20 Extra Hous Per Week: What Would You Do?

20 Extra Hous Per Week: What Would You Do?

by: Daniel Tangredi

While I was in college, if you would have asked me what I would do if I had an extra 20 hours to spend in a week, the first thing I would have told you is that I would definitely NOT spend it studying. I actually would have gone down a long list of hobbies and activities I would like to do if I had the time. So when my coworkers asked me to find out what owners/managers of sign companies would do if they had an extra 20 hours per week, I was very interested in hearing the responses. What types of activities are sign shop owners doing with their spare time? Was there a common activity or hobby in the sign & graphics industry? Or would I hear several different responses?

The Results

The results were unexpected to say the least. By my fourth call I started to hear a common trend forming among sign shop owners. None were used to having leisure time, or so it seemed. In fact Marion Ward, the owner of AWC Signs, told me he hasn’t had 20 extra hours in twenty years. ขI wouldn’t know what to doข he said about having time off from the shop. Marion explained that he has been in this industry for quite a long time, and was soon going to retire. Just the thought of having extra time on his hands was completely foreign to him. Does Marion represent sign shop owners as a whole? Is the sign & graphics industry really so busy that owners/managers don’t even have time to think about leisure activities? Or, are shop owners unaware of how easy it is in this day and age to save time?

The next person I talked with was also surprised by the question. Randy from Bama Signs told me he ขnever thought about itข. Never thought about saving time I asked ขCan you think about it now and tell me what you would do?ข After a little probing and a little time to think about the question, Randy said he would most likely ขspend the time fixing up housesข which he liked to do on the side to make a little extra money. This was getting interesting. Already two people who never thought about having a couple extra hours or even the ability to save time for that matter. Two people who were surprised simply by the question itself.

Increasing Productivity

Being the GenXer and fresh out of college guy that I am, I have always looked for ways to make things easier. Isn’t that what we do in college, look for ways to spend less time but get the same or even better results? At one time, my goal was to figure out how to work less but get paid more (I hope my boss isn’t reading this) without cheating of course. This is what most owners or business graduates call ขIncreasing Productivityข. Well, in this day and age with so many advances in technology, there is always a way to work less and get paid more, therefore increasing your productivity. In fact I now work for a company that helps shops do just that.

Software – It’s amazing!

SOFTWARE! The amazing world of mouse clicks, GUI interfaces, pricing screens and automation. A brain, or what techies call a processor, that thinks even when the power is turned off, or so some of us think. A world where you don’t have to be the only one estimating jobs, because your pricing is built into the software. Where you can fill out customer information one time and never have to reenter it again. Where you have the ability to duplicate information and go from estimates to orders, easily and effectively by simply converting and cloning. A world where you can set automatic reminders that tell you who needs to be called, what needs to be done, and when to do it. Where it’s possible to truly, never again be in ขmanagement overloadข, so you can actually relax and enjoy your cup of coffee in the morning. A world where you can search through hundreds, thousands, even millions of customer records/information in a matter of seconds, rather then hours or days. Imagine the p!

ower and control given to you in this world. This is the world I have come to know and this is the world I have come to love. The world where we all can work less, take advantage of technology, and still increase revenue and productivity.

The Scared Stigma

So why aren’t more business owners jumping onto the ขsoftware trainข. Could it be that computer software and new technology scares them? It seemed to scare Marion Ward when I spoke with him. Is there some stigma behind software that leaves the nonGen Xer’s afraid? If so, to those people I say ขDo not be afraidข. These advancements in technology will make it easier for people such as Karen Bouknight of A Plus Signs & Graphix to ขRelax and just chillข as she easily put it when I spoke with her. It will give Mike Bayliss of Bayliss Signs Plus more time to ขPlay Golfข as he stated he would like to do more. It will give us all a chance to ขTake a vacation and take offข along side of Bill from Grafx Sign & Design.

Whether it be estimating and business management software like Cyrious Software, or some other software package that helps you save time, my only question is what would you do if you had an extra 20 hours per week?

About The Author

Daniel Tangredi

For more infomation on Cyrious Software go to http://www.cyrious.net or call 18005521418

This article was posted on November 22, 2004

by Daniel Tangredi

Because Your Lucky Number Is?

Because Your Lucky Number Is?

by: John Taylor

I am a strong believer in the Pareto Principle, otherwise known as the 80/20 rule, or the rule of the vital few and the trivial many.

In any human activity, just a small group of factors is responsible for the lionกs share of success.

For example, just 20% of affiliates earn 80% of the commissions.

20% of authors sell 80% of all books.

Only 20% of the people who read this article will benefit from taking action.

20% of your daily activities generate 80% of your success and income; and so on.

Have you figured out what your lucky number is yet?

Yes itกs the magic 20 percent, you don’t need to master scores of techniques and learn hundreds of secrets. Just a few the right few will bring you outrageous online success.

Thatกs why itกs important that you take time to identify the best places to invest your time an energy. Choose the affiliate programmes that generate the best return. Identify the ezines and web sites that create profitable returns on your advertising efforts.

Invest your time in developing the skills, knowledge and experience required to become one of the successful 20% of all affiliates

Learn and apply the right skills and techniques and you will become a giant of your industry. You will grow richer than you ever would otherwise. And you will be happy, because achievement is the key to happiness.

In short, you will succeed by mastering the vital few, while others squander their time on the trivial many.

Where can you learn those vital few skills?

Here are my top three recommendations…

Firstly, James Martellกs 8step process, which currently sells for $167, provides every piece to the puzzle of affiliate marketing and guarantees that anyone who follows in his footsteps will succeed! http://goclick.com/to/martell

And then in the less expensive ($47) The Super Affiliate Handbook Rosalind Gardner really goes into the details on how you can build you own profitable Internet business. http://goclick.com/to/gardner

And finally, thereกs an interesting alternative to just reading ebooks. There is a brand new programme that just gives you baby step instructions. You will enjoy UNLIMITED step by step training for any and AS MANY affiliate programs as you want. And, at the time of writing, you can get started for only $29.97 http://goclick.com/to/class

Whichever one you choose, please DO ensure that you are one of the 20% who takes action. Because, if you invest your time in developing the right skills, you too could become a member of the 20% club and earn your share of the 80% in commissions!

Copyright 2005 John Taylor

About The Author

John is a prolific writer and is the author of several books including ‘testing & Trackingก (http://www.Testandtrack.com). John enjoys significant earnings as a top affiliate across a broad section of niche markets

This article was posted on January 25

by John Taylor

Absolute & Relative Links How Do They Rank?

Absolute & Relative Links How Do They Rank?

by: Martin Lemieux

The question for this article is whether or not you should use กabsolute urlกsก or ‘relative urlกsก? Not only that, this article researches whether or not Google ranks these methods differently.

Absolute: You use the entire url pointing to the designated page.

ex. www.yoursite.com/page1/index.html

Relative: You use an automatic path to the file

ex. /page1/index.html

Relative gives a path that is กassumedก. Your browser will automatically กassumeก to put www.yoursite.com before the link.

When researching these two methods, I used 4 factors to consider:

20 Different popular search terms

Top 20 listings

Top 10 กInbound Linksก for pages within the site

Relative/Absolute urls NOT images

So hereกs the results of this study:

The average results within the 20 search terms had a ratio of: Absolute 40% / Relative 60%

The average inbound links for each site I researched had a ratio of: Absolute %50 / Relative 50%

So it seems safe to say that Google doesn’t necessarily rank กabsolute/relativeก paths differently.

Google may recognize the fact that neither method is wrong, it only reflects the designers preference.

Thereกs only 1 type of Absolute and Relative paths that get a bad rank. Web sites that use ‘tracking urlกsก or data base urls get a significant reduction in page rank emmediately.

The easiest way to notice this in action is to go to www.pogo.com (Online games). You would think that pogo has a great rank but nope, in fact their main page rank is 0/10. This happens because every time google crawls through their url, the site is different.

So if you care about page rank, keep your urlกs the same as the day your site was born!

About The Author

Martin Lemieux is leading the field online for web design and online advertising. Visit his company right away for many marketing tips & strategies: http://www.smartads.info

OASES Online Advertising Search Engine Services

http://www.flyinggelatingames.com

The Web Clinic FREE MARKETING TOOLS

http://www.thewebclinic.com

This article was posted on December 22, 2003

by Martin Lemieux