The Synchronous Converter

Many new Affiliates join a home business program not really having any idea what it is they will be doing now that they have been made owners of their own home business.

It can be summed up in one word: PROMOTION-

This one word must be broken down into a specific outline for one to have a more clear understanding of their new business.

Three key elements are involved here.

1. Drive
2. Knowledge
3. Action

To be successful with a new home business, one must put all three elements into play in the form of PROMOTION.

Therefore, let’s discuss each element and the way in which it applies to promotion, which in turn results in home business success.

DRIVE:

To build a business at home from scratch one must have a burning desire to create self-sufficiency and even wealth as an entrepreneur.

Drive is the internal mechanism from whence our dreams spring forth. Drive is what will propel us forward day in and day out as we go about the required promotional activities to build our business, such as

-Responding to emails

-Creating and submitting advertisements

-Adding relevant content to our websites that will increase traffic and sales

-Writing articles

Drive, combined with definition and purpose, is a powerful force as it relates to home business promotion. Without definition and purpose, drive is impotent and your business will not succeed. Simply signing up for a business out of general desire or drive, yet lacking design is pointless.

KNOWLEDGE:

Personal responsibility and laying claim to our own sense of responsibility is key here as it relates to home business success and garnering home business knowledge. You must learn, in detail, every relevant aspect that applies to your business.

Signing up for a program and then taking no action to learn the full details involved in that program will result in failure. Likely, full training is available to you both through reading and perhaps via an individual mentor. Take advantage of both to the fullest.

Read everything in your training. If you stop at the basics, then your results will be basic to non-existent. Ask questions of your mentor. He or she will be glad to help you individually.

Participate in forums. Go beyond that-research everything you come across in detail as it relates to your business.

With knowledge, you will be armed to promote your business.

ACTION:

Brimming with desire and armed with knowledge, you will begin to take the specific steps required to successfully build your business. Having taken the time to learn your promotional methods you will begin to apply them with daily action.

Think things through first, and choreograph your activities with an organized plan. Don’t expect perfection. Hone, develop and utilize the methods of promotional action that work; discard those that don’t work and pass along what you have learned to those that follow after you.

You have the desire, now learn, then act, and most importantly have fun! Success will likely follow.

Jim Kelly resides in Los Angeles, California and is Webmaster of Make Extra Money At Home http://make-extra-money-at-home.com and Nutrition: Vitamins Antioxidants & Minerals http://vitamins-antioxidants.com

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As you may already know, writing free reprint articles and then distributing them to publishers and web sites is one of the best ways to promote your web site - a single article can result in hundreds of new links to your web site and a rapid increase in traffic levels. But there’s nothing worse than staring at a blank screen, and wondering how you’re going to fill it with hundreds of words. That’s why I’m going to give you an easy way that anyone can use to write an article - even if it’s your very first one!

1. Get a main idea, or focus for your article.

This is what your whole article is going to be about.

The main idea for your article needs to have some relevance to the web site that you link to in the resource box, because this is how you are going to get the benefit when your article is published.

This is why articles are so effective at directing targeted traffic to your site - the reader will be searching for information on a topic, find your helpful and informative article, and follow the link to your site for even more relevant information. Writing free reprint articles fits right into how Internet users surf the web, and benefits you with targeted traffic.

2. Jot down five or more key points that provide information on your article topic.

For example, if your article’s a how-to type of article, you can have say five steps towards accomplishing a specific goal. If your article explains different ways to do something, think of five or more different ways. Each of these points will form a paragraph in your article. Often as you write your article proper, you will find that you can expand each point into two or three paragraphs, which will give you an ideal length for your article.

3. Write an introduction.

Just introduce your topic. Give a little bit of background to the article’s topic, and then summarize what you will cover in your article.

Again, you want to keep the reader interested, keep them reading, and push them along to the link in your resource box that you want them to click. So try to spike their curiosity a little, and they won’t be able to help but read on to find out more.

4. Write a conclusion.

Your conclusion really just quickly summarizes the main points in your article, similar to how your introduction works, except now you are drawing your article to a natural close.

It’s good practice to take a look at some articles in an article directory, and see how authors have concluded their article. Don’t copy word for word, but you can base the format of your own conclusion on one that you like the look of.

5. Add a tantalizing title.

You may want to write this at the very beginning, but it’s often helpful to write at the end once you are really clear what your article is about.

Your title is also one of the most important elements. It has to draw the reader in, encourage him to read further, make your article stand out from the crowd, and if at all possible contain an element that plays to the reader’s curiosity (i.e. literally force them to read just to satisfy their curiosity).

6. Check the length

The ideal article length is 600-800 words, this is what most publishers are looking for, and will ensure that your article gets published in the maximum number of places. If you’re short, see if you can expand on certain points, or add a couple of new points in.

7. Write your resource box

The last and arguably most important bit is to write your resource box. Again, it’s a good idea to have a look around some article directories and note how other authors have structured theirs.

In my experience, the most effective way to structure a resource box is to first write a sentence about yourself that also gives you some authority on your topic. Then write a sentence about your web site, with a link to it. And that’s all it needs. Keep it simple, keep clear of promotional language, and just include a single link.

—

Once you’ve practised these techniques a couple of times, you’ll find it as easy as pie and will be churning out quality articles in half the time. There are a few common mistakes that you will also need to avoid, but this is covered in a previous article I wrote at www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Steve-Shaw-1/submit-article-963.php/, there isn’t room to go over them again here.

Steve Shaw provides systems and software for effective e-marketing. Find out more about how to publish articles for profit online with his popular free ecourse, available at:
=> http://www.takanomi.com/publish-articles.php

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We are funny about writing. We think everyone can write — after
all, we learned how in first grade! Reading and writing are a
big part of what makes us “civilized.” One of the correlating
lessons that we learned, at the tender age of four or five, was
that we must do our own work. Never, ever, copy someone else.

A first grader can write a simple story. A fourth grader can
write a book report. By the time you got to high school, you had
learned to research and do reports on complex subjects. You had
learned grammar and spelling and sentence construction. You had
read some great works of Literature.

So now you are an adult and you should be able to write a book
of your own. Right? Not necessarily. Writing is a difficult
skill. It takes time to perform it well. It takes effort and
dedication and persistence. It helps to have talent, or skill.
It really, really helps if you love to write. Not everyone has
this knowledge, skill, talent, or time. Not everyone loves to
write.

Maybe your skills and talents lie elsewhere. Maybe you don’t
have the time to devote to a project as big as writing a book.
Maybe you would rather clean the toilet than put pen to paper or
fingers on a keyboard. But does that mean that your great ideas,
your new methods, your inspirational stories, are not worthy of
a book? Of course not!

Regardless of what your second grade teacher told you, you don’t
have to do it all by yourself. Many people are available to help
you author your book - writers, editors, proofreaders,
illustrators, designers, printers, publicists. They can do much
of the work, including writing, while you oversee the process
and ensure that your idea or story is presented in a way that is
true to your own vision.

You can hire a ghostwriter, an editor, or a writing coach to
help you put your ideas and stories into words that will excite,
inspire, inform or delight your readers. Ghostwriters will do
all the writing work for you, from organization and structure to
color and characterization - basically from your head and out
the ghostwriter’s fingers. Editors will take what you have
already written and make it better. Writing coaches will guide
you with suggestions while you write.

But wait - isn’t that cheating? Some people think so. This goes
back to school days, when having someone else write your term
paper was cheating. (It still is.) But that was because having
someone else write for you meant you were not learning, which
was then your primary job. It was also cheating to use a
calculator while taking a math test, because you were supposed
to be learning how to do mathematics, not punch buttons.

This is no longer true. You can use a calculator now without
guilt. You can also hire a writer to help you put your ideas on
paper. (Of course they must be your ideas - it’s still wrong to
steal others’ ideas and pass them off as your own.)

Hiring a writer is a little like hiring an architect. Say you
are finally able to build your dream house. You have lots of
ideas for this house. You know how many bedrooms you want; you
know you want it on a wooded lot where the deer feed in the
mornings; you know your kitchen must have a central island and
space for at least two people to cook; you know you want natural
gas heat; and you even know that your Jacuzzi bathtub must
overlook a private patio with a great view of the mountains. You
know you like blues and tans and that your taste runs to
impressionist art like Monet and Morisot, and you hate the
pop-art of Andy Warhol. Your style is elegant and cool instead
of funky and casual, and you admire the work of I.M. Pei.

Wow, you know a lot, don’t you? But can you draw up the plans to
build this house? Do you know which materials to buy and which
carpenters to hire? Do you know how to wire the house, and how
the plumbing works, and where to apply for all the permits?
Probably not. Can you learn? Sure - if you’ve got a few spare
years.

So instead you hire an architect or a construction firm, and you
tell them everything you want and what matters to you, and they
translate your ideas into a living reality. But it’s still your
house. It reflects who you are, not who the architect is. When
someone admires the beauty of your house, they are admiring you
- your taste, your plans, your ideas.

It’s the same with your writing. Your original ideas and stories
belong to you, therefore so does your book, even though you may
not have written it all by yourself. This is why the copyright
of your book belongs to you, not your ghostwriter, editor or
coach. And be sure to get it in writing!

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10 Ways to Improving Your Client Relationships

One thing is true for all consultants; if we have any work, we have clients! One of the most important parts of our work is maintaining and enhancing our relationships with our clients. Maintaining and growing these relationships makes the time spent on a project more enjoyable, satisfying and effective. Improved relationships also improves the chance that we will get referrals and future business. The following are ten things you can do to improve these important business relationships, and some suggestions on how to get started.

1. Have a clear contract with your client. This is the number one guideline for a successful client engagement. Without a clear contract neither you nor your client can be clear on roles and responsibilities, deadlines and deliverables, methodologies and measures. Beyond the importance of the contract to the project itself, a clear contract also is a great aid to a good working relationship. The goal of a contract is clarity, not legalese - as such; it is a great aid to improved client relationships.

Your mutually agreed to contract should include the following as a minimum:

• What the roles and responsibilities are for you - and members of the client organization
• What methods you plan to use during the project
• The project timeline
• A description of success

2. Get to know your client better. All relationships are better when the individuals in the relationship take the time to get to know one another. Learn the client’s interests. You will likely spend many hours with and around the client during the project. Knowing that they like gourmet French food or exotic candies or Oakland Raiders football is information you should know. This is more important to some clients than others, but all of us like to have conversations with others about our interests.

Make it a point to learn something new about each client in every meeting you have. Once you learn something new, keep track of that information in your contact manager, in your project notes, or wherever you can find it when needed.

3. Ask more questions. When we ask questions we understand situations better. Take the time, make the time to ask your client how she feels, what she thinks, and try to understand her observations regarding the progress of the project and your performance. The skill of questioning is one of the most important we can develop to improve our consulting skills and our relationships.

4. Be willing to say “No.” In many cases, clients ask us to do things beyond our capabilities or interests. When these new requests are outside the contract agreement, be willing to say no. Take time to understand both the client’s reason for asking as well as your ability to deliver. Don’t automatically say yes, just because “the Customer is always right.”

Saying “No” may mean keeping your project on track by not expanding the scope of the project. Saying “No” may also mean not accepting additional work that the client would like you to do. In either case, it is easier to say no when you have a clear focus on your personal objectives. Ask yourself “What is my business focus, both now and in the future - and how does this request fit into this picture?” More pragmatically, I have found myself asking if I would be excited by or interested in this new work. This is a great question to ponder and it helps me decide whether to say yes or no to a request.

5. Be willing to say “yes.” Sometimes yes is the right answer - and only you will know when. After weighing the opportunity the client offers you, the client will be grateful if you say yes! Saying yes often makes the client’s job much easier. Saying yes can help strengthen your relationship with the client as well. The more work you do on the clients behalf, the more valuable you become. You know the systems, the people and the culture. These are good reasons for saying yes.

Taking on assignments that stretch your skills and comfort zones are another good reason to say yes. Remember the “getting out of bed in the morning test”, ask yourself, “Would I be excited to do this piece of work?” If so, your best business decision might be to say, “We can do that!”.

6. Be a problem solver - and a solution finder. Clients hire us to help them solve problems. The more problems we can help them solve, the better. This advice is in line with saying “yes”, and somewhat counter to saying “no”, but worthy of singular discussion. Sometimes our activities allow us to see things that can be helpful to the client. Weigh these opportunities and when appropriate, help (or offer to help) the client solve the problem - even if they didn’t know the problem existed.

This advice starts before you search for those problems. It starts with being observant, and understanding the big picture of the client’s business objectives. Clients will generally be thrilled if you can identify areas for improvement - especially when you have suggestions on how to improve the situation.

7. Keep your distance. Therapists say you can’t help the family if you are part of the family. This is true for us as consultants as well. We do become more valuable the more we work in an organization, but we need to keep our role clearly defined within the organization. Even as we build the relationships that make us successful, we need to be diligent in keeping our distance so we can continue to provide valued and effective advice and expertise.

Refer to your contract to help you stay within role. Experience shows that letting the client know that you are concerned for this “distance” will be appreciated. Without such conversations, the client may read your behavior as a lack of interest in their organization. When they understand your concerns about maintaining this distance, your efforts will be seen for what they are.

8. Stay focused. Staying focused on your contract and on your deliverables is the best thing you can do to maintain and build your client relationship. Talk about deliverables and deadlines in client meetings. Showing that focus and then delivering what we say when promised , we build our credibility and enhance our relationships.

9. Be a learner. Being a learner means being open to new techniques and ideas and approaching each project with fresh eyes. Few things will turn off the client more than you immediately snapping to a solution, assuming that their situation is “just like” five others you have seen. There are always nuances that will make a difference. Take the time to inquire about them, and integrate them into your solution.

The Zen saying of “be a beginner always” applies here. If we approach a situation as “Been there, done that”, our opportunity to meet and exceed the clients expectations is greatly diminished. At least as importantly, our attitude will show through, hurting our client relationships.

10. Work at it. Recognize that the client relationship is part of the job! Thinking about and working on the relationship will make you more successful in the current project, enhance your chance for future work, and make the project much more enjoyable. Not only that you’ll get to know and learn from your client. Overall, a great return on your investment.

Kevin is Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. Kevin publishes Unleash Your Potential, a free weekly ezine designed to provide ideas, tools, techniques and inspiration to enhance your professional skills. Go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/current.asp to read the current issue and subscribe.

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