Coaching: Communicating What Service You Provide

Coaching: Communicating What Service You Provide

by: Catherine Franz

Coaching is unique because it makes a special promise: transformation. At the root of any desire for personal development is the expectation that, every time they have an encounter with their coach, they have some how changed from the person they were into the person they more prefer to be.

Instead of focusing your communications, this includes all marketing materials as well, on subject areas or benefits, concentrate on lives the kind of person you help create. This isn’t merely an issue of who they can become; it includes values, ethics, the sense of personal mission, and what people want to accomplish within their life times. In this way, you can reach beyond the practical considerations within the decision making process to speak to the individual underlying core: a person’s dreams.

Here are a few ways to make your communications more personal, and directed towards their dreams, thus, making it more appealing and attractive:

1. Speak and Write to Their Values

In any coaching communications, two of the most important words you can use are กwe believe.ก Even the most practical personal development desiring person believes in something. Tell prospective clients what your coaching stands for so that they can evaluate whether they share your coaching values, which is the same as your personal values if you are solo.

This step helps filter that would most likely not be a match anyway.

After all, in a country crowded with coaches, your values can be your greatest distinction. Maybe your coaching encourages an entrepreneurial spirit through projects or creative approaches to familiar problems or challenges. Some people prefer the word challenge, so I included both. Put your coaching values front and center.

2. Connect Benefits to Ambitions

Describing what people are going to learn, such as living their lives by their values or building a strong personal foundation isn’t enough; you want to show how coaching helps them reach their goals. Instead of writing mere descriptions, write stories with the prospective coachee as the potential hero.

Tell readers how your fieldwork prepares them for realworld experiences, how your group coaching hosts relationship opportunities, how your teleclass sharpens them, changes their criticalthinking, or decisionmaking skills.

3. Use Endorsements and Case Studies

Selecting a coach can be intimidating and overwhelming even for the most courageous people. An endorsement, in an ad or printed material created for sales, shows how your coaching welcomes and works with people just like them.

Case studies is a step up from endorsements by actually describing in some detail the transformation story how a person from one kind of background acted on her ambition and was able to move forward through your program or by working with you.

Conclusion

These techniques also work well for service or products communications if you also offer teleclasses, workshops, or group coaching programs. Actually, not that I think of it, it works in all personal development communications.

© Copyright 2004, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.

About The Author

Catherine Franz

To learn more about how to turn your life into a fabulous success, visit the Abundance Center for techniques, tips, and programs to support your goal. While you are there, check out the three enewsletters Catherine writes monthly.

http://www.abundancecenter.com

blog: http://abundance.blogs.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 07, 2004

by Catherine Franz

My Yahoo Search Beyond Bookmarks

My Yahoo Search Beyond Bookmarks

by: Jakob Jelling

Yahoo has long offered email, an online calendar, notes, bookmarks, and more through their free My Yahoo service. Now Yahoo has expanded this service even more by adding My Yahoo Personal Search to the mix.

Personal Search is another way of storing bookmarks, but with more features than the older bookmarks offered. To use Personal Search, you add a My Yahoo Search button to your browser links bar (supports IE, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, and Safari). When you find a page you like, you click on the button to add the page to the กMy Webก section of Personal Search. You can perform a search and optionally save or block any results pages. Of course, you can also enter a URL directly, then click the Search button to add that page into My Web as well.

Your My Web contents are accessible from any computer with Internet access, so it functions as an online bookmark storage service. Typically, bookmarks are stored only within the browser on the computer you normally use, so online availability is a convenient feature if you travel.

The results stored in My Web are both shareable and searchable. To share, you select the pages you want to share, and click the Share button. Easy enough. You can share directly from search results as well, without adding the page to My Web.

Once you have some pages stored in My Web, you can then easily search within those pages to find what you’re looking for. This isn’t a simple search of a description field like those offered by some browsers. This is an actual live search of just the pages youกve stored in My Web. Pages stored in My Web can be sorted by date, search terms, or URL.

All in all, My Yahoo Personal Search is a very useful addition to the Yahoo collection.

By Jakob Jelling

http://www.sitetube.com

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

This article was posted on November 08, 2004

by Jakob Jelling

A Basic Introduction to Blogging

A Basic Introduction to Blogging

by: Mal Keenan

Web logging first appeared on the net in the mid1990s. The term ขweb logข was initially coined refer to a server’s log file and then expanded to include the meaning of online personal journaling. Later on, to avoid confusion, the word ขblogข was adopted to refer to personal journaling. Today a blog is defined as an online publication where an author puts his or her personal thoughts and opinions from the most intimate to corporate ideas, concerns or events, in chronological order on the net.

Although, there are as many kinds of blogs on line as there are people, most of these will roughly fall into these kind of bloggers: Personal Bloggers (the original use of blogging), then there are the organizational and business Bloggers.

Organizational blogs are meant to facilitate communications between its internal and external audiences. It may also provide information for the external publics’ use.

Business blogs promote products or services for profit. They also increase awareness about the company, as well as establish itself as an authority with customers, vendors, through publications that demonstrate their expertise in the market.

What are the kinds of contents that readers can find in a blog that’s for distribution? The authors’ ideas, opinions, expertise in his/her field of work, resumes, and home recipes, pictures, streaming audio or video clips, ebooks, poetry, works, products, services and consultations.

Why have blogs become very popular compared to websites or email? Most websites are infrequently updated, while blogs have instant publishing tools which permit the author to regularly update & introduce new content. Although both have great content, websites are usually impersonal in informing their audience. While blogs allow the readers to leave their comments and feedback, to hold twoconversations with the author, who usually does the publishing and can immediately respond to his/her readers.

The blogs’ abilities to reach and immediately react to an expanding mass of audience have made businesses and marketers use these as a strategic marketing tool. Additionally blogs are very efficient, cheap to use and can quickly distribute information.

However, before you decide to jump on the blogging bandwagon, take time to find out what are your objectives for creating your own blog. Is it a personal, organizational or business blog? This will help you decide on what your blog will contain, where you’d place it and what publishing tools you’ll be using.

Copyright 2005 Mal Keenan

About The Author

For more information on blogging and other aspects of Internet Marketing and Home Business visit Mal Keenanกs personal blog: http://www.homebusinesstipsnewsletter.com/blog/

This article was posted on April 10

by Mal Keenan

Hubris definition: Microsoftกs Passport

Hubris definition: Microsoftกs Passport

by: Stephen Bucaro

Before September of 1995, Microsoft ignored the Internet because their 16bit Windows 3.1 operating system couldn’t handle the 32bit Internet world. With the introduction of Windows 95, Microsoft decided they owned the Internet.

Instead of having separate accounts at dozens of websites, Microsoft decided that you will have one master account that you will use to log in everywhere. That account will contain your credit card number, bank account numbers, all your personal information and financial records, and Microsoft will own that account.

Well, Microsoft IS the United Stateกs government condoned monopoly, so 200 million Internet users, and 100 major web companies dutifully signed up for Microsoftกs Passport wallet service.

In 1999, Internet authorities discovered Microsoftกs passport service had numerous security holes, and hackers could steal your personal information. In 2001, the Federal Trade Commission admonished Microsoft for not adhering to their own privacy policy. In 2003, Microsoft purged all the financial records from its Passport servers.

Millions of users continue to sign up for Passport because of the convenience it offers. Nearly 100 websites use Passport as their authentication method. Users don’t need to remember separate usernames and passwords for each website. They can log in to all of them using a single email address. Some of the websites let you register without a Passport accont, but others, especially Microsoft owned websites, require you to have a Passport account.

If you sign up for Microsoft Network (MSN) or for a free Hotmail email account, you will be forced to sign up for Microsoftกs Passport wallet service. You can sign up for a Passport account with a nonMicrosoft email account at Microsoftกs Passport website.

To sign up, you need only an email address and a password. After you sign up, you can choose to add personal information to your profile. Then you can indicate if you want to share your information with companies that use Passport. If you choose to share your personal information, be aware that Microsoft shares it with every passport website you visit, and those websites are not required to adhere to Microsoftกs privacy policy.

The Internet does not need a master account repository for users personal information. Users don’t need to remember separate usernames and passwords for each website. Every Internet user has memorized two or three different email addresses and half a dozen different passwords that they use everywhere.

If an Internet master account repositiory is desired, it should NOT be owned or operated by Microsoft. A repository of personal account information must be operated by an honest, independant company.

Note: In April 2000, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft violated two sections of the 1890 Sherman Act. He concluded that Microsoft was an illegal monopoly that used anticompetitive means to maintain its dominance in Intelbased operating systems.

Copyright(C) Bucaro TecHelp.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

About The Author

To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp

This article was posted on September 24, 2004

by Stephen Bucaro

Searches and Summaries

Searches and Summaries

by: Ron Tower

The Web is constantly growing and changing. The key issue for users of the Web is to know what is there that might help them, or inform them, or entertain them, and to find out in a timely fashion without spending all their time looking. There are two main ways to do this, searches and summaries.

The most common way that users today find the information they want on the Web is by doing a search using one of the many search engines such a Google (www.google.com). You enter keywords and the search engine sorts through all the pages that it has indexed and tries to give you the most relevant results. Even with this a search often returns thousands of hits. Also, since new pages are being added every day and many pages are constantly changing to reflect the current news or information, the search results may change over time. And slight changes in the keywords can also result in very different search results. Even with these limitations though, searches often provide the quickest and easiest way to find what you want.

If you think of the Web as one huge, constantly changing book, search is like looking up words in an index and then going to the pages indicated to see if they contain what you are looking for. Another way we find what we want in books is the table of contents. This provides a summary outline of what is in the book. It is hard to imagine a table of contents for the whole Web though. For one thing, the Web is different than a book in that the pages are not intended to be read in sequence. You enter and leave pages on the Web following links.

But there is something like a table of contents for the Web in that it organizes the Webกs contents into a high level summary view, and that is a Web directory. Yahoo provides one of the oldest of these (http://dir.yahoo.com) and there is a public domain Web directory that is available many places including the Google Directory (http://www.google.com/dirhp). A directory is a hierarchy of knowledge categories or subjects with links and descriptions provided under the categories. The general directories are huge themselves, so in turn it is useful to search them.

A variation on this is a personal Web directory or knowledge base. This has the same structure as these large public directories but is more focused on the particular interests of a person or group. Whole subtrees of the personal Web directory can be shared with others. A rather limited version of this is the bookmarks or favorites that we keep in our Web browsers, but the personal Web directory allows for better visualization of the information and adding more related information.

Another type of summary that is becoming very widely used is RSS feeds. These are a list of headlines with summary descriptions. The user can then click on a link to see the details. This is especially useful for sites such as news sites or Web logs where information is changing frequently. But they are by no means limited to that. Individual users can read just the feeds they are interested in using an RSS reader (http://blogspace.com/rss/readers). Web site owners provide these useful summaries in hopes that people will want to see the details and click through to their site.

Another variation on this theme of providing useful summary content in hope that users will click through is the proliferation of free content that can be added to Web sites. For example, a weather site might provide a weather sticker that shows a summary of the weather in a town. This is useful in itself. The users then may be more likely to click through to see details. Much of this is intended for Web site developers (for example, see http://freesticky.com), but it could also be used by individual users with the appropriate tool.

Another useful form of summary is a personal portal such as My Yahoo (http://my.yahoo.com) or My Way (http://my.myway.com). These allow the user to select from a collection of information modules and arrange them in different ways on a page that they can view to get a summary view. These portals are typically restricted to the specific content modules that they provide and are oriented toward a generic audience.

One more form of summary is an alert or vital sign. These provide timely notifications, perhaps using an icon that changes colors, of an important event. This approach has been used for years for network and operations management and is now starting to come into use for individuals.

These examples of summaries all fall within a category of tools called information aggregators. Information aggregators provide a summary view of what information is available and allow the user to go to the information source for the details. At this point these different types of summary tools are not usually well integrated.

The next generation of information aggregators will support much greater integration, a wider variety of information modules, and narrowcasting to more specific information communities. For example, see Personal Watchkeeper (http://www.sugarloafsw.com).

So the two most important tools for getting the most out of the Web are search engines and information aggregators. These provide searches and summaries, which are really the way we have always tried to make the best use of large collections of information. Search engines are well developed and widely used. Information aggregators are coming on fast.

About The Author

Ron Tower is the President of Sugarloaf Software and is the developer of Personal Watchkeeper, an information aggregator supporting a variety of ways to summarize the Web.

http://www.sugarloafsw.com

This article was posted on December 02, 2004

by Ron Tower

10 Benefits to Becoming a Coach

10 Benefits to Becoming a Coach

by: David Wood

Coaching is a very personal experience, but we all share in the benefits that coaching brings to our clients and ourselves. If you’re thinking of becoming a coach, this list may persuade you to take the leap. If you’re already a coach, it will remind you how lucky you are!

1) Coaching is extremely fulfilling

You get to partner with people in whichever area is MOST important to them right now. You can make an enormous difference to their life, and watch the results unfold. Find out what areas are most fulfilling for you, and work with clients who are pursuing them.

2) Coaching lets you work from home or anywhere else!

Stroll around your front yard using a cordless headset phone, coach from a quiet meeting room at work, or even from the beach. Due to the growing popularity of phone coaching, you can now travel or live in any country in the world, and keep your coaching practice going.

3) Set your own work hours e.g. Mon to Wed, 10am – 1pm?

You decide when you coach, and when you’ll have free time to create other projects. Prefer to coach in the evenings? Want 2 hours for lunch? It’s your choice.

4) Coaching pays well

Good coaches are exceeding six figure incomes. Suppose you charged in your early stages only $250 per month and provided 30 minute sessions. You could spend two days a week coaching 20 clients, and still make $60,000 that year. And, if you worked up to 30 clients at $400 per month, we’re talking $144,000 for coaching three days a week.

5) Coaching offers you your own business with VERY low overhead

Running your own business gives you a LOT of freedom and room for creativity. And there are not many businesses you can enter with the investment of nothing but your coach training, a computer and a phone. You can also transition safely into the profession by developing a client base BEFORE you cut back to 3 days a week at your regular job, or even quit.

6) Coaching creates continual personal growth

By asking a lot of your clients, youกll find you naturally begin to ask a lot of yourself. You cannot help but grow and expand, and achieve results as you ask them to grow and expand, and achieve results. Imagine reaching a startling insight for yourself in a coaching session, and you’re getting paid for it!

7) Your personal development is tax deductible!

Any course you do related to personal growth, including any travel you need to do to take the training, is generally tax deducible (check with your accountant). Want to learn Reiki? Yoga? Management skills? If you’re passing it on to your clients and getting paid for it, itกs a business expense.

8) Coaching allows you to network with other winning coaches

You become part of a dynamic worldwide community. Need a contact in London? Visa information for Canada? Advise on coaching while traveling the world? Youกll find the coaching community surprisingly generous and supportive.

9) Coaching equals creativity

Coaching clients regularly is an amazing structure for creativity in your life. The world becomes a huge palette where your job is to help brainstorm ideas and strategies for your clients. Itกs impossible for you to not come up with ideas and strategies for yourself and those around you! A new book? A series of audio tapes? How to reduce hunger? A web course for girls hitting puberty? Who knows where you will end up!

10) Get in at the ground floor of an emerging profession

As a profession, coaching is in its infancy. It is less than 15 years old in the US. If you start now, in five years you could be a leader in your profession.

By David Wood and Geoff Grist

I encourage you to share, replicate or forward this article as long as the author links, and copyright information are kept intact.

About The Author

David Wood is a Certified Life Coach. He helps coaches, consultants, speakers and trainers to build their businesses via his popular eBook http://10SuperCoaches.com and his audio eBook at http://www.FirstFiftyClients.com. Get his new Free Download ก50 Power Questionsก and popular monthly eZine for clients at coaches (now over 15,000 subscribers) at:

http://www.solutionbox.com/freedownload.htm

Web site: www.solutionbox.com

Copyright 2004 SolutionBox™ and Life Coaching Resource.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 16

by David Wood

Creating Personal Web Sites

Creating Personal Web Sites

by: Ashish Jain

This is a twopart article about creating a web site on the web and the tools that you need to do that.

During the last decade we have truly entered the information age. More and more people are becoming a part of the ever growing and wondrous community called the Internet. It was just over a decade ago that ‘Internet’ was just another new concept that a lot of people were skeptical about. Today however, it would be difficult to imagine living in the world without this amazing phenomenon. It really has enabled humans to reach new heights.

Some basic terminology that you should take a look at before proceeding further:

Web Page: A document that contains information created with the help of HTML.

Web Site: A collection of web pages on a particular subject.

HTML: Also known as Hyper Text Markup Language, this is used for the creation of web pages. Information is written in between HTML tags ( ) to instruct the web page as to how information will be displayed. You can also put images into the web page by using this language. Some other languages like JavaScript, VB script, ASP, ASP.NET etc. are also used to display dynamic content on web pages and for performing user driver events.

There are basically two main categories of web sites:

Personal web site: These include websites that are about individual human beings/people.

Business web site: Includes web sites that advertise and inform users about the products and services that a company is selling.

This article will deal with creating personal web sites and putting them on the web.

You too can make your presence felt on the web (if you have not already done so) by creating a web site.

The demand and popularity of personal web sites have increased at a great rate since the start of the web. People have found web sites a great way to express themselves.

A personal web site is your message center where you can upload information about friends and family and share them with the rest of the world. They can even act as a personal Blog (online journal).

Having a personal web site on the Internet has a lot of advantages:

Gives you the freedom of selfexpression. You can tell the world about your favorite hobbies, special interests, post your resume etc. for the whole world to see.

Ability to keep in touch share your life) with friend and family who are far away.

Great opportunity for making new friends and forming online communities.

Now comes the question of actually creating a web site. Surprisingly it is not a difficult task at all. In fact there are a lot of web sites that will provide you with all the tools you need to create your own web site and put it on the web, and you do not even have to know HTML to make them!

You do not even have to worry about buying up web space; almost all these sites will provide you with free hosting services. The only disadvantage is that they will probably put in banners (advertisements) of their sponsors on the site.

For example:

http://geocities.yahoo.com/

members.lycos.com

These are two of the most popular web sites where you can create your own web pages. Yahoo gives you multiple options for creating web pages. It has yahoo page wizard and yahoo page builder, which are two very powerful yet simple editors for creating pages and have a point and click interface.

http://www.webspawner.com/

http://maxpages.com/

www.expage.com/

These are some other sites where you can create your own web pages. You can also search on the Internet for more sites like these as well. All you need to do is register and then you can create your own web pages.

However, there is one little drawback when creating a site on these sites: you do not get your own personal domain name, so the address of your web site will be something like http://www.site_where_you_registered.com/yourname

Where ‘yourname’ is the name under which you registered.

However, taking everything into consideration, this is the simplest way to get on the web and start expressing yourself.

About The Author

Ashish Jain

M6.Net Web Helpers

http://www.m6.net

This article was posted on April 03

by Ashish Jain

Build Relationships

Build Relationships

by: George Torok

Personal marketing makes it easier to sell, by building relationships nurtured on awareness, value and trust. Make your relationships more fruitful by making them personal. Use these powerful yet simple tips from the book, Secrets of Power Marketing; Canadaกs first guide to personal marketing for nonmarketers.
Say thank you
Everyone wants to hear ‘thank youก. The easiest way to say thank you is verbally but the most powerful and memorable is with a hand written note. We receive so few hand written notes that we read them first and value them because we know you took the time to write it personally. Say thank you to your clients for the opportunity to work with them. Say thank you for considering you even if they did not hire you. There are so many opportunities to say thank you; thanks for the lead, information, invitation, advice, idea, introduction, publishing your article,…
Say Congratulations
The cousin to ‘thank youก is กcongratulationsก. Congrats on becoming president of the association, getting the new job, appearing in the paper, completing a successful project, volunteering for a charity, winning the award, being nominated, expanding the business, opening a new office,.. This is a great way to make first contact with a prospect or key influencer.
Send postcards
Open your mail. What do you find? bills, junk, flyers, post card. What do you read first? I read the post card to see whom it is from? When you travel, (on business or vacation), send post cards to your important clients and prospects. Keep your message simple and sign your full name clearly. Even when you don’t travel use post cards to stay in touch, say thank you or congratulations. You could use postcards of a local attraction or print your own customized cards. I keep a supply of Canadian flag post cards handy.
Send books
Most receive and throw away a lot of business cards. But when we receive a book we keep it and put in on a shelf. We might even read it or at least glance at it. If you wrote a book give it away it is your best brochure. If you have not yet written a book you can still give books as a gift. Give a book that supports your message or one that you know your prospect will love. Check with the authors they might give you a deal if you buy a bunch.
Build relationships with your clients and prospects.

About The Author

© George Torok is coauthor of the national bestseller, Secrets of Power Marketing Canadaกs first guide to personal marketing for nonmarketers. To arrange for George Torok to work with your organizations visit www.Torok.com or call 8003041861

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 14, 2004

by George Torok

Personal Firewalls for Home Users

Personal Firewalls for Home Users

by: Pawan Bangar

What is a Firewall?

The term กfirewallก illustrates a system that protects a network and the machines on them from various types of attack. Firewalls are geared towards keeping the server up all the time and protecting the entire network.

The primary goal of a firewall is to implement a desired security policy; controlling access in both directions through the firewall, and to protect the firewall itself from compromise. It wards off intrusion attempts, Trojans and other malicious attacks.

Personal Firewalls:

They are meant for the home user in a networked environment. They aim to block simple attacks, unlike the enterprise level firewalls that the corporate world uses at the server or router end. There are many ways to implement a firewall, each with specific advantages and disadvantages.

Are they really needed?

Nowadays organizations and professionals use Internet technology to establish their online presence and showcase their products and services globally. Their endeavor is to leverage digital technology to make their business work for them.

All the organizations and professionals are shifting from Dialup to broadband and getting a fixed IP. It has led to an increase in security attacks, bugs in everyday working. This does not mean that Dialup being anonymous dynamic link or the firewall of the ISP network make you pretty safe.

Now if your machine was under attack, you must have wondered what went wrong making your system crash suddenly. So I would rather like to say, it’s not necessary for anyone to actually know about you or your IP address to gain access to your system.

If you system is infected or prone to intrusions, then beyond the anonymity of your Dialup connection or a dynamic IP, your system can be hacked.

Types of Attacks

Intrusion:

There are many ways to gain unauthorized access to a system. Operating system vulnerabilities, cracked or guessed passwords are some of the more common. Once access is attained, the intruder can send email, tamper with data, or use the system privileges to attack another system.

Information Theft and Tampering:

Data theft and tampering do not always require that the system be compromised. There have been many bugs with FTP servers that allow attackers to download password files or upload Trojan horses.

Service Attacks:

Any attack that keeps the intended user from being able to use the services provided by their servers is considered a denial of service attack. There are many types of denial of service attacks, and unfortunately are very difficult to defend against. กMail bombsก are one example in which an attacker repeatedly sends large mail files in the attempt at filling the server’s disk filesystem thus preventing legitimate mail from being received.

Types of Attackers

Joyrider:

Not all attacks on computer systems are malicious. Joyriders are just looking for fun. Your system may be broken into just because it was easy, or to use the machine as a platform to attack others. It may be difficult to detect intrusion on a system that is used for this purpose. If the log files are modified, and if everything appears to be working, you may never know.

Vandals:

A vandal is malicious. They break in to delete files or crash computer systems either because they don’t like you, or because they enjoy destroying things. If a vandal breaks into your computer, you will know about it right away. Vandals may also steal secrets and target your privacy.

ขIn an incident a Trojan was being used to operate the web cam. All the activities being done in the house were being telecasted on the websites.ข

Spies:

Spies are out to get secret information. It may be difficult to detect breakins by spies since they will probably leave no trace if they get what they are looking for.

A personal firewall, therefore, is one of the methods you can use to deny such intrusions.

How Firewalls work?

Firewalls basically work as a filter between your application and network connection. They act as gatekeepers and as per your settings, show a port as open or closed for communication. You can grant rights for different applications to gain access to the internet and also in a reverse manner by blocking outside applications trying to use ports and protocols and preventing attacks. Hence you can block ports that you don’t use or even block common ports used by Trojans.

Using Firewalls you can also block protocols, so restricting access to NetBIOS will prevent computers on the network from accessing your data. Firewalls often use a combination of ports, protocols, and application level security to give you the desired security.

Firewalls are configured to discard packets with particular attributes such as:

Specific source or destination IP addresses.

Specific protocol types

TCP flags set/clear in the packet header.

Choosing a firewall:

Choose the firewalls which have the ability to ward of all intrusion attempts, control applications that can access the internet, preventing the malicious scripts or controls from stealing information or uploading files and prevent Trojans and other backdoor agents from running as servers.

The purpose of having a firewall cannot be diminished in order to gain speed. However, secure, highperformance firewalls are required to remove the bottleneck when using high speed Internet connections. The WorldWideWeb makes possible the generation of enormous amounts of traffic at the click of a mouse.

Some of the good firewall performers available in the market are below:

BlackICE Defender

eSafe Desktop

McAfee Personal Firewall

Neowatch

Norton Personal Firewall

PGP Desktop Security

Sygate Personal Firewalls

Tiny Personal Firewall

Zone Alarm

Zone Alarm Pro

Most of these firewalls are free for personal use or offer a free trial period. All the personal firewalls available can’t ensure 100% security for your machine. Regular maintenance of the machine is needed for ensuring safety.

Some of the tasks advised for maintaining system not prone to intrusions:

Disable file and print sharing if you are not going to be on network.

Update your antivirus signature files regularly.

Use a specialized Trojan cleaner.

Regular apply security patches to your software and operating system.

Don’t open email attachments if you have don’t know the contents it may contain.

Don’t allow unknown applications to access to the internet or to your system.

Regularly check log files of your personal firewall and antivirus software.

Disable ActiveX and java and uninstall windows scripting host if not required.

Turn off Macros in Applications like Microsoft Office and turn macro protection on.

Check the open ports of your system and see them against the common list of Trojans ports to see if they are being used by some Trojan.

Log Off from your internet connection if not required. Being online on the internet for long duration gives any intruder more and sufficient time to breach system security.

Unplug peripherals like web cam, microphone if they are not being used.

About The Author

Pawan Bangar,

Technical Director,

Birbals,India

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 08, 2004

by Pawan Bangar

If Networking Is So Hot….

If Networking Is So Hot….

by: Linda Carlson

If Networking Is So Hot, Why Aren’t I Rich?

How to make todayกs NEW streamlined กnetworkingก work!

By Linda Blew Carlson

Before we start, please note that in this article กMLMก and กNetworkingก are interchangeable.

The hottest business opportunities today use กnetwork marketing.ก Almost everyone has been a distributor for an MLM (the former word for networking) company or has had a relative or a friend who was/is. On the Internet it is called running an affiliate program. Being successful in a กnetworkingก business today depends on two things.

1. Knowing your inborn talents and skills

2. Communicating effectively

People begin a networking business with the hope that a significant income and personal freedom are right around the corner. They use MLM with the กpeopletopeopleก method or they find the Internet more desirable.

Using the Internet means not having to make facetoface contact and it provides access to so many people that it is easy to play a กnumbersgame.ก

A few successful MLMers evaluate a programs by asking themselves, กIs this exciting, significant, and earth shaking enough to make me some money?ก If their gut instinct says, กYes,ก many กget in, grab cash, and move on.ก Those directly below them, the ordinary guys, usually work hard and make กsomeก money. Most lose money, or if they are very lucky, break even.

Then there are the people who want to stick to something and make it work for them longterm. They check things out carefully and decide whether the company is reliable. They ask themselves, กIs this product something everyone will need?ก They are willing to be patient and build slowly. They aren’t as exciting as they want to be and don’t attract as many people as they had hoped.

This sets up the กgrass is greener on the other sideก syndrome. What people forget is their own personal nature! Too often they quit tryingbefore they make their dream come true.

A Recent Survey Says…

Negative network marketing experiences have taken their toll. A recent survey indicates that there are two issues that preoccupy most promising recruits.

กI have never gotten real help when I asked for it. I was treated like a number. So, I have decided กnetworkingก is not for me.ก

กI want to do something I like to do!ก ก

To address these issues look at what most people believe when they get involved in a networking business. These beliefs shape what people expect from you and how they work the business.

Belief #1

My business will give me more free time than a ‘regularก job.

The Problem: Successful networking depends on lots of committed time. Free time is eaten up by the attempt to กgetก more recruits. You may want to get someone to share the load, but they usually don’t do the job.

The Solution: A system which lets you share the time commitment with others who really will do the job because you are helping them use their personal strengths.

BELIEF #2:

To be successful at any networking requires กsorting through a bucket of rocksก in order to find a กgolden nugget.ก

The Problem: The กgold nuggetก is that perfect business building person who will; identify with the product, be willing to make a consistent and dedicated effort, and is skilled enough to become a success (or at least follow the directions of others who are).

Thus sales and recruiting become a numbers game that says, กSee enough people and some of them will say, กYes.ก Sorting rocks usually results in discouragement.

The Solution: Identify the natural talents and skills the กgoldก in everyone.

BELIEF #3:

To be successful requires you to follow the companyกs proven system.

The Problem: The companyกs system and its specific methods may not fit your กnaturalก style. Following a proven system is giving up your decisionmaking power to กapeก the leaders.

The Solution:Identify your natural strengths and shape your business by and around them.

BELIEF #4:

Maintaining enthusiasm is the key to success.

The Problem:You have to depend on others to help you stay enthusiastic. Pressures distract you and deflate your enthusiasm, so you seek meetings, seminars, books and tapes to help you.

The Solution: Find a way to keep enthusiasm constant and selfgenerated in yourself and others.

The Real Questions to Ask Yourself Are…

กWhat are my กnaturalก strengths?ก

กWhat makes me กenjoyก work?ก

This may generate more questions like; กCan I identify my inborn talents and skills and those of others without lengthy training? Will this make me effective in networking?ก You may ask, กDoes this automatically help a normal person generate enthusiasm from the inside?ก Research shouts a resounding, กYes!ก

~ ~ ~

Linda Carlson is the GM for Focus II, LLC, a company that identifies anyoneกs inborn talents and skills (Natural Style). Then it provides ways to achieve success and enjoy personal satisfaction by using the Natural Style. Teams that use the system to maximize the natural strengths and skills of each member are among the nationกs top producers. http://www.styleworks4u.com

About The Author

Linda Blew Carlson

Linda Blew Carlson has been involved in personal development for over twentyfive years as a seeker, teacher, public speaker, author, counselor, workshop leader, and business owner.

A student of nine languages and avid observer of human behavior around the world, she began original research into the nature of the mind in learning.

She has studied and practiced a variety of traditional and modern learning techniques and approaches with a variety of teachers.

A graduate of the University of Utah, Linda also has completed all but the dissertation for a Ph.D. in German, studying Comparative Literature along with private studies in psychology, attitudinal change, and controlling thoughts.

She is a long time student of contemporary (POP) psychology, and the effects of a wide range of neurotechnologies on human change, learning and healing. She has participated in a wide range of contemporary methods of personal development and growth.

She is known for her ability to explain difficult subjects in a way that makes them easy to understand.

Linda is an author, poet, sculptor, artist, singer, musician, clothing designer, seamstress, and a true entrepreneur. She has written and directed a PBS special called กLearning to Learnก and a hosted a weekly radio show called กWinning Womenก.

She is married to her partner, Tom Carlson, and is the mother of two; Sonya and Sara.

Linda has been invited to appear as a guest on local radio and TV shows across the U.S., and over the years has taught a wide range of workshops and seminars. In the past she has consulted with third world nations concerning advancing their educational systems.

She terminated her consultations after being held hostage in a Middle Eastern country. She continues to conduct her own private counseling practice utilizing cognitive techniques and ICTech® to accelerate learning and alter unwanted personal habits.

After fifteen years of personal experimentation and study, Linda started FOCUS I, Inc. in 1982 when neighbors kept insisting that she help their children overcome learning difficulties. (At one point her back yard had a path worn in the lawn from the passage of forty two students per week.)

Since then, the resulting ICTech® technology has grown to include many thousands of participants across the world. In her role as President of FOCUS I, Inc., Linda is the creator of ICTech® (Individualized Communication Technology).

This article was posted on March 16, 2004

by Linda Carlson

What is Blogger.com?

What is Blogger.com?

by: Jakob Jelling

In the late 1990’s three San Francisco based web developers came up with the idea of being able to share information about anything on the web. The terminology they used was called blog. Itกs use was considered a mix of web page / personal journal. Itกs original usages were vast and wide, but more and more people came to use them as a personal tool that is available anywhere the Internet is. The three friends would eventually create Blogger.com one of the largest blogger sites on the Internet today. Blogger, which stands for Web Logger, has increased in popularity over the past three years. There has been so much interest in what capabilities it holds Google.com purchased them. Eventually, Google assimilated their technologies and imported them into the popular plugin, The Google Toolbar.

Blogger.com allows a user to create a userid. Depending on the userid and password the user creates a specialized link namely ขyourlinkname.blogspot.comข. This space can be saved as a bookmark and published to the public or through a distribution list to a select few people. Your site is logged as a ขwebringข type of atmosphere, should you decide to take the information public. You can see all users who have published blogs and even enter in information on the blogs should they let you. Discussion groups and personal files are housed all within this environment making it a fun place to surf about and learn about different people and things.

You can create a private discussion group and send out information via email to let people know when content or a thread has changed. Blog is like a portal for individuals, instead of business. There are many robust features involved to keep your blog private should you not want to share information publicly. Its interface even includes a word processing editor so you can format the background and font all from one simple location. The ideas are simple; you can share information around the world without having to let everyone on the Internet community know your blog exists.

The necessity for a personal online portal or ขblogข has considerable potential, as the Internet continues to evolve.

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

This article was posted on August 23, 2004

by Jakob Jelling

A Typical Frustration In A HomeBased Business

A Typical Frustration In A HomeBased Business

by: Kirk Bannerman

The source of frustration addressed in his article may be all too familiar if you happen to work at an Internetbased home business which relies on personal relationships and/or teamwork.

I am often contacted by members of my business team with a tale of woe regarding a lack of response from their affiliates. It typically goes something like…กI send out lots of emails to all of them and I very rarely get any response. What am I doing wrongก.

If your particular internet business involves selling well known branded items, personal feedback is not an issue. Visitors to your website (potential customers) are primarily interested in selection, availability, and price. If it is a returning customer, then you can also throw customer service into the equation. Once the desired item is selected, your mouse does all the ‘talkingก without any human interaction involved.

However, there are many types of internetbased home businesses where feedback and interaction are quite important and getting an affiliate or business team member to communicate with you is a definite objective. Itกs not at all surprising that this can be a challenge when you stop to think that what you are trying to do is initiate a dialog between two complete strangers who have never even seen each other.

Heavily branded websites like walmart.com or amazon.com are household names and carry an implied trust with visitors. However, the vast majority of websites are not well known and are found and visited as a result of searches performed by search engines. In these instances, the visitor is probably arriving at the website for the first time and human nature often dictates a sense of fear or suspicion of the unknown which is manifested by a reluctance to respond to email messages from an unknown party.

It seems that there is no pat answer as to the best way to elicit an initial email response from a person. I have tried several approaches with varying degrees of success. Individual styles will vary, but the following four points should be kept in mind:

you need to build trust & credibility with thorough knowledge of your business and with straight forward talk about realistic expectations

don’t oversell or indulge in hype as many people are expecting this and it can be an immediate turnoff

send messages with at least one openended question that requires a response

keep the messages fairly brief, long winded messages that go on and on quite frequently will not be read

One other thing to keep in mind is that your messages may not even be reaching the intended recipient and they have no opportunity to give you a reply. At the end of your messages you might want to ask the recipient to send you a return email just saying กgot itก.

We all agree that spam is a very serious problem. These days, many email providers and ISPs have appointed themselves to be the กinformation policeก and are employing various schemes to try to recognize and block messages that constitute spam. Unfortunately, these mail filtering or blocking techniques are often very inaccurate and many messages that people actually want to receive are arbitrarily being sent off into the ozone.

I have some first hand experience with this situation. Not long ago, the ISP that my mother was using suddenly decided that she would not be allowed to receive messages from me! It took us a while to figure out what was going on, but once we did, that ISP was history as far as my mother was concerned.

In the final analysis, all you can do is give it your best shot. Some people will respond, some won’t…and the beat goes on. Remember, itกs nothing personal, just human nature at work.

About The Author

Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and resides in California. For more details, visit his website at http://businessathome.us

This article was posted on February 17, 2004

by Kirk Bannerman