Lung Cancer Center

I call it the “wave and roll.”

You walk up to an intersection. You look both ways before you cross when you make eye contact with an oncoming vehicle. You meet the gaze of the driver. Politely and legally, he invites you to cross first. As you enter the crosswalk, you notice that he continues rolling toward the intersection with no reduction in speed.

How safe do you feel?

Your clientsremember those who you are supposed to protecthave a similar experience when you send them incongruous messages. Step into their shoes for a minute. Do you remember the last time you were frustrated with the service you received? Did they promise the moon and then delivery nothing but dust?

Recently, I ordered a new pair of prescription eyeglasses. The optician told me, “We will do anything to earn your business.” At this point you might be saying to me, let the buyer beware. And if you did, you would have a good point. I was told the glasses would be ready in a week. They were not. I was told another week, but still no glasses.

“We will do anything to earn your business,” was replaced with, “It is not our fault.” Since they used outside vendors to perform the work, my optician asserted he had no control over the lab they outsourced the job to.

Rather than addressing the problemand the broken promisethe optician offered me a new target for my ill will and disappointment, the lab.

Plausible deniability may work in presidential politics, but regardless of who was at “fault,” I was out a pair of glasses and the words on the computer screen were getting mighty blurry. A client was unprotected. Coincidently, an acquaintance in another industry had recently shared his reason for outsourcing what was once an internal function. “So that my customers will not get mad at me.” A sentiment apparently shared by my optician.

Shouldn’t the emphasis be on keeping the client from getting mad as opposed to getting mad at you?

Eventually, I got my glasses. But, my optician lost a repeat customer. And now I am sharing their poor example of customer service with you to illustrate how you can better keep your clients happy, well served, and protected.

To ensure you do not send mixed signals, I will leave you with three considerations.

First, align yourself with your clients. Regard them as partners.

Your job is to meet your clients’ needs, to protect them. If not, then what purpose does your business serve? Look for opportunities to advocate for your clients interests, especially those for which they contracted you.

Recall that my optician claimed they had no control; that the delay in getting my glasses was not their fault. Specializationas in one business sells the glasses, another makes themfosters interdependence. I imagine most of you rely on outsourcing relationships to serve your clients. Outsourcing does not abdicate you of your responsibility to your clients, certainly not in their eyes.

My optician may have had a lack of control, but in a business relationship no one is without influence. How likely do you think it is that some accommodation could have been made between parties to diminish the client’s pain?

This is where you look for opportunities to demonstrate your care for the customer. Get creative! Find solutions and make them happen! Let the client know what you are doing on their behalf. Even if you are unsuccessful, or just moderately successful, your efforts will make a difference. It might not win the client over, but it will definitely improve your odds.

Second, welcome all feedback, especially complaints.

A complaining client is a wonderful thing to behold. Complaining to you means the client still maintains a vested interest in seeing the relationship improve. A complaint represents an opportunity to repair the service.

How do you react to complaints? What goes on emotionally for you when a customer complains? Do you empathize with their pain, marshaling your own resourcefulness to resolve the problem? Or, do you feel embarrassed or threatened, exposed or unsafe? If you regard complaints as threats, you position yourself against your client, rather than with them. Advocating for your client requires you to be open and vulnerable with them. There’s no room for self-protection if you want to keep your clients happy.

Third and finally, align your policies and processes to support your clients.

Question the purpose and impact of the rules you work by. Do they support customers or do they provide for your convenience, profit, or protection. Convenience, profit, and protection are important. But if those purposes are cross with your clients needs, reevaluation is in order.

Align with your customers. Do what you say, say what you do. Be grateful and thankful for client complaints. Make sure your policies support your clients. When a service breakdown does occur, you will feel less like you are about to be hit by a car.

And more importantly, so will your client.

REPUBLISHING PERMISSION: You are welcome to download or reprint this article so long as you include my byline and copyright at the end of each piece with a live weblink. Please forward publication specifics to http://www.JeffSimon-Consulting.com/ The attribution should read:

“By Jeff Simon of Jeff Simon Consulting, The Client Retention Specialists. Are you having trouble keeping your best clients? Please visit Jeff’s website at http://www.JeffSimon-Consulting.com/ for additional articles and resources for keeping your best clients.”

If you are going to spend money advertising your vacation rental property on vacation rental websites, you want to make sure it is a success. Here are 6 things you can practice which will help ensure you receive the most “bang for the buck”.

1. SET RENTAL RATES APPROPRIATELY – If you want your vacation property to rent, you must be realistic, optomistic, but not greedy! Set realistic rental rates for your property and ensure that the rates are correct on the site(s) your listing and regularly reviewed as the market changes. Search for comparable properties (“comps”) in the same location as yours. Only charge a premium if your property has some distinct features. And, be willing to discount your property on occassion as needed. In this business, if you lose money for a week long rental, you can’t make that up!

2. CHECK E-MAIL REGULARLY – When using an internet vacation rental property website such as http://Rentals2Remember.com or http://eVaca.com, remember your users. They are typically Internet “savvy” and probably check their e-mails frequently…especially if they have requested some info. Also, be sure your phone number is listed on sites that allow you to as sometimes people choose to just call you directly, so be sure to check phone messages.

3. RESPOND IMMEDIATELY – Vacation goers usually see a few properties that are of interest to them and then contact those owners. The faster you respond, the better chance (most of the time) you have of winning them over. There have been times I have rented properties in the past and because it took an owner 24 hours to respond, I had already chosen another property. A timely and efficient response gives the renter confidence that the rental experience will follow suit.

4. YOUR LISTING SHOULD BE ACCURATE AND COMPLETE – Be sure that your listing details are kept up to date and are complete. Review your online listing frequently to be sure that your contact information are up-to-date. Also, be sure that it is accurate on the description of your property and its amenities. This will help you with repeat customers, but will also keep you out of trouble with rental contracts or laws in regards to such things.

5. GREAT PHOTOS – It is true what they say, “a picture speaks a thousand words”. Remember, renters are considering staying at your rental based (most of the time) solely on your pictures and your word. The more pictures to help them be comfortable with the decision, the better. Here is how I look at it. If you were going to buy a used car, would you do so over the Internet without a good look at the outside/inside of the vehicle, the engine, etc. Not exactly the same, but you get the picture. The more pictures and the prettier, the better. Be sure to have pictures of your rental amenities such as a pool, the beach, a mountain view, the lake or a golf course – these are top vacation rental sellers!

6. BOOST YOUR EXPOSURE – There are many “hot spots” for vacationers throughout the world. Before we owned property, my family used to head to Destin every year, usually twice. There are thousands of vacation rental properties in the Destin, Panama City Beach area. In areas like this, boost your exposure by getting to the top of your sites search engine. If it costs you $20, $50, even $100 to do so but that gets you one extra rental a year, that makes it more than worth it.

Kent Krueger has been involved in the Travel industry for over 3 years. He has advised thousands of people in the travel industry and independent corporations on travel ideas, cost savings and successfully marketing vacation rentals by owner. Kent is the President of www.Rentals2Remember.com and www.evaca.com

Every marketer needs leads, they are the lifeblood of your
online business. However not every marketer knows how to
effectively “work” their leads.

Your mailinglist can be a goldmine if you know how to do
that!

Here are a couple of tips that will help you build, manage
and “work” your list to its fullest potential.

Building your list:

Nowadays you can buy leads by the thousands if not millions
on the internet. Lead company’s telling you their leads are
optin and unique. Well my friend nothing could be further
from the truth!

The majority of these companies “cycle” their leads, as
they call it. This means that your leads will be used by
other people as well, making your chances of success slim.

Besides this point, sending a bulkmaling to huge quantities
of so called optin leads will eventually result in
complaints and in the worst case you will be shutdown by
your isp.

There is a better way to build your list. You can generate
your own leads easily by using a simple form on your
website or popup/under inviting people to join your
list/newsletter.

The leads you generate this way will be very targetted and
of very high quality. You may not generate over a million
leads but its better to have a thousand high quality leads
then a million low quality leads wich only cause
complaints.

“Working” your list:

Now that you are starting to generate your own leads lets
have a go of “working” them. This basically means following
up on them periodically with a newslettter and/or
information about your offer.

I recommend using an autoresponder for this task as it will
put your business on autopilot and saves you a lot of work.

Over time you will notice that people will send you emails
asking more information about your offer. When you reply to
these people be as personal as possible. Put yourself in
their positition, what would you want for an answer to a
specific question etc. You may want to offer them
additional help of some sort, this creates trust and trust
is very important in doing business online.

This is basically what it comes down to in lead generation
and management.

To your success!

Erol ALici

Erol Alici publishes “Home Based Business Success” an
informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people build
their online business. If you`re looking for the best
opportunities, the latest tips and helpful support from an
honest friend in the business then grab your F-R-E-E
subscription today at:
http://www.homebasedbusinesssuccess.com or send a blank
email to mailto:newsletter-79@norabots.com you’ll be glad
you did!

Having a good “communication” plan in place with your VA is an important step in creating your working relationship. When both parties know how the communications will flow there is a sense of comfort in the relationship. This does not mean that you have to completely stay with the plan you develop. As business grows and changes you may find the need to adjust your communication plan to better suit the current needs of both you and the client.

Some examples of communication plans that I have used are below:

The VA and client communicate by regular email and a one-hour telephone call each week to discuss current and future tasks. This type of communication plan works well with the client that you are working closely with on multiple projects. It provides both parties with a personal connection and allows for easy discussion rather than interpreting details from within an email. This weekly call is invaluable in the relationship with clients and I know they appreciate it also.

Another type of communication plan includes regular emails and bi-weekly or monthly one hour telephone calls. When working with a client on specific self-directed tasks such as article bank submissions, it may be easier to talk by telephone less often, but to keep communications open through email more frequently.

You and your client may also choose to check in by phone more or less frequently that the two plans I have mentioned above. The need for live voice communications (telephone or otherwise) is purposeful. It adds strength and builds trust in your relationship, which we all know is very important in growing and expanding your business. Each client’s needs and business are unique and require an individualized communication plan that meets both the needs of the VA and of the client.

Jaylene Gonyea is a Virtual Assistant with over 10 years experience in the administrative and executive assistant fields. She has been working full time as a virtual assistant since May of 2005 with continued success. For a free consultation or to find out more about how a virtual assistant works check out her website and free e-course at http://www.BusinessAssistMe.com

© copyright 2006 Jaylene Gonyea and Business Assist. This article may be copied in its entirety as long as this paragraph is included.

Like any animal, lizards at times in captivity will need to be force fed. There are situations and conditions which will result in a lizard not eating on their own.

Some diseases lizards can get will result in seizures, or a similar condition. It is imperative not to feed them during an incident like this. They will most likely not be able to swallow the food. It is best to seek the help of a veterinarian at this point. The animal will need to have a tube placed into their stomach to feed. If the animal shows no signs of seizures, they can be fed using a syringe. It is tricky to get their mouth open, but should be possible using the syringe itself.

Using the syringe, squeeze the processed food into the back of the throat, taking great care to avoid the trachea at the back of the tongue. Make sure to only offer as much food as the animal can handle. Larger lizards can obviously handle more food. It may also be possible to force-feed feeder insects. If the lizard is having digestive problems however, the liquid substitute is much easier to digest, as much of the work is already done. Another advantage of liquid feeding is the fact that you control exactly what the lizard is getting into its diet.

For the vegetable part of the liquid diet, vegetable baby food works very well. This food is high in vitamins and can easily be digested by the lizard. Make sure to add in a calcium supplement to the food. Younger lizards need to be fed more often but in smaller quantities, while larger lizards will need to be fed less often, but with higher quantities per feeding. You have to follow the natural way your lizard eats its food, as not to upset their natural metabolism. If your lizard eats both insects and vegetables, you can use a type of cat food (used for sick cats) if they will eat it. You can also try to add insect matter (use fresh insects) into the liquid mix.

The Lizard Lounge provides information on the captive care of www.the-lizard-lounge.com“>lizards. They provide care sheets, articles and photos on a wide variety of lizard species.

I am upset. At this moment, as I sit here typing this up, I am truly upset. Something happened a little while ago. I got into an argument and I am now reaping the results of that. It’s a true bounty of results, I can tell you. Let’s see…anger, frustration, shame, disgust…then more anger and guilt at the fact that I have allowed myself to get angry and frustrated. All of this is confusing. It’s a form of madness (no offence intended). I think what’s worse is that it is quite normal for most people.

So, as I sit here and stew, let us see if we can work this all out. Where does all this negative emotion come from? Well, obviously from the thing that was said to me. The person I had the “conversation” with spoke words. These words were taken by my mind, analysed, and a proper “reaction” was produced based on the result of the analysis. No matter how deep we go into human psychology and the workings of the mind; that really is the simple description of what happened. That’s all we need to concern ourselves with. We can keep it simple, and then try a simple approach to addressing the problem.

The problem is whatever the person said. Words…Just words. How can words have such a powerful effect? The answer is that they don’t. What has the effect is the power we give those words…our rating of them…our belief in them. So if someone calls you an idiot, you might be offended. Why? I mean you know you are not an idiot. Most likely the person knows it too. Why the negative response? Why can’t you ignore it? Well, because you are wired that way. You can’t stand to see that anyone would say you were an idiot. It is not enough that you know you’re not an idiot. You need this person to acknowledge that as well. And what’s wrong with that? I think it’s natural for us to want other people recognize the message we are trying to convey by our words or actions (whether or not the message is true or false). Sadly, no matter what we do, there are people who will always interpret things how they choose. Basically, no matter how much you show James how much of a genius you are, James (Sorry if your name is James) will still call you an idiot, and probably feel he is better than you.

It’s absurd! James isn’t better than you are. No one is. You have to remember that. Know thyself. Derive your strength from that. What do you do about those who refuse to accept your side of the story? Leave them. Ignore them. Walk away after putting your point across. But don’t get drawn in. I am not going to get overly religious on you, but I want to make a point. Jesus Christ said “Turn the other cheek”. I think people misinterpret that as a sign of passivity; of a desire to avoid confrontation; even of weakness. I disagree. I think it is an act of someone who is so powerfully aware of their own inner strength and value that they there is nothing you could do to take that away. Abuse me, torture me and kill me, yes. But you will never change the truth. People who can deal with the hurtful utterances of others go very far because they don’t allow these words get to them. Put in another way, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. There’s a bit missing there. That bit is “…unless I allow them”. It’s in your power to choose your reaction to what others say or do. Believe in yourself, first and foremost. You will be able to withstand negativity from others without being unnecessarily hurt by it.

Just remembering this principle of faith in oneself is enough to make my anger and frustration start to dissipate. I can feel it evaporating slowly as I finish this article. Happy days! I shall leave you with a quote made by Marcus Aurelius almost 2000 years ago…”If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment”.

Donald Ogilve owns www.masteryourfate.com, Self-Improvement and Success Resource Site. Go here for FREE EBOOKS, Product Recommendations and tip on Life Mastery and Business Success.

Article directories have been around for years, offering content and information for webmasters, ezine writers and email newsletters. The benefits of submitting your writing to article directories are easy enough to understand:

1. You trade on your credibility as an expert – and increase it at the same time. When you write a short, informative piece about your business, your author’s biography gives you credibility – you know what you’re talking about because it’s what you do for a living. When your article is published on an independent web site like an article directory, though, your credibility increases – you’re now recognized as an expert by others. That encourages others to republish your article – and give you yet more credibility.
2. You leverage the popularity of the article submission site to boost the visibility of your article – with a link back to your web site. A link to your site from one of the most popular article directories can give your web site traffic a substantial boost.
3. By making your article available for reprinting (as long as the author’s information with the link to your web site remains intact), you increase the visibility and the link popularity of your web site even further.
4. If your article is picked up by a newsletter or ezine publisher, the link to your website goes out to potentially tens of thousands of people.

The end result is more traffic to your web site and more credibility, trust and sales for your company.

The down side is that it takes precious time – and your time is a valuable commodity. Submitting your article by hand to even a dozen of the hundreds of article directories and ezine publishers can take several hours. Every directory service has unique formatting requirements. Some allow links in the article body – others only allow them in the resource box. Some allow you to use HTML to accent important points; others will only accept plain text. If you count those hours at your own rate of pay, your ‘free’ advertising could end up costing you a whole lot more than you expected.

The Easy Way To Make Your Words Work For You
The answer is to take one of two easy ways out – article submission services and article submission tools. Either one will simplify the process of getting your words out there where others can pick them up and spread the word about your company.

- Article Submission Tools
You can purchase software that will do the actual submission for you. You’ll still need to configure the software to some degree, but once you have your article set up and your list of article directories set up, the actual submission process is as simple as clicking on a button.

- Article Submission Services
Article submissions services will submit your article for you at a set price per article. The best will cull the list of article directories and publishers to find the ones that will give your article the most visibility and submit it by hand to make sure that everything is done right. The personal touch can make the difference in whether an article is accepted on the first try – or at all. All you need to do is send them your articles – they’ll do the rest.

Whether you choose automation or the personal touch, you’ll find that the process of submitting your article to all the best directories is incredibly simple. Your company will reap the benefits of everything your words are worth.

About The Author: Casey Yew “Who Else Wants To Get Their Hands On An Incredible WOW Package For Less Than 2% Of The Value?” www.wowpackage.com

If you want to cash more dollars with increase sales, then this might be the most important letter you’ll ever read.

If you want your website visitors to order your product day in day out, then I urge you to read this article — immediately.

If you’re sick and tired of getting low sales and profits even after putting in all the time and efforts, then here’s good news.

Now you can own my 5 simple tricks and cash-in on one of the greatest money making secrets to pull in MORE orders.

If you can use more new customers… and I mean TONS of new prospects and leads, I’ve got great news for you.

Now there are powerful, inexpensive new ways to bring in all the sales you’ll ever need.

The kind business that will rocket your profits right off the charts!

STEP 1 – Give Away Free Ebooks.

Create a free ebook directory on a specific topic at your web site. People will visit your web site to read the free ebooks and may see your product ad.

Also allow webmasters to submit their ebook in your directory.

Give access to this ebook directory to your visitors by subscribing for your newsletter.

Place ads on your website which will drive traffic to your salesletter and offers.

STEP 2 – Give Away Free Membership.

Turn part of your web site into a members only website. Instead of charging for access, use it as a free bonus for one of your products.

You can post up quality content on your website on regular basis along with your offers and sell your own products or affiliate products.

STEP 3 – Add free Classified Ad Section.

Add a free classified ad section to your web site. You could then trade banner ads with other web sites that have free classified ad sections.

Allow your visitors to post their classified ads on your site. This will build up repeat traffic to your site where ad posters will visit your site on continuous basis.

Now place your ads on your website and drive your traffic to your salesletter and offers.

STEP 4 – Create Different Ezine Versions.

Create two versions of your e-zine so people can choose if they want ads included with it or not. This’ll attract the people who hate ads to subscribe.

STEP 5 – Drive Your Subscribers on Your Site.

Publish your e-zine only on your web site. Have people subscribe to a “new issue” e-mail reminder. This could really increase your traffic and sales.

Everything you may have heard about increasing your website profits might be true.

This article has finally shown you some ‘amazing’ ways to pull in more sales.

If you’ve been looking for a quick and easy way to get into high profit zone that you can use to churn out more orders, this article has shown you some few tips and tricks.

One of the most difficult and time consuming tasks in this internet marketing world is to attract first time customers and leads.

If you want to pump up your ’sales’ and ‘profits’ to the next level, then I urge you to take ACTION and apply the steps laid down in this article.

You can quickly and easily double your sales from now on.

There’s never been a better time for you to get started pulling in MORE profits, than it is today!

Murtuza Abbas specializes in creating simple ‘Profit Pulling Minisites’.

Create amazing Minisites in 3 Hours or Less. Grab your FREE $147 ‘Minisite Creation Pack’ & learn how to start an internet business today…

http://www.7DaysToEarn.com

Well, here we are in the middle of another Thanksgiving season.

Although the holiday is supposed to be a time to give thanks for all our blessings, most of us wind up just stuffing (excuse the pun) ourselves with food and falling asleep in front of the TV watching football.

What if we not only gave real thanks on Thanksgiving but also had an attitude of gratitude throughout the year?

Singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, one of my all-time favorites, has described the way we limit our focus on gratitude to one time of year.

In an interview, he said, “Remember in school how, at Thanksgiving, we would be asked to bring in cans of food, etc., for hungry people? Just imagine if, one year, a teacher had the guts to say, `Children, it was the single most wonderful outpouring of generosity this school has ever seen. More cans of food than ever before, feeding hundreds of families, were donated.

We only have one problem, and we are going to deal with it this coming week. We’re going to cancel our regular classes and what we are going to talk about is: What are those people going to eat next week?!?’

“Doesn’t it sound like a sensible education system that dealt with questions like that?”

Let’s not concentrate on what we don’t have

The point is this: In our hectic and stressful lives, it is much too easy to lose perspective and focus on what we don’t have instead of what we do have.

When I was a child growing up in Miami in the ’60s, my dad worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In his day-to-day work, he came into contact with many people who had much less than we did. On Sundays, we would visit these people and share with them whatever we no longer needed or had left over from the week.

Through this simple Sunday ritual, I learned much about the power of gratitude in life. We were not rich by any means, but in many we were wealthy.

Author H. Stephen Glenn has an interesting and unique definition of affluence: Looking at the world’s population as a whole, you can define people as affluent if they have

1) a choice of what they will eat each day,

2) a choice of what to wear,

3) jobs to go to and

4) a choice about how to get to work each day.

Kind of puts our materialism and striving for more into a different perspective, doesn’t it?

My belief is that when we are desperately holding on to what we’ve got and just as desperately striving for more, we close ourselves off to all the abundance life has to offer. ‘
On the other hand, if we have an attitude of gratitude, we open ourselves up both to seeing the abundance we already have and to the possibility of more. ‘

Some ways to acquire that gratitude attitude

So, in an effort to develop an ongoing attitude of gratitude, here are some actions to consider taking this Thanksgiving season:

Make a gratitude list. Write, down the many things you feel, grateful for in your life. Just let’ your mind focus on what you are grateful for and you might be surprised by all the things you discover.

If you are saying to yourself that you don’t have anything to be .~ grateful for, make a list of the ~’ things you could be grateful for if, you wanted to be.

Look over your list and notice how many people there are for whom you are grateful. And then tell them and thank them. If they are not there, call them up. If they don’t answer the phone, write them. Just do it – it’s not for them, it’s for you!

Now, what would it be like if you did this at least once a month? What changes in perspective would that bring? What changes in your attitude?

Visit The Article Guy for more leading edge tips and tools for writing articles that bring you prospects, publicity and profits. You can also subscribe to our monthly Article Writing & Marketing Tips Newsletter. You are also invited to visit my Express-Start Article Writing Program for more information on the next article writing tele-seminar.

The Personal Touch 1

There is a simple art to networking and the good news is, should you choose to put forth a conscience effort to improve the way you communicate, networking can and will become second nature to you, it is really just that simple. A personal touch big or small makes a big difference in how others perceive you professionally and personally as well.

I have a friend, Sharon and she seems to think that effective communication and networking is meeting people at a business mixer or dinner, giving them her business card, bragging on her title and then cornering the individuals she has met for the next 30 minutes with suggestions as to how they can assist her in growing and promoting her business.

Perhaps, you’ve run across a person like Sharon while networking at different events. I am sure you waited with much anticipation to be rescued from her. This feeling of discomfort in this situation actually keeps the individual from giving Sharon their full attention.

The problem here lies in Sharon thinking her business is the greatest thing in the world. Sharon should feel this way but she should also be considerate of others’ time. However, she usually neglects taking an interest in other peoples’ business and personal endeavors.

It’s great to be an interesting person but it is also important to be interested in other people. The balance when it comes to effective communication is critical. Keep in mind your new contacts will either come towards you or run away from you based on the last experience with you.

Remember, what makes a conversation great. Yes, you guessed it. It’s a two-way street.

By the way, “Everyone is important” is the Networking Factor!

By Janice Smallwood-McKenzie

URL www.101NetworkingCommandments.com

Ms. Smallwood-McKenzie is a Networking Coach in Los Angeles and she helps small businesses and professionals to expand their political, business, and social bases. She is the Author of “The 101 Commandments of Networking: Common Sense But Not Common Practice.” Enjoy a Free Preview compliments of http://www.101NetworkingCommandments.com or visit Amazon.com to read Customer Reviews of this guide. This networking guide is available wherever fine books are sold. Janice’s e-mail address is ConfirmedCoach@netscape.net