ecomZera Blog

The place where eZians share their thoughts, experiences, knowledge and sow the seeds for ecomZera´s growth.
Saturday, 4 October 2008

5 Keys to Achieving Extraordinary Results From Your Team

1. Vision

One of the most important keys to getting great results from your team is the creation of a common vision for all the team members. This is essential to organizational success and team building. You should spend time as a team brainstorming the overall vision for the team- you should know where you want to go and what you are striving to create.

This is also a great time to celebrate the current successes of your company. Is your vision clearly defined? Do all of the team members have the same vision? When everyone shares your vision, you work better together and have better results.

2. Goals

The second key is to develop common goals for the team. You should ensure that your program and project goals are completely understood and that they are supported by all of the members of the team.

The members of the team should understand how their individual efforts are feeding the larger objectives. Do all of the team members know the role they are playing to support the larger goals of the team or organization? Does everyone know what the goals are?

3. Roles and Responsibilities

The third key is to know make sure that everyone knows what their roles and responsibilities are as a member of the team. When those roles are clear, they will help to support and achieve the common goals and vision.

Do the members of the team know what their roles are? What they are responsible for? Are there overlaps between the team members and departments?

4. Support

The fourth key is to make sure that there is adequate support from managers and supervisors. Make sure that they are following up with the staff members and finding out what they need.

They should also check to see how the efforts of team building can be enhanced. The managers are also going to be play a key role in making sure that the learning that is gained from team building is brought back into the office and used.

Are there any systems in place to make sure that members are retaining their learning?

5. Challenge

The fifth key is to make sure that the members of the team are challenged and engaged throughout the process of team building. Think about bringing in someone from the outside to make sure that your efforts are supported.

You should make sure that the team is challenged and that they don't get bored when they are working on the team building exercises.

In order to have the best results from your team, everyone has to be on the same page about goals and the vision. They have to know what is expected of them and what the role is that they all play in the company.

They should be kept challenged and know that they are going to have support from the managers and the other staff.

When you follow these five keys, you are going to find that your team is working more efficiently, and there aren't any questions about who does what in the company. Everyone knows what their goals are and how they should be achieved. Good team results are a team effort.

Source: ezinearticles
Posted by kavitha at 4:15 AM in HR Flicks
Comments (0)
Saturday, 20 September 2008

Top 7 Ways to Completely Restore Customer Confidence After Things Go Wrong

Every day things go wrong in the service world and we are faced with the challenge of turning service failures into service recoveries. But what does it really take to restore customer confidence and regain goodwill? I began to explore that question more than 10 years ago and since that time I have studied service failure and service recovery from every possible angle and I have benchmarked best-in-service companies throughout the world. My research has led to me uncovering a series of 7 simple, but remarkably effective strategies that will unequivocally position any organization to keep customers coming back after even the worst has happened. Each of the 7 strategies is scientifically proven and surprisingly easy to execute.

I present to you How to Completely Restore Customer Confidence After Things Go Wrong: The 7 Things You Must Do...

  1. Courtesy.

    Certainly, anyone in the position of interacting with customers must be friendly, helpful, polite, courteous, and flexible. These attitudes and behaviors are not just nice, but they are indeed expected. But when it comes to complaint handling specifically, we know that employee politeness while addressing the issue helps diffuse the problem in the customer’s mind (Liao, 2007).

    Research by Hui Liao found that when customers feel like they are being treated with respect, dignity, and sensitivity by employees, they feel a sense of justice and fairness from the company (Liao, 2007).

    As simple as it may sound, politeness is a tangible asset that can positively impact customer satisfaction with service recovery. If you solve the customer’s issue, but are rude or indifferent in the process, you can still negatively impact the relationship. Simply put, when your employees are polite and courteous, customers will experience more satisfaction and reward you with stronger loyalty.

  2. Apology.

    Making an apology to customers after things go wrong is positively related to satisfaction with the recovery (Liao, 2007). When a service employee apologizes to a customer, she conveys politeness, courtesy, concern, effort, and empathy and this goes a long way (Smith, Bolton, & Wagner, 1999). Consider the following research:

    *Gallup research has shown that a genuine apology can actually strengthen a customer’s emotional bond to a company, leaving him or her more emotionally connected than customers who never experienced a problem (Fleming & Asplund, 2007).

    *Research by TARP has shown that when an apology is perceived as genuine, customer satisfaction increases 10 – 15%.

    *A revolutionary program appropriately called Sorry Works! encourages doctors and hospitals to apologize quickly when mishaps occur and to offer a fair settlement upfront to families and their attorneys. One of the first hospitals to implement Sorry Works was The University of Michigan Hospital. The results have been astonishing. The University of Michigan Hospital has cut lawsuits in half, reduced litigation expenses by two-thirds (or $2 million annually), and reduced their insurance reserves from $72 million in 2001 to less than $20 million in 2007.(Wojcieszak, 2008).

    Offer your customers a heartfelt apology after a service failure and you will not only restore customer confidence and regain goodwill, but you should also realize the benefits of reduced litigation expenses and claims costs.

  3. Justification.

    A vital, but often overlooked element of customer recovery is to provide an explanation for how or why the problem happened. Taking the time to explain to a customer what might have caused the problem helps organizations re-establish trust.

    In an article titled, Manage Complaints to Enhance Loyalty, John Goodman says, “In many case, a clear, believable explanation as to why the policy or performance is reasonable will at least mollify the customer and, in some case, satisfy him or her.” (Goodman, 2006). Hui Liao had this to say about the importance of providing an explanation, “Explaining to customers what might have caused the service failure may (also) enhance customer satisfaction. Similarly, in the service recovery context, open communication may alleviate customers’ bad feelings about the service failure.”

    Providing an explanation can be as simple as saying, “Thanks for taking the time to let us know about _____. We appreciate customers who let us know when things aren’t right. Here’s what we think may have happened...”

  4. Resolution.

    One of the gifts of a voiced complaint is that if offers the company an opportunity to re-perform the service. When given this second chance, companies must bend over backwards to fix the problem and restore customer confidence. When a company fails to resolve the issue, the customer is left hanging, she begins to lose trust in the organization, and feels like voicing the complaint was a waste of time.

    TARP, Inc. studies have discovered that a customer who goes to the effort to complain, but remains dissatisfied is usually 50% less loyal than someone who did not bother to complain (Goodman, 2006). As a result, a poor problem resolution process will produce a “double deviation” effect and will result in perceived injustice, hence intensifying customer dissatisfaction (Bitner, et al 1990).

    Resolving the customer’s problem will have a positive impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Failing to fix a problem after a customer has gone through the trouble of voicing a complaint is treacherous because customers have been let down twice and they may not be as willing to forgive you.

  5. Immediateness.

    Not only is resolving the customer’s problem obviously important (point # 4), but a speedy recovery response will enhance customers’ evaluations of your company (Smith, Bolton, & Wagner, 1999). Your goal with problem resolution needs to be “One and done”. What I mean is, your employees need to be equipped with the trust (from you), empowerment, and training to be able to resolve complaints on the first phone call or first visit.

    Not only does a speedy recovery improve the customer’s perception of the company, but it actually has a greater impact on loyalty than the resolution itself. TARP, Inc. found that ninety-five percent of complaining customers would remain loyal if their complaint was resolved on the first contact. That number dropped to seventy percent when the complaint was not immediately resolved.

    The longer it takes for the service provider to provide a full recovery, the greater the customer’s perception is that they have been treated unfairly (Smith, Bolton, & Wagner, 1999). Improve your organization’s ability to handle problems quickly and well and you’ll undoubtedly realize increases in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

  6. Compensation.

    Reparation (in the form of discounts, free merchandise, refunds, gift cards, coupons, and product samples) after a service failure has been found to restore equity and improve customer satisfaction (Smith, Bolton, & Wagner, 1999).

    A Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals customer loyalty study found that 58% of complaining consumers who received something in the mail following their contact with consumer affairs departments were delighted, versus only 40% of those who did not receive anything.

    Don’t hesitate when it comes to compensating customers after a service failure. Your reward will be increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and powerfully persuasive positive word-of-mouth advertising.

  7. Surprise & Delight.

    This bonus element is all about going beyond problem resolution and inspiring a feeling of astonishment through unexpectedness.

    One of my clients in the beauty industry is maximizing surprise & delight by creatively using gift cards in a way that is generating profits. They used to compensate customers dollar-for-dollar; a $3 overcharge was resolved with a $3 check. Makes sense doesn’t it? Well, now they give a $10 gift card for a $3 overcharge. The customer is WOW’d. But not only is the customer WOW’d and telling her girlfriends about the unexpected gift card, but the company is enjoying a redemption rate of 67% with customers spending 2x the gift card amount in the store.

    Try a little surprise & delight and you’ll get your customers talking and, if you design it right, you’ll also enjoy growth as a direct result of the WOW factor.

Closing Words.

Remember, one of the gifts of a voiced complaint is that if offers the company an opportunity to re-perform the service. Don’t mess up your second chance with customers who give you the gift of complaints. Take these 7 crucial elements and make them your gold standard. When you do, I promise, customers will reward you with repeat purchases and positive word-of-mouth. Good luck!

Source: top7business

Posted by kavitha at 5:24 AM in HR Flicks
Comments (0)
Saturday, 13 September 2008

Self Confidence is Essential To Success

Nothing succeeds like confidence. When you truly and justifiably confident, it radiates from you like sunlight, and attracts success to you like magnet.

It's so important to believe in yourself. Believe that you can do it, under any circumstances. Because if you believe you can, then you really will. That belief just keeps you searching for the answers, and then pretty soon you can get it.

Confidence is more than an attitude. It comes from knowing exactly where you are going, exactly how you are going to get there. It comes from acting with integrity and confidence. It comes from a strong sense of purpose. It comes from a strong commitment to take responsibility, rather than just let life happen.

One way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you.

Confidence is compassionate and understanding. It is not arrogant. Arrogance is born out of fear and insecurity. Confidence comes from strength and integrity.

Confidence is not just believing you can do it. Confidence is knowing you can do it. Knowing that you are capable of accomplishing anything you want, and live your life with confidence.

Anything can be achieved through focused, determined effort, commitment and self-confidence. If your life is not what you want it to be, you have the power to change it, and you must make the changes on a moment by moment basis. Live your priorities. Live with your goals and your plan of action. Live each moment with your priorities in mind. Act with your own purpose, and you will have the life you want. 

Source: boloji
Posted by kavitha at 2:01 AM in HR Flicks
Comments (0)
Friday, 12 September 2008

25 Outdated SEO Terms & Tactics vs Their Modern Alternatives

Many webmasters and website owners fail to notice the fundamental changes the web has taken in recent years. People still waste time with meta keywords tags, obsessing about PageRank and measuring keyword density for highly artificial sounding page copy.
Get real, most of the old school website optimization tactics are completely useless, sometimes even harming your website. Many SEO tactics have changed, others have been replaced. Some new methods have sprung up in places where obsolete ways of tweaking websites or building links have left a void.
Some terms are even meaningless by now so that you have to change your mindset completely.

keyword density/stuffing - killer content creation
Back in the days the more you mentioned a keyword (keyword density) the better you performed in the search results. It was long ago. For years it's the other way around. You create highly contentious and linkable killer content to get popular with users and the links push you in the search results, even if your keyword is mentioned just a few times.

PageRank optimization - authority links
Some people really say "PageRank optimization". PageRank optimization is like Pen** enlargement. Bigger does not mean better performance. Recommendations by respectable websites still count but the simple fact that you are linked there often is worth more that the PageRank that gets passed.

metatag optimization - tagging/folksonomy
Like in the above example this is a term that was always disproportionally focusing on one aspect. This aspect is nowadays almost meaningless. The meta keywords tag can be dropped altogether. If you want to add keywords to your page, try tags or even better folksonomy (tagging by many people collectively) to enrich your content in the visible content area.

SEO copywriting for spider

Are you interested in "SEO Services SEO Company India Search Engine Optimization (SEO) India"? Probably not, that's why you are reading a "SEO blog" offering "Internet Marketing News" from the "UK".

article marketing

Article marketing was big when it was important to get many links from different websites and IPs. Duplicate content issues, low quality and other disadvantages made it less of an viable option. At the same time business blogging has really taken shape. It works far better for generating links than article marketing. Of course it's a lot more reputable.

search engine submission - xml sitemaps, pinging
It's amazing how some services still offer search engine submission (to hundreds of search engines sometimes). While in most countries Google is basically a monopoly, rarely more than 5 search engines matter at all. Three of them enable you to use XML sitemaps to "submit". While this is a viable way of submitting to search engines, it's still better to ping Google at it's BlogSearch with a blog post instead to get instantly indexed.

checking rankings
Some people obsess about ranking as much as about PageRank (some even mix up both terms). Rankings differ though depending on the place you search from and your personal search history among others. So in short two people in most cases won't see the same search results. You should consider measuring some of these above linked 33 website success metrics instead.

reciprocal linking - linking out
No, the modern version of reciprocal linking are not three way links schemes or something. As long as the link swapping works artificially on the premise of barter it's outdated. It takes much more time and effort to attempt to find suitable link partners than just linking out to the blogs in your niche you favor. While not everybody will link back some will if your content is a king and not just a peasant. Some people even will link you even more than you linked them in many instances. These links will be perfectly natural too so they will count more than artificial exchanged links.

paid links/text link ads - sponsoring, charity
Some people just can't get sex for free. It's the same with webmasters. They want it now without the hassle, they still want to pay. Link love that is paid seldom works out in the long run, but there are ways to get valid links with a monetary investment. It's indirect though. Sponsoring and charity done right will be great for both the artists, activist or non-profits receiving the funds and the company supporting them financially.

forum signature - homepage link on active social media profiles
Many people still use forums, especially forums that allow signatures that "pass PageRank". Sometimes the signature is longer than the forum post itself and Google has taken this "SEO tactic" into account years ago. On the other hand there are lots of social media sites who let you add a link to your homepage in the profile. When you are contributing consistently to these your profile page gains more and more authority, also for Google.

footer links - content links
Just a few years ago people used to stuff their page footers with useless links to their link exchange partners. Bad news if you still do that: Google discounts those in most cases. What you need are content links. So make people write about you in their blogs by providing exceptional resources, up to the minute news or a unique analysis and opinion not repeating what everybody else said.

blog comments - trackbacks (comments on your blog)
Many people still comment on "dofollow blogs" as one of their major "link building" tactics. These links still might pass some Google juice but for how long and how much? It's much better to write in your own blog about others bloggers or link and trackback them to get a response, a link back to your site or blog.

anchor text - topical pages/paragraphs
When people realized that you can rank higher if your link anchor text e.g. is <link>SEO blog</link> for a SEO blog they started to "build links" with the same anchor text over and over. Normal users don't link with relevant anchor text, let alone the same anchor text everywhere. So soon Google adapted by discounting anchor text that is obviously SEOed. Moreover ever since Adsense appeared years ago, Google has been able to determine what's around an element or on your page in the first place. So your "SEO blog" anchor text doesn't matter much if the page is about dating.

noscript tag links - no flash or ajax versions
Webmasters discovered the noscript tag to insert lots of invisible links in pages that look legitmate to search engines. Unfortunately they do not for a few years now. You should provide an alternative version for non-flash or non-AJAX users though if you have a fancy menu for instance. Load the Flash or AJAX-free menu for those who have switched of scripts or haven't Flash installed. These links are also useful for search bots.

hidden counter links - widgets with "more" links
Some free counter services still force you to add not only invisible links to the counter homepage but to completely irrelevant third party sites. Of course this is crap nowadays and won't last. One user who reports it to Google suffices. In Web 2.0 times and beyond there appeared lots of widgets for blogs and websites though that use such a method in a legitimate way. They offer basic info in a widget and add some more of it after clicking a link.

WordPress themes links - Firefox Add ons
For a while footer links in WordPress themes made WordPress theme designers the most popular web personalities on the Web. This problem of blown up link popularity has been discovered and dealt with in 2007 so you won't get a "PageRank 7" just by designing or porting a few themes. What's still very popular though are Firefox extensions. Millions of people use Firefox and add ons. As most Firefox users are quite web-savvy they feature their favorite add ons on their blogs so that you get plenty of authority links once you write a popular extension.

too many directory links - generating buzz
While directory submission to a few directories (like a 12) still makes sense to get a site indexed in Google via the directory links it does not make sense to submit to hundreds of directories as these are often low value. Create a buzz around your site by viral videos or even good old press releases to get for link power.

HTML 3.2 - XHTML 1+
for a long time SEO experts advised to use the simplest HTML possible for Google, HTML 3.2 for instance. Sites designed in in this archaic HTML version looked accordingly. While the simplicity argument is still valid I made the best experiences with XHTML 1+ strict. It limits the code size naturally and you end up with being simple to crawl for Google and other bots.

guaranteed positions - ROI and conversions
Some SEO firms still proclaim to offer"guaranteed top positions " in Google, while in itself a misleading claim it does not make sense anymore to rely on rankings as these differ from place to place and computer to computer. Focus on ROI and conversions instead. If you like to guarantee a ROI of 200% or a 10% conversion rate it does make much more sense on the business level.

link building - getting links
The concept of link building has an underlying assumption of links that are artificially "build". Otherwise it would be called "getting links" or something else, but building implies an active involvement of the SEO and actual manual inserting links somewhere. In contrast link baiting and other more common methods nowadays rely on other means than sheer "building" to get links in a natural, organic way. Built links will always be subject to the search engine's quality team's scrutiny. Completely organic links can't be filtered out obviously.

PageRank Sculpting - Making every page matter and useful
This one seems to be an accepted practice of many in the SEO industry while, others, whom I support, advise against it. PageRank sculpting means that some pages on a website are linked by nofollowed internal links to ensure that other, more important pages get more Google juice. While this seemingly makes sense, most people overdo it and in some cases even whole sites get nofollowed by accident. Recently I encountered several sites that were completely made non-indexable for search engines via noindex/nofollow for no reason. Many webmasters will for instance nofollow the contact page in order not to make it the most important page in Google (as it's linked from everywhere). In fact in many cases it is though, people are searching just for your address or a company nearby, especially via iPhone or other mobile phones.

forums - communities
Do you consider adding a forum to your site? Well, think twice. Forums are problem oriented (people go to forums to solve a problem) and people using them are often aggressive. Social communities on the other hand add a far more positive enhancement to a site. Adding content is based on popularity and thus good content is submitted. Sphinn is the best example for that in spite of the fact that recently try to superimpose their condescending and aggressive behavior on the community. It seems that with growing popularity you also face these problems with communities but it's not a wide spread inherent problem like with forums.

outstanding frontpage design - landing pages, usable check out forms
Not a cool homepage counts, or at least not solely, but clean and focused landing pages as well as working and usable check out forms for visitors to complete a purchase.

cluttered portal like pages - white space and focused pages with no distractions
Do you remember portals? Google made them obsolete but amazingly enough some commercial sites still try to imitate the portals of the late nineties. These sites work by overwhelming the visitor with information overflow. The logic behind that is that the user will get stuck somewhere, find something out of the hundreds of links to click. This doesn't work though. People bounce off the site and search for another one less cramped. You need to offer white space for strained eyes to rest and focused pages no distractions that offer exactly what the visitors wants one keyword per page.
DMOZ - Delicious Popular
Some people submitted their pages to DMOZ directory to get an authority link and they still are waiting after 2 years or more. DMOZ is an epic failure of an elitist directory system. Instead try to get on the Delicious homepage, here you get many more valuable links. Delicious killed the DMOZ star.

While on most of the above mentioned issues most experts will agree, some of them are debatable but nonetheless you have to face them and decide whether you keep with the old ways or adapt to new web environment.

Source: SEOptimise
Posted by vinay at 5:14 AM in Links Crawl
Comments (0)
Saturday, 6 September 2008

Individuality Confidence

Every day is a new day in our life. There is much to do today. The early morning sun inspires us to start things freshly and put back our past. Only a handful of us make use of this fresh bunch of energy. In various walks of life this affects the way we behave and our confidence level. Confidence is a key to survive in this world. It is the only key tool to win the rat race in every walk of life. Confidence in ones own capabilities combined with sincere efforts helps one to achieve unthinkable heights. But many times we see that this basic element of confidence is missing in us. As a result of lack of confidence we perform well below our caliber. Be it in a public speech, proposing your beloved, vivas in your college or in an interview or say even on the eve before your exams. This can be due to fear of being rejected or any other reason.

If we look into our hearts and think, we will come to know that fear inside us is going to get us nowhere. The confidence inside us is going to take us places. This is because with confidence we can put our thoughts into words in a better and pleasing way. So we have to get out of that shell where we think whether people will accept us as we are? Instead of living in these unending moments of fear and thoughtless analysis it is better if we project ourselves with the skills we have with the gloss of confidence. With confidence we can portray the finer points of our personality in such a way that the places where we do lack are never highlighted.

Confidence should glow in us only till the point where our personality is boosted. Above this it leads to over-confidence that is harmful. 

Over-confidence results in unsatisfied performance levels as the seed of ego grows into a plant into our mind. We then imagine and make big talks just to maintain our ego. So guys don't let the seed of ego to germinate in your mind, as this seed should be used only for you to live up to your expectations. 

Confidence is all about being cool, calm and composed. 

So guys do u have it in you? If u think u don't, boost up yourselves as your mind is your greatest mentor. You are your greatest helper.    


Source: boloji
Posted by kavitha at 3:23 AM in HR Flicks
Comments (1)
Monday, 1 September 2008

Chew gum to reduce stress

Chewing gum was found to help relieve anxiety, improve alertness and reduce stress among individuals, according to a new study.

The study, led by Andrew Scholey, professor of Behavioural and Brain Sciences, Swinburne University, Australia, was done on the Defined Intensity Stressor Simulation /images/emoticons/laugh.gifISS), a multi-tasking platform which reliably induces stress and also includes performance measures, while chewing and not chewing gum. While chewing gum, participants reported lower levels of anxiety. They showed a reduction in anxiety as compared to non-gum chewers by nearly 17% during mild stress and nearly 10% in moderate stress.

Participants experienced greater levels of alertness when they chewed gum. The improvement in alertness over non-gum chewers was nearly 19% during mild stress and eight per cent in moderate stress.

Stress levels were also lower. Levels of salivary cortisol (a physiological stress marker) in gum chewers were lower than those of non-gum chewers by 16% during mild stress and nearly 12% in moderate stress.

Chewing gum resulted in a significant improvement in overall performance on multi-tasking activities. Both gum-chewers and non-chewers showed improvement from their baseline scores.

However, chewing gum improved mean performance scores over non-gum chewers by 67% during moderate stress and 109% in mild stress.

Source: timesofindia
Posted by vinay at 10:48 AM in Whatever
Comments (0)

Ratan Tata's words of inspiration...

..on courage, on successful people, on leadership, on the need to think big, on risk...

I read this very recently, and wanted to share it.

Its here

Posted by vasanth at 8:09 AM in Peak Performance Tips
Comments (1)

How to Get Your Website Out Of Sandbox Effect

Sandbox effect is nothing but Google's attempt to reduce search engine spams. As the owner of an ethical website you can utilize this period in exploring many aspects that includes learning what Google expects from a website in order to enhance your online visibility.

Before we discuss on sandbox effect is, it should be noted that there are people who don't even agree that any sandbox effect exists. The sandbox is a theory to explain what the SEO experts have found with their listings. Whether we agree or not, effects of the sandbox exist.

Google's sandbox is a new filter that they put somewhere in 2004. This happened after the updates of Austin and Florida, known as the Austin update. The sandbox filter affects almost every new websites that are on the 'probation' status.

The effect of this filter comes with new websites when they may get into search engine results pages quickly and perform well for some time. But because of this filter, the new websites will not rank higher irrespective of original and well optimized content. This filter holds back new websites from getting quick success in search engine result pages. The challenge for webmasters and SEO services is that how to get your website out of sandbox effect.

The way to get out of sandbox effect

  • The first and most important way to get out of sandbox effect is to wait.  Since the sandbox is a temporary filter and it's used only to reduce search engine spam, if you continue optimizing your website as it should optimized and built, you will eventually overcome the sandbox effect and join the mainstream of established websites.

  • The sandbox filter affects websites that are more competitive keyword driven. In order to minimize sandbox effect, use relatively less competitive but popular keywords.

  • If your site is in the sandbox, you can utilize this time to build your internet visibility and traffic resources outside the search engines. Usually, website owners tend to ignore other methods that are very effective in traffic building. These methods include community building, building inbound links with partnerships.

  • Create some free blogs like wordpress, blogspot and post good content with backlinks to your website. Make sure you stay regular in posting. Thrice a week is okay for posting.

  • As we already discussed link building plays a vital role in getting our site out of sandbox, manual directory submissions to quality web directories make a big difference. It pushes your website out of sandbox.

Google is going to great lengths in order to reduce search engine spam as there are spammers that faulted the established rules of search engine. While it may be the reason behind the use of sandbox filter, as the owner of a website you should ask yourself what Google expects in a website.

Google expects your website have quality content. Google may change procedure to check the quality of the site and the way to qualify content and inbound links, it still relies heavily on natural voting system and the basic aspects of a quality website are still the same. So create the website that Google simply cannot refuse.  

Source: PromotionWorld
Posted by vinay at 5:02 AM in Links Crawl
Comments (0)

Take a Job or Make a Job

Are you considering being an entrepreneur? Are you considering starting a career? If so, it is good to know the pros and cons of each. The table below will help you learn the difference in roles and mindset between an entrepreneur and an employee.

Entrepreneurs
Value wealth over job security

Can go months or years without payment

Long hours, especially during start-up

Potential for very large payoff

Build their own assets

Have a higer tolerance for risk

Own the company. Can only be fired by Board of Directors.

Sit behind the desk when interviewing

Are willing to take calculated and educated risks

Build systems for benefit of themselves

Pay taxes only on NET income

Build assets and then use them to purchase other assets

Build passive and portfolio income, taxed lowest

Invests from the inside

Can start other similar companies

Adapt quickly to change

Often have to dedicate yourself fully during start-up stages. Hard to raise a family and start a high-potential venture.

Have access through their businesses to much larger credit limits

Financial security once venture succeeds

Can become wealthy at young age

Have a bias toward action

Create the systems

Decides who to hire and who they work with

Have freedom to control direction of their company

Are able to use all of their skill sets

Rarely do the same thing two days in a row

Work on building assets so they’ll never need a 401(k) or pension

Make money when they sleep

 Jobs
Value job security over wealth

Receive consistent paycheck

Regular, consistent hours

Constant but relatively low payment

Work to build someone else’s asset

Do not like risk

Could be fired at any time

Sit in front of the desk when interviewing

Adverse to risk

Build systems for benefit of employers

Pay taxes on total income

Do not build assets.

Build active income, taxed the highest

Invests from the outside

Restricted by non-disclosure and non-compete agreements

Often resist change

Have time to do other things besides work—such as raise a family or take up hobbies.

Much harder to obtain significant credit

Will have to follow strict saving and investment plan to reach financial security by retirement

Will not become financially secure while still young

Often have a bias toward passing the bill

Have to deal with the bureaucracies created by intricate systems of the companies they work for

Have little say over who they work with

Have little say over the direction of their company

Use only a small portion of their abilities

Often have repetitive jobs

Work on building 401(k) or pension

Make money only when they are working

Hopefully the table above has given you some insight into the different characteristics of entrepreneurs and employees. It is a difficult choice to make for many. Many aspiring entrepreneurs choose to work for someone else for a few years to gain knowledge, contacts, and capital. Others feel that the best way is to start out as an entrepreneur and have the advantage of quite a few years of learning over their peers. Whichever you decide, just make sure that the choice is the one that is right for you, not just the one that everyone wants you to make.

Source: woopidoo

Posted by kavitha at 4:56 AM in HR Flicks
Comments (1)
Friday, 29 August 2008

4 Steps to a Successful Start in Social Media

Social Media is basically communication online. That doesn’t sound too complicated, huh? But for many beginners it can be. There are many different forms of Social Media…. many different ways of communicating online.
Getting involved in Social Media can be intimidating. So much so that you might not know where to even begin. There is Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Plurk, Mixx, Digg. There are blogs, forums, wikis, photo sharing, vlogging (video blogging), and others. They are all different, so which do you devote your time to?
In this post find out 4 Steps to a Successful Start in Social Media
Posted by sai at 12:35 AM in Marketing Rocks
Comments (0)
Wednesday, 27 August 2008

The Ten Commandments of Great Customer Service

# Know who is boss. You are in business to service customer needs, and you can only do that if you know what it is your customers want. When you truly listen to your customers, they let you know what they want and how you can provide good service. Never forget that the customer pays our salary and makes your job possible. # Be a good listener. Take the time to identify customer needs by asking questions and concentrating on what the customer is really saying. Listen to their words, tone of voice, body language, and most importantly, how they feel. Beware of making assumptions - thinking you intuitively know what the customer wants. Do you know what three things are most important to your customer? Effective listening and undivided attention are particularly important on the show floor where there is a great danger of preoccupation - looking around to see to whom else we could be selling to. # Identify and anticipate needs. Customers don't buy products or services. They buy good feelings and solutions to problems. Most customer needs are emotional rather than logical. The more you know your customers, the better you become at anticipating their needs. Communicate regularly so that you are aware of problems or upcoming needs. # Make customers feel important and appreciated. Treat them as individuals. Always use their name and find ways to compliment them, but be sincere. People value sincerity. It creates good feeling and trust. Think about ways to generate good feelings about doing business with you. Customers are very sensitive and know whether or not you really care about them. Thank them every time you get a chance. On the show floor be sure that your body language conveys sincerity. Your words and actions should be congruent. # Help customers understand your systems. Your organization may have the world's best systems for getting things done, but if customers don't understand them, they can get confused, impatient and angry. Take time to explain how your systems work and how they simplify transactions. Be careful that your systems don't reduce the human element of your organization. # Appreciate the power of "Yes". Always look for ways to help your customers. When they have a request (as long as it is reasonable) tell them that you can do it. Figure out how afterwards. Look for ways to make doing business with you easy. Always do what you say you are going to do. # Know how to apologize. When something goes wrong, apologize. It's easy and customers like it. The customer may not always be right, but the customer must always win. Deal with problems immediately and let customers know what you have done. Make it simple for customers to complain. Value their complaints. As much as we dislike it, it gives us an opportunity to improve. Even if customers are having a bad day, go out of your way to make them feel comfortable. # Give more than expected. Since the future of all companies lies in keeping customers happy, think of ways to elevate yourself above the competition. Consider the following: * What can you give customers that they cannot get elsewhere? * What can you do to follow-up and thank people even when they don't buy? * What can you give customers that is totally unexpected? # Get regular feedback. Encourage and welcome suggestions about how you could improve. There are several ways in which you can find out what customers think and feel about your services. * Listen carefully to what they say. * Check back regularly to see how things are going. * Provide a method that invites constructive criticism, comments and suggestions. # Treat employees well. Employees are your internal customers and need a regular dose of appreciation. Thank them and find ways to let them know how important they are. Treat your employees with respect and chances are they will have a higher regard for customers. Appreciation stems from the top. Treating customers and employees well is equally important.
Posted by srinivas at 3:03 AM in ecomZera
Comments (0)
Saturday, 23 August 2008

Google, Others Keen On 'White Space'

Google believes opening up the white space spectrum to unlicensed use could offer a revolution in wireless Internet. E-Mail Print Google seems to be always in the hunt for newer ways to increase revenue. The latest attempt is the call for the usage of the vacant "white spaces" that have been left unused - thanks to the void left by the switch to digital television. White spaces are nothing but the unused "bands" of spectrum that have been left unlicensed. To make it simpler, we will quote the example that Google frequently mentions. "Remember that fuzzy static between channels on the old TVs? Today, more than three-quarters of those radio airwaves, or "white space" spectrum, are completely unused. This vast public resource could offer a revolution in wireless services of all kinds, including universal wireless Internet." Google says it sees tremendous potential to increase Internet penetration to the masses - and to areas where broadband connectivity has not made inroads using this 'white space' spectrum. However, Google does admit a clear business interest in promoting this. Google's Minnie Ingersoll, Product Manager, Alternative Access Team, quips "When it comes to opening these airwaves, we believe the public interest is clear. But, we also want to be transparent about our involvement: Google has a clear business interest in expanding access to the web. There is no doubt that if these airwaves are opened up to unlicensed use, more people will be using the Internet. That's certainly good for Google, not to mention many of our industry peers, but we also think that it's good for consumers." That said, Google seem to have found support from the likes of Intel, Motorola and Microsoft. However, roadblocks in the form of the NAB (National Broadcasters Association) might just cause Google and party some headache. The NAB is vehemently opposing the proposal, citing wireless broadband interference with digital television transmissions, as the reason. It is already going strong with an advertising campaign to increase awareness amongst the masses on how digital picture and sound quality might be compromised by the usage of white spaces. With the FCC all set to decide on this later this month, things should get interesting. Watch this space for more. Source: Gigaom
Posted by kalakotasrinivas at 3:48 PM in Links Crawl
Comments (0)

7 Ways to Accelerate Your Journey to Success

Becoming successful requires much more than just positive thinking or reading the right books. Success is a collection of habits, thought patterns and most importantly beliefs. Here are 7 ways in which you can accelerate your way to building thoughts, beliefs and habits that can support your success.

1. Take the time to journal

Journaling is a great tool not only for discovering your inner self but also for following up with your ideas. I first used this practice during my first year in university where all engineers were required to keep a log of the new things they learn and the ideas they get. I have since discovered that some of the greatest scientists (and even entrepreneurs) have used this idea of journaling their thoughts to accelerate their path to success. Here are some ways you can start:

  • Keep a notepad by your desk at all times so you can jot down the cool business idea your read about.
  • Set aside about 5 minutes every night before you go to bed to write down what you came up with that day.
  • You can also use journaling for stress relief – simply write about the situation that’s bugging you.
  • When you write about your goals every night and the steps you took towards them (however small) you become more in-touch or aware of your goals. This helps you come up with new ideas and creative ways to find opportunities.

2. When you read a book, don’t just read – take notes

Books are definitely an excellent source to find out what success takes but a lot of us can relate to getting an exciting idea in a book and then not acting on it.

Worse yet, when you attend personal development or motivational seminars it is easy to get motivated and feel driven while you are there but life kicks in and sucks the motivation out of you.

That is why I find taking notes so helpful, not only does it help you remember every good idea you were presented with, it can also be used later for a source of motivation and drive.

3. Do something new

Doing nothing is the greatest threat to success. Yet, so many of us spend way too much time worrying about the possible outcomes and trying to make up our mind. Success comes from trying a lot of things even if you fail at some.  Believe in yourself and do it, it is much better than sitting on your chair and agonizing.

I find women are better at the worrying too much and not doing anything game. In fact, I recently read a study that said women worry 2.5 times as much as men. Use this simple strategy to get rid of that worry:

  • Just sit down and make a list of the absolutely worst things that could happen if you do the thing you’ve been thinking about.
  • Make another list of the absolutely best things that could happen as a result of doing that particular task.
  • Now, what does the in-between scenario look like?
  • A lot of times you’ll feel very relieved after doing this exercise. You may realize your worst case scenario wasn’t as bad as you were making it.

4. Assemble a mastermind

Almost all successful people I’ve read about and met have a mastermind – a small group of individuals they can share their ideas with. The mastermind group is not just a cozy group of individuals who offer support, they are the individuals who point out the risks and sometimes take pleasure in disagreeing. Why is this so important? Simply put, it makes us look deeper and make our case stronger.

5. Seek out the toughies!

While most of us try to run away from difficult situations, people who have mastered the art of success seem to seek it. There is a lot to be gained by seeking out the tough situations. If you fail, you will be much closer to your goals.

6. Call up someone you admire and interview them

A lot of people are willing to share their success stories, so if you want to know how it’s done call up someone you admire and ask them.  It is also a good idea to network and try to tap into their network of contacts. You can also search for various meet up groups to see if you can contact these successful individuals. Another way to get in touch with them is to get involved in their favorite charities.

7. Cultivate Success Habits

As we discussed in the beginning of the article, success is a collection of habits. One of the fastest ways to reach your definition of success is to find what habits are needed to get to that definition. Some habits that work for almost all types of success are:

  • A positive belief in your ability – developing your self confidence will take you a long way when discouraging things happen.
  • Accept failure and take the lessons from it – I have found that failure is something that will show up, it’s just a matter of time. Most people give up when they sense failure but successful people love to look at failure as a stepping stone that takes them one step closer to their goals.
  • Be passionate about your goals – I haven’t met a single successful person who does not believe in his/her goals. Passion is what gives you the drive and motivation needed to work late hours and to keep going when things go wrong.

    Source: positivityblog

Posted by kavitha at 1:08 AM in HR Flicks
Comments (0)
Tuesday, 19 August 2008

The Top 10 Things to Look for in a Perfect SEO Link!

What is the definition of the perfect link? Aside from search engine algorithms or the engineers that program them having the "absolute answer" to this quandary, here are our top 10 factors for SEO to look for in building or receiving the perfect link.

A large part of relevance and rankings are determined by the number of quality inbound links that are referring to your website.

Here's our vote for the top 10 things to look for in a link.

1. that it occurs naturally, or at least appears that way.
2. that it is one way (non reciprocal).
3. that it uses the main keyword(s) for the page it links to.
4. that it is from a site that is related and not off-topic.
5. that it comes from a website with high search or high traffic volume.
6. that it passes link juice and does not use a no-follow tag.
7. that the original site is receiving fresh links and not over-linking.
8. that the number of outbound links on the page is under 50 links.
9. that the originating site is indexed in all major search engines.
10. that you cap the number of inbound links from a site to 10 to preserve IP diversity.

Aside from those top 10 link factors, you should have nothing to worry about. Naturally not all links are perfect, but in a nutshell they either (a) pass ranking power a.k.a link juice or (b) they do not. The trick is, to keep the supply steady and not to gain or lose too many links too fast. So, having links with a high churn rate will only result in record breaking highs and nearly depressing lows for your websites overall stability as it fluctuates in the search engine result pages as a result of monkeying around with your websites natural link weight ratio and link velocity/ the time it takes to gain or lose links.

Are you linking to your links?

Chances are, if you experience a dip in rankings it's time to either see if their is a bad neighborhood you may have inter mingled with, or some of your links stopped passing juice.

Source: seodesignsolutions
Posted by vinay at 4:37 AM in Links Crawl
Comments (0)
Monday, 18 August 2008

9 Mistakes That Can Kill Your Personal Growth

When trying to grow it´s easy to stumble more than once and scratch your knees on your way to success, happiness, expansion of consciousness and all that good stuff.

There is certainly some pits to watch out for and here´s nine mistakes – in no particular order – that I´d say are very common.

I have certainly made a lot of them. More than once. <img src=" class="wp-smiley">

If you can, try be observant of your own behaviour and to learn from my mistakes. While we perhaps learn best from our own mistakes there is no reason for you to at least waste a little less time that I and so many others before me have done.

Now, let´s go.

1. Thinking you already know everything – This one is a big problem and can halt growth for a very long time. It´s the mindset that says: “I know how the world works. I don´t need that snake-oil salesman stuff to improve my life. They have nothing new to offer. Only desperate people need those books to get their life together. It´s just common sense.”

This attitude and close-mindedness will make it very difficult for you to grow. When you start reading about personal development from writers such as Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy or Wayne Dyer you quickly realise that their best advice is not that much common sense at all. In fact, it´s often the opposite to the more commonly accepted “truths” that many of us have heard through school, media and other people throughout our lives.

2. Being confused by the marketing hype – The mindset in the first example isn’t totally of the mark. There are snake-oil salesmen in every line of business. And since most successful personal development authors/speakers really knows how to communicate there is bound to be perhaps a more than average amount of the high-pressure sales stuff you can read about in books like Influence by Robert Cialdini. Stuff like offering a small free gift to the consumer, saying that there are only 500 copies of the product and that the offer will only be available for one week.

But even though some marketing techniques may seem overly optimistic or kinda aggressive doesn´t mean that the products are without value. Don´t confuse the sales techniques with the products.

I say, start with trusted names or products that have received great reviews. Do a bit of your own research via google and browse the reviews on amazon before you buy. See what other people think. If you´d like, take a look at this list of my favourite personal development products so far.

3. Not taking action – Thinking that reading a book or blog will automatically transform you and your life. But knowledge without action on your part is not that very transforming. And only you can change yourself. Others can only give a bit of advice, support and motivation. But in the end, you have to take the steps in real life.

Have a look at Don´t get stuck in reading for more thoughts on the common affliction of getting stuck in reading a whole lot of personal development books without putting much of the advice into action.

If you have problems taking action, it´s often due to fear. Try the first and the second suggestion in this article on overcoming fear. It helped me to get going.

4. Giving up – At the first or third failure thinking “It´s no meaning. I am who I am and that can´t change. I just have to get used to that thought.” Don´t give up. One or five or 20 failures ain´t that big of a deal in the long run. You have to fail to get good at something and to grow.

5. Worrying about/listening to what others think – You might fear that people will react in badly to your change.

And they might actually do that.

Perhaps they do not want you to change because then they fear drifting apart and losing you forever.

Or they might not want to see you improve as that will make them feel like they are standing still in life. Or give you unhelpful heap of negative thoughts on personal development and that it´s all just common sense, a waste of time and that in real life it doesn´t work like in the books.

If you get stuck here it´s probably because you need validation from others. Take a look at Why you should not compare yourself to others for some thoughts and practical tips for overcoming or at least reducing this very common problem.

6. Dabbling with it – Dabbling with your personal development and personal growth material on and off. Not committing to studying/action and developing it consistently as a part of your life.

Perhaps you feel it´s just too hard. Or just not worth it. And therefore not commit to it.

Is it hard? Yes, sometimes. But I find that growing is overall a lot more positive than negative. And I think that from an outsider´s perspective – as someone who hasn´t immersed his/herself yet - it often looks as if there is a lot more struggle, time and money invested than when you look at from the inside perspective. Hard work isn´t that hard when you feel you are growing and like what you are doing.

Is it worth it? Well, it’s certainly better than the alternative. Just running or drooning around day after day filled with anxiety, stress and a low sense of self expressed in all kinds of direct or indirect ways ain´t no fun.

Keys to success with anything in life are consistency and patience. Commit to your personal growth.

7. Having unreasonable expectations – This stems from a lack of information. Sometimes both in quality and quantity. When you get you first start you may think that just reading one book will solve all your problems. Not having a reasonable picture of what you can expect will make you feel disappointed and like a failure for no good reason. This can quickly lead to giving up.

To get good results, you need to know things like: you will be enthusiastic in the beginning – as with anything new and exciting - but that enthusiasm will probably dissipate.

That´s normal. And when you are prepared for it, when you get to know your emotional weather more closely, it’s gets easier and easier to control. You know that there will be rain. But it won´t last forever, even if it might feel so.

One motivating method I use to get out of that low emotional state is to develop an on-going habit of consuming development material, whether it is in the form of a books, blogs, audiotapes or dvds. I´m building my own small library and filling it with solid and practical advice on personal growth.

Revisiting to a tape by Brian Tracy not only gets me motivated again but often presents me with ways to solve the problem at hand too. This habit - combined with action - will over time bring clarity to what you want, which methods that work best for you and the possibilities and limitations in your own personal growth.

8. Failing to/not wanting to (at least start to) understand yourself – To change yourself you have to learn about the processes inside yourself. How your emotions work. How you ego works. How you past experiences and habits can affect you. And what you can do about all of that. How you can help yourself. Even when parts of you are working against what you really want.

So I say, don´t stick to one guru and to one line of thought. Read/listen to books from a lot of highly regarded authors to broaden your knowledge and number of possible solutions to your problems.

Try to be more conscious. Be aware of what processes are taking place inside you when you become angry, depressed, jealous or envious. Try not to react in the knee-jerk manner you may often do.

Instead, in the moment, apply what you have learned about handling this issue. If you fail to do so – which everyone does a lot, so beat yourself up about it – take some time later to analyse why you felt/did that negative thing. And what you can do about it when it arises the next time.

If you don´t get a handle on how humans work then it will be hard to help yourself (and others). You´ll be coming up with ineffective solutions, become discouraged and possibly, finally stop trying to grow.

9. Not taking responsibility for yourself – This is absolutely essential. Don´t blame anyone else. It’s up to you to change.

Source: positivityblog

Posted by kavitha at 2:27 AM in HR Flicks
Comments (0)