Successful Marketing Tips For A Paintball Field

‘Build it and they will come’ is a phrase made popular by the Kevin Costner movie ‘Field of Dreams’. While this phrase is actually speaking of a baseball diamond built in the middle of a remote corn field, for some reason many new small businesses seem to think it applies to them. Too often the excitement for their new venture clouds their viewpoint into thinking the business they’re about to open will be so novel that all they will have to do is open the doors and they will be flooded with new customers. While this situation can happen, it is extremely rare and even more so for a business that appeals to such a limited demographic like a paintball field. The reality of the matter is if you don’t have a meticulous marketing plan set to start at least 8-10 weeks before opening day, you are already planning to fail.

The unfortunate statistic for small businesses is an 80% failure rate in the first 18 months. Forbes magazine will tell you the main reason for this is because they run out of money. While this is the reason they end up closing their doors, the reason behind this is simply from a lack of planning. Many new paintball field entrepreneurs get so caught up in the layout and construction of their business, they either completely forget about marketing or it’s an afterthought at best. Most of the time, the reason new start-up businesses run out of money is because they didn’t start their marketing efforts early enough or misfired their marketing altogether. The bottom line is they weren’t able to generate enough business to keep their operation running. Not starting your marketing efforts early enough will ensure your first few months of business will be slow and stressful. Misguided marketing is even worse as it wastes valuable time and limited start-up money to produce nothing.

Even though paintball may be one of the field owner entrepreneur’s favorite past times, it takes an adult to step out of oneself and realize not everyone has the same interest. In fact, paintball caters to a very small demographic making marketing to a broad spectrum audience useless. Because of this, it’s smart to avoid costly television commercials, radio and newspaper ads designed to ‘keep your field’s name in everyone’s mind’. This type of media should only be used to boost hype for specific events and not to provide the ‘regular exposure’ most sales reps will try to sell you. Since the game of paintball tends to only attract certain types of people, your most cost effective form of advertising is to target these specific groups. This is called niche marketing and if done correctly, can be very effective. The first task is to make a list of all the different niche groups who play paintball at commercial fields. Then target specific campaigns and promotions to only these groups.

Ages of players who participate in paintball is 8-40+, however it is recommended players be at least 18 years old. This is because the sting of being hit is often too intense for younger players. While it will take a little forethought, targeting youth for marketing your paintball field to could be a venture that pays off in the long run. Considering most fields cater to high school and above, youth players are a large demographic that tend to be left out in the commercial world. When making your initial equipment purchase, consider buying .50 caliber paintballs, guns and gear. These are a smaller size ball and do not hurt when they hit you compared to the larger, standard .68 caliber paintballs. This is a big decision because .50 caliber gear is limited on the types of guns available. It will be too costly to buy both .50 cal and .68 cal markers and balls for your field so you will have to decide on one and stick with it. While .50 caliber size gear is fairly limited on the types of markers available they are actually more cost effective than .68 caliber. Offering .50 caliber paintball will also allow you to market ‘pain-free’ paintball to the younger audience and cater to a market that’s virtually untouched.

Paintball is not gender specific however mostly played by males. It is not a sedentary game and it is much more fun for people who are more athletic and can move around quickly. Target specific marketing campaigns to facilities and programs geared toward youth, males and athletics. To do this, make contacts with groups like the local YMCA, athletic centers and even gyms. Meet with owners and/or planning managers to promote your field with informational fliers, special events and/or certain days or games you’ve scheduled just for their group. Most cities and towns have numerous health clubs. Consider setting up a one day paintball war for rival gyms to battle each other for a local title. This can also be done for high school sports teams during the end of their season or in between seasons. Many high school coaches like to keep their team together during down times with activities that are fun, challenging and different from the sport they normally play. It’s a good idea to market your field to these leaders and help them schedule an event that will help their team bond.

It’s quite common for certain groups to use outside activities for bonding exercises to bring a team closer together. Many corporate companies take their employees on white water rafting adventures, ropes courses and even paintball for this valuable experiences. Marketing your paintball field to every corporate company with more than 10 employees is a great idea for this purpose. Target every corporate company of this size within a 120 mile radius, set up a certain day on your field you will hold the event and/or offer them a special corporate rate. Take time to try and meet with HR executives or managers who may be interested and set up an event. Another good niche group to market your paintball field to is police and military personnel. Active duty soldiers/officers may want to rent your field for certain simulation tactical exercises. Inactive personnel often still love the adrenaline and strategy of a good battle and have the potential for being very good repeat customers. Offer these groups military and law enforcement discounts as well as group rates and/or special field times.

Don’t waste your time, energy and money trying to get every tax payer in your zip code to play at your field. The list goes on for specific niche groups to market to and the more creative you get with your promotions the better. Take your time thinking of more groups to communicate with and try to constantly come up with new ideas to get and keep them interested in playing at your field. Keep simple stats on which events/marketing campaigns and niche groups were the most successful so you know which ones to keep doing and which ones to go back to the drawing board on. Once you have a steady flow of new players coming, focus on internal marketing strategies to keep them coming back. For example, frequent player discounts, free tank refills or ammo after a certain number of games they’ve paid for, etc. Set up your paintball field from the beginning so it can be manipulated to host different events and competitions for different niche groups to play there and many players will call your field their home.

News Reading in the Internet

One of the benefits of modern media is the use of the latest technologies has changed the speed of relaying information to different parts of the world. Decades ago the catch phrase was the latest news; today the popular phrase is breaking news because people received the latest news by the hour, every hour. Unlike ages before, people received news days or weeks after the incident occurred. Before, it was plain global news, at present it has become more specific using phrases such as Islam news, culture news, middle east new, and online news to name a few. Due to internet the world has been getting smaller and people get easy access with latest news development. It is a welcome development as people will be able to digest specific information easily.

Online technologies have allowed people to search and received news developments at a click of a mouse. And not only that, they can type specific key words such as gulf news, international business news, and middle east news to arrive easily at the web pages they want immediately. Long ago, newspaper readers’ patience has to be tested before they can read latest Muslim news, Islamic news, and Middle East News. The search bar features have slimmed down time constraint of accessing specific news to readers. In addition, some functions of these sites has exposed readers to links that give related information of the events.

Readers have to skim from different pages to find one article about world business news. Oftentimes, readers have skipped the news that they want to read as it is buried in the inside pages. In addition, newspapers then do not provide in depth analysis of events that unfolded during that time. Online editions have categorized different news items such as world business news, international business news, news in middle east, and Islamic news, to give more details as the event progresses every seconds of the day. And because of these readers have are better informed and are more clarified with the issues.

The internet has further created additional source of information for everybody. The web does not host online editions of major newspapers. It is home to websites and blogs that concentrate on specific news categories. Thus, you have sites for Islam news only, blogs for culture news, and webpages that caters only gulf news. In addition, thousands of articles that deals specifically with topics like Islamic news, international business news, and middle east business news, just to name a few are easily accessible. It gives readers of more objective and detailed information of specific interest.

It has been predicted before that the web will replace newspapers as major source of current events information. This is the reason why newspapers have invaded the web to benefit from this development. At present, both off line and online versions are available for everybody. It is not yet definite if land base newspapers will suffer extinction just like the dinosaurs of long ago. At any rate, people are still enjoying both versions.

Need to Make Money on the Internet – Call for Caution!

Before anyone could achieve in this life, one will need to pass through the process of learning. This learning process can turn out to be either smooth or rough. I want to use this medium to tell people of my experience on the need to make money on-line.

My paid job is nothing to write home about because I hardly pay my house rent and settle the utility bills. We cannot feed well in the house not to talk of my children school fees which is begging to be paid.

I was totally dejected and frustrated! My wife had just recovered from a major surgical operation not long ago and this happening to me. I was just thinking of relocating to the suburb when I noticed a tiny advert in a local newspaper with title “Learn How to Make Money on the Internet”.

I sold the Pentium II computer which my children are using with some other items that I can sell and went to subscribe for the e-book. After reading the e-book, I discovered a lot of ways one can make money on the web. Some of the ways are:

Affiliate Marketing

Paid surveys

Pay per click ads

Selling goods and services and many others

I opted for pay per click ads and paid surveys because I felt they require little startup capital. I went to open a domiciliary account, get on-line connection, open Liberty Reserve account and also sign up with three survey sites as well as three pay per click sites. I started doing work on-line and my morale is so high and with one goal in mind, to make money on-line fast.

The pay per click sites I sign up for offered fantastic rewards which ranged from $0.01 to $5 per click but I was limited to get to a certain level before I can redeem my money except I upgrade! The paid survey sites either did not help matter as I also need to upgrade as well.

After much thought, I decided to forgo the paid survey and concentrate on the pay per click sites on which I thought I have generate about $2,678 with $139 to upgrade, €16,700 with €159 to upgrade and $16.79 with $45 to upgrade.

I decided to opt for the least which is $16.79 with $45 to upgrade due to the amount I have in my Liberty Reserve account so that I can reach the minimum payout point of $75 quickly and more clicks of about $25 per day. Then, I went to the upgrade page and selected Liberty Reserve as my upgrade method. I was directed to the checkout page on Liberty Reserve site and after filling in the required information and waiting to be up graded, a message came that the transaction was not successful. To my amazement, when I checked my Liberty Reserve account, my money has been wiped off. I have been scammed! All efforts to trace where my money went proved abortive. But at the end of it all, Liberty Reserve asked me to install a plug-in that will prevent future occurrence as the plug-in will indicate whether I am on a wrong site and that any time I want to transact with Liberty Reserve, I must not open any other website on the same browser.

Remember I told you my situation. I was completely down but I have to forge ahead because I am now more than desperate to make money on the web. This desperation lead me to being scammed again by another person I met at a public café who claimed he wanted to help me.

At the end of it all, I met a good and trustworthy person who put me through. Hurray! It has started to yield and I know very soon I will be a house hold name. We all have to start somewhere and somehow, it is rather unfortunate that many people learn the hard way what not to do on-line and as such give up early enough and never get to experience the joy of on-line success. I want to say here that you should not allow this to discourage you; making money on the web is quite interesting!

Offline Businesses – The Most Effective Online Marketing Uses Direct Marketing Strategies

Direct marketing in the offline world has grown to huge proportions, becoming a very professional industry in which the biggest players are immensely successful. And these same direct marketing strategies and techniques are the hallmark of the most successful Internet marketing businesses, etc. In fact, every direct marketing professional should consider Internet marketing as a career or at least a sideline for additional income streams.

Direct mail pieces in the offline business world become email blasts online – and with more and more email programs now HTML capable, can be just as glossy and heavily designed as their offline counterpart. And just as direct marketers buy targeted leads or use location-based mail drops, Internet marketing pros rent email lists, buy solo ads and buy leads.

Direct marketing techniques also include classified ads and TV infomercials – online there are a number of classified-ad sites, some international and many based on certain locals. And video sharing sites are perfect for displaying TV-style commercials, infomercials, product demonstrations, etc.

And the ‘golden lists’ or the big Direct Mail houses, those lists of targeted leads that buy from them regularly, are no different than the customer lists online. Just as direct marketers have a pre-written series of e-mails and offers that go out to their previous customers on a regular basis, so too do online marketers who use pre-written autoresponder series to follow up with each purchaser.

If you own and/or operate an offline business in direct marketing, learn all you can about the strategies, tools and techniques being used by successful Internet marketing pros and use that knowledge to increase bottom line profits considerably. While some online regulations, like the anti-spam laws, make parts a little trickier in compliance, it’s more than made up for by the low cost of email blasts, the lack of lead time required for printing, and the free video hosting the video sharing sites provide. Start by putting every commercial and infomercial in your current library online at sites like YouTube, Viddler and Daily Motion and you’re already well on your way.

And if you’re currently working in the direct marketing industry with no equity in the company that employs you, consider starting a part-time job in online marketing and building it into your own full-time Internet marketing or affiliate marketing business. You have the skills so start investigating this low-startup-costs online industry for your own future today!

Techniques of Cluster Marketing

If you turn on your “Go Back In Time” machine, you’ll find that Cluster Marketing has been around for a long  time.  Little has changed over the centuries since the business world stumbled upon the concept.  In its simplest definition Cluster Marketing means, “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” In other words, “don’t spend all of your marketing budget on one media or in one geographical area.”

Conventional Marketing Strategies

The New York 5th Ave. advertising power houses have lead the way in America with their big dollar advertising campaigns which only the corporate giants can afford.  Before they design an advertising campaign they first design a marketing plan.  They identify their target market by geography, age, sex, social economic values, hobbies, house size, shoe size, shirt size, etc.  Some market strategies can use as many as a hundred or more parameters to define their target market.  Sounds excessive doesn’t it?  Not really when you consider that mega dollars in potential sales are at stake.  Many advertising firms and marketing executives have lost their jobs when a marketing strategy and advertising plan has failed.

The conventional strategy has been to use various advertising media such as TV commercials, newspaper ads, direct mail advertising, radio commercials, etc.  All of these methods require a lot of money up front to produce and distribute.  Their focus has been on getting the buyer to look in the direction of the product and create a need in the potential customer to buy their product.  Cluster marketing strategies are used to define which media will be used to advertise the product and where the product will be sold.

Let’s look at an example where advertisements are created for the newspaper and direct mail advertising.  These are two of the oldest methods still in use.  They both use printed media and are the easiest conventional advertising methods to produce.  In a small town, using both methods might be excessive because statistics have shown that in most small towns the majority of people subscribe to the local newspaper and newspaper ads are cheaper to produce than direct mail advertising.  In larger cities, however, both methods would be needed to cover the whole city since the number of subscribers to the local newspaper are substantially less as to the size of the population.  In this example, the parameter of the number of newspaper subscribers is also used in the marketing plan.

Cluster marketing strategies analyze the target market using diverse combinations of geography, population densities, and personal parameters to develop geographic areas of interest.  In marketing, these areas are referred to as clusters or groups of interest.  The clusters are identified so that either single or multiple target markets are used for the advertising plan.  Clusters (geographic areas) that have the same target market potential can be geographically close or hundreds of miles apart.  With today’s mass communications the distance doesn’t matter to the modern marketing executive’s plans.

Internet Cluster Market Strategies

The growth of the Internet has lead to the development of a whole new dynamic in cluster marketing strategy.  The Internet has consolidated many parameters. As an example, age groups have been reduced to children, young adults, adults, and senior adults. Previously, these categories were treated with greater detail. Language is no longer a dominant value and buying habits are now measured down to the individual instead of age groups.  The search engines now create massive databases of the sites people visit and which ones they buy from.

Conventional marketing strategies develop “one way” links from the advertisement to the location where the product can be purchased whereas Internet marketing strategies develop “one way” and “multiple” links to where you can find all of the sites where the products are sold.  It also develops additional links to extensive content that describes everything we really didn’t care to know about the products.  That content also presents us with additional links to more content and numerous locations where the products can be found.

Marketing executives are also having a great time spending less money on advertising by offering affiliate programs where web site owners advertise the product for free in hopes of gaining a commission when the product is sold. Large numbers of affiliates means a lot of free advertising.

All of these aspects are increasing the dynamics of Cluster Marketing on the Internet.  Demographic and sales data is accumulated in large databases and sold to marketing executives and advertisers for large dollar figures.  These databases, plus very sophisticated analysis programs, provide many clusters of potential marketing areas.

What About the Internet Entrepreneur

While the big money marketing executives are slaving away over their big databases and their numerous marketing clusters the Internet entrepreneur is grinning like a “fox in the hen house” and making some big dollars without the fancy marketing cluster strategies.  The Internet has made it possible for the entrepreneur to simplify the cluster marketing theory into a very simplistic model.

Let’s look at some basic facts:

  1. Geographic clusters have been consolidated into one Internet on-line world. The Internet is the world and a very large number of people use it every day.
  2. Search engines have cataloged the online world and continue to update that catalog every minute.  Free tools are now available to Internet entrepreneurs to analyze that data on their laptops without having to pay for the use of that data.
  3. Cluster demographics have been replaced by “keywords” and “long tail keywords.”
  4. Age demographics have been consolidated to children, adults, and seniors.  Yes, even children are making big money with their creative web sites.
  5. The corporate marketing executive is being replaced by young Internet savvy marketeers and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) content managers.  These fresh young minds are raking in the dollars, even in a down economy.
  6. “One way links” are being replaced with “multi-way links” in web sales pages and clustered articles.
  7. Article Directories and Social Network sites are providing massive amounts of FREE authoritative links to product sites that conventional marketing executives just can’t understand. These executives will soon be a relic in our modern Internet civilization.
  8. Cluster marketing on the Internet is no longer about geographic boundaries.  The Internet entrepreneur has learned that on the Internet today you cluster methods and sites like EzineArticles, YouTube, FaceBook, Squidoo, HubPages, Twitter, Slideshare, etc., not demographic clusters. Also, countries still retain their own language identity, but the Internet has broken down most of that barrier in Internet marketing. The web logs of every Internet site are full of sources from all over the world giving testimony to the fact that the Internet is now a world marketing cluster unto itself.

While the big corporations have been branching out to the Internet for several years, Internet cluster marketing strategies have made it possible for the individual in our society to earn more on the Internet than some of those big corporations.

The Unattractive Customer Offer – Why Do It?

It’s not rocket science, so why do so many retail companies disadvantage their existing customers with offers which don’t make logical, emotional or possibly even financial sense? Here are two examples of offers which I have received during the past 10 days.

While visiting the beautiful city of York with my wife, we noticed a retail clothing store called White Stuff. They sell a very attractive range of mid-price, unique design clothing for men and women. What I enjoy about this store’s approach to customer value and satisfaction is simple. They serve first – and earn second. How so?

Well, my wife and I first came across this store during a holiday in the Lake District. My wife wanted to purchase some clothes for her new job and she enjoyed browsing the unusual but very attractive designs. They had a sale on which was also a bonus for me! As my wife browsed, the store attendant gently offered to assist my wife if she would like. Politely declining the kind offer, my wife continued to browse. The attendant’s attention smoothly changed focus from my wife… to me!

‘You’re welcome to relax on the sofa if you wish sir’, and a half-second later continued, ‘or you can enjoy the range of gentlemen’s clothing over here’, gesturing towards where she wanted me to be. Buying!

I did notice a jumper which I would have liked to have bought, but the only size in store was too small for me. But, it wasn’t a lost cause. She picked up the phone and called their store 8 miles down the road. Yes, the sister store did have a larger jumper in store and they would deliver it to this store for 9am the next morning. ‘I’d be happy to arrange delivery for you sir… Shall I do that for you?’. How clever as well as professional! Why? Because this young lady had been so polite, gently helpful and discreet that I would have felt a little awkward rejecting her offer of help. Also, by accident or design, including the words ‘Shall I do that FOR YOU’? added a very personal slant. It’s the law of reciprocity in action. She was offering to be helpful to me, so I was compelled to return the favour.

Yes, we did buy and the whole experience was very positive. So, on to York. A different store location wise, but very similar in terms of offers. Unfortunately for me, there was no sale or discounts being advertised, but a genuinely friendly welcome from the female assistant was followed around 5 minutes later with an extended arm offering to hold the 3 shirts I had taken off the rack, while I continued to browse. The next offer? ‘I’ll put these in the changing room for you to try on when you’ve finished.’ How cool! In a very professional, non-pushy sense, there was little opportunity of me leaving the store without first trying on the items of clothing she had ‘kindly’ held for me.

Another offer, and a very subtle one at that was this. ‘I’ll give you an over the shoulder bag which is free of charge’. Nice gesture. Not that I ever pay for carrier bags in any store. My local health food store wants to charge ten pence for a carrier bag (apparently to help the environment and save the planet). All along, there I was thinking that they were just generating additional income from themselves because they were jumping on the bandwagon of being good corporate citizens. This is the health store that following ringing over £30 of goods through their cash till stated to me ‘And the carrier bag is ten pence…is this ok?’ My polite and assertive response? ‘Well, no actually it isn’t, I won’t be paying additional funds for the privilege of paying you good money for these goods’. Stunned silence followed until the gentleman advised me that it was ‘Company Policy’ to charge for bags. My polite and still assertive response? ‘Thank you for letting me know that, as I stated earlier, I won’t be paying YOUR COMPANY to make money off an environmental issue.’ When I asked whether the proceeds generated from every bag sale – and every customer’s blind compliance with their ‘Company Policy’ was donated to a charitable organisation his face changed…as did his manner. Guess who lost a customer?

Back to White Stuff. The offers they made were timely, beneficial for the customer, cost nothing but a few seconds of their time, generated rapport and an element of trust and were partnered with a high-quality product at a price I was willing to pay. How cool is that? Very cool I think!

Now let’s look at the other side. Last night I spotted an advert in the newspaper from my local hairdressing salon. The offer is detailed below, word for word as published.

MANAGER SPECIAL – CUT & BLOW DRY

NEW CLIENTS ONLY £40

SAVING YOU £15

What’s wrong with this offer? This SPECIAL offer? You guessed it! If you have never visited this salon and had your hair cut by the manager, you pay ONLY £40. Apparently, this SAVES YOU £15. Let’s think about this. If you’ve never had your hair cut by the Manager previously, you benefit from a perceived saving of £15. But, if you are a regular client of the Manager, YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY FULL PRICE! How fair is that offer? In simple terms, if you’re a long-standing client who has helped this company grow their business, or at the very least, remain in business, you are penalised. Why? Because you are a loyal, existing client.

The acquisition of new clients is absolutely essential to any company. I understand this fully. But actively penalising existing clients and customers is potentially commercial suicide. So, if you are a consumer, be careful what offers you accept from organisations. If you are a business, you too need to think carefully before publishing well-meaning but potentially dangerous offers.

Selling With Shock, Awe, Theater and Drama

If you can’t make your numbers and are stuck, maybe it’s time to present your story and product with more flair and drama.

Pushing for the Listing

Daryl Hardy who publishes Success Magazine sold real estate between the ages of 20 and 24. in getting expired real estate listings, he says he was determined that people were either going to love or hate him.

Using his “shock and awe” campaign, he said he would show up on the prospect’s doorstep at 6 am to ask for the listing. If he didn’t get it, later in the day an assistant delivered a package he called “Da-Bomb” because it was “big and stuffed full of combustible materials.”

But Wait, There’s More!

Hardy describes the rest:

“Then in the early evening an assistant would show up and hand them a SOLD sign and say, ‘This is a gift from Darren Hardy; you will need this soon after you hire him to sell your house.’

Later that evening I would stop by in person and ask for the listing again. If the listing still hadn’t been secured I would then have something hand-delivered or mailed to them every day for at least two weeks along with a daily call from me personally.”

The Man who Used Theater and Drama

Someone else who knew how to get attention was the late Gary Halbert who called himself “the world’s greatest copywriter.” A lot of people say he was. But Gary was very direct and plain speaking which ticked off some people.

He said advertising is too often missing two important elements: theater and drama. He wrote an advertising campaign for the wife of actor Ernest Borgnine, Tova. She was launching a new perfume line and Gary needed a dramatic way to meet her. So he focused on the book she had just written:

“I wrote a full page newspaper ad: ‘New book by Tova Borgnine hits best seller list.’ I had it typeset just like it was a real newspaper ad. Had it framed in a gold frame. Had it wrapped in silver foil with a bow and had it couriered to her office. She opened it up and called me 20 minutes later. I made millions of dollars from that association. You’ve got to stand out from these people. You want to make your marketing more impactful. Wham, wham, wham.”

Launching the Perfume

To kick off the sale of Tova’s new perfume, Gary insisted that instead of using a boutique that might hold 150 people, she rent the entire bottom-half of the Century Plaza Hotel. Then he wrote a full page ad for the Los Angeles Times promising a free bottle for the first thousand people. More than 7,000 people showed up on a weekday afternoon.

That launch got mentioned in Time magazine and generated millions of dollars’ worth of orders from big department stores. Halbert said the launch was so successful because of a terrific big idea implemented perfectly. The ad began with a legendary headline which he claimed was the greatest ever written:

Wife Of Famous Movie Star Swears Under Oath Her New Perfume Does Not Contain An Illegal Sexual Stimulant!

So when thinking about how to stand out in the marketplace, look for ways to make what you’re saying—and selling—-more dynamic.

What Is Multi-Level Marketing or MLM?

You probably heard of Multi-level marketing from a friend, a co-worker or you have probably read it on the newspaper or on the internet. Most likely you would have brushed it off as some business or marketing jargon that does not mean anything to you at all. But, multi-level marketing is getting popular and a lot of people from different backgrounds and fields are joining in. So, what is multi-level marketing (mlm)? And, what makes it so different that a lot of people are becoming hooked?

If you search on the internet, multi-level marketing is defined by Wikipedia as a marketing strategy in which you can profit not only on your personal sales but also from the sales of those people that you recruit. Often times MLM is called pyramiding due to its structure; as the recruiter you will be on the top level while all your recruits will be your downline. Now, for every person that your recruits enlists to sign up to be a distributor, they are also part of your downline thus you also get profits from every sale they make.

There are a lot of companies that follow this business scheme, pretty much using the same moneymaking concept these companies offer different kinds of products for their independent distributors to sell. Medicines, membership, health drinks etc., you name it, multi-level marketing has it. But, before jumping on this business wagon, there are things that you should know about what multi-level marketing is and what it entails:

· Multilevel marketing may be done on your own time and pace but you must understand that effort and time are also needed to get a flow of earning. It is not a self-earning machine.

· When choosing the company you sign up as a distributor, know the products well enough that you or your downline can really sell

· If you’re not used to face-to-face selling, make sure you know other means to market; read and learn more about social networking or other areas where you can promote.

· If you are recruited to sign up as an independent distributor, ask questions before signing up. Try to be critical and constructive don’t be afraid to raise questions because it will save you time and money in the long run.

· Being a distributor for a multi-level marketing company might require you to pay a certain amount as bond, in exchange companies will give you a product of packages where you may already profit from.

· If you have a full-time job, set aside a good amount of time to market, sell and recruit. Learning to balance and prioritizing time is very important in this business.

Objectively, multi-level marketing is a good business opportunity for everyone but it may also not be for everyone wanting to do it. Identify the things that you are willing to go through like learning the ins and outs of multi-level marketing and what it really is. Your MLM success relies entirely up to you.

Technology Topics for Think Tanks and Radio Responses for Listeners Debated

Welcome radio listeners and online article readers. In fact, welcome everyone not only to this program but also to the future. Technology is changing the way we live each and every day in very profound ways. It is also constantly rearranging the free-market with disruptive technologies causing challenges for status quo old companies, employment, and it’s difficult for the colleges and universities to keep up with this technology, as it seems they are always teaching and training people to do last year’s jobs.

Therefore, in the future these folks who have paid $100,000 in student loans may not even be working in those fields where they got their degrees. Statistically that has been the case, but it is going to be even more so in the future. Okay so, that’s what this program is about today on this 23rd day of October 2012 – how the future technologies will change everything.

The rules are simple; I talk, you listen. Then after 30 minutes I will open up the phone lines, or if you are reading this article online you may post a comment below. The first topic of the day is;

1.) Google’s Dominance and Disruption to the Newspaper Industry

Indeed, I believe it was Larry Page of Google who noted that the newspaper industry’s days are numbered. He stated that there won’t be newspapers in the future; that is printed words on paper being delivered to your doorstep. He was predicting the death of newspapers, and he did predict when it would happen, he said it could happen in a few years, or perhaps even a decade, but they wouldn’t exist in the future. Few could deny what he was saying, and when he made that common a few years ago the newspapers were laying off, merging, or simply going out of business.

Some newspapers have found that they can set up pay walls to make extra money, and perhaps the technology we talk about as tablet computers has at least help them in that regard where people can take their newspaper with them on the go, and read it online for a couple of dollars a month or week. This is worked well for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other well-known and well read newspapers. But it doesn’t seem to be working for all the local newspapers, although some who have a stranglehold on their local market are doing okay with pay walls as well.

Then again, why would anyone pay to view a newspaper online when they can go to Google News, surf the news and get information from all over the planet, perhaps even better information, or articles which have been downloaded from the Associated Press into regional newspapers. Often many of these stories we read on the other side of these pay walls is nothing more than regurgitated Associated Press news anyway. Thus, one should ask; why should we pay?

An article on ARS Technica titled; “Brazilian press to Google News: pay up or leave our content alone – Google says being told to pay is like, “taxing a taxi driver for taking tourists to eat.” By Megan Geuss on October 21, 2012 was curious. The same thing has been happening in France, and other places and it appears that they are trying to get Google tripped up in copyright law. You must realize that copyright law is different in Europe and perhaps in Brazil and other places. In the United States we have “Fair Use” case law on the books which seems to allow at least a paragraph and reference to a new story.

Google has been quite good at sending traffic based on this “fair use principle” with links to the actual article, that is if you want to read more. Sometimes people don’t, and perhaps this is what the Brazilian press is concerned about. People just read the first paragraph, and headline, and then they don’t need to read the newspaper, buy the newspaper, or pay to go beyond the pay wall of that organization online. These companies believe it is hurting sales, but in actuality Google is probably helping them much more than it is hurting them. Shouldn’t the newspapers all over the world get with the program and get into the 21st century?

The reality is that status quo industries die hard, and they fight to the end using their power to propel their political will onto the market. However, with no innovation everyone is left back in the Stone Age, and that means we may as well be reading our text on chiseled stone, or hard to get parchment paper. The printing press changed the world, and now it is changing again, it’s time to get up with the program, and enjoy the trillions of pages online from whatever new source they come from. If these Brazilian newspapers wish to limit what their readers read and be their sole source of information that is rather self-serving.

Further, the mass media has often tried to control the minds of the people, and therefore has absolute control over the politics of the society and civilization. Obviously they don’t wish to lose that, and who could blame them, power is addictive. We know that from our own politics, and we certainly know it from human history. There are no differences from what I can see. Of course, one could say that all of this Internet flow of information contains very few gems, and much of it is just a barrage of information pollution. Speaking of pollution let’s switch gears and talk about real pollution and some new technologies for moment shall we?

2.) Better Local Pollution Emissions Technology

Recently, the AQMD in Southern California had complained that pollution levels had increased. But where was all this pollution coming from? Well, it was coming from a number of sources, different types of pollution interacting. Some of that, 1% of the pollution in the atmosphere in California has blown across the entire Pacific ocean from China. China says it isn’t their pollution because they are making products to send to America, therefore it is actually America’s pollution, therefore the United States shouldn’t complain.

Indeed, China is using coal-fired plants to generate electricity often without the clean coal technology which they now have available to them if they wish to buy it from Germany, or in some cases they’ve already copied it and installed themselves. You have to love the Chinese when it comes to proprietary information, they don’t seem to have any ethical knowledge of how that works, perhaps because their society went for thousands of years copying each other, and they assume that if you were a friend, or a fellow farmer you would share your secrets and cultivation technology with them.

Indeed, during the Communist periods they also shared technology, and they didn’t have patent law or intellectual property rights. Their culture is much different this regard and it’s been difficult for them to grasp this concept, but then again there are also companies which know the rules, but flagrantly violate them to turn a huge profit. Now then, back to the pollution problem in Southern California. It was also noted by the University of Riverside that much of the pollution in the LA basin was coming from not only the aircraft at the airport at LAX, but also from the ships bringing products into port Los Angeles and Long Beach port.

These giant cargo ships would get in long lines bringing, and while waiting in line idle their smoky and sooty diesel engines, waiting to unload their containers from Asia, mostly China. Those big diesel engines do not have pollution control devices on them like our modern day trucks and automobiles. They spew pollution into the atmosphere and during those foggy days it would combine with water vapor and other pollution caused by local surface transportation, refineries, and factories. These combinations make a wicked ugly looking atmosphere blocking out the beautiful blue sky. To top it off, the trains which are often able to allow for more pollution (old rules for rail) would pick up those containers and take them across the country. Because many of these cargo ships could not get through the Panama Canal as they are so large, they drop off the containers and then they go by rail the rest of the country.

Containers going locally in California or nearby states will often jump on intermodal trucks for some of the distance, and those trucks add traffic to our freeways and smog to the atmosphere as well. Now then, Gizmag had an interesting article; “New software improves measurement of greenhouse gas emissions,” by Antonio Pasolini published on October 22, 2012. These new technologies along with the software can help us know where the smog is actually coming from. My question is what happens when the EPA gets a hold of this, and starts going after specific companies, and industries with this new knowledge?

It’s not that we don’t wish to reduce pollution, no one wishes to breathe dirty air, but this will throw new rules and regulations and rather staunch enforcement on industries which previously haven’t had to deal with it. One could say they’ve been polluting all long, it’s time they stop. Surely, but if we clamp down on them too quickly, we will disrupt the supply chain, raise consumer prices, and have to deal with increased wholesale inflation on everything that we buy. So this technology helps us understand our environment and the actual emissions into the atmosphere from human activity, but it is also quite disruptive because the regulatory authority, specifically the EPA knows no bounds.

Of course, then we will get into issues with union lobbyists, and big companies who do not wish to comply with onerous EPA rules and they will tell everyone that if the EPA doesn’t knock it off, they will lay off workers. That could hurt the economy as well, and therefore they may go after little companies rather than the big companies, therefore creating barriers to entry in various industries, or the EPA could require new pollution control devices which would be too expensive for small businesses, therefore the larger businesses will survive, and the small businesses which provide competition creating lower prices for consumers will go the way side.

Indeed everything is interrelated, the advection fog that we see during the “June Gloom” off the coast of California, that fog mixes with the pollution and it heats up in a temperature inversion challenge in the LA basin. Throw in a few X-flares and solar maximum with increased temperatures, and now we’ve got the pot cooking exacerbating the pollution problem. Speaking of X-flares they probably affect much more than we might realize. So let’s talk about that for a moment shall we?

3.) X-Flares Occurring and Days of Rage Considered

Not only do solar flares and the solar maximum cause faster polar ice melt issues and change the mixtures and re-combinations of pollution while causing temperature inversions carrying that pollutions higher and thus, across a greater region, but some surmise that it also effects human behavior, at least social scientists have been attempting to study these correlations although the data is hard to get ahold of and we are learning more and more each year about such anomalies, or even inverse relations to solar flares.

On October 23, 2012 there was an X-1 class solar flare, which will affect the upper atmosphere during daylight hours over Asia and Australia. It would indeed be interesting to see if things heat up there in those regions with regards to minor civil unrest, increase in crime, or greater tensions over the territorial waters off the coast of China. We might find some interesting things in the news if we were to put the puzzle pieces together? And what of the Middle East during solar flare events – as in what happens when the Arab Spring, or fall fighting season corresponds to already overblown tensions plus the proverbial religious holidays of either side while solar flares are occurring?

Want to check the record and recent history and get back to me on that one? The reason I ask is; I was talking to someone from Washington state up in the Seattle area, a social worker, who indicated to me that her large caseload allowed her to see the differences of when her clientele had fits of anger, or challenges with their behavior. I met her in the Starbucks, and she proposed that my hypothesis was real, and she convinced herself of that fact. I don’t believe we have enough empirical data or evidence to prove it, but I think more research is needed. Oh, and speaking of Starbucks and having conversations I think the world has changed a little bit and let me tell you why;

4.) Are Tablet Sales Helping Retail Sales at Starbucks?

It seems to me that more people come into Starbucks and they are busy playing on their iPhone, Android, or tablet computer. They are reading the news and minding their own business almost as if they are ignoring everyone else in the place. It used to be that people went to coffee shops to have a dialogue or discussion, or get social interaction. Today people are going and sitting down, plugging into the free outlet and using the free Wi-Fi. They don’t seem to be doing a lot of talking, albeit some of them get on their cell phones and disrupt everyone else.

So, is Starbucks the new place to go now not to have an intellectual discussion, but rather to use your personal tech devices so you don’t have to sit at home and you can be on the go? In other words, is it a destination point other than where you live to get out of the house and use your personal technology? Is that helping Starbucks sales? It could be, and they seem to be catering to that crowd, although they are catering to anyone who comes in to buy for dollar cup of coffee I suppose.

Indeed, I don’t think it is hurting sales, although it is difficult these days to get a decent conversation, thus, it may be limiting some of those folks from coming in as often, but then again many people are addicted to caffeine so they are going to go there and sit amongst the people with their tablet computers, perhaps sharing information with them in real-time. I’ve seen that happen too, where the debates and discussions are done in real time. Where someone will say; “did you hear about” such and such, and the other person will say; “yes” because they just got a news alert themselves.

Maybe these tablets are becoming a muse for coffee shop discourse? What I’m saying is this, technology is often disruptive and it changes the way we think, and live our lives. Have you ever wondered what will happen when 3-D printers are in every home? Let’s discuss that.

5.) 3-D Printers May Change Our Home Lives

Well, why go shopping at the store if you can buy the material you need, and merely print your furniture, silverware, cups, plates, houseplant pots, figurines, and other home decorations? Perhaps tools for the garage, picture frames, and all sorts of other things. That would be my guess, and I believe that’s happening in the future. Once you print something, depending on the type of material you use you may need to heat it up in an oven, or zap it in the microwave to get the material to fully fuse together, and harden the material so it never falls apart.

Does this mean people will be buying larger microwaves, and request larger ovens in their home? Will this spur on more home appliance sales for General Electric and other appliance makers? That would be my guess, and I wonder if Hewlett-Packard understands that future as well? Maybe they may have six-in-one printers instead of five-in-one (printer, fax, scanner, etc.) for the future? Likewise, the quality of 3-D printer you buy will determine the quality of the product you produce when you order the electronic file with the CADCAM design of exactly what you want.

Indeed, people will be able to tell if you created the object using a high-quality 3-D printer, or some cheap knockoff brand. Let’s say a figurine might be judged by its quality and by its attention to detail. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t take and X-Acto knife before you harden it to ensure the details are pristine. You may even decide to paint the figurine thus, painting over any flaws. Then you will throw it in the oven, before you put it on display in your home. Does this mean that hobby craft supplies may be a nice place to invest, or will it too be a victim of 3-D printing where people print those supplies as well?

In any case, because of this issue of quality and detail we may have more of our citizenry going for quality rather than quantity. Okay so, which manufactures will be hurt by 3-D printing in the future? It could cause a terrible challenge for the transportation industry because they will no longer be shipping products, and it could hurt the commercial real estate industry because big box retailers will not need to display items anymore, everyone will order it online, even use holographic displays to see the item before they order the file to print it at home.

China could be the big loser in this because they do so much in-country manufacturing. It could cause 100 million people to lose their jobs in China for instance. That could be enough to economically implode the country, causing an overthrow of the government. Sure, that is a speculative theory, but not so out of whack considering human history you see.

What about auto parts manufacturers? Many of those jobs have moved to Mexico from the United States, and we have a tremendous number of knockoff automotive parts being produced in China. This does an end run on China and the intellectual property and patents theft, which one could say is poetic justice, but we will be hurt here at home too. We make parts for all sorts of things; cars, trucks, airplanes, medical devices, hardware, and you name it. That will surely hurt manufacturing jobs.

Of course, it will spawn a new industry of 3-D printing material, and it really already has. There are several companies that think they have a lockdown on what type of material will be used in future, but I assure you that as these 3-D printers get better, and we get better at manipulating molecular assembly, and assimilation, that those pioneers of these 3-D printing materials will have to stay up with the game, or relinquish their market share to future innovation.

Now then, if folks are shopping less at retail stores, that will affect the retail industry as well, but people might also be driving less, therefore cutting down on the amount of fuel that that use. Still, this means that sales tax revenue for the cities, counties, and states will decline because they will be buying less fuel, and fewer things in the retail store. Also, you can expect that those items that they print in their own home will cost less than if they purchase them in a store, because the store has the supply chain which also adds to the cost of the product. Therefore all the things that they print will in fact be cheaper for that consumer. Lower costs mean lower sales tax revenue as a percentage.

Further, it is the materials which are sold in bulk where the consumer will be spending the most money, just as now people can almost get a free printer, but the big money is made in the price of the ink they have to buy to keep it recharged, just look at the prior decade of HP earnings as they are broken down in their annual shareholder’s reports.

What I’m saying is this will be a paradigm shift and affect every industry all at once. If you think that future isn’t coming, believe me it’s already in the pipeline and we already have 3-D printers in many high schools throughout the nation. Students are getting the idea of exactly what this technology can do for the future, and they are creating new applications for it.

Anyone who stops and thinks about it can see how it will affect whatever industry they are in – just think of the construction industry. If you need more nails, you don’t have to go down to the hardware store, you just make them on the job site. A plumber would not need to bring any pipes on his truck, all he’d need to do is take his portable 3-D printer, and do a 3-D scan of the pipe fitting that broke, and then print it and use it, job done, here’s your bill. No need to run to the hardware store to buy a part, and then come back later. He will be much more efficient.

Each entrepreneur in every single industry will consider what they need, and how they can use a 3-D printer to solve those problems. Once the technology exists, and it is workable, it will be everywhere. Humans seem to love things, they collect trinkets, objects, and they display them in their homes and domiciles. That is human nature. That is how human culture has evolved in society. It hardly matters which civilization you go to, they all have their knickknacks, statues, and artwork for display. Now they can display it all to their heart’s content.

There will be even greater abundance of choices. Perhaps people’s homes will become almost like museums of their own interests. Someone who likes aviation might have every model of every airplane ever built all over their home. Maybe this will replace bookshelves because books are all going to be electronic. Perhaps you have friends like I do who collect things. Once they get a hold of a catalog, or go online and see what’s available, they will be printing away like mad. Indeed I bet the professional psychiatry and psychology associations will come up with new mental addiction disorders to explain all this – it’s much like hoarding in a way – and we’ve all seen those crazy TV show examples.

That wouldn’t surprise me at all, nor should it surprise you. After all, we now realize that people get addicted to video games, and that our personal technologies are causing a lack of attention. Modern technology causes such things, and we should be ready for the next wave of 3-D printing challenges on our society and civilization. Perhaps all this is nothing more than the modern version of cave paintings. So, has mankind really changed all that much?

Many folks claim that people are too materialistic in our modern society, sure that’s true enough – these same folks will tell us that consumerism has ruined society, okay maybe to some extent that too might be the case, still, when 3-D printers are in every home, let’s just see what all those detractors of human innate characteristics happen to say when they themselves start printing away!

Tell you what, why not walk around your home for 15-minutes – right now and start writing down all the things you see, the smaller items perhaps under 2-foot by 2-foot. If you will note your home is filled with such items, just look in your kitchen, living room, home office, bedroom, and your bathrooms. See what I mean. Nearly all of it could be 3-D printed. Plus, if you don’t like something, let’s say that ugly cable TV box, you could order the e-design for a façade cover, one which let in airflow, but one which would allow that cable box to become a nice shape of something you like instead, or the base for an object.

Maybe you like model sailing ships from the Spanish Armada? Your cable TV box becomes the base of the model ship which covers up the ugly design and hides it in an art form for instance. Please realize I just made this up, but it could be whatever you want. Use your creativity, maybe you could become a designer and find folks willing to buy your designs for common things like this online and you receive a royalty from the online catalog.

Perhaps Amazon will get into the scene, or maybe this will be a new venue for Google, Microsoft, Apple, HP, or some new brilliant start-up entrepreneur who starts this business out of their dorm room at Harvard and also gets the money connections he needs to nearly unlimited capital to make it happen – and then goes public – think about how many times that scenario has happened and how it’s changed our world forever – and it hardly has to be Harvard for an optimal start-up.

Indeed, I hope you are beginning to see the glimpse into this future, the future of 3-D printing, because like the social networks, Internet, search engines, computer, and mobile tech this changes everything in every industry. The world will never be the same, the cat is out of the box, and it is alive – and it has been eating catnip, so look out.

Okay, well, my 30-minutes of talking are up, and you don’t have to listen to me anymore, it’s your turn to talk, and thus, I will open the phone lines. If you are reading this as a radio transcript turned into an online article, well, go ahead and leave a message below.

“Welcome caller number 4, you are on the air, what say you?”

Changing Your Career – How To Write An Effective Cover Letter

There are certain procedures to follow when searching for cover letter samples expressing one’s wish to change career. Career change cover letter samples should show exactly how the introductory letter should begin and what it should include.

At the top corner of most career change cover letter samples will have the potential employee’s address. In most cases, the name should be written on the first line, followed by the address beneath it. Include the city state and the zip code in the address and then add the current phone number. If there is an e-mail address, it can be written under the phone number and then follow it with the date.

It is common for career change cover letters to have the address and pertinent information of the probable employer. If one knows the name and designation of the person to whom the cover letter should be addressed, it is recommended to include it in the letter. Follow it with the company address, ensuring that it is situated at the left portion of the page.

The addresses of career change cover letters have the same style as any normal business letter. For the salutation, if the name of the addressee is known, write it down. However, if otherwise, “Dear Sir or Madam” can be used.

In the first paragraph of the letter, give an introduction and brief opening sentence. For example:

“This letter is to articulate my interest in (the job title) with your organization listed on (insert name) website.” (Put in significant details, position applying for and the newspaper or website where the job was seen.)

The next step is to express how suitable the applicant is for the job mentioned. Experience and relevance to the position applying for should be brought up clearly. One may write something like:

“I feel with my understanding in (specify the field) and my accomplishments in (name previous occupation) make me an ideal applicant for this position.”

The main component of a career change cover letter is its ability to list previous experiences. This gives additional advantage to the candidate. Being able to enumerate an applicant’s achievements in his previous job and the skills he was able to practice can increase the applicant’s attractiveness as an employee.

Write down key characteristics that are concerned with the job being targeted and then qualify straight away how previous experiences or trainings deal with each one. Create a bright picture in few words. Do not turn the letter into an essay. This letter should serve as an overview of the topic in positive terms. For instance:

“My experience in (jot down an experience) has helped me gain proficiency in many areas of the position mentioned. I consider (list down strengths) as my strengths.” (Then, provide examples of instances where these skills have been used successfully).

These qualities can be written in point format. Write only those strengths that will be advantageous to the job applied for.

Style every cover letter to suit the specific job and the organization one is applying for. Get some background information on the organization involved and mention in the cover letter any relevant information collected where applicable.

After citing the key characteristics, conclude. Write down contact information about the applicant to make it easy for the potential employer to get in touch with the applicant.

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