Designing Web Success

There is a very famous saying that a man earns for two things - to get his daughter married and to build a dream house. House is a place, which resembles paradise, and you try to equip it with all the possible luxuries of life. Nothing pleases you more than having a perfect home. Your wife will go gaga over you; if you give her the house, which she has always dreamt of.

The big question is how to make your existing house an eye-catchy one? One can do a lot of things to give a brand new shape to his or her house. New sofa covers and carpets to make your drawing room look scintillating, smell of fresh paint, a wonderful wall painting, etc., are some things, which no one can resist getting done.

With the growing needs and people desiring privacy, extending your home is what every wise man goes for, rather than buying a new expensive home. Very rarely our pockets allow us to materialise these wonderful plans of ours. Home Improvement Loan is what one should opt for to turn these dreams into realities. These loans are specifically designed to renovate your house according to your liking.

Once you have decided that you want to take a Home Improvement Loan, what you need to decide is whether you want to go for a Secured Home Improvement Loan or an Unsecured Home Improvement Loan.

In Secured Home improvement Loans, you have to offer collateral. Since your property has been rendered as security, borrowing a large amount, even with a chequered credit history, is not a big deal. You will keep on repaying the loan in monthly installments with some rate of interest, till the loan is fully paid.

You can also go for an Unsecured Home Improvement Loan, if you do not possess a home or you do not want to run the risk of offering your property as security. The rate of interest charged is quite high in case of bad credit home improvement loans because of the risk borne by the lender. Generally, lenders are not interested in lending a huge amount of money, as they are unsure about your repayment commitment.

Considering all the points, one should very carefully choose the option between Secured Home Improvement Loans and Unsecured Home Improvement Loans. All in all, one should avail a secured Home Improvement Loan only if one is confident of repaying it. In case one is unable to pay the loan, one’s house is in danger of getting repossessed.

So, if your thinking is on the right track and you know how to make the best use of the available resources, your dream house is in your sight.

About the author:

The author is a business writer specializing in finance and credit products and has written authoritative articles on the finance industry. He has done his masters in Business Administration and is currently assisting Home-improvement-Loans as a finance specialist.

For more information please visit http://www.adverse-credit-home-improvement-loans.co.uk

“The judge’s decision was wrong,” yelped environmental activist Chris Shuey into his cell phone, during a chat with StockInterview.com this past Friday. “It sets a horrible example for other mining companies.” Shuey, whose Southwest Research and Information Center is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, clearly didn’t like the recent federal ruling in favor of Texas-based Uranium Resources’ (OTC BB: URIX) subsidiary, Hydro Resources Inc. (HRI). For nearly two decades, Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) and Chris Shuey have clung to a fanatical position: Uranium mining is bad. Federal and local government regulatory panels disagree, having voted SRIC and Mr. Shuey down every step of the way.

A January 6th ruling by a three-judge panel of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in Rockville, Maryland shot down Shuey’s challenges of radiological air emissions. “The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) and the judge continue to support mining,” Shuey lectured into his mobile phone. “We continue to legally challenge.” For more than eight years since the NRC granted HRI a materials license to perform ISL mining at four sites in McKinley County, SRIC has engaged in what the licensing board calls “protracted litigation” to stop HRI from supplying much-needed uranium for U.S. utilities. The recent federal ruling stated, “HRI’s operations will not be inimical to public health and safety.”

Other uranium companies in the area rejoiced on the ASLB ruling. According to an historic geological report, authored by McLemore and Chenoweth in 2003, suggested about 588 million pounds of uranium remains after the area produced 348 million pounds through year 2001. An asset valued at greater than $21 billion, and growing more valuable each month, is certainly worth celebrating. The recent ruling may help accelerate the permitting and development of uranium assets in New Mexico.

“It helps that the regulatory community shed light on the inaccuracies, and on the disingenuous approaches the anti-nuclear contingent brings to the argument,” explained Juan Velasquez, Vice President of Environmental and Regulatory Affairs for Strathmore Minerals (TSX: STM; Other OTC: STHJF) in a telephone interview from Strathmore’s permitting office in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “Anything that moves those properties closer to production is a good thing for Strathmore, for the environment and for the country as a whole, as we move forward and look toward energy independence.” William Sheriff, Director of Corporate Development for Energy Metals (TSX: EMC), agreed, “I think the rulings by the NRC (on URI, and HRI’s applications, are very positive. It’s just another step toward production.” Dallas-based Sheriff is considered one of the leading prospect developers in the United States. Energy Metals Corp also plans to develop properties in New Mexico’s Grants Uranium Belt over the next decade. Velasquez, who was now more optimistic Strathmore’s Church Rock project would move forward to production, added, “The decision gives some faith to those of us that are regulated that the NRC does use common sense in coming to its decisions.”

StockInterview.com solicited an opinion from a Santa Fe attorney not involved in the recent case, but who was familiar with the ruling. While asking that he not be named in this article, the lawyer stated, “It was a very reasonable decision, and what one might expect. The decision was scientifically sound.” Chris Pugsley, HRI’s attorney at the Washington, DC-based law firm Thompson and Simmons, which defended the case, echoed that attorney’s sentiments, saying, “It was a decision based upon sound technology and extensive industry experience. The ruling was an endorsement that ISL mining is environmentally safe and will be the future of the domestic uranium mining industry.” Pugsley added, “This was sound science and the proper interpretation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s regulations and requirements.” John DeJoia, Strathmore’s Vice President of Technical Services, concluded, “It makes me feel very optimistic about the production of uranium, domestically and especially in the Gallup (New Mexico) area. It validates the original determination by the NRC.”

These weren’t the first legal setbacks for SRIC. In November, New Mexico’s McKinley County Water Board denounced SRIC’s allegations of groundwater contamination, a cause the environmental group championed for a decade. The Water Board criticized the group, writing, “What we find however, are unsupportable propositions. The expert witness from the Southwest Research and Information Center provides lots of speculation, theories that could never be proved or disproved and headlines of gory consequences. This is not science. Science asks that we look at the data and come to a conclusion based on the evidence presented.” They concluded, “The mining operation as proposed by HRI and approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is safe and effectively protects our groundwater sources.”

In a July 20th ruling, the ASLB used stronger language, labeling much of SRIC’s arguments of possible contamination of Crownpoint water wells by HRI’s operations as “insubstantial” and “disingenuous.” In a separate January 6th ruling, the ASLB described a key SRIC claim as a “groundless assertion.” It has been one defeat after another for SRIC and their lead attorney, Eric Jantz. His law firm, New Mexico Environmental Law Center, had recently hosted “A Special Evening with Ted Turner,” the maverick billionaire, as a fund raiser to help stop uranium mining. On January 11th, five commissioners comprising the full commission of the NRC rejected SRIC’s appeal. They refused an SRIC petition to review the groundwater case. Strathmore’s Velasquez said of the recent legal decisions nullifying SRIC’s challenges, “If you are an environmentalist, it has to make you wonder at what point you are going to stop being taken seriously.” As the spot price of uranium continues its march to $40/pound and higher, the SRIC voice may need to find a new audience or a new cause.

ISL Mining and “Pristine” Groundwater

According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), “ISL mining means that removal of the uranium minerals is accomplished without any major ground disturbance. The WNA explains ISL, or In Situ Leaching. as follows, “Weakly acidified or alkaline groundwater with a lot of oxygen injected into it is circulated through an enclosed underground aquifer which holds the uranium ore in loose sands. The leaching solution with dissolved uranium is then pumped to the surface treatment plant.” According to the WNA, over 20 percent of the world’s uranium is mined using the ISL method. At least four uranium companies plan to develop ISL operations in New Mexico: Uranium Resources (URI), Strathmore Minerals, Energy Metals and Max Resources (TSX: MXR). URI, Strathmore Minerals and Energy Metals specifically plan for the development of operations in the Churchrock or Crownpoint areas. None of the properties are located on the Navajo reservation.

One of the anti-nuclear movement’s arguments about ISL mining is that the injected water can not be contained. In the SRIC house organ, Voices from the Earth, Mitchell Capitan, a Navajo activist, is given top billing in the Spring 2005 edition. Pumped up as a former Mobil Oil lab technician, SRIC has mysteriously made Capitan an expert on ISL mining. In his interview, Capitan said, “Mobil was doing a pilot project with the in situ leach mining west of Crownpoint. I worked in the lab with the engineers. And no matter how hard we tried we could never get all the uranium out of the water, so Mobil gave up. We closed the project.”

Craig Bartels, president of Hydro Resources whose parent company Uranium Resources helped pioneer ISL mining in the United States, differs with Capitan’s assessment of the Mobil Oil closure. “It is incorrect for someone to say Mobil shut down ISL because they could not contain it. It’s also incorrect to say that Mobil shut down because they could not restore, or clean up, the water.” Bartels explains what did happen, “They ran a pilot plant, including restoration, in the early 1980s. When the price (of uranium) dropped dramatically, they plugged that well field and got out of the business.” Bartels believes Mobil “would be out there today, if the price had stayed up.”

Nonetheless, SRIC and Capitan’s grass roots Navajo group, ENDAUM (Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining) continue arguing that ISL mining would contaminate the ground water and that ISL process is flawed or dangerous. Dr. John Fogarty, Chief of Staff for the Indian Health Service Hospital in Crownpoint, New Mexico, argued as the ad hoc medical expert, “The mining company intends to inject chemicals down into the aquifer, next to the community water supply. Those chemicals will leach, or strip the uranium off of the rock into the aquifer creating basically, a toxic soup.”

Unfortunately, Dr. Fogarty failed to describe the “chemicals” used in ISL mining. The lixiviant solution commonly used in the United States is sodium bicarbonate, or as known in the kitchen, baking soda. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) describes this process, “The extraction of Uranium using injection wells is the most prevalent mining technique for this mineral. An injection well is drilled to the formation containing the mineral salt.” The EPA describes the steps of the ISL method:

“The process used for the extraction of the uranium salts includes:

• Injection of a leaching solution, called lixiviant, into the mineral containing formation;

• Allowing for adequate contact of the lixiviant in the mineral zone;

• Extraction of the nearly saturated lixiviant to the surface;

• Separation of the uranium salts from the lixiviant.”

In an interview with world-renown nuclear physicist Dr. Fred Begay, who is also Navajo and resides in the Los Alamos (New Mexico) area, he described to StockInterview.com the chemicals used in ISL mining, “What you pump down in there is baking soda.” We asked Dr. Begay, “That’s it?” He compared it to working in the kitchen and the procedure was as safe as baking bread. What about water contamination? Begay responded, “The uranium is already there.” And because the uranium is already there, the groundwater has an a priori contamination.

Bartels also disagreed with Dr. Fogarty’s accusation. “We hear this all the time: ‘The water is pristine drinking water.’ That is not at all correct. The water is already toxic.” Bartels carefully explained why the water in question is already damaged goods, “Any place where there is a commercial ore body, that water is not going to be fit to drink. The ground water is already contaminated.” He pointed out, “There is a huge amount of uranium all through this area, not just in this aquifer but in the overlying aquifer that they call the Dakota Sandstone.” In all, about one billion pounds of uranium may have been scattered throughout the area before uranium mining began in the 1950’s. In comments he made January 11th to the Gallup Independent newspaper HRI’s Mark Pelizza pointed out SRIC’s hypocritical stance, “It appears that fund raising is a driving force for their rhetoric… they completely ignore the health effects of that same radon gas from the uranium ore body if produced directly as drinking water - instead, they call this water ‘pristine,’ and do not alert people to its hazard. Why is that?”

Radon Gas and ISL Mining

What about the radon released during the mining of uranium? “If you have any commercial quantity of uranium, the radon is already there,” explained Bartels. “But, we don’t do anything to it. We don’t mobilize it. We have no effect on it, other than we are not allowed, and we won’t release it to the atmosphere.”

Why did the NRC rule in favor of HRI that ISL mining would not be a danger to the public health? Bartels described the process, “We use pressured vessels. It is contained in the solution that goes around and around. Everything comes up to the surface but doesn’t get into the atmosphere. There is a model that simulates and estimates how much radiation dose you are releasing to ensure that the health of the people in the surrounding area is not affected.”

Velasquez was adamant about SRIC’s air emission claims, “The representations they make with regards to radon are simply unsupportable and incorrect.” Few realize how common radon gas is found throughout the earth. Velasquez added, “You and I release radon every time we turn over a spade of dirt in our garden. The single largest emitter of radon gas in this country is the agricultural industry because they till the soil. Nobody is upset about that.” Scott Heaberlin writes in his widely read treatise, A Case for Nuclear Generated Electricity (Battelle Press, 2004), “Because uranium is essentially everywhere on the planet so is radon.”

Highly respected Strathmore Minerals President David Miller, who has served as an ISL geological consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency and is a three-term Wyoming legislator, believes ISL mining will actually reduce the radon problem for the Navajos, “Removing the uranium now and moving the uranium off the project will lower future radon gas generation in the area.” He appealed on the basis of common sense that the Navajos were doing a disservice to their own health, “If the Navajos allow uranium mining on the reservation, then trillions of future radon atoms will not be formed on the reservation.”

The SRIC panic concerning background radiation may be for naught. In a General Accounting Office report, entitled, Radiation Standards (June 2000), stated, “… we examined 82 studies, which generally found little or no evidence of elevated cancer risk from high natural background radiation levels… Overall the studies’ results are inconclusive, but they suggest that at exposure levels of a few hundred millirem a year and below, the cancer risks from radiation may either be very small or nonexistent.” To put this in perspective, by taking a chest x-ray in your doctor’s office, you are exposed to between 20 and 40 millirem (mrem) of radiation. Those living in Gallup, New Mexico, the largest city near the Church Rock uranium projects, would get an annual dose of about 60 mrem. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual permissible exposure to radiation is 5,000 mrem. By virtue of where they live, some on this planet continue to survive despite extraordinarily strong terrestrial sources of very high radon concentrations. A few places in Europe can give inhabitants of 5000 mrem per year. In Iran, Sudan and Brazil, one might get up to 3800 mrem annually. Some places in India can dose the locals with up 1500 mrem per year.

Radon studies have been conducted. The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a study entitled, “Residential Radon Exposure and Lung Cancer in Sweden” (January 20, 1994). The scientific team investigated residential radon as the principal source of exposure to ionizing radiation. The study concluded, “As a rule, the radon concentration decreases when a window is kept open. A window ajar can provide an exchange of 10 to 30 cubic meters of air per hour at a wind velocity of 3m per second. This may be two to three times the normal rate of air exchange and thus may reduce radon concentration by 50 to 70 percent.”

The same principle applies to uranium mining. The industry has been using fans for several decades to vent radon gas and increase the safety of their labor force.

James Finch frequently contributes to StockInterview.com, where you can read his archived articles: http://www.stockinterview.com Mr. Finch does not invest in the companies he writes about.

When it comes to selling your products it is important to ask your potential customers probing questions as well as open ended questions. These types of questions are geared toward gathering information. They commit your customer to giving you anything but a yes or no answer.

For instance, an open-ended question would come across like this:

What is it that you like so much about your current bank?

Now, if you are a banker trying to get a customer to bank with you, you will now be able to compare your products and benefits to what your customer has just told you about their current bank.

Also, by finding out about what they like, you will also find out what their needs are.

Another name for selling a customer what they need is “needs-based selling.”

All sales people have goals and we have a tendency to sell things to people even though they have no need for the product just so we can have our numbers inflated so we can talk about it during the weekly sales meeting or conference call.

The downside to selling something to someone that they have no need for is that your customer will quickly figure out that they don’t have a need for it and will never consider you in the future for your services.

This is the reason why it is so important to find out what your customers needs are before you sell them something. When you sell a customer something that they need or want, they will be truly happy with the product and the service and appreciate your help.

As we all know, a happy customer is a good customer and will always come back to you for your services and refer friends and family to you as well.

Jay Conners has more than fifteen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry, He is the owner of http://www.jconners.com a mortgage resource site. You can also check out his blog at http://wwwmortgagespot.blogspot.com for more articles

Web hosting can be an exciting business start up for aspiring entrepreneurs. All you have to do to set up your business is become a hosting reseller, i.e., provide hosting facilities to website owners. Here as a business owner, you are buying space from a big hosting company, and redistributing the hosting space to other website owners.

Resellers are nothing but entrepreneurs acting as middlemen, offering you hosting services by leasing time and space from another Web host’s server rather than owning their own. Most of the times, the quality of services offered by resellers are so good that consumers do not even have the idea that they are dealing with resellers who do not have servers of their own. Resellers, since they can pick and choose their servers, are basically in a position to provide the customers with the best of services.

Reseller hosting business can be quite a profit making venture once you understand the figures and profit margins involved. Let us go through them. One can buy around 1000 MB space from a major web host at a cost of $25 per month. This 1000 MB space that you now own can in turn be redistributed to site owners who need space for uploading their site. Here you can give about 25 MB space for around $5 per month. Which means your monthly income comes to around $200 when you sell 40 hosting packages. Want more. some hosts allow you to oversell the space and do not charge you extra unless the actual usage of your account exceeds 1000MB. It is seen that a typical user uses less than half of the allotted web space. which means you can double or even triple sell your quota and make unlimited wealth.

And mind well, this income is residual income. It will keep coming to you month after month, year after year. You do the work once. and get paid for it over and over. All you are doing is buying space from a major web hosting company and becoming a reseller host. Your efforts are focused towards selling hosting space and the rest is handled by your web host. Some of them even handle customer service to your customers for a nominal fee. which makes it even easier for you.

If this is not enough. you can earn additional residual incomes by adding recruiting more resellers through you. By doing this you will earn regular commissions on their monthly sales. isn’t this smart business. The profit margins in the business of reseller hosting is quite good and you can start on this exciting business venture even if you do not have the required expertise and access to funds for setting up the required infrastructure. Strange as it might sound, there are also times where a reseller can also be more scalable than a typical hosting firm. A true Web host is limited by its hardware; if a client suddenly requires an upgrade the host is not prepared for, the only way the host will be able to satisfy the customer is by upgrading its hardware - expensive and time consuming for both sides. The reseller host, however, can simply choose to locate with a different Web host that will better suit the customer’s needs.

Happy Wealth Creation!!!

Ninad Gupte is the Founder, CEO of www.linuxresellerhosting.com. He has trained as an Electronics Engineer from Mumbai University, and has a Diploma in Advanced Computing from CDAC. He has served as the Director Technologies in Webmoney India Pvt. Ltd. He has executed several turnkey B2B Web application projects like House layouts, Maharashtra State Electricity Board and portals & sites like McDonalds India, Air France and RPG Raychem. To take his dreams forward of forming a technology oriented diversified company, Interpole Solutions was formed in March 2001. The company was setup with a strong base of skills and a deep understanding of technologies mastered by Ninad.

He can be contacted at ninad@linuxresellerhosting.com or at 91-22-2436 4111 and 91-22-2436 4112.

Following a flood of complaints by the consumers regarding misleading advertisements, rules are being imposed on ringtone ads.

Ring tones and wallpapers ads are going to be regulated in order to protect consumers from signing up for the high rate subscription services.

Many people have run up huge bills out of their mobile phones because of misleading advertisements, which don’t disclose all the costs.
With the help of the new rules, the UK mobile phone operators will be able to find out how high rate subscription services are marketed by the content providers. The rules however only talk about font sizes of the ads and about how prices should be presented in TV adverts.

The deadline to abide by the rules is 30th August.
The first ringtone to reach the top of pop charts is the extremely popular Crazy Frog.

More than 100 complaints were received regarding the Crazy Frog ringtone.
When buying the Crazy Frog ring tone, the consumers are actually signing up for a subscription plan. This plan enables them to receive a new text message every week for which they are charged £3, allowing them to download another ring tone.

Recently people who were misguided by the advertisements ended up paying huge bills. They unintentionally subscribed to ring tone and text services when they thought they were just buying one tune. Many people downloaded the Crazy Frog ringtone, unaware of the fact that it is only a part of a bundle of tunes and they will be billed for it on regular basis.
It was said that there would be a big problem preventing ringtone sellers from giving such advertisements.

Mostly, it is teenagers who do not care to understand the conditions applied to such services and are susceptible to them.

The new rules will enforce the content sellers to clear the ongoing costs so that people will know what they are getting. The price specifications and how often people would be billed would be prominent in the advertisements. Small fonts and scrolling price banners would also be banned. The prices and conditions would be in the main body of an advertisement rather than the small print. As soon as someone signs up for a service, he would be getting a message giving the details of what he is getting. Customers would also be told how to unsubscribe or they would be charged £20 every month.

If all the firms abide these rules, consumers would definitely be more contended.

At the end of June, the Department of Trade and Industry announced a big increase in fines for firms that break rules on the selling of premium rate phone services.

Alen
xpert4u.co.uk
UK mobile phone directory

I remember a few years ago one of the sales people at my local hardware store told me they were expecting the arrival of new battery powered circular saw, I think it was a Makita. On hearing the phrase “battery powered circular saw”, I laughed out loud and told him to call me when the battery powered table saws arrive. Within a couple of years I had purchased one of those battery powered circular saws that I so willingly scoffed at just a couple of years earlier. I soon discovered that having portable tools had huge benefits. That’s why companies like Porter-Cable, Makita, Delta and others have focused on these areas.

These days battery powered tools are available is drills, drivers, impact drivers, routers, jig saws, portable planers, circular saws, reciprocating saws and chop saws, and even Ryobi has battery powered chain saw that works well for big jobs that other tools can’t handle. So to see how to get the most from these tools.

Lets stop for a moment and look at batteries that power these units. Most power packs that drive these tools are a series of small rechargeable batteries all wired together to give the optimum power. These rechargeable batteries are very similar to the flashlight batteries that you buy for your TV clicker and garage door opener and various other home products.

The difference between rechargeable batteries like Duracel and Eveready, are that the rechargeables have higher quality shells and consist of slightly different components to make them safe to recharge. The rechargeable batteries that are wired together are normally nickle cadmium (nicad) 1.2 volt batteries. When they are wired together in series … 8 together equals 9.6 volt, 10 together equals 12.2 volt, 12 together equals 14.4 and so on. That is how more power is generated, more little batteries, more power, and of course, more weight.

The more batteries that are wired together, the greater the torque (or twisting power) of the tool. Torque is created by a combination of horse power and speed, and high speed does not necessarily mean high power. Conversely high power does not necessarily come with high speed..

You will find another type of battery on the market called a “nickle-metal-hydride” (Ni-MH). These batteries use compounds that give the batteries a slightly longer life (they also cost a bit more to purchase). Some contractors prefer tools that will give them longer battery life which is the reason for this more advanced rechargeable battery version.

As woodworkers, we all know one thing, HEAT is our greatest enemy. When saw blades get too hot they lose their tensility and become dull, screws that are driven into hardwoods can snap because of the high heat created by friction, and heat can burn out the electric motors of our machinery if we are not careful. Heat is also the enemy of batteries. All batteries heat up when they are being recharged. The larger battery packs such as 18 volts and larger tend to heat up even more because there are so many batteries in the packs and they don’t have heat dispersion characteristics as smaller packs because there are so many batteries next to one another. Batteries tend not to take a charge when they are hot, so keeping the ambient temperature normal to cool is a benefit.

On the flip side, batteries do not do well in cold either. Once the temperature drops below 14 degrees Fahrenheit ( minus 10 Celsius) batteries do not perform well (if at all). Most batteries will lose their power when the temperature gets this low.

The recharging of batteries is a bit of a mystery to a many people. The tendency is to keep batteries fully charged all the time. In truth, batteries need to be exercised in order to keep them in top shape. This means they should be fully discharged every few months, then fully re-charged. “Topping” up battery charges will make the batteries lose their effectiveness, and after a time they will only take a partial charge because that is what they have become accustomed to. This means they will lose their ability to use the full charge. If your older cordless device is doing this, sometimes you can rejuvenate the battery by charging and FULLY discharging it several time.

My old 9.6 Craftsman portable drill, which is now 10 years old has been one of the best tools I have ever owned. I have no idea how many screws it has driven, holes it has bored or blades it has ground, but it’s batteries have almost given up now. I checked on the price of new batteries and it will be more cost effective for me to upgrade to a whole new unit … but I have no intention of getting a big hulking unit, with tons of power, I don’t need it and I refuse to pack around all that battery weight, so I am currently investigating some 12 volt units and looking forward to another 10 years of service from my new drill, and when I need more power, I always have my trusty plug-in drill, and the hassle of extension cords that goes with it.

Copyright Colin Knecht of WoodWorkWeb.com. This article may be freely distributed and reprinted as long as you leave the article fully intact, including the links.
Visit Woodworkweb.com - woodworking resource for more great woodworking information.

Brochure projects are the vampires of marketing. All too often, they drain the blood out of our budgets without adding life to our sales. Why? They’re expensive. They’re misused. And for people too lazy to think, they’re the standard default when it’s time to “do something” to help market a product or service.

Brochures are poor sales devices. (For that, look toward letters and other offer-centric vehicles.) But they do one thing really well that can help support the sale: when the product isn’t literally in front of the customer, it figuratively puts the product or service in the prospects’ hands. The more vivid the illusion, the more effective the brochure. Here’s how:

Tell a story: Paint a word-picture in which the reader the can imagine himself using the product/service to his advantage: “Within minutes, the whisper-quiet Split-All reduces tons of timber into convenient piles of lasting fireplace fuel. Simply elevate the rear axle of your truck, replace your tire with our patented SpinLock Connector, then …”

Bring out the features: I know you’ve been told a million times to turn features into benefits. True enough. But you have extra leg room in the brochure. And you need concrete things to flesh out your picture. This is the right time and place to list your product/service features: “Comes complete with two safety chucks, a lifetime greaseless action bearing, three special blades for hard, soft and ‘wet’ woods, and a FREE 30-minute video that will have you cutting wood like a pro.”

Describe alternative uses: The more things your product/service can do or offer, the greater its value. The primary use of the Split-All, for example, would be chopping wood for fireplaces and stoves. But perhaps it could be a way for customers to make a little moonlighting money on the side - “Turn your cleared land into cash!” - or to help them clear that land in the first place.

Use charts, graphs, illustrations and photos: As a professional writer, I’m loathe to admit it, but yes, sometimes a picture IS worth a thousand words. Be sure, however, that your captions tie your illustration back to the sales message: “In just one hour, the Split-All builds a stack of wood equal to two weeks of winter heating fuel.”

Weave in the testimonials: Don’t list them in a sidebar. Don’t save them for the end. Use them as callouts throughout the body copy to reinforce your points across your entire sales story.

And for Pete’s sake, have a call to action: It’s not enough to be “informative.” By the end of the brochure, make it absolutely crystal clear what customers need to do get your product and service. And be literal about it! Tell them to call and give them the number and business hours (or list your URL or direct them to a local dealer or tell them how to find a local dealer, etc.).

Jonathan Kranz is the author of Writing Copy for Dummies, http://kranzcom.com/book.html, and the principal of Kranz Communications, http://kranzcom.com, a marketing communications and public relations writing firm specializing in B2B and consumer services marketing. He offers customized in-house and on-site marketing and PR seminars, and is a popular speaker at professional association events, meetings, workshops and conferences, http://kranzcom.com/speaking.html

Do you ever wonder how you can advertise your business more?

Have you ever thought about renting a billboard to advertise
your website?

Have you ever checked into how much it cost to rent a billboard
for one month? Wow, they’re very expensive. At least a couple
thousand dollars.

Well here’s a much cheaper way to let people know about your
business, every where you go.

You can use you car.

Why not?

People are always on the go. And to get somewhere they usually
have to take their car. So why not use your car, to do a little
advertising? Buses do. Taxis do. So can you.

You can buy one of those license plate holders with your web
address on it. The ones that you put around your licence plate.
But they’re usually in such small print. How do you know if
people can even see them?

There’s a much better way.

One that I guarantee you, everybody that passes you on the road,
or sees you in the parking lot, will Know about your website.

Go to a local office supply store, and buy some of the white 2″
stick on letters. They’re usually only a couple of bucks for a
whole package of different letters. For what you need, there
should be more than enough different letters in one package.

Select the letters of your web site address. And stick em to the
back windshield of your car. Be sure and put the letters up near
the top of your windshield, so as to not block your view out the
back.

Line em up nice and neat across the top of your back
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While we talk about political correctness ad nauseam, we sometimes tend to overlook the perpetrators of this noxious activity. Just who are the ones who act as the enforcing agents; who are the, ugh, police people? Who are these self-appointed moral vigilantes who continue to impose their views on us?

Well, for starters, I suggest we look at the work place to see what we can come up with. It appears those who would remind us of what is correct and not correct at work seem to be none other than the Human Resources people. Rather than spend their time rectifying the despicable compensatory behavior of their bosses or trying to preserve a modicum of traditional employee benefits, they seem hell bent on pointing out the ABC’s of what some greedy consultant told them was proper corporate behavior. I recall years ago when I was braced by one of these types for using the phrase “mensch” while referring to a Jewish associate. (Mensch means a caring, decent and honorable person who can be trusted and who always tries to do the right thing.) Given the horror in this lad’s eyes, you would have thought I had just been booked for star-chamber punishment. I do recall, however, that this same “enforcer” was discharged some years later for a rather explicit sexual harassment incident. These types, while probably well intended, seem to spend too much time finger pointing and otherwise acting as corporate enforcers, and not enough time demonstrating a modicum of courage in doing something about the obscenely excessive severance packages granted to those who fail. Indeed, during the period of corporate accounting scandals from 2001 -2003, HR people were shamefully invisible when they they should have been spending their time serving as protectors of company values.

At many schools, we have the administrators to help us behave properly……and to help make their task easier, they have a one size fits all approach; namely, the dreaded, take-no-prisoners bastion of political correctness, the zero-tolerance policy. If ever there was a road to hell paved with righteous intentions, this is the one. Think not? A 10-year-old girl at McElwain Elementary in Thornton, Col., was one of a group of girls who asked a certain boy on the playground if he liked her. The boy complained to a teacher with the result that school administrators, citing the district’s “zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy,” decided to suspend her. Nothing like spreading penut butter to evade consideration of each individual’s personal history and the intentions that inspired their actions. Zero-tolerance policies do just that. They deny the unique worth and dignity of every student by homogenizing the playing field. How about reconsidering concepts like mediation, negotiation, forgiveness, compassion, and empathy? How about making zero-tolerance a last resort rather than the first option?

And as we look at the greater community in which we function, the PC police seem to be everywhere telling us, for example, how to speak and act. We have to be fearful of what we say, write, and think. We are fearful of using a word denounced as offensive or insensitive. Maintenance cover instead of manhole cover. Strawman is now straw; chairman is now chairperson, assemblyman is assembly person. When will selectmen become selectpeople? No more using the words cowboy or cowgirl, landlady, or landlord. The phrase Founding Fathers has been removed from America’s textbooks and, if used at all, is replaced with “framers.” Illegal immigrants are now referred to as “undocumented immigrants.” Easter vacation is now spring break and Christmas is winter break. You can’t sing traditional Carols in our public schools any more. But the PC police are involved in more than just changing words. In New Jersey, even though there had been patients across the nation who may have been infected by their dentists with AIDS and then died, NJ health providers who are HIV-positive do not need to tell their patients that they are so infected. Almost as scary, The Boulder City, Colorado Town Council will soon be taking up the matter of allocating public funding for a “hate hotline,” which would give residents an opportunity to report incidents in which Boulderites use tactless language. No “mensch” comments in Boulder.

Political correctness is alive and well in religion, too. As just one example, we find that some foster intellectual supression by ostracizing others who wish to preserve the sanctity of science by keeping so-called intelligent design out of the public classrom.

The beat goes on and on, but if it were just about politeness and good manners, no big deal. However, it’s about a lot more and it’s time we acknowledge that this insanity is changing our society from within and that we, the the citizens of this nation, are increasingly censoring ourselves and losing our freedom of speech out of fear of socially engineered repression. We also need to understand that those who enforce political correctness are enforcing nothing more than an illusion. A dogma, a creation, if you will, to keep people in check and and from running amuck. A creation that in turn generates its own bodies of work, entire fields of study, and even new uses of language to go with them. In this strange universe, the rules of engagement are so vague no one is quite sure how to challenge them and yet we labor to incorporate them into our lives. Unless we begin to push back, more people will lose their careers, children their privileges, citizens ostracized, all because the fashionable and appropriate behavior of the day is so oblique no one can possibly see what exactly they are to do. Very insidiously and subtlety, we seem to be creating for ourselves an intellectual handicap that limits free-thinking, irreverence, push back, being analytically independent and/or intellectually curious.

The real shame is that we seem to turn away from the simple and move to the complex each and every time. We know what is innately and instinctively the right thing to do in any given situation, what behavior to display at what moment. But until we learn to follow our own simplest behaviors, how can we possibly be correct about anything? Perhaps some of us are tuned to a higher and more eloquent frequency, but each of us knows the small, easy-to-understand truths that are so manifest…….. no insulting, show kindness, be sensitive and empathetic to the feelings of others, be honest and frank, but in so doing try to cause no pain, avoid securing laughs at somebody’e else expense, understand that no one is any “better” than anyone else, and above all, realize that the intent of your communication may not always square with the way it is received. Being wounded by a warning shot is still being wounded.

In the words of Wendy McElroy, “Sweeping up the debris of political correctness means demolishing the laws, the institutions and the tax-funded bureaucracies that are its structure. But it also means eliminating the vicious attitudes of intolerance and anger that are its spirit.” More to the point are these words of Anthony D’Angelo, “transcend political correctness and strive for human righteousness.”

“If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.” Benjamin Franklin, statesman, philosopher, publisher, and scientist (1706-1790)

Ted Sares, PhD, is a private investor and syndicated writer who lives in the White Mountain area of Northern New Hampshire with his wife Holly and Min Pin Jackdog. He writes a bi-weekly column for a local newspaper, is a regular contributor to the NH Business Review, and many of his other pieces are widely published.

His works focus on issues and themes dealing with socio-political topics, business and (economics in which he advocates a free market approach to capitalism), patriotism, and matters dealing with individual freedom.They are frequently inspirational in nature and sometimes reflect the Objectivist philosophy of novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand.

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