacturer of the cell phone for recommendations on products such as car kits and antenna's etc but you will be wish to compare prices with the third party companies who will offer similar products with equivalent warranties.

About the Author
Declan Tobin is a successful freelance writer providing advice for consumers on purchasing a variety of Prepaid phone plans which includes Cell prepaid plans, Carriers, and more! His numerous articles provide a wonderfully researched resource of interesting and relevant information for all of your phone interests and needs.

Poor Credit Car Loan - Get Approved Online

Poor credit doesn't have to stop you from getting a car loan. In fact, car loans are one way of rebuilding your credit history. Online car loan lenders make the application process quick and easy, so you can buy your automobile the next day.

Poor Credit Car Loan Lenders

Car loan lenders make it their job to find you a loan. Whether you are just out of bankruptcy or simply have poor credit, they can find you a financing package through one of their lending partners.

Car loans for people with poor credit will have higher interest rates. However, after rebuilding your credit history, you can refinance your car loan in as little as a year's time. Just make sure that your car loan does not charge a penalty fee for paying your loan off early.

Tips For Car Loan Approval

If you are worried about your chances of approval for a car loan, take the time to look at your credit report which is available for free to US residents. Make sure that all information is accurate. You may also want to include a note in your file explaining the reasons for your poor credit, such as a job loss or health issues.

You can also pay off some credit card debit to improve your credit score. Also, consider putting down a large down payment.

Getting Approved

Online car loan applications take less than fifteen minutes to fill out if you know the loan amount and terms you want. If you have questions, you can find information on the car loan lender's website or contact them.

The application will request basic information such as personal contact information, your social security number to verify credit score, and monthly income. Once you have submitted your application, you will hear from the lender either through email or over the phone.

With most lenders, you will receive a package in the mail the next day which includes a check and paperwork. You simply sign the check over to the automobile dealership or an individual and finish the paperwork. After that, you own a new car.

To view our list of recommended auto loan companies online. Visit this page: Recommended Auto Loan Companies Online.

Carrie Reeder is the owner of ABC Loan Guide, an informational website about various types of loans.

Why Does it Take So Long to Slow Down

Why do we wait so long, before we start thinking about whom and what we are? Why does it take a lifetime of living and struggling before we begin a meaningful search for our truth? I don't believe that is necessary.

I began my conscious journey to enlightenment when I was around 50 years of age. I was brought up in the churches and believed that it was just one of those things in life that we had to do. Actually I was dragged to church kicking and screaming and later reluctantly went on my own volition from fear and guilt. All of this ritual stuff really didn't mean much to me at the time and still doesn't. I now have some understanding of why people go to church and what motivates them. But I still don't think it is necessary.

Religion, structure, ceremonies, symbols, affirmations, prayers and meditations are steps to get you there (wherever that is); they help focus your mind. I still believe that the shortest distance between to points is in a straight line and more than likely the path of least resistance.

My whole life has been about getting there as fast as I can, until now. I can see with some experience and a little bit of wisdom, that it is the trip that counts not getting there. In fact I don't think I really want to get there anymore. Once the trip is over there is no where to go.

The physical realm of existence is the most intoxicating; it is where we use our five senses of touch, taste, smell, site and hearing. I can't imagine being in another place that we don't use them. This is the dilemma that the creator had before he went into self-discovery; he created the physical world of relativity so that he could look back upon himself and see how magnificent he/she was through the five senses.

Truth is as liquid as the water that surrounds this planet and we create our new truth in every waking moment of every day. At one time our truth was that the world was flat, that truth no longer works for us.

Enlightenment brings new truths into our experience and knowledge or awareness is power. Thought controls all power and awareness of that truth expands our horizons and gives us more choices and freedom.

It was our truth at one time that moving into the industrial revolution would make our lives easier and free us up to have more time to spend on leisure and with our families. Our new truth is that we now must have two working partners in a household so that we can support the machines that are at home taking it easy, spending the day gossiping with each other in our living rooms and kitchens.

My new theory or truth is that we are taking this whole life thing away too seriously. We have forgotten what is really important to us. The technology isn't working except to keep us alive long enough to pay for it. The trip is not a race, happiness is not found in having the most machines.

Life is a social experience, an interaction between the souls that make up the planet, that is how it was intended and we do not need to live for the machines. It is observable that the happiness that we seek is artificially produced through the drugs that we take to keep us going and awake for a few hours a day. Leisure if forced onto us and more drugs are used to slow us down for a few days that we might take time off for recreation.

Enlightenment moves us away from this vicious cycle and motivates us to begin to enjoy the trip. It is a trip that can last forever if we choose it to be so. Awareness can bring joy and happiness even in this world of chaos and absurdity. It has taken all these years for me to realize that I wasn't really in a hurry to get here in the first place.

Enlightenment and wisdom does not necessarily come with age, it can be achieved at any age if one slows down long enough to listen to his/her own intuition. The world is the way it is because you and I have allowed ourselves to be caught up in the noise of the rush to get nowhere. We are already where we are trying to get to, to this stage of self awareness.

The peace and happiness that you seek can be obtained in a heart beat if you just stop and listen. The way you are living now is still just a choice and experience that you do not have to accept. The real trip is in knowing what is the real thing and what is more of an illusion of that thing.

You don't have to wait until you are 50 to begin to understand. Can you imagine what you could really experience as fulfilling and meaningful, what you could create with the wisdom of a 50 year old at the age of twenty? You have heard it before "If only I knew then, what I know now." I don't believe that one needs to concern oneself so much with discovery but with the experience of discovery.

Wisdom does not come from churches, philosophers, books or even this article; it comes from the positive application of what you have learned from your life experiences. If something is not working for you, don't do it anymore. Do not live somebody else's truth, create your own. Move away from the mind chatter, and take the long way home, learn to enjoy it and stop to smell the flowers. Eliminate all things and all people from your life that lead you away from happiness. Be happy first and you will draw those things and the people into your life that best reflects happiness to you.

Why are you in such a hurry, why?

Roy E. Klienwachter is a resident of British Columbia, Canada. A student of NLP, ordained minister, New Age Light Worker and Teacher. Roy has written and published five books on New Age wisdom. Roy's books are thought provoking and designed to empower you to take responsibility for your life and what you create. His books and articles are written in the simplicity and eloquence of Zen wisdom.

You may not always agree with what he has to say. You will always come away with a new perspective and your thinking will never be the same.

Roy's style is hard hitting and comes straight from the heart without all the metaphorical mumble jumble and BS.

Visit Roy at: http://www.klienwachter.com

A Technique To Catch Trophy Size Bass

There is a craze going on that produces big bass, it's called flippin. Flippin puts the lure where the big bass are.....in cover! You will want a 7 1/2 to 8 foot rod with at least 20 pound test on your reel with the drag tightened. You will also want a 1/8 ounce to 1 ounce weight according to the cover you are trying to go through. Don't forget the big hook, 4/0 to 5/0 is best in my opinion.

The technique.....silently put your boat within 20 feet of the cover you want to fish. Hold the rod in your right hand (presuming you are right handed). Measure the line to let out according to your rod length and with your left hand pull about 2 feet of line out. Make sure the reel is in free spool and place your thumb on the spool. Move the rod so the lure pendulums to your target and when you have the lure where you want it to be, move your other hand with the line in it towards the reel. The lure will fall in the cover with hardly any distubance. Now, watch the water and your line. Sometimes just a slight line movement will indicated a hit or even cover movement and you won't feel anything until you set the hook. When you have a hit, drop the tip of your rod, reel up the slack and set the hook really hard.

Charles E. White has fished for almost 50 years for bass from California to Florida. In his lifetime, it is estimated that he has caught over 6,000 bass. His biggest bass is a 12 pound 14 ounce that hangs on his wall in his office.

Charles has fished with people who have never fished for bass before and taught them how to become successful anglers and also has fished with the Pros in Florida.

His website about fishing for bass is at: http://www.bassfishingweekly.com.

10 Dirty Tricks Credit Card Companies Play

The credit card companies make billions each year in legitimate interest charges and fees, but are under constant pressure from the shareholders to increase their earnings. To make this extra money the credit card companies sometime adopt some dirty tricks to make this money. As the credit card industry becomes more competative, less money is being earned from each client from interest charges and the number of these dirty tricks increase. To protect yourself against these unscrupulous procedures that steal your money we will list 10 dirty tricks credit card companies play to their clients so you'll know what to expect and look out for. Of course that there are not only 10 dirty tricks credit card companies play to their clients but knowing at least these 10 tricks will help you to not be a victim.

The first one out of the 10 dirty tricks credit card companies play is also the worst of them: not posting your payment the day it was received. This is the oldest known trick: the company receives your payment in time but it doesn't process it immediately; this delay will bring to the company a late payment fee. This is often due to legitimate reasons, but the policies of many credit card companies support a processing time that is not beneficial to you. A second trick is to make you pay late by changing the due date for your credit card payment. For being late the company will charge again a late payment fee and if the situation repeats for few months in a row they can legally increase your interest rate. The third trick played by the credit card companies is a ridiculous one: you can be charged a penalty fee for not using your credit card a certain period of time. As unbelievable as it might seem, this is a new tactic of the credit card companies to take your money. Another two tricks used are in connection with the client's peace of mind. Both of them are connected with credit card protection and the fees that must be paid. One of them is protecting you in case your credit card is stolen, lost or used fraudulently. Almost all credit card companies do not charge a fee for this service, but there are others that do. The best thing you can do would be to avoid the latter ones. The second credit card protection fee is for protecting you in case you loose your job or die. For this protection, usually, the fees are too high for the benefit received, but many customers purchase it out of fear.

We are getting now to the last 5 of the dirty tricks credit card companies play to their clients. The sixth trick is designed to work on the psychological plan: the company is increasing your credit limit. You didn't ask for a limit increase of your credit but the company gave you the possibility to spend more money. This is a psychological trick to make you spend more money on your credit card trick. Another bad surprise is to come back from your vacation and find out that you have been charged more for the amounts spent during your foreign trip. The commission charged for the amount spent outside the country is much higher than usual.

One of the new scams that have appeared in the last years is the card cancellation fee. This fee was adopted because a large number of the clients of a certain bank discovered the extra charges and they rushed all to cancel their accounts. The bank responded immediately by adopting a policy of charging a fee for closing an account. This practice was also adopted by other companies. There are also other scams like penalization for having a big balance or charging credit insurance fees. It is important to know these procedures so you don't get taken advantage of and you can help put an end to these tricks by giving your business to companies who do not employ them.

This article has been provided courtesy of Creditor Web. Creditor Web offers great credit card articles available for reprint and other tools to help you search and compare credit card offers.