Posts Tagged ‘marketing’
7 Questions to Ask Before You Advertise
Most business owners and managers keep a fairly close eye on their marketing budgets.
And nothing throws a budget out of whack faster than advertising.
Advertising, or paying good money to get your message in front of your target market, still has a place in your marketing mix, although it’s not quite as effective as it once was.
If you’re going to advertise, you need to be smart about it — or you can quickly find yourself with a blown budget and not much to show for it. Below are seven questions to ask yourself before writing out that check.
1. Do you need to generate customers/traffic/leads/etc. right away? If so, then you better pull out your wallet. Advertising is hands down the fastest way to get your message in front of your target market. (You’re paying for placement after all.)
2. Do you have another way to get the word out about your business? For instance, do you have a customer database or an e-zine list? If so, then you might be better off sending an e-mail (assuming you have customers’ e-mails). Although technically e-mail announcements fall under advertising, I’m not counting it in this particular case because it’s more or less free (or very low cost).
Perhaps you have a good news angle and a good relationship with a reporter. Or you have a high-traffic Web site and/or blog. Or maybe you’re an active volunteer with a large organization and can use networking to get the message out.
But if none of those really apply, then you’d better take a closer look at advertising.
3. Do you need to augment your other marketing efforts? Maybe you have articles featured on a Web site targeted to your customer base. Great when your article is front and center and not-so-great when your article is buried in archives. A little advertising on that site can keep you in your target market’s sight all the time. Or maybe you struck gold and got a big article written about your company in the perfect trade publication. Fantastic for that month and not-so-fantastic for the other 11 months of the year. Or maybe it’s taking you longer than you’d like to drive traffic to your Web site. Advertising is good for speeding things along.
Frequency is king when it comes to marketing — if you’re out of your customers’ sight, you’re probably out of their mind when it comes to buying time. Advertising is a good way to beef up or speed up what you’re already doing.
4. Are other marketing methods not appropriate in this situation? Let’s say you want to have a sale. But your customer database is small (or nonexistent). Your Web site has minimal traffic. And you aren’t going to get any bites from the media since having a sale isn’t news. What do you do? Run some ads.
5. Would you rather save time than money? Let’s face it. Running an ad is easy. Other marketing methods are more time-consuming. If you want your marketing to be easy, then advertising is about as easy as it’s going to get. (Now there is a caveat to this one, because you can hire people to do some of those marketing tasks, such as updating Web sites, running PR campaigns, etc. However, not everything can be hired out so you still might be stuck spending time you don’t have.)
6. Are you planning to test a new campaign or a new product/target market? Running small, inexpensive ads can be a good way to test certain marketing aspects before launching big, expensive, time-consuming campaigns. If you want to penetrate a new market or if you have a new product to launch or a new marketing message to try, buy some ads and see what the response rate is. Another strength of advertising is control — you have total control over your test.
7. Do other marketing approaches never quite measure up? It happens. Advertising in one or two specific media outlets seem to generate more sales and more leads then anything else you’ve tried. If that’s the case, then don’t mess with it. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Creativity Exercise — Advertising and your business
Is advertising right for your business? Try this exercise and see.
1. What’s your biggest marketing challenge right now? Write it down.
2. Go through the above list of questions and ask yourself each one. Does it apply to your situation? If it does, write that down too.
3. Do some brainstorming. In what ways can you use advertising to solve your marketing challenges? What media would work best? Online? Print? Radio? Television? Direct mail? Something else? Make up an ad for a variety of media.
Now do the exact opposite. Think of ways advertising WON’T work for your business. Brainstorm at least 25 reasons why advertising won’t work for your specific situation. Be silly. It’s a good way to loosen you up.
4. Go back and reread both your pro and con lists. Now read your ads. Do you like what you came up with? Do any of them resonate with you, even now after coming up with your list of objections?
You may have just come up with your next advertising campaign.
Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com. Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek
Can Honest Copywriting Succeed?
I confess–I’m a marketing heretic! I’ve built my career on breaking all the rules–and one of the rules I break is that I don’t hype.
Do I put the best possible “spin” on the truth? Of course! But I refuse to deceive my readers into action.
What are some of the common copywriter tricks that I *leave on the table?*
Here are a few to start:
* If you order in the next 24 hours, you get… (face it. If you come back tomorrow, the offer will almost always still hold)
* Get all these bonuses, valued at $999, for FREE with your $100 order (yeah, right! And who set the value of these gifts? And are they for sale, anywhere, on the open market at these prices?)
*Here’s the information you requested (a GREAT statement–IF it’s true– but I get five or six a day in my e-box, from companies I’ve never heard of)
* Hi there, long-lost friend (and you sent it BCC?)
So why don’t I like the copywriter’s lies? And how do I write copy without resorting to these deceits?
Well, first of all, I believe that if I want my words to sell a product, that product should be strong enough to do so without tricking the buyer. I know that if I trick someone, I may make a sale–but I’ve lost a customer for life! Whereas if I show the merits, back up my claims, and focus on the way this product solves a problem, eases a hurt or fear, or satisfies a need, I will build that lifetime relationship.
Oh, and one more thing. I like to look in the mirror and see someone who is doing good for the world–and I don’t think lies and trickery will accomplish that. I happen to have a gift for writing, and I use that gift to make the world better. That includes being honest with my self and with my readers.
Much of the work I do is in the publishing industry. And here, the competition is fierce. Roughly 175,000 new books are published in the U.S. each year. Most of them will fail. My job is to help my clients’ books stand out in this dense crowd.
Example: I wrote a press release for a book on electronic privacy issues. Here’s my headline and lead. (Another rule I broke–never use the headline as the lead sentence. It’s the only time I’ve ever done it that way, but in this case, I think the repetition made the point stronger. Names have been changed to protect the author’s privacy.)
It’s 10 O’Clock–Do You Know Where Your Credit History Is?
HIBBING, MN: It’s 10 O’clock–Do you know where your credit history is? How about your employment records? Your confidential medical information?
How would you feel if you found out this sensitive and should-be-private material is “vacationing” in computer databanks around the world– accessible to corporate interests who can afford to track down and purchase it, but not necessarily open to your own inspection.
According to electronic privacy journalist and technology consultant Mortimer Gaines, this scenario is all-too-common?
No falsehoods, no hype–but a whole lot more captivating than the usual “New Book on Electronic Privacy Released by Publisher.”
Without tricking people, I want to capture interest…move the reader to action…and still feel good about myself in the morning.
Yes, it can be done! I do it for clients every day, and have done so for more than 20 years.
Shel Horowitz, author of *Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First,* *Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World,* and four other books, offers affordable, effective copywriting and strategic marketing planning to clients on three continents. He is the originator of the Ethical Business Pledge Campaign to change the World at http:// www.principledprofits.com/25000influencers.html. His sites at http:// www.frugalmarketing.com and http://www.principledprofits.com offer hundreds of useful articles for entrepreneurs and marketers, including the complete back issues of his FREE Monthly Frugal Marketing Tips. Shel will be glad to help you create your next press release, sell sheet, web site, or other marketing material. He can be reached at shel@principledprofits.com, 800-683-WORD.
When You Attract Negative People, Be Thankful
Laws of Attraction are clearly defined. What comes back is a reflection of the energy you are radiating. If negative people are being attracted to you, then be self-assured that you are sending out energy that appeared on their radar screen.
Instead of focusing on not trying to attract them. Be thankful you are.
Okay, you say, that might be pushing it a little. Not really. You see, whatever you are attracting is giving you a clear projection of the energy that you are giving off. Or it could be something that you need to heal first in order to clear your energy. Most times, we could not see how we are radiating without this attraction.
The answer is awareness. The key is seeing it quickly so that their negative energy doesn’t change or shift your energy and pull you down along with it. However, it’s best not to leave until you have a sense of what is showing up. Yet, sometimes, that isn’t possible until hindsight mode.
An excellent example of this occurred to me just this week. A quick background in case you don’t know me — I’m very careful of my energy and have practiced the laws. I am also a master practitioner and move with the laws 24/7 which took years to master. Something I’m very proud of and very aware of.
Well, anyway, moving forward to the illustration.
Eating dinner at my favorite restaurant, sitting there writing after a good meal, just finished a marketing story for one of my syndicated columns. Before leaving I thought I would duck into the ladies room. I was sitting on the john — oops, maybe too much information (TMI) — when I heard this lady talking to me from the other stall. Actually feeling awkward and caught unaware, it took a few minutes before I could really make out what she was saying. By then, I was walking towards the sink to wash my hands. It wasn’t until then did I get the gist of her story, language and negativity. It was a victim story about how the world is out to get her. Let me spare you the details. I know you’ve heard this before and can easily relate to the energy heaviness created in the room.
I smiled and commented about I enjoy coming to the restaurant. She was too much into her story to hear anything but herself. Yet, she wasn’t even hearing herself, I believe. She followed me back to my table and stood over me as I sat down. A few more minutes of this and trying to ignore her and because I was ready to leave anyway, I got up to leave. She walked back to her table and sat. This time I walked to her table and towered over her.
I continued to listen, not getting a word in edge wise for another five minutes or so. I smiled and nodded sideways repeatedly in disagreement. She never paid attention. Finally, I held up my hand in a stop-sign format. This caused a pause. With a deep sigh of thank goodness, I remarked, “I’ve listened to your story and would like to share with you — you are attracting exactly what you don’t want because that is exactly what you want. Everything that has occurred has been what you have asked for. If you want to change what you are attracting, start by seeing and making new choices. This and only this will change what occurs in your life.”
As you suspect, and probably have already experienced yourself, she didn’t even hear the message. She continued right back into her story. My immediate and last comment was, “I hope you have a wonderful life and sometime soon learn to see that you’re choices are what you are attracting.” Not waiting for a response, I quickly turned and left the restaurant.
As I sat in the car, I asked myself, how in the heck did I attract this energy? And in the ladies room of all places? I wasn’t radiating anything negative, was I? The answer from the universe arrived immediately. It directed me towards my story that I wrote. When rereading, my attention was drawn to the number of “don’ts” in the article. They were every other sentence it seemed. Then I turned to other articles I had written at earlier in my notebook. The “don’ts” were many. Embarrassingly many.
Tracing my thoughts to when my energy had changed, I realized that it shifted when I started reading other people’s ezines that I brought along. I saw it as clearly as the sun rising on this morning’s horizon. All the don’ts that people were writing in order to try to sell their products or services. My energy level began to shift with the reading. It continued to spiral into my writing. Their attraction to the negative words moved into my use of negative words. How this and that was hard…finding the target market was hard…and the list went on.
This in turn created me to write in that same tone. My lesson — be fully aware of what I was reading and its influence on my energy and my writing.
As I look back, I see patterns of where this occurred more than once. And as I continue to trace further, I also remember what I was reading.
If it wasn’t for this experience, this negative encounter, I may not have seen this at all. I like to think I would have seen it anyway but in reality, probably not.
Yes, yes, yes. I do wish I had caught it earlier. But let’s not go there, huh. That will zap the energy of this story for sure.
The point is, be glad negative people are being attracted to you. Be aware of their appearance. Ask what is radiating from you that attracted them. Be the fly zapper at a picnic and ask why your light was on that attracted the fly. See any patterns and quickly make any adjustments.
Rest assuredly, that when you are no longer radiating negative energy, you will not attract those negative experiences or people. I promise this to you based on experience.
I also always recommend that you share your experience, through writing, speaking engagements, or just with friends and family. There are three people waiting to listen and learn from the valuable lesson.
Catherine Franz is a Marketing & Writing Coach, niches, product development, Internet marketing, nonfiction writing and training. Additional Articles: http://www.abundancecenter.com blog: http://abundance.blogs.com
7 Sure-Fire Ways to Build Large Affiliate Checks
Everyone wants a huge affiliate check. All the advertisements promise them, but if you just buy into the affiliate program and expect large affiliate checks to come, you will be sorely disappointed. Even if you have built downline in your affiliate program, your checks will not often be very large. The goal, after all, is to make money – and lots of it!
Try these 7 sure-fire ways to build those large affiliate checks that you have only dreamed of in the past.
* Optimizing Your Website For The Search Engines
If you want people to locate your website, it had better come up on the first page of results from the major search engines. People rarely move on to the second or subsequent pages of the search engine results. Search engine optimization is an art, and the rules used by the search engines change over time.
If you want to research how to optimize your website for the search engines, you can do some online research and learn the process. Or you can save tons of time and hire someone who is skilled at the art already. Remember; if people can’t locate you, they can’t buy from you.
* Product Review Pages
Your website should contain reviews of the product you are selling. People need to know why they should buy this specific product. They need to be compelled to want to own it. They need to be assured that they simply can’t live a happy life without your product. Make every webpage compelling and a call to action to buy, buy, buy – but do it subtly. Don’t just tell the reader to buy. Make them want to buy by giving them reasons they have to have this product today.
* Make Statistics Your Friend
On average, 1% of the people who visit an affiliate marketing websites will buy immediately. The other 99% will move along and never return. To make this statistic your friend, you have to obtain targeted hits to your website. Once way to do this is to get the visitor’s name and email addresses before they leave by placing an offer for something free on your webpage. Then follow up. Often, by the seventh time you contact that prospect, they will decide to buy.
* Learn From The Pros
There are thousands of wonderful articles on the Internet explaining affiliate marketing tips and tricks. There are hundreds of books in libraries on the same subject. Don’t stop at this report; learn every thing that you can that has worked for someone in the past. Then take every one of the points that apply to you and implement them. The more tactics you implement, the more traffic you will obtain and the more sales you will close.
* Continual Updates
Update your web pages often. If a prospect has visited your page a month ago, they will move away if they see exactly the same thing on your web page this month. Make the appearance and content fresh and new. While you continue your follow up with prospects, the ones who do go make a re-visit to your site may see just the thing that attracts them this time.
Web pages are simple to create and the little time required to ensure freshness is minimal. Information on learning to create effective web pages is all over the Internet; take the time to learn. If you use any time sensitive data on your web pages, but certain that the updates occur as frequently as necessary.
* Sweeten The Deal
There is not a person on earth that doesn’t want something for free. You do, I do, and everyone we know does, too. Offer the prospect visiting your web pages something for free. It can be an ebook you wrote yourself or purchased for redistribution, a report, a bundled product. Whatever it is, sweeten the deal to get the sale.
If the prospect has gotten far enough to learn the price of your product, then make sure they also see right then that something else is added to the package. The more you sweeten the deal, the better. Give them reports, ebooks, tutorials, anything that will go well with your product and make the buyer feel they are getting a lot of value for their money.
* Don’t Over or Under Price Yourself
If your product is one that you have price control over, then remember, it is far, far better to get more sales than fewer. So don’t price your products so high that most people will pass. However, the mentality of the buyer is that if it is too inexpensive to be real, then it must not be any good.
A mid-range price for a product will outsell either higher priced items or lower priced ones. This may not be true in face-to-face sales, but it certainly is proven in Internet sales.
This article was authored by Jason Gazaway. This 22 year old, ‘regular’ college kid was able to quit his 7-4 “job” because of his affiliate marketing business. He now wants to help others and show you how he did it!
For more FREE information, please go to: Affiliate Students
Drop Shipping Increases Profits
You would like to increase your income by selling other peoples` products but you just don`t have the money to stock inventory.
On the other hand, perhaps you have lots of your own product and would like to increase your sales, but you don`t have a lot of money for advertising.
The solution to both problems may lie in drop shipping.
1. Sell Products You Don`t Own
You would like to sell a variety of products but you don`t have very much money. Don`t worry! Your customers will supply you with the necessary capital. You don`t have to stock inventory. You can drop ship orders.
For example, you receive a credit card order for a product retailing for one hundred dollars plus five dollars shipping. You now turn around and fax (or e-mail or phone) your order to your dropship supplier. You pay the fifty dollar wholesale product cost plus five dollars shipping using your own credit card.
Your dropship supplier now ships the order to your customer. With no investment in inventory, your gross profit equals fifty dollars.
2. Sell Products You Do Own
Would you like more sales of your own products? Consider drop shipping your products for other dealers.
As an example, you may have a product that sells for one hundred dollars plus shipping. Every time you sell that product yourself, you will have a sale of one hundred dollars. However, how many one hundred dollar sales can you make personally?
Now consider the situation where you offer your dealers a wholesale price of fifty dollars. You could have hundreds or thousands of persons selling for you.
It is true that each product sale now only brings you only fifty dollars in sales. However, these are sales that you wouldn`t otherwise have. What would it cost you to obtain these sales through traditional advertising channels? Would your advertising even bring you the desired results?
Keep in mind that with this drop shipping arrangement, you pay only for results. When a dealer retails your product for one hundred dollars, he is really receiving a fifty dollar profit for selling your product; you could view it as a sales commission. You receive only fifty dollars per product sale but sell way more than without drop shipping. You ship directly to the customer for your dealer.
So, whether you sell other peoples` products or your own, drop shipping can increase your sales, preserve capital, and maximize business profits.
RESOURCE BOX:
J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years.
For valuable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/
For additional information about drop shipping, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/dropship.html
Microsoft and Google Show Its Time for RSS Marketing
Many internet marketers are still wondering whether to start marketing with RSS or not. It seems that not even all the case studies, hard metrics and benefits available can’t convince them, or everyone would be jumping on the RSS wagon by now.
Just as an overview, here are some of the benefits marketers are missing out on by not marketing with RSS:
A] 100% delivery of their marketing, relationship building and educational messages to their subscribers, customers, prospects and partners. E-mail isn’t getting delivered, but with RSS you will achieve 100% delivery.
B] Increased search engine rankings and quick content indexing, and increased traffic from other RSS-enabled online sources.
C] Getting your internet content published on other websites.
D] Generating new subscribers more easily and quickly.
E] And much much more ?
Even if you don’t believe that RSS is being used by enough people right now, that’s still no excuse to not start using it as a vehicle to generate more traffic to your sites.
But, soon all of this will change, too.
As it was widely predicted, Microsoft is integrating RSS support in the next version of its Internet Explorer, and perhaps even more important, it’s making it an integral part of its long-awaited Longhorn operating system.
What does this mean for marketers?
A] By being integrated in IE and other Microsoft software, RSS will achieve mass penetration. For marketers this means that RSS will finally become one of the standard tools of mass communication and content delivery. Furthermore, internet users will start to expect RSS from marketers, probably even more so than e-mail newsletters.
B] Marketers will no longer (eventually, of course, when most of the world starts using the latest software versions) need to explain how to get an RSS reader, but will be able to focus only on presenting their business and benefits to the end-user.
C] Broader RSS integration in Microsoft’s tools will enable for additional RSS uses, far beyond basic content delivery in the form of stories, podcasts and products. Marketers and developers will be able to deploy rich interaction applications to make communication and business/personal interaction more fluent, easier and more effective. In essence, for many advanced marketers the capability of marketing with RSS will mean their either “in” or “out” of the game.
D] This is now official. Marketers need to start taking the lead and implementing RSS feeds accross all their communicational innitiatives, from PR to direct marketing and sales.
And to top all of this, Google just recently started serving Google AdSense ads in RSS feeds as well.
The deeper meaning behind this is four-fold:
A] The new “program” is the perfect opportunity for RSS publishers to monetize their RSS feeds. With inclussion in Google’s standard “runnings” of AdSense ads, publishers can expect to monetize on RSS immediately.
B] This is yet another reason for publishers to start publishing their content via RSS, especially since it won’t cost them anything or very little, but will provide them with an additional source of revenues. With the low-cost aspect of RSS, we can expect a flood of new publishers to set-up RSS feeds of their content to generate additional AdSense clicks.
C] With RSS ads included in feeds, more advertisers will become aware of RSS and its marketing potential.
D] Using RSS advertising publishers are now not only creating an additional revenues source, but are in fact making sure they don’t lose ad revenue opportunities.
We used to refer to RSS as the future. Well, that future is now. If you’re not ready to start marketing with RSS, time just might run you over. As well as your competitors… Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik
Rok Hrastnik is the author of »Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS«, acclaimed as the best and most comprehensive guide to RSS for marketers by leading RSS experts. The complete guide on RSS for marketers: http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html?src=sa10
Seminars: Why Are They Popular, and What Advantages/Disadvantages Are There to Attending One?
Seminars dealing with “special topics” have actually been around for decades, and are an older form of marketing and information exchanges, that have seen quite a resurgence of interest in the past ten years.
Seminars are simply a group of people coming together for the discussion and learning of specific techniques and topics. Usually there are several keynote speakers within each seminar, and these speakers are usually experts in their own fields, or topics. Several topic reviews are scheduled each day throughout the seminar, and attendees can usually make their choice of topics from among these scheduled events.
Many individuals attend seminars each year, some attending several times a year. The topics of seminars can be as varied as the groups attending them, but in particular, there has been a rise of Internet Marketing Seminars over the past five years, due to the increased interest in this field.
What then are the advantages and disadvantages of seminars if you choose to attend or if you’re thinking of attending?
Advantages:
1. A wealth of knowledge usually, presented by many speakers at one time in one place. A lot of “learning” at one clip, with most material compressed into two or three days’ worth of time.
2. A sense of camaraderie, where individuals can meet others with the same interests/problems/concerns that they may have in their chosen field.
3. A sense of renewed hope and inspiration (this is especially true for Internet marketing seminars), as sometimes business concerns are lessened by sharing experiences with others. Being with others that “understand” individual’s problems or concerns, is usually a great morale booster!
4. A great way for those that don’t like to read, or attend classes, to improve their knowledge of a specific subject.
5. A nice vacation, in usually, a good hotel. Most seminars take place in quality hotels, as this is part of the incentive to attracting attendees.
Disadvantages:
1. Cost, of course, as all attendees must absorb their own costs. The seminars themselves sometimes also have an entry fee that can be quite high. All travel costs, food costs, hotel costs, and other miscellaneous costs must be absorbed by the attendees.
2. The chance that the speakers may be sharing incorrect knowledge, or not at all knowledgeable themselves (it pays to make your own assessments of presented topics, not just blindly “follow the pack”). Tips, tricks, and strategies need to be weighed as to “worth” and “accuracy” before using these. Careful thought rules here.
3. The time spent away from your actual business, or life, to attend. Time is always a concern when scheduling activities and some individuals simply can’t spare the time away from their lives for activities such as this.
4. The chance that the topics may not actively help your business or your concerns, and that the seminar will be a waste of time, where nothing you learn is of any use to you.
5. The chance that attendees will expect too much from a seminar and thus be disappointed. Realism must rule here. These are not “instant answers” to anything.
Overall, seminars, if chosen carefully, can be a good experience. They are not miracle cures to business problems or other problems, however, and this must be kept in mind when deciding to attend a seminar. These are, after all, optional events, and success or failure in business or life will probably not hinge on attendance at seminars!
Many different methods of learning business strategies and life strategies exist for those that don’t have the time flexibility or money flexibility to attend. Just visit your local library or local community college, and you’ll find a wealth of knowledge on all subjects. Read a book concerning your issues, or take a class, and you’ll find these can be great alternatives to seminars.
After all, education exists in many forms, not just at seminars!
Vishal P. Rao is the owner of: http://www.work-at-home-forum.com/ An online community of people who work at home.
Hunting the Executive Head Hunter
5 tips to win over an executive head hunter or management recruiter
Many job seekers find themselves overwhelmed with dread at the prospect of hunting down a new career position on their own. That’s why many people hope to hang their hats on the connections of executive head hunters to do their hunting for them in their ongoing (never-ending?) quest for the ultimate trophy career.
In order to convince a reliable executive head hunter, a job seeker has to plan his attack. A well connected executive recruiter will not take on just any person in a suit. You have to build a solid foundation well in advance of making contact.
Just like animal-hunting needs supplies, recruiter hunting requires strategy and supplies, too. Here are five tips to successfully capture the prize ? the services of an executive recruiter.
Do Your Homework
The savvy job-seeker must be well armed with knowledge ? not just about his or her interests and skills, but also in the head hunter’s interests and specialties. Yes, it helps to approach a head hunter who understands your field and has built up connections, because there is very little need for chemical engineers at an accounting firm (although chemical makers have been forced to allow accountants into their sanctums, but that’s another story).
At the same time, an executive management recruiter has no interest in your skills, even if you have won dozens of awards for the French pastries you have created.
Of course, it helps to familiarize yourself with the job market. That is the executive recruiter’s job, but it is also yours.
You will also get a lot further if you have assessed your own skills, not just your desired employment. If you clearly are not qualified for what you seek, you won’t sell yourself to the head hunter. And if you can’t sell yourself to the head hunter, he or she won’t bother trying to sell you to anyone else.
Identify Reputable Executive Recruiters and Head Hunters
Unfortunately, in the 21st century there are a growing number of conmen and scam artists who have injected themselves in the business of executive head hunters and recruiters. Therefore, as you begin your search for a bona fide and qualified executive recruiter, it is vital that you ask around.
Before you approach an executive head hunter, find out all that you can about their operations, history and experience from as many independent resources that you can access. Make it a point to find other men or women who have used their services. Find out who has actually landed jobs for other people, before placing your career in the hands of a charlatan.
Prepare a Solid Resume
OK. so this might be obvious. But it is not always done. Prepare a professional resume before you make contact with the executive head hunters on your list. Your resume is your calling card, and it will determine whether the recruiter will even want to let you waste his secretary’s time.
Line Up Solid References
Before knocking on head hunter doors, make certain that you have handy a list of professional references.
Just as you will want to know the details about any executive recruiter you approach, these professionals will want to know a good deal about you as well. They will want to be able to contact your references, men and women who can support your professional aspirations with solid testimony about your prior accomplishments, your character, your skills and even your weaknesses, too.
Make sure to ask permission from each reference in advance, so they don’t get caught off guard and say something like, “well, uh, let me see, um…you were calling about whom?”
Schedule a One on One Head Hunter Meeting
Finally, when you have all your ducks lined up, you are ready to meet the executive head hunter who will land you that ultimate trophy career. Of course, it helps to pick more than just one recruiter, and it also helps to schedule a meeting at their convenience.
There you have it. You are ready to go and hunt an executive head hunter. Job-searching couldn’t be more fun unless it came with a candy cherry on top and a complementary subscription to Laugh magazine. Happy hunting.
David Leonhardt is a Canadian website marketing strategies consultant. He wrote this article for the Directory of Executive Recruiters and Head Hunters.
Online, Phone, U.S. Mail or In-Person: Where is Your Credit Card and Personal Identify Safest?
Identity theft is the fastest growing crime according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It occurs when someone takes a piece of your personal information and uses it without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft. An all-too-common example is when an identity thief uses your personal information to open a credit card account in your name, or uses an existing credit card of yours.
Did you know that someone’s identity is stolen every 20 seconds?
In a recent survey by the FTC, 12.7% of American adults, or 27 million people, reported that they had become victims of some type of identity theft in the last five years. People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years — and thousands of dollars — cleaning up the mess the thieves have made of their good name and credit record.
Personal Identity Theft: Key Facts
* Victims now spend an average of 600 hours recovering from the crime of identity theft, often over a period of years. Three years ago the average was 175 hours of time, representing an increase of about 2470%.
* While victims are finding out about personal identity theft more quickly, it is taking far longer than ever before to clear their records and recover from the situation.
* Even after the thief stops using the information, victims struggle with the impact of identity theft. That might include increased insurance or credit card fees, inability to find a job, higher interest rates and battling collection agencies and issuers who refuse to clear records despite substantiating evidence of the crime. This “tail” may continue for more than 10 years after the crime was first discovered.
* Approximately 85% of victims found out about the theft of their identity due to an adverse situation – denied credit or employment, notification by police or collection agencies, receipt of credit cards or bills never ordered, etc. Only 15% found out through a positive action taken by a business group that verified a submitted application or a reported change of address.
Read Below for Key Steps to Protect Yourself!
The question remains, where is a person the most safe to make a purchase using a credit card? We compare online, phone, mail and in-person purchases to see where the most identity and credit card theft occurs. Then we provide you the key steps to keep your credit cards and personal identity safe.
Phone Theft: Talk is Not Cheap
Peter Reid, portfolio strategist for EDS Security and Privacy Services, says that “while consumers have learned not to divulge information such as their Social Security number and debit card number over the phone?they are still naive and share significant amounts of information from the contents of their wallet — putting them at greater risk for identity theft and phishing.”
Over 70% of consumers freely provide personal information, such as their name, address, postal code, phone number, and account number, or give the answer to a security question, to an unsolicited call.
The price for not being aware is astonishing. For example, more than 38,000 people lost close to $15.4 million to the operator of a sophisticated-but fraudulent-telemarketing scheme. The man convinced timeshare owners to pay $400 for unit appraisals by relying on misrepresentations to win them over, such as promising the unit would be purchased once it was appraised. At sentencing, the judge stated that Postal Inspectors had uncovered “the most corrupt, the most extensive, and the most sophisticated mail fraud scheme this Court has ever seen.” Seven others, including three of the operator’s children and his son-in-law, were convicted for their roles in the scheme.
Be suspicious of marketing calls wanting to verify your address or phone number over the phone. Do not say yes at anytime during the conversation and hang up immediately!
In-Person Theft: How Much Are You Really Paying For Dinner?
Carrying and using your credit cards and other sources of personal information “in-person” appears to be by far the leading cause of stolen identity and credit card information. “In person” may mean you are right there when the theft occurs – such as with retail purchases at stores or someone “shoulder surfing” you while you’re at an ATM machine — or you left your personal information in a location vulnerable to theft.
According to 2004 research by Javelin Group, a respected retail and business research firm, over 30% of personal identity theft occurred because of a lost or stolen wallet, checkbook or credit card.
Meanwhile, nearly 25% of personal identity theft is due to a “friend” or relative who had personal access to the information, or a corrupt employee who had access to the information.
Offline transactions account for nearly 10% of such theft. A common scenario is going to out to eat at restaurant and paying with a credit card. The problem occurs when you receive your next credit card bill and see charges of several hundred dollars for things that you didn’t buy! At the restaurant the likely scenario is that the employee probably ran the credit card twice, once for the meal charge and a second time on a magnetic card reader. The employee then copied the data onto a blank credit card and sold it to a third person or used it personally. This is not limited to restaurants, of course – the threat exists at any retail location where you submit your credit card.
Garbage Theft: Your Trash is Another Person’s New Identity
Another common “live” location for theft of your identity – account for nearly 5% of such crimes according to the Javelin research – is the garbage.
If you fail to properly dispose of personal information containing account numbers, addresses, and dates of birth, you’re making it easy for “dumpster divers” to obtain valuable information and steal your identity.
Such garbage diggers will often target upscale neighborhoods. They pick up garbage bags on collection day, take them home and rummage through them for “the gold.” The gold can include pre-approved credit cards, discarded bills, and a host of other information containing social security numbers, credit card numbers and more. Tax season is an especially prosperous time for dumpster divers as people dispose of old receipts and financial records carelessly.
Mail Theft: Involved in Most U.S. Identity Theft
Identity theft is one of the most serious issues for the U.S. Postal Service, and of course for the general public.
Thieves check mailboxes looking for paid bills or credit card payments that people leave in their mailbox for the postal carrier to collect. They use information from these items to obtain credit or to purchase products and services in the victim’s name.
One story involves the operator of a sweepstakes scheme in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Postal Inspectors found that respondents to the mailings were called and told they were winners, but had to mail “taxes” or “Customs fees” to collect their money. Victims either received nothing at all or items vastly inferior to what was represented, losing $15,000 to $102,000 apiece in the scheme. The scammer agreed in March 2003 to cease and desist his mailings and pay the Postal Service $200,000.
Most identity theft somehow involves the U.S. mail – it crosses over to the “in person” theft described above because, beyond strangers robbing your mailbox, the friends, relatives or fellow employees who are stealing your personal information and credit cards are usually lifting it off of a piece of your U.S. mail.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service has therefore become one of the world’s lead agencies in investigating these crimes. Postal Inspectors have jurisdiction to investigate and enforce more than 200 federal statutes involving the U.S. Mail. They are allowed to arrest anyone suspected of stealing mail or filing a false change-of-address order. But don’t depend on their measures for your peace of mind.
Postal Inspectors strongly advise people not to leave mail in their mailbox overnight or on weekends. Further, you should never leave your mail on your desk at work when you are not in the vicinity (or even exposed at home if you will be having friends or relatives over that you don’t trust 100%) Also, deposit outgoing mail at the post office and try to remove mail from your mailbox as soon as possible after delivery.
Online Theft: The Safest Place to Do Business is Online ? If You’re Smart
Despite the fears of those unused to the (relatively) “new” frontier of the Internet, online transactions account for less than 4% of identity theft! And almost all of that 4% is due to people not knowing the difference between a safe and secure website and one that may be “here today, gone tomorrow” ? or just plain flimsy when it comes to safety of your personal information.
The key you must remember to make your chances of online identity/credit card theft close to zero is to only make purchases through reputable and technologically secure websites like SixWise.com.
When you are making a purchase from the store of a reputable website like SixWise.com, the data you input in the checkout process is encrypted by what is known as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) before it is sent over the Internet. This technology provides a very secure connection that keeps your data private during transmission over the Internet.
How can you tell if a website has the high-level personal encryption technology, SSL, in place for your personal information? When you are done adding products to your cart on a website and you enter the checkout process where your personal information is being requested, make sure the beginning letters in the URL (web address) at the top of your browser window have switched to “https:” instead of just “http:” If they have not, it is highly recommended you do not make a purchase from that website.
In total, computer crimes accounted for 11.6% of all known cases of identity fraud in 2004. Over half of these digitally driven crimes stem from spyware — software the computer user unknowingly installs to make ads pop-up when the consumer is online.
SixWise.com highly recommends you read the article, The World’s #1 Internet Threat May Be Robbing Your Identity Right Now … How to Effectively Detect, Eliminate and Avoid It, for tips – and a free program – to prevent identity theft by spyware.
How to Protect Yourself from Credit Card and Personal Identity Theft
Can you completely prevent identity theft from occurring? Probably not, but you can dramatically minimize your risk by managing your personal information wisely and cautiously.
Here are some tips to help protect you from credit and charge card fraud.
Do:
* Sign your cards as soon as you receive them in the mail, at a store, etc.
* Carry your cards separately from your wallet, in a zippered compartment, a business card holder, or another small pouch.
* Keep a record of your account numbers, their expiration dates, and the phone number and address of each company in a secure place.
* Keep an eye on your credit card during live transactions, and get it back as quickly as possible.
* Destroy carbon copies of your credit card bills.
* Save receipts to compare with billing statements.
* Open bills promptly and reconcile accounts monthly, just as you would your checking account.
* Consider replacing paper bills, statements and checks with online versions. Think about moving to an electronic bill payment service, such as your bank or biller’s web site, and stop sending signed paper checks through the mail. Visit the site(s) to monitor account activity on a regular basis.
* Sign up for automatic payroll deposits.
* Use and regularly update firewall and anti-virus software
* Notify card companies in advance of a change in address.
* Examine your credit card report from each of the three major credit-reporting agencies once a year. Report any credit card fraud to them. Equifax: 800-525-6285, Experian: 888-397-3742, TransUnion: 800-680-7289
* Shield your credit card number so that others around you can’t copy it or capture it on a cell phone or other camera.
* Before throwing out any statements containing your credit card (or social security) numbers, it is highly recommended you shred the documents
Do NOT:
* Lend your card(s) to anyone.
* Leave cards or receipts lying around, whether at home or at the office.
* Sign a blank receipt. When you sign a receipt, draw a line through any blank spaces above the total – this includes the space for “Tips” if you have not filled it in at restaurants.
* Write your account number on a postcard or outside of an envelope.
* Give out your account number over the phone unless you’re making the call to a company you know is reputable. If you have questions about a company, check it out with your local consumer protection office or Better Business Bureau.
* Discard a computer without deleting all sensitive data
* Respond to emails that request you provide your credit card info via email – and don’t ever respond to emails that ask you to go to a website to verify personal and credit card information. These are called “phishing” scams.
* Write your PIN number on your credit card or have it anywhere near your credit card (in the event that your wallet gets stolen).
For More Information
The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357),
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