Online Business

Secrets of Email Marketing

2009-06-23T20:52:00.003-07:00

When you make research to know about the secrets of email marketing then it would be impossible to act on all of them. There are contradictions on a long list of secrets but you are not sure which one will be useful for your bulk email marketing. It is better to apply some useful secrets at a time but three most important secrets are given in this article to follow. They are not hard and fast rules that your email campaign will be successful by following these secrets but surely you will have good results. You can use free mass email marketing services to make huge profits.

1. It is tough to think that you will receive good response on your first email and people would start to buy your products and services. According to research it takes nearly 7 emails to observe a positive and convinced attitude from your reader. The response of your bulk email marketing campaign can vary according to your targeted market. There is a wide variety of stuff but you should analyze your market before offering it for free. It should be attractive but not necessary that it would be related to your business. The purpose of this method is to attract people to your website. In the first email you should offer interesting and valuable resources to your readers for free. Therefore it is better to detect demands of your targeted market to obtain good response. If you don’t have a thing to offer for free then you can provide interesting articles and reports to your mass email readers.

2. It is necessary to acquire a unique position in the market to win more and more customers. If you are not different from that of others then people have no any reason to come to you so create a difference that would keep an upper hand. This uniqueness can be in the manufacturing of your products and services. You can also provide a normal thing with unique style which is attractive for the people.

3. You should write attractive and meaningful subject line of your bulk email marketing message. It will urge your reader to open your message on the other hand in case of poor subject line the reader would not be attracted. Therefore he would not open your mass email marketing message.

You can obtain great advantages due to mass email marketing. There is great competition among various companies of the world so people test their products before purchasing them. These are just three secrets that can bring revolutionary changes in your business

How To Use Google AdWords Success Formula The Easy Way!

2009-06-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

Get Instant Access to Over 100 Million People in Less Than 10 Minutes with Google AdWords.

Google AdWords is not rocket science. But, it is a science.

There is a formula for success and it CAN be learned.
Those who learn it well make a lot of money online.
Those who master it make millions.
It is THAT powerful.

This is the quickest way to make sales online while avoiding things that most people don’t enjoy such as cold-calling prospects, waiting for our sites to get listed near the top of the search engines, working for someone else, etc.

This simple formula can make you as much money as you will ever need if you apply it. You truly don’t need anything else IF you MAXIMIZE this strategy.

Here’s the EASIEST & FASTEST way to start making money with Google AdWords advertising RIGHT NOW:

Open a Google AdWords account now with $50-100 to invest in advertising and bid on at least 50 low cost key words. Low cost key words are key word combinations that do not get a lot of traffic (but they get some) therefore the cost per click is VERY LOW.

You can find thousands of low cost key words by using the this keyword selector tool and typing in high cost key words such as: “work at home”, “home business”, “internet marketing”, “extra income”, etc… Type those and other similar key words into the keyword selector tool and then look down the list for key word combinations with a “Count” in the left-hand column of 1000 or less (that # is just an estimate). The lower the “Count”, the fewer people who search those key words and the lower price you will pay per click in Google AdWords. By paying lower prices per click, you’ll get more visitors and sales for each dollar you spend in advertising.

Most people make the mistake of bidding on high priced key words because they are the one’s getting the most traffic and they think that’s the best way to promote their site. Don’t make that mistake. Informed marketers (like you) make HUGE lists of low cost key words and bid on them all to get traffic to their site. In fact, it is not uncommon for highly successful Google AdWords users to bid on THOUSANDS of low cost key word combinations. This is the real secret to easy profits with Google AdWords.

If you’ve played your cards right by bidding on a group of LOW COST keywords to promote your affiliate link, you have a great chance of making money. Then, simply re-invest your profits back into your AdWords advertising campaign bidding on more and more keywords to increase your sales and income!

Google AdWords + your commitment to learn and APPLY this strategy can provide you with financial freedom.The formula for success is right here on this page… and it’s not even Algebra or Calculus!

It’s simple addition.Everything you need to make truckloads of money online is sitting right here for you on a silver platter!

Are you ready to enjoy the feast?

Come on… dinner is served… DIG IN!

FOCUS FACTOR: If money is your only goal and the information on this page makes sense to you, you really don’t have to go any further. You can make a comfortable living from home using ONLY this strategy. The key is to know exactly what you want and to focus exclusively on Google AdWords advertising until you arrive!

Actually, that really is the key to online success or success in anything else for that matter… You’ve got to know what you want and you’ve got to apply a single-minded FOCUS on your goal until you achieve it!

How to Start an Online Home Business: What is Needed to make Money Online

2009-06-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

Some believe it easy to start an online home business, but without having a handle on what is needed to make money online, they will fail like the rest of the 99% that try building a home business on the internet. There are things you must know and ‘tricks of the trade’ that will make the difference between success and failure.

The fact that only around 1% of those that start an online business succeed should be indication enough that there is more to it than just the will. There is also the attitude, information and knowledge. Let’s have a look at each of these.

ATTITUDE

Attitude is important. Your online home business is a business, not a hobby, and it should be treated as such. You have to discipline yourself to work to a plan and targets: set monthly, weekly and daily targets, and if you take time off for the school run, or to watch that TV program, then work later until you have met your targets.

Targets should be set so that you achieve so much in a certain time, and when you meet them all your business is so much stronger and on course for success. Newcomers to internet business will likely need some help with that to start with, but you should quickly get into the swing and be able to formulate your own online business plan and set targets to achieve it.

Don’t look upon your income as spare cash: look on it as your income, even if you still have a regular job. Most that are still learning about what is needed to make money online have a day job, although quite a few are unemployed. That’s why they are trying to use the internet to make a living.

INFORMATION

Knowledge comes from the information you are given. There is a lot of information online, but information is no good on its own with knowing what information is useful and what is not. You must also know how to use the information provided to you. Simply being told that keyword research is essential for the success of your website will not help you to carry out that research properly, and arrive at the right keywords for which each page on your site should be optimized.

You have to be told how to carry it out and how to apply it to your online home business. Not only that, but too much information can be just as bad as insufficient. You can suffer what is referred to as ‘information overload’. You have all the information you need to be successful, but there is so much of it, and how do you put it all together to formulate a coherent business plan?

No! Information is all very well, but you have also to find out how to use it, and how to get your information in small bites as you need it: not all at once and become confused.

KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge comes from information. There are a lot of intelligent people that start an online home business, but fail because they have no idea of what is needed to make money online. There is a lot to learn, and most of the currently successful internet marketers have spent a great period of time in learning. Many had to lean, because internet marketing was new when they started, and they set the standards and level of knowledge of their day.

Now, however, there is a lot of information available online but you have to know what you are looking for before you know what to search for! How do you get a website started up? There are several steps, including:

* Decide how you are going to make money: by selling a product, providing a service or some other way.
* What form will that product or service take.? Do you have to create it yourself or sell, on commission?
* How do you choose a domain name?
* You have found out that you should carry out keyword research but how do you do that properly?
* How do you buy and register a domain name, and then use it on your website?
* How do you start up a website?
* How should your website be designed?
* How do you go about designing and constructing it?
* How do you advertise your website?
* How do you get your site listed on Google and other search engines?

And many, many more questions to be answered and things to be learned. We have barely scratched the surface with the above basics. Without that knowledge, however, you don’t have hope of succeeding with an online home business, and you will be like the 99% others that fail to make money online.

The best way for most people to learn, and the way that most appear to prefer, is just like being at school. You are not given the entire alphabet to learn at once: you learn a letter at a time. The same with learning how to start an online home business and make money online:

1. How to choose a money-making or internet marketing technique.
2. Find out how to formulate a plan, and set regular targets
3. How to choose the right product.
4. How to get a website started up.
5. How to get your products on the site, and how top set your site up to collect payments and deliver the product.
6. How to promote your product and website.
7. How to set everything on autopilot and get onto your next project.

That is just one of a good sequence of events, whereby you are provided the information in easily digestible pieces that come together to provide you with a viable online home business that will not only help you to make money online, but also work as the basis for a massive internet empire that could one day see you earning 7 figures online.

Telecoms Cost Saving, Expense Management, Cheaper Call Tariffs

2009-06-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

If your personal mobile or landline provider routinely added 10%-40% to your monthly bill we don’t think it would be long before you asked for a rebate. Surprisingly, very few businesses have acted to make telecoms cost savings, despite the fact that for many, telecoms comes second or third to staff costs in terms of total spend.

Telecoms Expense Management is a term used to define a process to check and verify voice, data and mobile comms bills; create an asset register to ensure that all circuits and services are being utilised; and to provide a price control mechanism to aid procurement.

What are companies doing to introduce TEM to make telecoms cost savings? A number of companies are leading the way and of course, as with most technologies these are based in the USA. Telecoms Expense Management is an established, billion dollar industry in the States. Major US corporations like American Express and Bank of America are rolling out comprehensive Telecoms Expense Management solutions across their global networks.

By comparison the UK is significantly behind as there is no clearly defined market for Telecoms Expense Management services here. Organisations have utilised call management software (relying on PABX data only) to log their calls and use this data to check their billing to see whether they are being overcharged. They have not necessarily made an assault on all other aspects of verifying costs to make telecoms cost savings. For example, larger organisations with multiple sites across the globe, in the process of growth acquisition are unlikely to have a centralised asset register of all their telecoms and data circuits and services. The fact that they are using numerous suppliers based upon local purchasing decisions does not help their cause either.

Some consultancies are willing to manually verify billing using spreadsheet tools only, for analysis. They will then attempt to use this information to recover monies that were overcharged. Some companies are zealous in carrying out this type of analysis but only in order to persuade you to use their preferred network provider for all your future calls, making them biased.

Telecom costs typically equate to 3.6% of a typical company’s entire P&L spend which would explain why “telecommunications expenditure remains near the top of every CIO’s expense list” (Gartner) and why “Telecommunications cost management has become one of the hottest sectors in today’s business process automation marketplace.” (Aberdeen Group)

More than 50% of large enterprises don’t know what they are spending on telecom related services across the company. “In fact, this area is so wrought with inefficiency that most people don’t know how much they spend on telecom services, never mind how they can best manage those budgets.” (Aberdeen Group)

Whilst it is a proven fact that network providers do overcharge because they make errors in their billing, it is critical that an organisation has a way to first check their telecoms inventory in terms of what they currently possess and then more strategically, in terms of what the business requires as time goes by first so they have a basis upon which to negotiate reliably.

Larger organisations are constantly evolving to maintain their competitiveness as economic cycles occur or market share fluctuates, for example. Additionally some assets have been purchased only for historical reasons, or indeed as a part of a package to secure cheaper pricing as a part of a promotion that no longer exist. Between 15% and 35% of all fixed telecoms assets are surplus to requirements. The number of lines being paid for rarely matches the number an organisation requires.

This is where a Telecoms Expense Management service provider using Software as a Service (SaaS) can help. This allows remote access to powerful data warehousing plus number-crunching tools capable of retrieving data from all your service providers; and then comparing millions of lines of billing data against your contracted tariff in a matter of seconds. Numerous reports are then made available to determine actual usage and cost. This activity alone can identify 10% overbilling and frequently much greater, irrespective of the supplier and all without involvement from internal resource allowing your internal telecoms, purchasing and accounting staff to spend time on other projects.

Telecoms Expense Management is therefore a vitally important service that will maintain an asset register in addition to providing bill management. Furthermore it offers a tremendous advantage in telecoms procurement by ensuring services are purchased at the best market rates.

It is also good to realise that unlike most telecoms systems Telecoms Expense Management does not require a capital investment. These systems are typically charged for out of the cost reductions realised and therefore offer a no risk opportunity to gain control over your organisation's telecoms expense.

What is Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising? And is it For Me?

2009-06-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

With so much going on with the internet today it can be difficult to keep up. You may know a little bit about Pay Per Click Advertising but looking to learn more. This article is intended to help you fill in the gaps, learn how it works, and learn whether you or your company should take advantage of this type of advertising.

We all know that there are millions of people online everyday using the internet for everything you could ever imagine...personal banking, finding a nanny, shopping for a new TV, learning how to scrapbook...the list just goes on and on.

I think it’s safe to say that everyone on a computer has probably used the Google search engine. You simply type in a query into the search box, and "poof" it’s like magic, the page fills up with relevant information about what you just typed in. As someone that uses Google, you couldn't be happier. Everything that you were looking for is just a mouse click away.

Here is where the lesson starts. Let’s say someone is getting married and needs to find a photographer so they type in the word "wedding photographer" into the Google search box. A new page will load and you will be looking at what is called "organic" links or website listed down the middle of the page (in black type) and you will also see links on the top (sometimes), and always on the right hand side 4 line ads in blue that you can also click on. The blue text ads are what is called "paid advertising" or "sponsored ads". No one is telling you which link to click, it is completely up to you. The power of PPC is that anyone in a matter of hours can be advertising on the first page of Google using paid advertising. This is not the case with "organic" websites. "Organic" placement can take months, and sometimes even years to get on the first page. In essence you are paying your way onto the first page of Google when you use "paid advertising".

That brings me to the next point. Who pays and how does that all work? Well, the person who is responsible for placing that ad (the blue one) is the one paying. Every time someone decides to click on your ad, you (the advertiser) will pay for that click. Let’as say no one clicks on your ad, then you pay nothing. The only time you will pay is when someone actually clicks on your ad and they are taken to your website. You are essentially paying a small price to ensure visitors to your website (so make sure you have a killer website that closes the deal for you!).

What is the cost per click? Well, there is a range that people pay and it all depends on just how competitive the keyword is that you are bidding on. The range can be as low as .20 cents a click all of the way up to 6, 7, 8 sometimes 12 dollars a click on some very, very competitive keywords. I would say a realistic range is .60 cents to $2 a click if you don't have a wide open budget. The bottom line is you decide what keywords to bid on, and if a keyword is too expensive, just go and find a new one. The best part is there is an interface or a back-office that helps you stay organized and keeps track of the cost, the numbers, the keywords, your bid price, etc. The system, whether it be Google or someone else will provide all of its advertisers with a management area where all of your numbers will be tracked and secure. You just have to decide what keywords you want to bid on and what the maximum amount you will pay per click. (More on who offer PPC Advertising soon).

Now, the question is, "Is this a good way to spend advertising dollars?" Well, that is highly debatable. The undeniable truth is you will have laser targeted views of your advertisement. What I mean is, as a photographer you are only going to bid on keywords that are relevant to your industry. For example: photographer, professional photographer, wedding photographer, best photographer, etc. When you bid on those specific keywords your ad will show up when someone types any of those words into the search box. That is what I mean by a laser targeted view. There really is no other type of advertising out there that provides this sort of "supply and demand" advertising platform. The person that has typed in "wedding photographer" is clearly looking to find a wedding photographer, and what better place to have an advertisement if you in fact are a wedding photographer. It doesn't get much better than that!

Now Google is not the only place that you can do paid advertising. There are other search engines like MSN and Yahoo that also offer the same advertising opportunity. And more recently, Facebook and YouTube have joined the game and offer Paid Advertising space.

Pay Per Click is growing in its popularity, but the most important advise I could possibly provide is to educate yourself. You now know the basics...the difference between "organic" and "paid" and where to find them. You also understand that you can bypass the challenges of website SEO (search engine optimization) and pay to get on the first page of any search query. And you understand that Pay Per Click means exactly that. You have officially been exposed to the unique power of PPC Advertising. This is just the first step, don't make the mistake of jumping into PPC too quickly, that is how you will lose serious advertising dollars. Learn the skills necessary to maximize your ad dollars and increase your sales accordingly.

How To Analyze Website Traffic

2009-06-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to interpret the data.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web traffic information that you then have to interpret and make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you don't understand how to apply it to your particular business and website. Let's start by examining the most basic data-the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known as "hits" and what is really effective, quality traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown the concept of hits can be. For example, if your home page has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your site. As you can see, hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

The more visitors that come to your website, the more accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could, for example, consider improving the link to this page by making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less important, you might consider moving some of your sales copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital information about the effectiveness of individual pages, and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit pages. This is normal unless you notice an exit trend on a particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In the case that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a page not designed for that purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it's time to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your site. The more targeted the visitor-meaning that they find what they are looking for on your site, and even better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase-the more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being directed-or should I say misdirected-to your site by a particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find your site will give you a vital understanding of your visitor's needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website by typing in your company name, break open the champagne! It means you have achieved a significant level of brand recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

Powerful Adwords Techniques To Make Money

2009-06-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

Internet has opened up a number of possibilities for people to make money online. There are millions of online businesses generating income for people. Google Adwords is one such opportunity which is made use of by many people. In order to use this method to generate money, there are two steps to be followed namely go to Adwords at Google and also open an account with Clickbank and sign up as an affiliate.

The process itself is pretty simple. On the main page of clickbank, click on “Promote Products”. The product index page opens up. All these products are sold through clickbank. There is a concise description of the product along with details of how much margin you make as an affiliate.

The next step involves going to the sales page of the product and read about it. Study in detail the various benefits of the product before writing your own Google Adwords advertisement. Your success with the program depends on how effectively you write your Adwords. The best format include writing an effective headline preferably in a question format, the first line listing at least one major feature of the product, the second lining the benefit offered by the product and the next line featuring your website address. It is as simple as that.

You now submit your ad based on the budget you select and wait for just ten minutes for your ad to appear on the Google network. As users click on your ad, you will be charged by Google per click. The amount of money you have to pay per click depends on the amount you bid on a particular keyword.

You receive your commission only if the searcher goes to your site and purchases a product. The commission is credited by the Clickbank into your Clickbank account. Making money with Google Adwords therefore essentially depends on your CTR or Click Through Rate and ROI or Return On Investment. Your skill lies in how effectively you balance between these two to make maximum money.

You just subtract the ad running cost from the money you earn to determine the return on investment. A profitable ad can generate a lot of business by increasing the number of people clicking on it.

Here are a few tips on writing Adwords that are sure to generate a good affiliate income by lowering the cost per click and increasing the number of clicks.

•Concentrate on a specific niche depending on aspects such as language for example if you are selling an eBook. It does not make sense including non English speaking countries if you are selling a book in English.

•Make your keyword specific by including brackets around it. This way the searches will not show up your ad unless it is for that specific keyword phrase.

•It is possible to arrive at a high click rate ratio by trial and error. Keep trying multiple ads in order to hit upon the ones that work best and generate the most number of clicks. Replace the poor performing ads with fresh ones until you hit upon an ad that generates the most number of clicks.

•Constantly keep a watch and monitor the Return on Investment for every ad. This is possible by tracking the conversion ratio with the help of a tracking link.

•Make sure niche keywords are included both in the headline as well as in the description. Your keyword will automatically be highlighted in bold by Google ensuring user’s attention is captured as they search for that particular keyword.

•Ensure the ad includes at least a couple of benefits of the product you are selling. For example, mention benefits such as stay younger, live healthier, etc.

•Make your headline as powerful as possible. For this, the first word must grab the attention of the reader. You can start your headline with words such as New, Sale, etc.

•Use effective phrases that call readers to action immediately. For this, the words you use must be powerful and instigate a response by working on the reader’s enthusiasm and emotions. Some of the powerful words you can use for this purpose include discover, time limited offer, free shipping, etc. Sale ends tomorrow, Buy Today and save 40%, etc are some of the effective phrases you can include. An important aspect to remember is if the phrase is not related to your product, the ad itself will be rejected by Google.

•Highlight the unique benefit offered by your product as compared to other similar products in the market in your ads.

•Instead of linking to the home page, you can achieve more conversion ratio by linking your ads to the landing page of your site.

•Including the price of product in the ad is a good idea to keep away those who are hunting for free offers.

Take care of the above aspects and keep a continuous track of your ad performance to reap benefits from your Google Adwords campaign.

Use Blogging To Boost Your Business

2009-06-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

Business blog is an incredible online marketing tool that saves you thousands of dollars but provides great business opportunities in just one click. Blogs are user-friendly, customized and flexible medium for disseminating useful information for operative positioning of your products in the market.

Companies engaging in business blogging have a specific edge over its competitors. Here are some advantages:

1. Word-of-Mouth. In a survey, there are currently 14 million blogs with 80,000 more being added each day and about 30 percent of the 50 million users are blog readers. Dream how much gain your company will have, if your products are advertised through blogs. With Internet, information spreads so quickly especially if an impressive write-up goes with your product. Soon your blogs will be conceded on to hundreds of possible customers.

2. Awareness and loyalty. Open communication with your customers creates trust and loyalty among them. Being there to answer to their questions and comments make them all the more willing to try your products and services.

3. Feedback. Blogs is good for product research and reviews. It would be easier to improve on your products if you observe your customers’ idea and behavioral patterns. You can also take immediate action to your customers’ concerns.

4. Community halo-effect. Bloggers are reasonable, friendly and helpful. They are more than willing to make blogosphere of comments regarding your product. The only thing you have to do is adopt and take active part in the culture and your product will surely be considered in their next stop to the supermarket.

For better marketing results, actively promote your business blogs by submitting your blogs to blog search sites and directories. Do not forget to paste in with your blogs, your URL. Be sure that your blogs include exclusive information with merit and are always updated to keep readers popping in, read up your blog, move on to the next and click on again for updates.

Blog is like a setup booth in the biggest trade show on earth everyday. Marketing promise are just around the corner waiting to hit your sale scales up.

The Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are of the essence too in conjunction with your blogs to get the best benefits. Use effective keyword phrases to produce high ranking status in the search engine traffic. In this way you have better likelihood of people finding your website leading to your blogs. More traffic means more potential sales.

For this to be successful, you can use RSS for news update feeds which can be read through RSS reader application. This is a very beneficial tool for business and internet marketers as well.

If you are already convinced with the potentials of business blogs for marketing and targeting sales increase, your company is now ready to start blogging. But first, you have to be in tune with your company’s business objectives and determine if blogging will really help you achieve your goal.

1. Several blogs are committed to teaching people the do’s and don’ts of blogging, READ them! Include in your reading materials blogs that are consumer-based too to give you an suggestion.

2. Setup several test blogs right away.

If your initial try out with blogs worked well, you can now start setting up your blogs.

1. Study blog design. Blog hosting services provide pre-designed templates. But if you opt for paid blog service, you can ask your artist to design and layout your blog site to match the company’s identity and needs.

2. Choose a topic. Its good to have a line-up of topics you want for your blogs but be sure they are in consonance with your business objectives. This would be a assessment of your flexibility and open-mindedness since results may be going against the set objectives.

3. Remember the following safety measures in blogging:

* legal issues are sometimes involved in blogging; it is safer to include disclaimers and limitations of liabilities;

* corporate communication and legal department are responsible in educating the senior management on how blogs might affect business;

* create blogging policies; set limits on who gets to blog and what information are allowed to be made public;

* avoid outright marketing blog or you will shy away your readers;

* make content updated, relevant and fresh;

* reinforce the company’s core values; and,

* encourage employees to use it.

4. Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing.

5. Begin marketing.

6. Regularly monitor the coming ins and outs of readers and get updates. Then, measure your results.

7. Adjust if needed. You can always play with your designs in the blog site as long as it remains to match the company’s identity.

8. Strive to be consistent with your topic all the time.

9. Try to have unrelated topics with general and broad appeal.

10. Schedule updates regularly. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday would be best to update blogs.

Once you have done all these things, you can now ultimately enjoy the benefits of business blogging.

Make Money Online With Maverick Money Makers

2009-06-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hi There,

Mack Michaels, the creator, founder,entrepeneur and driving force behind Maverick Money Makers all but guarantees you will make money online. Your program purchase price is guaranteed and the way his program or should l say his variety of or bunch of programs are presented in such a way that he has done 95% of the leg work for you through his training, coaching and motivational videos. All you have to do is take notes during his videos and copy his methods, systems, and resources and if you do, you are on a winner, no doubt about it.

I have purchased some supposed online money making programs in the past - some have made me a few dollars and many have made me no dollars at all despite all the promises but M.M.M leaves nothing out; everything is covered and everything is explained and presented via video in total detail. If you still have questions, he is only a telephone call or email away for a prompt response.

Mack Michaels has apparently been working online since 1997 and has become a multi millionaire as a result of the internet and its great that he is prepared to share all of his online secrets with the public.

Many self confessed gurus and entrepeneurs in promoting and selling their own programs never include all the nuts and bolts, something or many things are always left out, but not with Mack Michaels, his program is actually overwhelming at first as it contains too much information.

With the troubled world economy, Businesses are laying off staff, not Mack, he has apparently increased his staff in customer service and web design to cater for future growth of his programs worldwide membership.

All training and coaching is on a STEP by STEP Basis and is conducted online by video which consists of 70 plus hours of training, educational and motivational tutorials which you can stop and replay again and again until you fully understand each section you are being coached in.

Mack Michaels does all the video coaching and training himself via his videos and each month he adds more content to M.M.M. - this program in my opinion can be broken down into 3 sections being, What to Promote, Where to Promote and How to Promote as the following will reveal in detail -

WHAT TO PROMOTE
- using Clickbank,Millnic,C.J., and other product sourcing sites,
- how to find the popular / hot products on the net,
- what products people are searching for,
- how to set up a hoplink,
- how to set up a Cheap Domain Name,
- how to set up Forwarding,Cloaking & Masking.

HOW TO PROMOTE
- using Google, Yahoo, MSN, Microsoft and other websites,
- what are Keywords and how to use them,
- what is Key Word Spy and how to use it,
- what are Pay Per Click sites and how to use them,
- what is HTML and how to use it,
- what are Landing Pages and how to build and use them,
- both Online and Offline Services,
- using Free and Paid services.

WHERE TO PROMOTE
- using Google, Yahoo,MSN, Microsoft and other websites.
- writing articles for ezines,
- submissions to forums & chatrooms
- emailing,drop cards & leaflets,
- using other peoples blogs & websites,

Plus a whole lot more information to ensure you are given every opportunity to earn an online income with your Work at Home Make Money Online Business.

A couple more examples of the program content is the Quick Money Strategies where its explained how you can make money promoting free products to Long Term Business Strategy and Development which will provide an excellent monthly income, month after month.
This Program costs less than $100.00 to join and in my opinion is worth every cent.

If you are Trainable and Coachable and can follow a proven system you will become financially free very quickly.

Come and join me to achieve YOUR FINANCIAL FREEDOM, You will not be dissappointed.

The Best Online Destination For Finding Personalized Gifts

2009-06-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

There is nothing better than personalized gifts to express feelings and give vent to one’s emotions. These are also great for celebrating special occasions. The personalized gifts can give the recipient more happiness and pleasure than conventional expensive gifts. These gifts also make people recall the happy moments of their lives. They have immense emotional value.

The personalized gifts like Valentines Day Gifts make the recipients happy and surprised at the same time. The occasions like friendship day, anniversary and birthday are ideal for giving personalized gifts to the near and dear ones. There are various ways to add a touch of personalization to a gift. For instance if a person decides to present his loved ones with jewelry he can consider embossing his name on it. Lockets with the initials of a person’s name make excellent personalized gift.

The birth of a baby is an event that the parents want to celebrate. For celebrating the occasion innovative and useful New Baby Gifts can be given. It could range from baby dresses, toys to perambulators.

If a couple enter their wedding anniversary the husband may give his spouse the photos of their marriage encased in a nice personalized photo frame. Small but useful items like pen stand, paperweight, t-shirt, a hat, coffee mug can also be used as personalized birthday or Easter Gifts. The family re union is an occasion where people can use the personalized t-shirts. A t-shirt can be customized by including a family picture and printing a touchy message. This gift can be given to many members of a family.

It would be nice to give a person a personalized gift along with a card containing a personal message. Christmas is an occasion when people reunite with their family members and friends and exchange gifts. Champagne gifts are ideal for this occasion. The kids can be given gifts like Santa Claus gift satchel. For the grown up recipients music CDs or movies can be considered.

The personalized gifts also reveal the creative and innovative side of a person’s character. There are some companies that offer personalized gifts to others. They customize the gifts according to the requirement of the clients. Fruit basket and gourmet foods also make up as excellent gift items. If this is what a person wants to send as a gift to a loved one he can count on First4hampers.com. It offers only the best quality produce.

The company offers the customers Parcel Force Next Day delivery in Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It is available on all days of the week except Sunday. It gives the customers the opportunity to choose what items should be included in his gift hamper. The company offers the best quality food and also pays utmost attention to the packaging. The specialty foods it offers can not be found in any supermarket. The gift packages are sure to impress the viewers.

The True Essence Of Temporary Staffing Services!

2009-06-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

Human beings are not ‘commodities’, but are creative social creatures, working for a productive enterprise. It is important to consider carrying out a thorough job analysis to determine the level of skills/technical abilities, competencies, and then match the right talent with the right job. Staffing Consultants do just this.

Staffing is the process of acquiring, deploying, and retaining a workforce of sufficient quantity and quality to create positive impact on the organization's effectiveness. Staffing Consulting and Human Resource Consulting determine ‘what mix of skills and knowledge a company needs’. Employers use Staffing Services to assist them in filling their job openings. These services offer specific training that help to develop valuable skills to enable one to successfully find the right job. Direct Hire Staffing involves hiring someone without going through a temporary agency or service due to shortage of time or resources.

The use of Temporary Employment is growing rapidly since the trend began towards business downsizing and restructuring. Companies began to substitute temporary for permanent employees for cost savings, and to gain greater flexibility in the face of changing business conditions.

As America joins the global marketplace for seeking qualified employees for its work force, Temporary Employment is playing a major role in the process. Jobs In New Jersey, Indiana, Nevada, Delaware, Indianapolis etc., are all being aided by Temporary Employment Staffing firms that provide employees with specific skills, to client companies for brief and often fixed periods of time. This arrangement provides a client company with all the needed help, during peak demand periods, staffing shortages, without requiring the time, expense, and long-term commitment of hiring a new employee.

Specialized Temporary Jobs Services can routinely handle specific, time-sensitive and highly skilled projects. In fact, very often temporary workers are so qualified that the employers end up adding them to the full-time staff, saving the high cost of hiring and training. Temporary Employment Services are a particularly attractive option for small businesses, which often need help on a limited basis but lack the resources to recruit, screen, and pay new, full-time employees.

Eminent Temporary Staffing Services follow a recruitment technology and web-based workforce management system that streamlines the entire hiring, tracking and retention process, and place the right associate in the right position the first time, who prove to be the right fit with employer’s culture and goals!

The Role of Software Development & Other Knowledge Based Technologies in Dubai’s Development

2009-06-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

Stability and strong fundamentals, not high growth and high returns, are very important to develop an economy. This is the lesson the global economic crisis has taught us. Dubai has also suffered by the worldwide financial downturn and financial pressure.

But indications of improvement are now emerging both at home and abroad. Assuming that we have learnt some lessons from the faults, it is high time to re-evaluate, reorganize and prepare a new plan for permanent economic expansion and prosperity. Various nations have come out smarter and wiser from fiscal and economic problems in the past and there is no reason that Dubai cannot do the same. But there are many challenges. Some need rapid solutions and others need a long-term strategy to fix. If we analyze even blogs in Arabic language, one can easily understand that even commoners can understand the problems.

The Minister of Labour lately said that the UAE is heading towards a knowledge-based economy which needs a smaller but extremely skilled workforce. The report shows that the government of UAE is looking forward at the future forms of things. According to new theories of growth, knowledge can lift the profits on investment, and as a result contribute to the accumulation of knowledge. It does this by inspiring more well-organized methods of organizing production as well as new and enhanced products and services. This creates the prospects of sustained increases in investment which can lead to nonstop rises in a nation’s growth rate. Knowledge can also spill out over from one section of industry to another, with fresh ideas used constantly at modest additional cost. Such spillovers can relieve the constraints placed on growth by scarcity of capital.

The example of the industry of web development in Dubai is a case in point. As the industry grows it not only involves software computer engineers but also provides opportunities of jobs for other professionals. For example thousands of professionals are involved in copy writing in Dubai. Because of the overflow of web sites in this digital age of ours the professionalism in any field is required to such a degree that content management systems in Dubai becomes a separate specialized field.

In this age of knowledge based economy, the commerce world has embraced novel concepts that have radically changed the way in which organizations are structured and the method in which they operate. With the arrival of the World Wide Web, worldwide economic struggle is now a brutal reality and is always on the increase. The world of business has become an ever-changing atmosphere in which organizations are compelled to adapt quickly as a means of endurance and competence. A key to survival is the generation of knowledge to understand a strategy to stay inventive and synchronous with the fast pace of economy and business. The development of soft industries has created a path for electronic business.

Investments in the teaching and enhancement of newly emerging knowledge like software development can increase the overall economy of UAE and transform it from a monotonous oil based economy to a multi dimensional post modern financial power.

Indonesian Political Culture

2009-06-16T02:32:00.000-07:00

Indonesia Table of Contents

Because of the general acceptance by the people, Indonesia's New Order government usually gains at least passive approval of its actions and style by what the ruling elite has characterized as the "floating masses." This approval in the early 1990s was based in part on an acknowledgment of the material benefits that flowed from real economic growth. The approval was also partly based on the fact that the government's acts and style fit into shared cultural patterns of values and expectations about leadership. In a country as ethnically diverse as Indonesia--from Melanesian tribe members of Irian Jaya to Jakarta's Chinese Indonesian millionaires--and with its population differentially incorporated into the modern political economy, it was difficult to identify a political culture shared in common by all Indonesians. Nevertheless, there were major cultural forces at work in Indonesia that did affect the political judgments of large groups of Indonesians.

Traditional Political Culture

In the late twentieth century, there were as many traditional political cultures in Indonesia as there were ethnic groups. Nevertheless, the similarity to the Javanese kingship model of Suharto's increasingly paternalistic rule reflects the Javanese cultural underpinnings of the New Order. Although Indonesia was a cultural mosaic, the Javanese, with more than 45 percent of the total population in the 1990s, were by far the largest single ethnic group. Moreover, they filled--to a degree beyond their population ratio--the most important roles in government and ABRI. The officer corps in particular was Javanized, partly as a result of Java's central role in the development of modern Indonesia (Indonesia's five leading institutions of higher education were located on Java, for example), but also because ABRI seemed to regard the great predominance of Javanese in the officer ranks as a matter of policy. The Javanese cultural predispositions influenced, therefore, the way the government appealed to the population and interactions within the New Order elite.

On Java power historically has been deployed through a patrimonial bureaucratic state in which proximity to the ruler was the key to command and rewards. This power can be described in terms of a patron-client relation in which the patron is the bapak (father or elder). The terms of deference and obedience to the ruler are conceived in the Javanese gustikawula (lord-subject) formulation, which describes man's relationship to God as well as the subject's relationship to his ruler. The reciprocal trait for obedience is benevolence. In other words, benefits flow from the center to the obedient. By extension government's developmental activities are a boon to the faithful. Bureaucratically Javanese culture is suffused with an attitude of obedience--respect for seniors, conformity to hierarchical authority, and avoidance of confrontation-- characteristics of the preindependence priyayi class whose roots go back to the traditional Javanese courts.

Javanism also has a mystical, magical dimension in its religiously syncretic belief system, which integrated pre-Indian, Indian, and Islamic beliefs. Its practices include animistic survivals, which invest sacred heirlooms (pusaka) with animating spirits, and rites of passage whose antecedents are pre-Islamic. Javanism also encompasses the introspective ascetic practices of kebatinan (mysticism as related to one's inner self), which seek to connect the microcosms of the self to the macrocosms of the universe. This adaptive belief system defines Suharto's underlying spiritual orientation. Furthermore, the politics of Javanism have been defensive, seeking to preserve its particular heterogenous practices from demands for Islamic orthodoxy. Rather than Islamic political parties, the Javanese have often turned to more secular parties: Sukarno's Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), the PKI, and Golkar.

Islamic Political Culture

Of Indonesia's population, 87.1 percent identified themselves as Muslim in 1980. This number was down from 95 percent in 1955. The figures for 1985 and 1990 were not released by the government's Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), suggesting a further decline that would fuel the fires of Muslim indignation over Christianization and secularization under the New Order. Nevertheless, Indonesia was still the largest Muslim nation in the world in the early 1990s, united with the universal Islamic community (ummah) not only in the profession of faith but also in adherence to Islamic law. The appeal of Islam was not weakened when it was supplanted by modern secular nationalism as the basis for the independent Indonesian state. In fact, given the prominence of Islamic proselytization and reinvigoration, the people's desire to maintain Islamic institutions and moral values arguably was at an all-time high in Indonesia. There was, however, a separation between Islam as a cultural value system and Islam as a political movement.

Islam in Indonesia is not monolithic. The majority of Indonesia's nominal or statistical Muslims, abangan, are, to varying degrees of self-awareness, believers in kebatinan. Orthodox Islam is, in fact, a minority religion, and the term often used to describe the orthodox believer is santri. A rough measurement of the appeal of orthodox Islam is the size of the electorate supporting explicitly Muslim political parties, which in the general elections of 1977 and 1982 approached 30 percent. In a pluralistic setting, such numbers might be expected to represent political strength. This correlation would exist in Indonesia if Indonesian Islam spoke with a single, unified voice. In the early 1990s it did not. The santri consisted of both traditionalists and modernists, traditionalists seeking to defend a conservatively devout way of life, protecting orthodoxy as much as possible from the demands of the modern state, and modernists striving to adapt Indonesian Islam to the requirements of the modern world.

The principal organization reflecting the traditionalist outlook was Nahdatul Ulama (literally, "revival of the religious teachers," but commonly referred to as the Muslim Scholars' League) founded in 1926. Nahdatul Ulama had its roots in the traditional rural Islamic schools (pesantren) of Central and East Java. Claiming more than 30 million members, in 1992 Nahdatul Ulama was the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia. Although its rural teachers and adherents reflected its traditional orientation, it was led into the 1990s by Abdurrahman Wahid, grandson of Nahdatul Ulama's founder, a "democrat" with a non-exclusive vision of Islam and the state. Modernist, or reformist, Islam in Indonesia was best exemplified by the Muhammadiyah (followers of Muhammad), founded in 1912 when the spirit of the Muslim reform movement begun in Egypt in the early 1900s reached Southeast Asia. In addition to modernizing Islam, the reformists sought to purify (critics argue Arabize) Indonesian Islam.

Both santri streams found formal political expression in the postindependence multiparty system. The Consultative Council of Indonesian Muslims (Masyumi) was the main political vehicle for the modernists. However, its activities were inhibited by the PRRI-Permesta regional rebellions between 1957 and 1962 and the party was banned in 1959. Nahdatul Ulama competed in the politics of the 1950s, and seeking to capitalize on Masyumi's banning, collaborated with Sukarno in the hope of winning patronage and followers. Nahdatul Ulama also hoped to stop the seemingly inexorable advance of the secular left under the leadership of the PKI. Although organized Islamic political parties in the New Order were prohibited from advancing an explicitly Islamic message, traditional systems of communication within the community of believers, including instruction in Islamic schools and mosque sermons, passed judgments on politics and politicians.

Modern Political Culture

The major components of Indonesia's modern political culture were derived from two central goals of the New Order government: stability and development. If authority in the Suharto era was based on ABRI's coercive support, the government's legitimacy rested on its success in achieving sociopolitical stability and economic development. Indonesian political culture in the early 1990s primarily reflected nontraditional, nonethnic, and secular values. Urban centered, truly national in its scope, and more materialistically focused, Indonesia's politics in the 1990s were influenced by both domestic and international developments.

Like Islam, Indonesia's modern political culture was not monolithic. In the early 1990s, there was a variety of subcultures: bureaucratic, military, intellectual, commercial, literary, and artistic, each with its own criteria for judging politics, but all directed to the successful operation of the modern political system. Perhaps the two most important modern subcultures were the military and the intellectuals. It was the military subculture that set the tone for the first two decades of the Suharto government, both in terms of its ethos and in the direct participation of military officers at all levels of government and administration. Although increasingly professional in a technical sense, ABRI never lost its conception of itself as the embodiment of the national spirit, standing above the social, ethnic, and religious divisions of the country as a unifying institution. Even though factions existed within ABRI, it exemplified dwifungsi, the special link between soldier and state. ABRI was not above politics, but it was not part of the open political competition. The concerns of academics, writers, and other intellectuals in the early 1990s were different and they were more likely to be influenced by Western political values. It was from these circles that the pressure for democratization came. Their outlet was not political parties but cause-oriented nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), workshops, seminars, rallies, and, occasionally, demonstrations. The government undertook a major effort to subsume all of Indonesia's political cultures, with their different and often incompatible criteria for legitimacy, into a national political culture, an Indonesian culture based on the values set forth in the Pancasila.

Sumatera ITF

2009-06-15T04:14:00.000-07:00

Sumatera International Travel Fair is a subregional event to bring the regional together in order to archive greater business cooperation. The main objective of Sumatera International Travel Fair is to encourage intra regional movement and to conserve and promote the image of Sumatera as a place of "Tropical Adventure."

The travel fair will consist of many activities such as Destination Promotion, Tourism Forum, Business Contact, Adventure, MICE and Special Interest, Sumatera Food and Culture.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

2009-06-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndromeAIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).^[1]^[2]^[3] (

This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors. HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk.^[4]^[5]

This transmission can involve anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding, or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.

AIDS is now a pandemic.^[6] In 2007, it was estimated that 33.2 million people lived with the disease worldwide, and that AIDS had killed an estimated 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children.^[7] Over three-quarters of these deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa,^[7] retarding economic growth and destroying human capital.^[8]

Genetic research indicates that HIV originated in west-central Africa during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.^[9]^[10] AIDS was first recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1981 and its cause, HIV, identified in the early 1980s.^[11]

Although treatments for AIDS and HIV can slow the course of the disease, there is currently no vaccine or cure. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality medication is not available in all countries.^[12] Due to the difficulty in treating HIV infection, preventing infection is a key aim in controlling the AIDS pandemic, with health organizations promoting safe sex and needle-exchange programmes in attempts to slow the spread of the virus. and the morbidity of HIV infection, but these drugs are expensive and routine access to antiretroviral

Lovely City (Pematangsiantar)

2009-06-09T00:58:00.000-07:00

Geographically, Simalungun Regency is located between 318 - 936 North latitude and 9832 - 9935 East longitude. It has 21 districts with Pematang Siantas as the capital of the regency. It is adjacent to Deli Serdang Regency in the north, Toba Samosir Regency in the South, Asahan Regency in the east and Karo Regency in the west. It is famous as the rice producer and other horticulture products for North Sumatera. Agriculture and plantation are the supreme sectors. Their oil palm product is the biggest after Labuhan Batu Regency. Rubber and chocolate are other main comodities. In tourism sector, it has Parapat tourist town which is located at the side of Toba lake. It also has Sidamanik tea plantation which is potential as an ecotourist object. With the plentiful of agriculture products, the presence of processing industry in this regency is necessary. The combination of development in agriculture, industry and trading will make this regency as the area of agroindustry, agrobusiness and agrotourism.

Lovely Lake (Toba Lake)

2009-06-09T00:47:00.000-07:00

Toba Lake

World famous is the crater Toba Lake in the Batak highlands; approximately five hours drive from Medan. Toba Lake is the largest lake in South East Asia and also one of the most spectacular, surrounded by tall mountains and with the large island of Samosir in the middle. If we descend from the mountain we see the lake glittering in all its beauty. The Dutch writer Rudy Kousbroek even called Toba Lake, 'the most beautiful place on earth'. Most visitors stay on the peninsula of Tuk Tuk on Samosir, named after the linguist Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk. In general people stay several days on Samosir to discover the island, to visit traditional Batak villages, to swim in the lake and go to the hot springs in Pangururan.

The centerpiece of North Sumatra, Lake Toba's bracing climate and magnificent panoramas clear the mind and soothe the soul. For decades a magnet from regional and foreign visitors alike, Toba has developed into a full-featured highland resort while retaining the rustic charm and relaxed ambiance that define Toba's attraction. Formed by a stupendous prehistoric volcanic explosion, the 100 km long lake is the largest in Southeast Asia and one of the deepest and the highest in the world. The drama of that cataclysmic birth persist in 500 meter cliffs dropping into the blue-green waters, surrounded by steep, pine covered sloped, the climate is fresh and pleasant, with just enough rain to support the lush vegetation.

Toba Lake is a 100kms x 30kms volcanic lake in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Toba Lake has become one of the main tourist attractions for a long time in North Sumatra apart from Bukit Lawang and Nias, visited by both domestic and foreign tourist.

The Origin of Toba Lake
It is estimated that Toba Lake was formed during a volcanic eruption about 73.000-75.000 years ago and which was the most recent super volcano eruption. Bill Rose and Craig Chesner from Michigan Technological University estimated that volcanic materials that were spewed out the mountain totaling 2800km3, with 800km3 ignimbrites rock and 2000km3 volcanic ash that is estimated was blown (wind) to the west for 2 weeks. This incident caused mass death (destruction) and to several species also causes extinction. According to some DNA proof, this eruption also shrinks the humankind population to around thousands back then.

After this eruption, a caldera was formed that was filled by water afterwards and now known as Toba Lake. The pressure from the dormant magma, which has not yet erupted, caused Samosir Island to emerge. The region that now known as Samosir Island originally was a peninsula that attached to the Sumatran mainland. In this peninsula the Netherlands built the water canal 10 m width.

For the first time visitors, going through Medan-Parapat route seeing a lake as big as that made Samosir appear like an amazing grand island. However, the island perspective will certainly faded with the increase in Toba plateau visitor, Nias and the other places in the south, through Medan-Berastagi route. Samosir occupied a central geographical position in the Toba plateau region. With the declaration of the Toba Samosir Regency (the inhabitants 302.000 lives, the area with wide of 3.440 km including the lake) it finally ascend from only a shadow into a Regency. Moreover, the width of Samosir Island exceed Singapore (647 km), in fact Toba Lake almost twice bigger than Singapore. The Samosir image in tourism books as the backpackers location must be changed because this historic place must restore the greatness of its past.

Legend of Toba Lake
Once upon a time, lived a young orphan farmer in the northern part of the Sumatran Island. This area was very dry. The young man lived from farming and fishing. One day he went fishing, he already fishing for half of the day but still not getting any fish yet. So he returned home for the day turns to night, but when he nearly left he saw a big beautiful golden fish, he then caught the fish and brought it home. He intended to cook the fish right away but watched the beauty of this fish he then cancelled his intention. He chose to keep it as pet, and then he placed it in a big pond and feed it. On the next day, like usual, he went to his farm, and on the noon he comeback home, to have lunch. But when he arrived in his house he was very startled for the meal had prepared to be eaten. He then fears that the fish might be stolen, and then hastily he ran to the back of his house.

However, the fish was still in place, for a long time he thinks, “Who cooks those meals”, but because his is very hungry, he ate those meals. But this incident continued to occur again repeatedly, every time he came home for lunch, the meals are prepared on the table. Then one day this young man made a strategy to find out who cooks those meals, the next day he then began to commence his strategy, he then hide around the trees close to his house. He was waiting for a long time, but the smoke in his kitchen still has not been seen, and when he then intended to return home, he began to see the smoke in the kitchen.

"Hey woman, who are you, and where are you came from?” the woman began to drop tears, and then the young man saw his fish was no longer in the pond. He asked the woman, “hey woman, where is the fish in that pond?” the Woman cried intensely, but this young man continued to ask and finally the woman answers, “I was the fish that was caught by you”. The young man then startled, but because he felt that he had hurt the feelings this woman, then he said, “Hey woman, did you want to become my wife??” the Woman then startled, he stay quiet, then the young man said “Why are you silent??” Then the woman said, “I wanted to become your wife. But with one condition.” ”What is the condition?” the young man quickly asked, the woman then said, “In the future if our child was born and grew, never even once you said that he/she was anakni Dekke (child of a fish) ”. The young man then agreed to that condition and swore he will never say it.

Then they were married and granted a child. When the child was 6 years old, this child turn to be very naughty. Then one day the mother told her child to deliver meals to his father field, the child then went to deliver rice to his father. But in the middle of the trip, this child was felt hungry, then the child opened food package for his father, and ate the food. After finished eating, the child then wrapped it back and continued the trip to his father's field. On arrival the child gave the food package to the father, the father was very happy, the father then sat and immediately opened the food package that was sent by his wife to be carried by his child. But he was very startled when he opened the package there is only bones remained. The father then asked his child “Hay my child, why there are only bones left in this package??” And the child answers,” In my trip I felt hungry, so I ate the food.” Listened to that the father was very angry, he then slap his child and said, "Botul maho anakni dekke (Why you child of a fish),". The child is then ran home crying and ask to his mother “Mak, Olo do na in dokkon amangi, botul do au anakni dekke? (Mother, is it true what father said, that I am a child from a fish?) ” Heard his child's words his mother was startled. While dropping tears and saying in her heart, “My husband has violated his swore, and now I must return to my place.” Then the sky was suddenly become dark followed with lightning, thunder, storm, and rain. The child and the mother disappeared, from their footprint emerged a spring that flowed water as swiftly as possible. Until this area was turned into a lake, that was named as “Tuba Lake” the lake without mercy, but because of the bataks was difficult to say “Tuba”, then this lake was mentioned as

TOBA LAKE.
According to the local Citizen, the mother return as a huge fish (the lake guardian), and until today no one is able to measure the depth of this lake. Many tourists that tried to dive into the lake but never return. The lake depth in the book is only estimation not as a fact.

Lombok Rinjani

2009-06-09T00:42:00.000-07:00

IT was a few days into my journey across Lombok when a strange, yet oddly pleasant, mental miasma descended upon me. My guide, Bahar, and I couldn’t figure out what day of the week it was. Bahar suspected it was Thursday; I thought it was Wednesday. And so, for a while, we remained lost in time.

Such temporal confusion is typical on Lombok, where the roads are rough and the tourists few. This enchanted Indonesian island is, after all, a place that seems to be perpetually arriving, yet has never quite arrived. Proximity to Bali is Lombok’s blessing, and its curse. Many residents bristle at the idea of basking in Bali’s reflected glory and point out that while only 25 miles separate the two islands, they are in fact worlds apart.

A British naturalist named Alfred Russel Wallace noted as much more than a century ago, when he observed that the flora and fauna found on Lombok are remarkably different from those of Bali. Lombok, Wallace concluded, demarcates the Asian and the Australian ecozones. Culturally, Lombok is typically more Indonesian than Bali, if anything can be said to be typical in a nation of more than 17,000 islands and some 700 languages and dialects. Unlike mostly Hindu Bali, Lombok is 86 percent Muslim. It’s an island of Sukarno hats, mosques (many built with Saudi funds) and hardscrabble farmers. Indeed, overzealous tourism officials notwithstanding, Lombok is not “an unspoiled Bali,” or “Bali’s sister island.” Lombok is not Bali at all, and that is precisely its charm.

Of course, that doesn’t stop it from trying to raise its profile. Work has begun on a new international airport, with a runway long enough to accommodate 747s. A Dubai-based developer plans to erect luxury hotels, golf courses and a marina along Lombok’s beautiful, and largely untouched, southern coast.

I began my explorations at Senggigi Beach, the site of Lombok’s first hotels, built in the mid-1980s, and the closest thing to a resort town on Lombok. Senggigi’s main strip consists of crafts shops, featuring weavings and wood carvings, as well as a string of restaurants and bars. I found myself at a place called, inexplicably, the Office. It’s an open-air design, with pool tables and a projection TV showing black-and-white films. One guidebook describes the Office as a place “popular with middle-aged expats,” mostly from Australia and Europe.

When the Australian owner of the bar, Howard Singleton, first read that description, he fumed. “But then I realized that it’s basically true,” he said.

Mr. Singleton, perennially sunburned with gray hair and an impressive beer belly, first came to Lombok 12 years ago. Since then, he has ridden the ebbs and flows of Lombok’s tourism business. Mr. Singleton grimly rattles off the long list of calamities that have conspired against Lombok’s ascendance: the SARS outbreak, the Asian financial crisis, the two Bali bombings, the Asian tsunami, avian influenza and, most of all, the riots that erupted on Lombok itself in 2000. Muslim mobs attacked Chinese-owned businesses in a spasm of violence that left dozens dead. In an instant, Lombok’s fledgling tourism boom went bust.

The events of 2000 are now “ancient history,” Mr. Singleton said, adding that business at the Office is up 20 percent compared with last year. Another promising sign: after eight years, the State Department recently lifted its travel warning for Indonesia.

From where I sat at the Office, drinking a Bintang beer, the only threat I faced was from the hawkers who circle mercilessly, offering “Rolex” watches, sunglasses, T-shirts, a massage, a manicure and the services of tour guides.

Still, there’s plenty of peace of mind to be found on Lombok. I spent a few nights at Qunci Villas, a minimalist, oh-so-Zen boutique resort that heralds the possible Bali-fication of Lombok. In the evenings, I nibbled on shrimp bruschetta while sipping a mojito and listening to electronica, which wafts through the air, fresh and inviting.

Each morning, I awoke to a chorus of roosters and the muezzin’s call to prayer. On Lombok, though, as in most parts of Indonesia, people wear their Islam lightly. Lombok, for instance, is home to the Wetu Telu. It’s a Muslim sect of 30,000 that mixes traditional Islamic practices with smatterings of Hinduism and animism.

On a clear, warm morning, I set out to see more of Lombok, with my guide Bahar. We head for Mount Rinjani, the towering 12,000-foot volcano that watches over Lombok. The smooth roads of Senggigi soon give way to potholes the size of craters. “Rupiah road,” declares Bahar, a play on the Indonesian currency, famous for the large number of zeros it contains.

We stopped for food. Lombok means “chili,” and the cuisine definitely had a kick. I opted for the more humane sarobi, a dish of rice flour, palm sugar, coconut milk, chili and tapioca — all rolled into a banana leaf. It’s delicious and sets me back 1,000 rupiah, or 10 cents, at 9,577 rupiahs to the dollar.

After much bouncing and shaking, we reached our destination. The town of Tetebatu is nestled in the foothills of Mount Rinjani, sacred to the people of both Lombok and Bali. The views from the summit are spectacular. Or so I hear. I passed on the arduous two-day trek and instead explored the verdant rice fields in the foothills. Tetebatu is the perfect place to sample (carefully) Lombok’s cuisine and enjoy air that is a few blessed degrees cooler than along the coast.

INNOVATION

2009-06-09T00:36:00.000-07:00

Creating the Best of Tomorrow Today

Innovation isn't easy, but in today's competitive environment, enterprises must excel at it in order to succeed. At EDS, innovation is about creativity, but it's also about being able to realistically implement a creative idea. If we can't make it work for our clients, it isn't innovation. That's where “practical innovation” comes into play. Innovation has to be practical and aligned with the business. To make that happen, EDS gets to know our client's business and strategic goals. We apply thought leadership to anticipate future trends and needs. We apply innovation to improve existing products and services and create new ones. It's EDS' way of bringing innovation to the table to help clients solve their most challenging issues.

What We Think

Innovation can deliver significant financial and operational benefits to help move your organization forward. But innovation isn't only about inventing new products and services. It's about developing creative processes and thoughtful partnerships. It involves thinking about issues and solving problems in new ways. It's about creating the best of tomorrow today.

At EDS, implementation is as critical as creativity. If we can't make an idea work for our clients, it isn't innovation. EDS delivers real, value-based innovation by focusing on the following key areas:

Solving enterprise issues: To innovate, EDS must first fully understand the client's core pursuit to identify its unique challenges. Understanding the enterprise allows us to apply innovation that solves the client's issues and meets their core objectives.
Providing industry thought leadership: EDS applies thought leadership and industry knowledge to anticipate future trends and needs. We apply innovation to improve existing products and services and create new ones. We implement technology that will keep our clients ahead of the game.
Improving products and services: Innovation doesn't have to be new. One of the best ways to innovate and grow an enterprise is by leveraging and building upon existing services, capabilities and investments.
Creating competitive advantages: Innovative technology can deliver significant competitive advantages by giving you the edge you need to serve your customers better, faster and more efficiently than your competition.
Improving access to information: EDS brings together our innovation assets from a wide range of sources, enabling sharing and collaboration among teams and clients. Innovative lessons learned in one area or industry can then be applied to another.

EDS Innovation Programs

From the services we provide to our commitment to service excellence, we integrate innovation into everything we do. These programs demonstrate our commitment to deliver innovative solutions that are practical and aligned to your business.