My 2¢ Worth

ave you ever taught somebody how to scan over the telephone without knowing what kind of scanning software they have? It's an interesting experience.

 should have taped that conversation. I would have had great notes for a basic scanning tutorial.

he person I was teaching thought he was an idiot. Not so. Like anybody learning a new skill, he had to be taught. Remember the "Dummies" books that were all the rage a few years ago? You know Windows for Dummies and the ilk.

 highly resent that dummies tag. I remember when I got my first PC. I knew where the power button was and that was the total extent of my knowledge. I didn't even know enough to shut down from the start menu. I used the power button.

echnology is wonderful, but nobody just starts computing away on their machines without first being taught. Even if they're self-taught, there's a pretty good chance the studied a manual or some such.

Feature Article

ARE YOU MARKETING TO YOUR POTENTIAL?

by: Charlie Cook charliecook.net

Many small business owners struggle to grow their businesses only to find themselves stuck in a morass of marketing, management and delivery tasks. As your business becomes more complex and time consuming, the original vision of the business usually changes or gets lost, and it can become increasingly difficult to define and implement a marketing strategy that helps you achieve your business potential.

As a marketing coach I have many small business clients whose marketing is going nowhere because they haven't clearly identified where they want to take their business/what they want their business to be/ and what role they want to play in it.

Whether you want to take your business to the next level or are just starting out, to be more successful at marketing you need to regularly clarify what you want your business to be and what your role in it is or should be. In order to develop a marketing strategy and plan that works for you, you need to first clarify:

• What are your business passions and strengths
• How do you want to spend your time
• What work tasks you enjoy
• What type of business you want to create

DEFINE YOUR BUSINESS PASSIONS AND STRENGTHS

The energy, determination and persistence it takes to build a business only makes sense if you are doing something you love - or that at least gives you great satisfaction. What do you enjoy doing the most? What are you happy doing day in and day out?

What are your Strengths? Identify your business passion, and then examine your strengths within that passion. How can you leverage your interest and knowledge to become a sought after expert in your field?

Say you love skiing and want to make a living in that industry, which you know well. Are you going to run a ski shop, be a ski instructor, or become a skiing guru, sought after by thousands, with your simple and innovate teaching techniques?

Which aspects of your passion suit your expertise and experience? How can you build a business around them?

SET GOALS FOR HOW YOU WANT TO SPEND YOUR TIME

Personality and interests vary. Some small business owners have a passion for hands on delivery, others enjoy focusing on growing their business and coordinating the delivery of products and services.

Some can't stand being stuck in an office all day; others would prefer never to talk to a client or customer. What aspects of your business are you good at and which do you want to develop further?

Use the following questions to help you clarify how you want to spend your week.

• Do you like being in charge of marketing, operations or service delivery?
• Are you an educator, do you love sharing what you know or do you like inventing new products people can use without your involvement? Or both?
• Do you prefer managing the business and delegating daily tasks to others?
• Do you like to travel or prefer to work from an office or at home?
• How important is flexibility in scheduling and work location?
• Do you want to work less and earn the same?
• Do you want to work part time or do you love your work so much that you could do it seven days a week?
• Do you want to structure your work so it is more satisfying?

CLARIFY THE TASKS YOU ENJOY

We all like and dislike specific activities, excel at some and are better off delegating certain tasks to others. Clarifying what you like and dislike is essential to then defining the strategies and structures you need to create a more satisfying work environment.

• Do you enjoy coming up with new products?
• Do you enjoy selling your services and products?
• Do you like to write or prefer public speaking?
• Or both?
• Is the phone your communication tool of preference?
• Do you prefer to use email for most of your communication?
• Do you enjoy public speaking and sharing your ideas?
• Do you enjoy following up with employees to make sure they've done agreed on tasks?

SPECIFY THE TYPE OF BUSINESS YOU WANT TO CREATE

about your business and your role in it? Depending on the services and products you provide, does your business need additional staff, facilities, technology, geographic presence, or capital?

Would you prefer to be a successful one person business/sole proprietor? Would you like to grow your business to include five to fifty employees? Will profit or passion be the driving force? Or both? Are your markets local, regional, national or international?

Answer these questions to define your business goals and your role in your business' growth. Once you have a clear and current idea of where you are going, you can define a marketing strategy to get there, to achieve your business potential.

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The author, Marketing Coach, Charlie Cook, helps independent professionals and small business owners attract more clients and increase their earnings with the 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Guide and the 'More Business' newsletter, full of practical tips you can use at www.charliecook.net

Browser Caching problems

Almost all current and old browsers use the Cache feature to allow for fast loading and viewing of pages you have already been to. This will sometimes cause people to see old versions of your page. To tell browsers when to get a newer copy of your site, you should use following tags:

<META http-equiv="Expires" content="Thu, 22 Dec 1925 1:00:00 GMT">

<META http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">

These meta tags should be placed in between your <head> and </head> tags. Also, the specified date should be a date in the past so that the browser will immediately get rid of the cached copy or not keep it at all. It is also best to use both tags because most browsers understand the "Expires" tag; however, some older browsers may still look for the "no-cache" tag.

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Second Article

PLAIN JANE EMAIL EQUALS FLAT RESULTS

by: Karen Fegarty MailWorkZ.com

Years ago, when email was just emerging as the incredible marketing tool it is today, everything was done in plain text. Since not everyone uses the same email program, and not all of them are compatible with the others, messages often ended up looking like nothing but jumbled pieces of nonsense. Besides that, they were boring.

Thus, Internet marketers were forced to find a way to spiff up their email messages to make them grab attention. Luckily, HTML was there to provide a solution.

Studies show that marketing emails sent in HTML format get much better response rates and far fewer unsubscribes than those sent in plain text. The reasons for this are many, but perhaps the biggest reason can be summed up this way: HTML messages look cooler!

The great thing about HTML is that all your recipients will be able to see it. The problem is that you can't always predict just how it will look. Users with older or outdated email programs will likely see the message as text, and some will even see all that ugly HTML coding. Those using newer versions of Outlook or Outlook Express, Eudora, or Netscape Communicator will likely see the HTML as it was intended... at least partially.

The only way to ensure that your HTML messages are seen the way you designed them is to format the text/plain and HTML materials separately from one another, and have the appropriate version of the message displayed for the recipient. This way, those who have HTML enabled email programs (which most people do these days) can see your message exactly how you planned. Similarly, even those whose email programs do not allow for HTML will be able to read your message loud and clear.

As you know, email is one of the most effective marketing tools available today, but just like anything else, it must be done correctly. A jumbled, unreadable message will only turn would-be customers away, which not only hurts your bottom line, but can damage your credibility. In this day and age, you must ensure that your marketing message is accessible to everyone.

You may be surprised to find out that of all the bulk email management programs available, very few allow you to format text and HTML separately, thus making your message universal. One program in particular, called Broadc@st, not only offers this cutting-edge capability, but also provides several list management and marketing tools. For more information on Broadc@st HTML, and how you can download a free, fully-functional 10-day trial, see www.mailworkz.com

**************

Karen Fegarty is a professional marketer working with both MailWorkZ and ezTrackZ. Check out the ezTrackZ ad tracker product at www.eztrackz.com.
and MailWorkZ's flagship email marketing tool., Broadc@st at www.mailworkz.com

**************

Download of the Week

AScrape At-A-Glance Auction Monitoring on Your Desktop. AScrape is a stand-alone Windows application which allows you to keep track of Ebay auctions. AScrape has a color-coded item list. Green - item is open for bidding. Red - item has less than an hour before close. Grey - item is closed. Download AScrape

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