Sunday, December 11, 2011

CRM Applications


Customer relationship management is a vital task for any business as, without customers, the vast majority of companies would not be able to survive. CRM can often be labour-intensive and involves spending resources on customer service and other aspects of the business to ensure the best possible customer experience possible. However, it is possible to make some parts of CRM more efficient and easier to manage. A good example of this is CRM software, which has several important applications that can benefit companies of all sizes.

Know your customers
As you might expect from the name, one of the main applications of CRM software is to enable businesses to get to know their customers better. For instance, which customers use the business most frequently? Who are the most profitable customers? What do they buy? Which are your most popular products? Do they respond to marketing or special money off promotions?

Knowing information such as this about your customers can help you to tailor your business to them better, which can in turn help you to generate more revenue as a result.

Develop marketing
Linked to this is the issue of marketing, which is something else that good CRM systems can help you with. For instance, one you know who your most profitable customers are, you will be able to use that information to develop more targeted marketing campaigns that are likely to appeal to them. If you know what they tend to buy and the kind of money they are willing to spend on those items, you can develop campaigns especially for them – and it can even give you a better idea of where you might like to take your product line or how to develop your services in the future, so it’s definitely worth considering.

Carry out regular processes
Another benefit of having a CRM system is that it can carry out regular processes for you. Just as you can use payroll software to carry out calculations and make sure payslips go out on time every month, so you can also use CRM software for similar purposes. As an example, email newsletters are a common marketing tool used by millions of businesses, as they provide a good way of contacting a large group of customers at the same time.

CRM systems often come with useful templates that you can use for your newsletters, as well as enabling you to set up email lists of contacts you want your correspondence to go to, making the whole process much faster than it would otherwise be.

Track results and ROI
CRM solutions also enable businesses to track the results of their actions. This is arguably one of its most important applications as learning from the results of previous activity is vital when businesses are looking to move forward. For example, you can use CRM software to compare sales results before and after a marketing to campaign to determine whether you have got a good return on your investment. At a time when every penny counts in business, this is certainly one application of CRM solutions that all businesses are sure to appreciate.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Benefits of Compliance Training


Regardless of the current economic and regulatory climate, compliance training should be a key priority of all organisations. Prioritising compliance leads to improvements in many aspects of any organisation: from workplace culture, staff motivation, efficiency, avoiding legal violations and issues, encouraging transparency, and reducing business risk. Compliance can support any organisation in ensuring that it meets legal obligations and standards. In this article, we take a closer look at how compliance training benefits organisations in many ways.

1. Encouraging a Better Workplace Culture
Employees who understand expectations, obligations, and standards, toward their role, their clients, as well as their colleagues will tend to be more confident and respectful. While these issues may be covered during induction training, these programs tend to be superficial and lack specificity. Providing adequate training lets staff know that their development is being taken seriously, and properly integrated into the rest of your organisation. It may also help set the tone for better workplace culture.

2. Matching the Pace of Change
Businesses run the risk of violating the law if they fail to keep up with the latest changes, particularly in industries subject to frequent regulatory change. For this reason, many organisations opt for at least annual or semi-annual training programs to keep staff well-informed.

3. Business Efficiency and Productivity
In any organisation, staff knowledge and skills are a key driving force for business efficiency and productivity. In some industries, such as financial services and other specialist industries that are subject to complex regulation, compliance can be crucial to productivity.

Productivity is improved when senior managers and staff can act confidently and make the correct decisions. Keeping staff well trained with respect to compliance also assists in making sure that the organisation as a whole avoids costly errors which can result in fines or other legal sanctions.

4. Standardisation and Uniformity
Compliance training encourages standardisation and uniformity across the organisation. Whether it’s reflected the product, the advice, or a key process, clients appreciate consistency. Furthermore, at more general level, a high degree of standardisation and uniformity will assist with legal compliance and business strategy.

As compliance can reach into so many areas of the organisation, effective compliance training can result in employee behaviour and decision making that more closely reflects the company mission.

5. Transparency
Transparency through reporting
Uniformity and adhering to procedures as a matter of compliance tends to encourage transparency within any organisation. Whether it’s a process, operational, in areas such as record management, reporting, occupation health and safety, or client privacy, employee behaviour and decision making tends to be much more transparent, and is more readily tracked where there is a compliance training program in place.

6. Risk Management
Learning Management System
Compliance is not least among factors that can affect to business or organisational risk. As the labour force is a central area of any organisation and compliance has such a broad reach, good compliance training programs can help significantly reduce risk. Exposure to risk arising from the production process, product or service delivery, information management, customer relations – these are just some of the sources of risk that can be effectively managed by addressing compliance. Clearly, compliance training programs, which can be delivered via flexible learning management system, can bring benefits at all levels to organisations.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

5 Places to Invest

*Please note: Investment advice is a reflection of the opinion of the guest poster and not blog admin. Blog admin recommends you consult a qualified professional for your investment advice.

Finances have been tight globally over the past year and a half, but as the markets pick up again it is time to reconsider where your money is invested. This brief article will explain some of the wisest investments you can make from fixed rate bonds to property investment.

1. Buy a property

The best, but least flexible, way to invest your money is by putting it into property. Investing in bricks and mortar will practically guarantee a steady rate of return if you invest wisely. Make sure you utilise property valuation software and do your research on the area and the property before investing because a wise investment will provide much larger returns. This option will tie up your money for a long-term period but will enable you to reap large benefits.

2. Get a fixed rate bond

If you are able to tie some of your money up for a long-term period then getting a fixed rate bond is a very wise investment. Generally the interest rates on a fixed rate bond will be far higher than in an easy access account and it will enable you to earn some extra money whilst your cash sits safely.
Opting for a one or two year bond is the best option in the current climate because it will enable you to reconsider after a period of time and see if there are better and more competitive rates available to you. There are also options for Christmas bonds which will allow you access to your money in time for the Christmas expenditure on December 1st. Whilst this will have a slightly lower rate of interest it will enable you to earn some more value over a short period of time without limiting your chance for celebrations at the end of the year.

3. Get the best easy access savings account

If you are unable to tie your money up for long periods of time for any reason then it is prudent to shop around for the best easy access account. There is huge variation between the offers of banks and the interest rates for easy access savings accounts.

This account will provide you with a better rate of interest than a normal credit or savings account and will still enable you to get easy access to your funds. Be sure to shop around for the best deal because you will be able to find options which are dramatically better than other offers.

4.Get the best current account

It is almost unbelievable but you can sometimes get a better rate of interest on some current accounts than you can even on savings accounts. There is often variation on interest depending on the amount of funds you have in any particular account. It can make the difference between 3.5% and 0.1% interest returns on your money. Often there will be a cap around $3,000 - $5,000 at which point the interest rate will drop dramatically. Be sure to make note of the limits and remain within them to ensure the best returns on your cash.

5. Get an index tracking fund

An index tracking fund will automatically invest in the top 100 stocks in the market of your choice. If the stocks rise then so will your fund but if it drops then so will the value of your fund. This is a higher risk of investment but can potentially see excellent returns on your investment.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Auto Insurance Savings for College Students

The National Association of Insurance Companies (NAIC) has some good advice for parents: Make sure your college-bound children’s cars have auto insurance policies when they are away at college. Much of the time, this is not the case. Many parents have and their tenens have rude awakenings when the insurance company denies a claim for no coverage or a policy exclusion. This is not something you'd expect when paying so much to send your kids to college.

College Homework Brings Insurance Savings

It can be so expensive to insure college-age children. They are in an age group that has one of the highest incidences of auto accidents, and insurance companies tend to charge high premiums because of it. Even though this is true, college students can find great auto insurance rates if they do their homework.

It may be cheaper to buy a policy for a college student in the town where they will be living. Try getting insurance quotes in the college's zip code. It might be smarter to have your child establish residency in the town where they attend school. If it turns out it would be more cost-effective to keep children on their hometown policies, take the time to ensure coverage extends to other states as well. Every state has its own minimum insurance requirements, so you need to be sure your policy carries enough coverage to meet those minimums. For instance, if your child attends school in New York, chances are the minimum liability limits in your state are not enough to meet the limits required there.

Good Grades Reduce Premiums

Now you have another reason to pester your kids about good grades. College students who maintain a grade point average of “B” (3.0) or better often benefit from good student discounts. Throughout the year, parents must ensure that their children are receiving these grades to consistently receive this discount. If you intend on buying a new policy, you should look for companies that offer accident forgiveness plans. These plans will forgive the fact that a college student has been in one accident and refrain from raising the rates. Even if your child has not had an accident yet, remember that "yet" is the operative word. Young adults are likely to have accidents.

Give Your Kid the Clunker

If you have an older car in the household, make sure you offer it to your college-bound child. It is much cheaper to insure college students with older vehicles than new ones, because these vehicles cost less to repair. Older cars also give parents the option of dropping comprehensive and collision coverage. You usually don't need them because it would cost more to pay premiums than to buy another late model car if that one was ever totaled.

Low Mileage

The discount that parents should look for most is the low mileage discount. If college students will only be driving their families’ vehicles while home on vacations, this will qualify them for the discount. College campuses also tend to be all-purpose places. The students may not have much reason to leave the campus, so they don't drive as many miles as those who commute a couple of hours to and from work every day. They should also be able to enjoy this low mileage discount.

Car insurance representatives have ways to lower your premiums even for college students, but they will not always know what to ask. It is up to you to ask the right questions about discounts that might save you money.

AutoInsuranceAdvice.com is a site dedicated to helping consumers by answering their questions and helping them find cheap auto insurance.

Friday, July 22, 2011

How to Retire Young and Retire Rich

A lot of people dream of retiring young and retiring rich. But very few actually take steps to make it happen. Why? Because for them it’s too much trouble. You see, the accumulation of wealth takes skill and discipline. Not all people are born into business-minded families who teach you how to be financially literate. Most of us have to teach ourselves and many people don’t bother to educate themselves financially.

You may think that if you weren’t born rich you’ll never become rich. That is a myth. You don’t have to be born into the lap of luxury in order to learn how to acquire wealth. Anyone can do it. Yes. Anyone.

Here are 3 ways you can retire young and retire rich.

First, find your “why”. We all want to be rich. But the question is, WHY? Your reason for this desire to accumulate wealth is a big driving force and this can spell the difference between failure and success. So you have to ask yourself, what is your why? If your answer is “money” then you are doomed for failure. Acquiring wealth simply for money’s sake will not provide you with enough motivation. You’ve got to have a deeper why than that. For some it may be to prove a point. For others it may be to help their family. For some it may be to serve others. It doesn’t matter what your reason is. The point is that is must matter to you. You have to have a “why” that is big enough.

Second, build financial literacy. Have you have observed the way businessmen talk? They have a different kind of language. They use words like ROI, investment opportunity and cash flow. If you want to be rich learn their language. Learn to be financially literate. Understand how money works. When you do, even if you end up loosing everything you will know how to get it back.

Third, acquire assets. Assets are your ticket to financial freedom. It doesn’t matter how big your paycheck is. If you have to work to get it then that is not wealth. True wealth is the freedom to be able to do whatever you want. And you can only achieve this freedom if you have passive income.

"Amy C. is an interior decoration aficionado and online marketer. She also likes testing and trying new home and office decorating themes. In addition to being an interior decoration hobbyist, she enjoys designing calming indoor fountains and glass art. Amy invites you to browse her delightful collection of glass vases"

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Free Online Videos To Inspire Your Business

If you run a small business you’ll know how hard it is to get some spare time to read up on the latest changes in technology and keep up to date with innovations in the business world that can keep you competitive. Every time you take a train or plane you’ll see the shelves full of bestsellers by business gurus and technology futurologists predicting where the next big thing will be online. But the problem is you haven’t got time to sit and read all of these books and magazines. Luckily, help is at hand as these days it is easy enough to find video presentations and webinars by all these business innovators, technology gurus and out-of-the-box thinkers. Whether it’s on your laptop or your iPad, it is now possible to fill every journey with free and relevant content that will keep you inspired and your business up to date. Here we’ve outlined five of the best sites for inspiring, educational free content for you and your business:

TED: Ted is consistently voted one of the top ten iPad apps and is a joy to use. Also viewable via their website ted.com TED describes its content as being ‘riveting talks by remarkable people’ and it delivers exactly that. Not specifically business orientated TED is a continually updated free archive of some of the world’s most incredible thinkers and artists, business leaders and scientists giving talks about what they do and how they do it. Dip into these every time you want some inspiration for your business and watch your productivity soar. The iPad app also allows the content to be viewed offline too, perfect for those long journeys.

OPEN Forum: A brilliant collection of videos featuring market-leading CEO’s, up and coming Small Business Owners and technology trailblazers offering their insight on how they became successful in their industries. A wonderful source of advice and inspiration for small businesses.

Ecorner: Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner has uploaded more than 2000 free podcasts and videos by innovation and entrepreneurship thought leaders. The content ranges from a number of videos about Silicon Valley start-ups through to useful accounting and productivity videos that will help you organize your workflow.

America’s Best: A fascinating series of videos showcasing the business strategies of six large and successful entrepreneurial companies, from Radio One to Columbia Sportswear.

Academic Earth: Academic Earth is an absolutely brilliant source of free videos, collecting together talks by some of the world’s top academics in a wide range of academic fields. But of relevance here is the entrepreneurship channel that has a large selection of videos from business leaders, business gurus and venture capitalists, all talking about what it takes to build a successful company.

Alex is a writer and blogger. He currently writes a blog about freelancing and small businesses for the Bedouin Group .

Friday, June 24, 2011

Top 3 Ways to Make Money in Real Estate

There are many ways to create wealth. But one of the best ways is through real estate. Why? Because land appreciates – at least most of the time. Unless there’s a financial crisis involved, it goes up in value. The longer you hold on to it, the more valuable it becomes. And one great thing about real estate is that there are many ways to make money from it.

Here are the top 3 ways to make money in real estate:

1. Retailing. Some investors buy ugly property for a cheap price, renovate it and then sell for a profit. This is called retailing. It’s a great way to make instant cash in real estate. But it does have its pitfalls. First of all, you have to buy the property really cheap. Otherwise, after all your renovating expenses plus profit have been factored in, it would become too expensive. If a property is too expensive then you’ll have a hard time selling it quickly. Time is money. The faster you can sell your property, the better so that you can then invest the money you have earned into your next property.

2. Rental properties. Another way to earn money through real estate is through investing your money in rental properties. The return on your investment might take a bit longer – around 3-5 years – but once the property is fully paid it will provide a nice stream of passive income for you. This means that you will be generating money even if you are asleep, on vacation or playing golf. Passive income is the ultimate goal of those who want to achieve financial freedom.

3. Brokering of real property. Now what if you are a beginner who would love to be in real estate but doesn’t have the money or the skill to play the game? Then start at the bottom. Be a real estate broker. The great thing about being a broker is that you learn the hard way – through experience. You get to see first hand how the game is played. You might lose some along the way but eventually you will learn how to play it right. And if you don’t have a lot of cash? Then that’s no problem! All you have to invest in is your license. Why? Because your products are free! That’s right. Just find willing sellers and negotiate for a 5% commission in the event that you manage to sell their property. Build your sellers list. Then build your buyers. The principle here is simple. Give your buyer what he wants. Do it fast and act professionally. And if you do, you’ll be making waves in the industry in no time.

BIO: “Amy C. is an interior decoration aficionado and real estate investor. She likes testing and trying new home and office decorating themes. In addition to being an interior decoration hobbyist, she enjoys designing calming indoor fountains and glass art. Amy invites you to browse her delightful collection of glass vases.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Debt negotiation – Settle your debts by negotiating with creditors


If you are having debt problems and want to seek solutions for the same, you can consider debt negotiation. This is a highly effective solution where you can either negotiate to settle your debts with your creditors on your own or take help of professional services. Even if you choose to negotiate on your own, you need to have proper and clear advice on how to go about it.
What are the circumstances under which you can opt for debt negotiation?
If you have a steady source of income that is not very low, you might not able to negotiate your debt. This is because the creditors will see that you will be able to keep up with your repayments. The creditors will only agree to write off a large part of your debts through negotiation only if they think that they won’t be able to get anything better. This is majorly a situation where your next option is filing a bankruptcy. Then the creditors would agree to settle your debts through negotiation in order to get at least some money back.
Should you do it on your own or use a professional?
If you approach a professional company for debt negotiation, they are going to charge you for their services in one way or the other. Most of the good companies take as their fees the amount of money they are able to save you. This is quite justified as the payment you make to them is proportional to the effectivity of their services. However, it is quite obvious that if you negotiate your debts on your own, you will be able to save a substantial amount of money that will go for paying the professional charges.
How do you achieve debt negotiation on your own?
If you want to negotiate your debts with your creditors, the first thing you should do is stop paying them the minimum monthly amount. Then you should start negotiating with them to settle the debt at an amount that is lower than what you owe. When the creditors will see that you are not being able to make your payments they will start taking heed to your suggestions. A motivation for a creditor to agree to settle your debts is quick repayment of the remaining amount of debt you owe.
What works best for professional debt negotiation?
When you are taking professional help for negotiating your debts, you should take one debt at a time. This is because the creditors will offer you a debt settlement based on your credit ratings and your debt history. If you pay off your largest debt first, by the time you move to the second creditor your first debt will be off your credit report and it will show a better rating.
So you can see that debt negotiation can be done both on your own and through professional services depending upon which one you feel is the best option for you.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

What is Pre-Bankruptcy Counseling

Pre-bankruptcy counseling is a mandatory course that must be completed by all who are filing for bankruptcy. This course is designed to help the debtor see what his or her options are for eliminating debt. Sometimes debtors will be in a situation where they don’t need to file for bankruptcy, but can overcome debt with other government assisted programs.
When you are filing for bankruptcy there are a few requirements that must be completed before you can begin the process. One of those requirements is a pre-bankruptcy counseling course. This counseling course must be completed before the initial petition of bankruptcy is filed with the court. The debtor filing for bankruptcy will be required to submit a certificate of completion for the course otherwise the trustee assigned to their case may throw the entire thing out.

Post-Filing Bankruptcy Course:

After debtors have completed their pre-bankruptcy counseling course and filed for bankruptcy they will be required to complete a second course. The second credit counseling course is to be completed before a discharge of debt can be granted. This second course aims more at rehabilitation rather than qualification.
The debtor will learn about debt management, using credit wisely, budgeting, and several other things to help them succeed financially after bankruptcy. Similar to the first course the debtor will need to show a certificate of completion in order to proceed with their bankruptcy.

Taking The Bankruptcy Course Online:

The pre and post bankruptcy courses can be taken online. They are very inexpensive and can be completed in about 90 minutes. The certificate of completion can be emailed to you and or your attorney within about an hour of completing the course. Those looking to complete the bankruptcy counseling courses will find the online classes to be the most convenient solution, as they can be taken on your own time and at your own pace.
Both of the online courses are very easy to sign up for. If you are uncertain about what steps to take for your specific situation you can speak with a trained credit counselor who can help you to make an informed decision. They are experienced in working with a variety of situations and can help you to get back on the right path. If you are more comortable taking the course over the phone, courses are available that can be completed entirely over the phone. To avoid overpaying make sure that you find a governement approved non-profit agency to help you with your pre-bankruptcy counseling. S
Micah Castro is a freelance writer for Alliance Credit Counseling. Alliance is a government approved non-profit agency that helps people with financial management, debt solutions, and credit counseling.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Ann Smarty Interview - Editor of Search Engine Journal

15 Questions with Ann Smarty

Ann Smarty - Founder of MyBlogGuest.com
I was fortunate enough to land an interview with the Director of media and the Editor in Chief for Search Engine Journal, Ann Smarty. I contacted Ann shortly after joining her website MyBlogGuest. MyBlogGuest is a forum based website, that is quickly evolving, and currently has its main focus on facilitating the guest posts between bloggers. The site is quickly gaining success, and has even had a mention on SEOmoz.org, but the site still remains over shadowed by the successes of its creator.

Ann Smarty in the hot seat -

1. Who is Ann Smarty?

Ann: I am an SEO consultant working for BlueGlass as Director of media and Editor-in-Chief for Search Engine Journal. I also run my SEO blog at SEOsmarty.com - which I sadly don't always have enough time for.

2. Smarty is an awesome last name, you know that right?

Yeah, you don't think it's my real name, right? :) Actually I come from Ukraine and have a scary Ukrainian name. When starting a blog, I found a domain seosmarty.com (it is not easy to find an available domain in the SEO world) and decided to borrow my second name from it. That was a good and clever match and it stuck!

[I didn't think so, but did some investigating by surfing around the net... I didn't find any evidence to the contrary, so I went with it. I'll admit to a little egg on my face for this one!]

3. Tell me about MyBlogGuest.com.

MyBlogGuest is the community of guest bloggers. It unites bloggers who are interested in connecting to other bloggers, journalists and other content creators in any niche and publish their high-quality articles on their blogs.

The concept is quite straightforward:

  • The author writes an article and shows it to the blogger;
  • The blogger decides if the article fits his blog and if yes, publishes it on the site.
  • (Optionally) The blogger and the author may arrange that the author promotes (i.e. shares) his post once it is published (and thus drives more traffic to the blogger's site).

4. What is the inspiration for creating MyBlogGuest.com? (Was there a lack of options out there, lack of structure for existing resources?)

I've been doing a lot of guest posting for myself and my clients and I noticed a lot of blog owners were very much interested in guest contributions. However there was no effective way to connect to them. So I thought a place where a blog owner could come to meet talented guest bloggers should be a great idea and a win-win for both the sides.

5. MyBlogGuest.com been endorsed by SearchEngineLand.com and SEOmoz.org, what next... world domination?

Hopefully :) Actually I am getting ready to create and launch a few international mirrors: in Russia and probably in French. I am currently in the talks with people who could help me run the local versions. I am getting many requests about the non-English copies.

6. I had read in the MyBlogGuest.com "About" section that you mentioned a Mark Jackson and a Gerald Weber as helping with coding and SEO. Tell me about those guys.

Mark (http://www.mjdigital.co.uk/blog/about/) is a great coder. He helped me for free to create the user authority script (which is still in early alpha by the way, as it needs some tweaks and experiments). Gerald (http://sem-group.net/) is one of my best friends. He helps me a great deal about spreading the word about My Blog Guest. He is a talented SEO and power social media user. I'd also like to mention our designer who created the latest MBG design: http://amitmojumder.com/ I love the way that guy is doing his job!

7. I see that you're an SEO Consultant as well (AnnSmarty.com). There, you have a refund policy... particularly the line "SEO is definitely a long process and I never guarantee top rankings within any limited period of time." What is the greatest misperception clients have or unrealistic expectations clients have when hiring an SEO consultant?

There's plenty of fud around SEO: the question I hate the most is "When am I going to be in top 3 for my most important keyword". Now, if an SEO consultant tells you the exact period of time and the exact position, run away! There's no way to predict. The only thing an SEO can and should guarantee is that the site will be "SEO-friendly" (easily accessed and crawled by search bots) and that it will have valid and legit back links.

I also love this post by one of your guest contributors that list other SEO misconceptions: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/5-link-building-questions-that-make-me-die-a-little-inside/23762/


8. You have been described as a social media user, can you elaborate on that?

I have some solid presence at Twitter and Facebook. I used to be an active stumbler (not much time for that now) and I have never had time for Digg. I also have quite powerful profile at LinkedIn. That's pretty much it. I had never meant to be a power user, but social media presence has always been an integral part of what I've been doing. I also don't think a SEO profile should be measure in numbers. How powerful you are is determined by how attentively your followers are listening to you.

9. I saw that you use Skype as well, what are your thoughts on their tentative IPO?

LOL actually I have no thoughts about that :) I've been too busy to go in-depth in the news. I am using Skype almost exclusively as an instant messenger. I don't depend much on it.

10. Do you have any projects or sites outside of MyBlogGuest.com that you'd like to mention?

One of my most recent free projects is http://tweetedranks.com/ that sends your Google keyword position via Twitter DM or Google Talk. It's a fun way to track your Google keyword positions. I have built it for fun and as an experiment.

11. What is your offline life like?

I am one crazy mom of my two-year-old daughter. I spend time with her whenever I am not working. I plan to sit at home with until she grows up, as I don't want to miss a single second of her growing up!

12. What blog or blogs (if any) do you read regularly? Why?

I read SEJ [Search Engine Journal] and Search Engine Land regularly. I am trying to keep up with SEOmoz but I hardly have time for that.

13. There's a so called "browser war," which is your favorite? Any reason for that one?

FireFox. I do have Google Chrome installed and I give it a chance from time to time but, I don't see myself switching. I spend half of my life browsing and I am too used to FireFox to be able to switch. I can't imagine making Chrome as convenient and safe. Though I am well aware of its advantages, higher speed (and productivity) being one of the strongest benefits of switching but I don't plan to so far.

14. Google instant... end of the world or opportunity?

No-no. Google has had plenty of innovations that should have led to the end of the world but actually never did. To me nothing has changed. I still need to make sure that the site structure is easy to crawl and the content is useful enough to win links back. As soon as you do your job well, you are safe :)

15. What is your biggest on line success to date?

Well, I can't single out just one. I have had several wins, but I still think my biggest win is ahead. CNN mention and job at SEJ are two of the most notable ones. But anyway, I am a kind of the person that is seldom satisfied with the result and thinks he could have done better. That is why I never stop LOL

Ann, I want to thank you for taking the time to do an interview on Biz-Tone.blogspot.com. I love the new site, and will continue to use it. I encourage my readers to do the same. Finally, I'd like to congratulate you on all of your success, and wish more success in the future!