Coping with Stress working at home.

So what is working at home, and coping with stress, really all about? The following reports includes some fascinating information about working at home, and stress --info you can use not just the old stuff they used to tell you.

Most of us have been stressed working at home at some point. Aside from the stress of having to find new clients and new jobs, we often encounter stress because jobs come in mad, occasional bursts. Some days our to do list is almost empty, and the following days it seems like we can hardly keep up.

Deadlines can be overwhelming, and when one is affected, effectiveness plunges. The brain is no longer focused on creativity and action.

When stress level stack up, here what to do. First, reduce stress by... Stopping. Sounds a bit basic, and it's really hard to do, just stop. Stress can cause health problems or make problems worse if you don't learn ways to deal with it.

The next step is to find a way to deal with your stress. A simple way is to avoid the circumstance that leads to our stress--but often this is not feasible. Another way is to change how we react to stress. This is often the best way.

Well, it's time to take heart and set a few simple strategies in place that will keep us in control of our time...and our sanity.

Tips for dealing with working at home stress-

1) Eat a healthy, balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Reduce or eliminate caffeine (coffee, black and green tea, cola drinks, and chocolate). Because caffeine is a stimulant, it can make you feel more anxious.

2) Exercise. It relieves tension and provides a timeout from stressful situations.

3) Try to take time everyday to slow down and do something you enjoy, even if it is just for a few minutes. Reading a magazine, playing with your dog, listening to music, reading a book or any other activity that helps you forget the stresses of your day can calm you and help you remember what is important.




4) Work at being cheerful and optimistic. Use humor to lighten difficult situations.

5) Take very long, relaxing deep breaths anytime you notice you're feeling stressed.

6) If the nature of any of your tasks allow it, call upon a colleague who can help you. If you've never done this before, now is the perfect time to start. The nice thing about this sort of arrangement is your colleague will most likely send jobs your way when he or she gets overloaded. (Warning: do not hand over tasks that must be carried out only by you as the principal of the business. Your reputation is important.)

7) Organizing and simplifying your life. If one of your main sources of stress is the sheer number of things that need to be done, getting organized should help you feel more at peace. A good sense of organization will also make you more efficient. Simplifying your life also should help you feel less overwhelmed.

Set Achievable Daily Goals. If you finish a task ahead of schedule, start the next... but stick to a definite cut-off time each day. What you are doing this week is set up a system that will continue to work for you.

Follow these tips and before you know it, your home business dream will be on track once again.

That's how things stand right now. Keep in mind that any subject can change over time, so be sure you keep up with the latest news.  http://Infosdemocracy.com

The Use of Forums for Viral Marketers

Recently, forum marketing has been touted as a kind of free, organic, viral marketing. But because so many viral marketers go into forums with the intention of marketing products or other services, their actions and attitude unwittingly causes the exact opposite of the desired effect.

Forums aren't marketplaces but when used that way, the viral marketers' actions become offensive and will only inspire the wrath of fellow members and marketers, not to mention moderators who can close them from the site with the click of a button.

In order to be effective, this kind of marketing carries a certain degree of commitment, responsibility and respect. The first requirement is to take a personal interest in the main topic of the forums. Not only does that mean be apart of the forum regularly, but it also means developing a good relationship with both other members and the moderators, as well as taking an active interest in helping other people. Of course, it also means abiding by and all rules that exist. By doing that, one can develop a reputation and, since it is human nature to work with a trusted colleague, business will naturally develop from this.

This type of viral marketing has already suffered some abuse and because of this, many forums have recently developed stringent rules designed to protect their members from abusive or overly-aggressive viral marketers. One forum grants .sig files only after a member has created 100 valid posts and another has disallowed ads in sig files altogether.

Viral Marketers must respect that the purpose of a forum is to be a wedsite to exchange ideas on a given topic. It is not there to advertise products or services. By staying on the topic and posting questions and answers, a marketer's reputation will grow and this creates the potential for sales naturally.

In order to be successful using forums to do viral marketing there are some things that are required.

Do Your Homework: Prior to joining any forum, you must do some research.As a viral marketer becomes a regular member, they will hopefully develop a good reputation and without saying a word about their promotion, those who are interested in their product will approach them. http://Infosdemocracy.com

Creating a New Standard of Excellence - Six Things You Can Do

Recognizing that the time had come to replace our hot water heater, my wife called our plumber to schedule an appointment. She placed the call at about 11 a.m. When the agent asked, "Would you be available between one and three?" Lori asked, "Which day?" The agent replied "Today of course."

Hearing a strange noise coming from our furnace, another call was placed. Again, the appointment was made and the problem was solved the same day. (Are you surprised that the furnace and the plumbing company have the same ownership?)

Earlier this week my wife had a problem with her knee and after seeing our family doctor she was referred to a knee specialist - a specialist considered one of the best in Indianapolis. When she called for an appointment, I feared the worst. Instead, she had an appointment within 24 hours.

My guess is that as you read each of these short stories. You are surprised at the service we received. The fact is, this level of service should be the norm, but sadly isn't. Our experience has lowered the expectations of most of us.

The Good News

The good news in these examples is that it is easier than ever to stand out. When you are good, people will notice. When you are excellent, they will rave.

This goes for us personally, professionally, or as an organization.

Below are six steps that you can take to continue to raise your own standards of excellence. These steps will make it easier than ever to stand out, be noticed, and have greater levels of success and satisfaction.

What You Can Do

1. Get a current check on performance. Talk to those you served, whether your family, coworkers or Customers. Find out from them, how well you are doing in meeting their expectations. Listen to their feedback. Don't justify your current performance or blame others. Simply listen.

2. Determine the standard they want. Again, ask your Customers or those you serve for their input. Listen to their needs, wants and hopes.

3. Determine the standard you want. Remember that their expectations may not be very high based on their experience. Take their feedback and ideas into account, but remember that it is your responsibility to set the level of excellence you want to reach. Set the bar is high as you wish.

4. Under promise and over deliver. Taking the first three steps will heighten awareness and likely raise expectations immediately. As you work to grow your standards remember that you can reach your goal is small steps. Make promises based on your current capacity, not your fondest wish. Make the promise, then deliver more, then raise the level of your promise a bit the next time. Steady and slow wins the race – and remember it won't take long to leave those you are racing with far behind. This approach will help you raise your standards, and the trust others have I you too.

5. Ask "what's not excellent?" This question will help you continue to find ways to improve your standards and delivery. Ask this question of yourself, of your teammates, and of other interested parties.

6. Measure performance. You've set new standards for yourself. The only way to reach them and maintain them is to measure your performance against those standards. Depending on the standards you are setting this may be very simple or quite complex. Don't make the measurement more difficult than necessary, but remember to measure.

It is clear that these steps have obvious application for serving Customers better. While I encourage you to consider their applications to customer service, I also hope you will consider using them in other areas on your life.

It's time to raise the bar. It's time to set new standards. Standards won't raise themselves; we must raise them consciously and consistently. The steps above will help you take that conscious action.
http://Infosdemocracy.com

Why Commercial Advertising Is Never Going to Catch On

Advertisements of products, organizations, and services are generally aired on television. This is be done by buying slots on the airtime from a particular television channel. Price depends on the popularity of the channel, time the commercial is being aired, number of viewers and length of the commercial. Placing a commercial on local channels is more affordable than on national channel where the cost is almost double.

When thinking of placing a commercial on television it is advised that you first understand what audience needs to be reached. Different audiences have different taste, which can be determined by their choice of television show like celebrity talk, cartoons, sports, reality, news, movies, soaps, prime time etc. Prime time is usually from 6 to 7 pm and is the most expensive slot. Following it is the news time at noon or 10-11 pm slots, which are proven to be the most effective time slots for the success of a commercial. More affordable is the 12-4 pm soap time. Always check out with the sales representative for the prices. When advertising on national level, check out an ad agency that usually works on commission basis. It’s highly recommended to negotiate during a re-run of the advertisement and stay away from paying the complete amount.

Compare the prices of different networks and different programs before you place an ad. Another money saving trick is to buy a thirty seconds slot and air commercials of ten to fifteen seconds of length one after the other. This increases the possibility of target viewers seeing the commercial without the cost of re-runs. But this is risky as the pressure of conveying critical information in a short period of time increases. So the commercials should not be so short that the actual message couldn’t be delivered correctly to the audience. Usually a reminder commercial can be of a shorter duration.

Look out for the people who would like to buy a slot that has already been purchased. This can be very tricky as it will be more like a bid for which they will be ready to pay a larger amount sometimes even double because they badly need a slot. This usually happens during the holiday season, which comes in the last quarter of the year around New Years Eve, Thanksgiving holidays and Christmas holidays. Best time of the year to buy slots for commercial is the first and second quarter of the year. Price is usually negotiable during the first quarter as the sales representatives give discounts to advertisers who have spend a lot of money advertising during the holiday season and are trying to recover from it.

If planning to pay for advertising commercials for the whole year check out the discounts that are being offered for advertising round the year. Usually a five percent discount is offered when signing for a six-month time period and ten percent when signing for a twelve-month time period. But do keep in mind to check out exactly when the commercials are being aired because these discounts are usually offered to distract people from this point and the commercials are aired during odd hours and also not during the holiday season.

The very first commercial to go on air was of Bulova Watch Company on WNBC, United States of America on July 1, 1941. And ever since then there have been no stopping and now commercials sell anything that one can ever imagine. http://Infosdemocracy.com

What is Legal online advertising and illegal online advertising?

Ever since the advent of Internet, advertising on the World Wide Web has been very popular. Many corporations, companies and business have taken advantage of this and you can see ads on any web pages you visit. Consumer can go to any search engine and type the keyword relating to what they are looking for and hit search and they will be provided with a huge list from which they can select. This is a very cost effective and time saving method of advertising.

It has become really easy for any business to have a personalized website by which they can advertise, directly interact with the customer; provide details about their product and services. Regular newsletters, offers, discounts can be pasted on site to increase the interest of the website visitors.

Since it’s easy to reach any kind of audience concerning any kind of business, the possibility of misuse is always there. Based on this Internet advertising is classified into two kinds of advertisement, legal online advertising and illegal online advertising. Legal online advertising includes online advertising directories, search engine advertising, e-mail advertising, and desktop advertising. Illegal advertising is more commonly know as spamming. This is usually done by altering some system settings with the help of external applications after which pop-ups are sent to a particular network or computer. The external applications are known as adware or spyware. Some of these are really harmful, the most famous being Trojans, which are very hard to uninstall and remove from the system.       

With the increase in technology, special effects are being used to make advertisement more interesting. Vivid colors, good page layout and lots of imagination is involved. Typically Adobe Flash is used to design advertisements these days. Depending on the technology being used to design advertisements can be classified into various categories.

Banner ads are animations displayed on the website usually created in HTML or Eudora. There is a range of type and sizes of the ads. Trick banner ads are banner ads that have an extra functionality of dialog boxes and buttons and are displayed as an alert or error message.

A pop-up is an advertisement displayed in a new window that covers up the active web page. A pop-under advertisement opens in another window that is under the active web page and can be seen after the present window is either closed or minimized.

Interstitial ads are those that are displayed before directing over to the desired page.

Wallpaper ads form the background of the web page.

The ads that float on the screen are known as a floating ad.

Polite ads download on a low pace without interrupting the normal functioning of the website.

An ad that enlarges and changes the contents of the page being displayed is known as expanding ad.

Advertisements which are displayed in a video form on a website is known as a video ad.

There are many ways by which advertising slots can be purchased on Internet like CPM, CPV, CPC, CPA, CPL and CPO. CPM or cost per mil means that the advertiser is meant to pay for a particular number of people to whom the advertisement will be exposed.  CPV or cost per visitor means that the advertiser is meant to pay for the people to whom the advertisement was delivered. CPC or cost per click means paying for the number of clicks made on the advertisement by the visitors. Although the advertisement is put up on the website, the amount is paid only after the visitor clicks on the URL of the advertisement. CPA or cost per action means that the advertisement publisher bares all the charges of advertisement, but he gets paid only if the visitor clicks on the advertisement and purchases a product or signs-up for a service. CPL or cost per lead is similar to CPA, only that the visitor doesn’t have to necessarily buy anything; he or she can simply apply to get regular newsletters and special offers. CPO or cost per order is where the advertiser pays each time an order is placed.

Online advertisements cannot only be used to promote a product or service but in fact they can be used for purposes like promoting charity and spreading education. http://infosdemocracy.com

Copywriting For An Online Audience

So what's the big deal about copywriting for the Internet? It's the same as any other form of copywriting isn't it? In a word, yes. But in another word, no. Confused? Sick of all these questions? I had better myself explain then.

No matter what medium you are using, all copywriting should have one prime objective - create an effective message that appeals to the audience it is intended to influence. This golden rule applies to websites, brochures, and sales letters, even adding a nice message to Grandma's little pink birthday card. However, the Internet presents a number of unique challenges for a copywriter, even if the people reading your sales letters are the same ones reading your website.

Think about it for a minute. Do you read on the Internet the same way you read on paper? Not for long. First of all, there are comfort factors such as the monitor resolution, colours, glare, and a reading surface that doesn't move. Secondly, we are conditioned to read websites in a different manner. Online, we are quite comfortable scanning sub-headings, clicking on hyperlinks, and jumping between pages.

Thirdly, the majority of people looking at your business website are there because they seek a service that you provide. After all, they made the effort to visit you didn't they? The online reader can be impatient and demanding, and they usually know what they want before they click through he door. If your business doesn't impress them straight away, it's a quick tap on the keyboard to find someone who will. Even if you do provide the product or service they need, it doesn't take much effort to duck into your competitors store for a browse around. Website copywriting is a bit like speed dating – you have to make a big first impression and leave them thinking "I bet we'd be good together".

Readers of hard copy sales material don't have the luxury to pick and choose, so they become somewhat of a captive audience. After all, it takes a lot more effort to call or visit your competitors business in the real world. In addition, a brochure could sit on a potential customers desk for months, staring at them with puppy dog eyes, day in day out, until one day the customer decides to make some enquiries.

With these unique challenges in mind, here are a few copywriting pointers to help make your website a lean, mean, highly effective, sales machine:


1. Snatch their attention from the first paragraph
Most visitors spent less than one minute summing up a website before they decide whether to stay or go. There is no time for waffling paragraphs about who you are, where you live, and how your wife makes the best apple pie. You have to get to the point as fast as you can. If you don't convey your key message in the first few lines, don't expect many people to be around to read them further on.

2. Short paragraphs
If you want people to read your website, forget the long descriptive, romantic prose about the salubrious ambience of your pulchritudinous offer. They will only think you are stercorous (take my word for it, you really don't want to be). Short paragraphs are most effective on the web because they can be differentiated and skimmed at a glance. Visual layout is the key.

3. Make sure your copy flows
Reading online is straining enough. Flowing on from the point above, using jargon, formal language and/or trying to impress your audience with your knowledge of words containing more than ten letters will only make the reader irritated, frustrated and start to think about places or sites they'd rather be.

4. KISS
Remember the old adage Keep It Simple Stupid? Write as though your audience is a bunch of twelve year olds. Don't sound patronising, but don't assume they know anything about your business or what you do. They have arrived laden with buring questions, "What are you selling?" "Why should I choose you?" "Where are you?" "How can I get some of this?" "How much is it?"

5. Appropriately tempt your audience
A lot of hot and personal activity goes down on the Internet, but lets face it, the technology itself isn't causing readers monitors to fog up. The content is what makes things exciting. The Internet itself is just an impersonal two-dimensional screen. Good copy-writing might not always be intended to get the heart racing, but it must connect with your intended audience to break through this impersonal barrier. Maybe you need a little humor, sophistication, cold corporate speak, personal touch, or yes, even something racy.  http://Infosdemocracy.com

The Voice of Customer Service

Customer relationship management tools abound, yet let's hear it for old technology. Your voice is the most multifaceted customer service tool in your toolkit. Your voice can convey concern, care and compassion. It can alternately convey boredom, neglect or contempt. Your challenge: to insure your voice reinforces the service you strive to deliver through your actual words and action.

Customer service is about more than mouthing the words customers want to hear. You have to sound believable. How do you sound? Try this experiment. Call your own answering machine and leave yourself a message normally intended for your customers. Now replay it. Are you convincing? Does sincerity ring from your voice or are you just mouthing clichés in a disinterested fashion?

Depending your tone of voice you can alternately sound:
Compassionate or Condescending
Confident or Insecure
Knowledgeable or Ignorant
Attentive or Disinterested
Focused or Scattered
Alive or Comatose


Pick one of the following phrases:

"Thank you for calling. We're excited to serve you."

"Welcome back. It's so nice to see you again."

"We've missed you. Thank you for coming in again."


Mouth it a few times to a colleague next to you or over the phone to a friend.


- Now ask your listener: "How do I sound?"

- When you're monotonal you may sound flat and lifeless.

- How does this sound when you're tired? Uninspired?

- How does this sound when you're expressive? Do you generate good will and energy?

- How does this sound when you're sincere? Is there a genuine quality to your voice?

- How does this sound when you're friendly? Does warmth emanate from your conversation?

- How does this sound when you are smiling? Does your good humor come translate?

Mirror Mirror on the Desk
There is a reason many telesales and customer service representatives have mirrors on their desk. It's not to admire their beauty or to insure the proverbial spinach isn't stuck to their teeth. In this case, the mirror has two purposes. First, as a reminder to reps to smile while on the phone. Even though their smile isn't seen by listeners, it is felt. When we smile it loosens up our jaws and relaxes us. This is then conveyed through our voice. We sound more relaxed, friendly and open because we are. The act of smiling activates certain muscles in our face and neck and actually alters our disposition for the better. The mirror both reminds us to smile and confirms we are when we glance at it periodically. Not to sound overly Dramatics, but "What you see is what they get."
Inflection
When we consider the message our voice sends customers, don't forget to consider your inflection. It is important to understand where in a sentence you put the emphasis. What words do you accentuate? Which words do you emphasize? Depending on your placement of accent you can send different messages with the same set of words. Consider the following statement: "It's all over my friend." Depending on the placement of accent and pause, this statement could either lament the end of a successful run of some sort, or be describing the result of a sick bird flying overhead of your pal.

Similarly, this statement, based on inflection, may send two entirely different messages: "What's that in the road ahead?" or "What's that in the road, a head?" You can see how inflections inform. Let's make sure the information we convey is supported by our inflections.

Actors often take the Shakespearean phrase "to be or not to be, that is the question" and repeat it alternately while emphasizing different words. For instance, one variant might be "To be or NOT, to be THAT is the question!"

Revisiting our triplet of phrases let's see how inflection alters their meaning:

"Thank you for calling. We're delighted to serve you."

We can place the accent on different words to convey different sentiments. The capital letters indicate the words being accented through our inflection.

"THANK you for calling. We're delighted to serve you."

"Thank you for CALLING. We're delighted to serve you."

"Thank you for calling. We're DELIGHTED to serve you."

"Thank you for calling. We're delighted to SERVE you."

"Thank YOU for calling. We're delighted to serve YOU."

For yourself, try this same exercise with each of the statements below, accenting different words within each sentence so as to find the inflection that best conveys your sentiment.

"Welcome back. It's so nice to see you again."

"We've missed you. Thank you for coming in again."
Voice Your Concern
Using a pleasant tone, effective intonation, and empathic emotion your voice can go a long way toward helping customers feel heard, valued and cared for. Mama was right, it is more than what you say, it's how you say it too. http://Infosdemocracy.com