5 Tips For Article Writing and Marketing

This article gives 5 tips for effectively marketing your website and/or business through writing articles with resource boxes that can be distributed to article directory sites.

Simplifying Complex Business Practices

Today, I came across this article called Simplicity Can Untangle Complex Business Issues.

It was written by Mark Gottfredson, who is a partner at the consulting firm Bain & Co, and is the co-author of "The Breakthrough Imperative: How the Best Managers Get Outstanding Results".

Gottfredson makes the same observation that I have seen in the corporate world - that the natural flow is for things to become more complex over time. Simplicity is something that managers must actively work on.

I Posted 5 Quotes on Simplicity

On my Tao of Simplicity blog, I posted 5 quotations on simplicity from great historic thinkers.

"Complicating Simplicity" - Great Business Article on BusinessMirror

I found this nice article by George Chua entitled "Complicating Simplicity".

It perfectly describes my experience in the business world - that companies and bureaucracies over-react to issues and problems - thus making things more complicated than they need to be.

This generates extra costs that must either be passed on to customers, or else absorbed (reducing profit margins).

I like this quote:

Many production and QA engineers tend to shoot themselves in the foot without realizing it by coming up with features and standards that their own customers don’t care about or are not even aware of.

Simple, Elegant Way to Generate Secure Passwords

This article talks about creating secure passwords from mnemonic phrases that are meaningful to you and easy to remember.

Living Simply For 10 Years Without Spending Any Money...

Here is an article on a man in Utah who lives in a cave and has not used money in 10 years...

His life is simple, but hard. He does not use welfare or food stamps.

Carnival of road to financial independence #9

The Carnival of road to financial independence #9 is up with a lot of interesting articles.

Amazon, Best Buy, and Negative Operating Cycle

I found a website called Doubletongued.org that defines new catchwords.

One of the definitions that caught my eye was negative operating cycle, because it uses a real interesting example of Amazon.com vs. Best Buy. I then did a Google search and found other sites that mention this.

It seems that Amazon.com is able to sell some things, like iPods, cheaper than Best Buy because Amazon turns its inventory faster (20 days vs. 74 days).

For example, let's say that both Best Buy and Amazon get a shipment of iPods at net 45 from Apple. So they each have 45 days to pay for the shipment. If Amazon can sell all the iPods in 20 days, they can afford to sell the iPods at cost, and make their profit by investing the money from day 20 through day 45.

Best Buy, on the other hand, has to borrow money from day 45 through day 74 to pay Apple.

Clever Marketing Refrigerator Magnet

I'm visiting my sister-in-law in Newburgh, Indiana, and I just saw a magnet on her refrigerator for their local tax preparer.

The magnet is clever - it is a miniature 1040 form that has the name, address, and phone number of the company.

On Why Things Are Not Simpler

I was just inspired to write a post on why simplicity is not valued more. This was a stream-of-conscious, passion type post, rather than thoughtful analysis.

Recession Postponing Divorces

A lot of divorcing couples are having to find creative ways to live together until the economy improves.

How To Handle Annoying Bluetooth Talkers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp6H9hR4nIM

Tips for Traveling in the South

Tips for Traveling in the South     --If it can't be fried in bacon grease, it ain't worth eating. -- If you run your car into a ditch, don't panic. Four men in the cab of a four-wheel-drive truck with a 12-pack of beer and a tow chain will be along shortly. Don't try to help, just stay out of their way -- this is what they live for. -- Don't be surprised to find boiled peanuts, movie rentals and fishing bait in the same store. -- Remember: "Y'all" is singular. "All y'all" is plural. "All y'all's" is plural possessive. -- Don't be worried that you don't understand anyone. They don't understand you either. -- If you hear a Southerner exclaim, "Hey, y'all, watch this!" -- stay out of his way. These are likely the last words he will ever say. -- If you see a turn signal blinking on a car with a southern license plate, you may rest assured that it was on when the car was purchased. -- Satellite dishes are very popular in the South. They are to be positioned directly in front of one's trailer, since it cost considerably more than the trailer and should, therefore, be displayed. -- As you are cursing the person driving 15 mph in a 55 mph zone, directly in the middle of the road, remember: many Southerners learned to drive on a John Deere, and this is the proper speed and lane position for that vehicle. -- You can ask a Southerner for directions, but unless you already know the positions of key hills, trees and rocks, you're better off trying to find it yourself.

Aphorisms

APHORISM: A SHORT, POINTED SENTENCE EXPRESSING A WISE OR CLEVER OBSERVATION OR A GENERAL TRUTH   1. The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow. 2. Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail. 3. If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense. 4. Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs. 5. A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you're in deep water. 6. How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night? 7. Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without. 8. Why is it that at class reunions you feel younger than everyone else looks? 9. Scratch a cat and you will have a permanent job. 10. No one has more driving ambition than the boy who wants to buy a car. 11. There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity.   12. There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4 AM. It could be a right number. 13. No one ever says 'It's only a game" when their team is winning. 14. I've reached the age where the happy hour is a nap. 15. Be careful reading the fine print. There's no way you're going to like it. 16. The trouble with bucket seats is that not everybody has the same size bucket. 17. Do you realize that in about 40 years, we'll have thousands of old ladies running around with tattoos? 18. Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Corvette than in a Yugo. 19. After 70, if you don't wake up aching in every joint, you are probably dead! 20. Always be yourself because the people that matter don't mind, and the ones who mind, don't matter.

Bad Credit? You Can Still Get A Cash Advance and Rebuild Your Credit

Did you know that, even if you have bad credit, it may be possible for you to get a cash advance line of credit?

There are companies that issue secured credit lines. The issuer would probably require you to deposit a certain percentage of the credit line.

A line of credit like this can be a useful tool to help you rebuild your credit history. The key would be to use some of it every month for necessary expenses, and promptly pay off your balances. As you build a history of successful repayments with the issuer, they should slowly wean you towards an unsecured credit line. Your credit report and score will also start to look better.

Use Social Media to Drive Prospects to Your Blog

This good article on internet marketing talks about not using Facebook and Twitter as your main communication method for prospects. What if they shut down tomorrow? You would then lose the fruits of all your hard work.

Instead, the article stresses using social sites like Facebook and Twitters as outposts. You drive traffic to your blog, and offer free reports, videos, etc. to capture email addresses.

affiliate marketing and traffic building blog carnival

The July 10, 2009 edition of affiliate marketing and traffic building
blog carnival is out and it's large!

It's full of useful articles on internet marketing.

Simple Presentations

The author of the Excellence in Presentations blog believes in simplifying your PowerPoint presentations to only having one idea per slide - with a short phrase and a picture.

Always avoid using bullets.

In this way, the presenter will be forced to converse with his/her audience, rather than recite ideas, point by point.

Good Post on Simplicity and Marketing

This marketing blog has a good post on simplicity applied to marketing.

Carnival of College Admission

The latest edition of the Carnival of College Admission is up with some great articles.

2 Examples of Simple, Minimal Advertising

1. "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" Book Cover.

2. Imodium AD Billboard Ad.

Money Hacks Carnival, Staying Cool Edition

The July 7th edition of the Money Hacks Carnival is up with interesting financial posts.

Two New and Interesting Blog Carnivals

Carnival of Debt Reduction: Stale Brat Edition

Carnival of Investing Strategies #15

Students Beware! Colleges, Tuition, Loans, and Debt - Will Education Follow the Housing Bust?

In many ways, today's college/tuition/loan situation parallels the real estate market before the bust.

With real estate, you had the government (through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and Wall Street (by bundling loans into securities) removing risk from the banks and other home loan originators. This caused them to get greedy and make excessive money available to unqualified home owners. The flood of money chasing homes caused prices to go up, thus causing a cycle.

The same thing has been occurring with colleges and universities. The government guarantees loans through programs like Sallie Mae, and Wall Street has recently been bundling college loans into securities. Lenders and for-profit career colleges (i.e. beautician schools) in urban areas have been pushing loans onto unqualified students. The flood of available money has allowed even distinguished colleges to bloat their bureaucracies and raise tuition faster than the inflation rate.

Students and their parents need to protect themselves:

1. Think twice before piling on excess college loans.

2. Aggressively pursue scholarships. Many scholarships go begging, or have only a handful of applicants. Use sites like Campus Scholarship Site to track them down.

2. Expect to be heavily recruited on campus with credit card offers, and resist temptation.

3. Research state colleges and universities. Their in-state tuition is many times cheaper than private schools.

4. Take part-time employment. If your finances are really tight, onsider if full time employment / part-time school might make more sense than going into debt.

new Sears Tower 103rd floor glass balcony

pictures from the new Sears Tower 103rd floor glass balcony http://snipurl.com/skydeck