1. Update the pages on your website frequently. Stagnant sites are dropped by some search engines. You can even put a date counter on the page to show when it was last updated.

2. Offer additional value on your website. For affiliates and partners you can place links to their sites and products and ask them to do the same for you. You can also advertise their books or videos, if these products relate to your industry and are not in competition with your own product.

3. You can allow customers to ‘opt in’ to get discounts and special offers. Place a link on your site to invite customers to ‘opt in’ to get a monthly newsletter or valuable coupons.

4. Add a link to your primary page with a script ‘Book Mark or Add this site to your Favorites’.

5. Add a link ‘Recommend this site to a Friend’ so that the visitor can email your website link, with a prewritten title, “Thought you might be interested in this”, just by clicking on it.

6. Brand your website so that visitors always know they are on your site. Use consistent colors, logos and slogans and always provide a ‘Contact Us’ link on each page.

7. Create a ‘Our Policies’ page that clearly defines your philosophy and principles in dealing with your customers. Also post your privacy policy as well so that clients know they are secure when they visit your site.

8. Create a FAQ page which addresses most of the doubts and clarifications about your product or your company that are likely to be asked. This helps to resolve most of the customers doubts in their first visit to your site.

8. Ensure that each page on your website has appropriate titles and keywords so that your customer can find their way back to your site if they lose the book mark.

9. Never spam a client, who has opted for newsletters, with unsolicited emails. Later if they decide they want to ‘opt out’ of the mailings, be sure you honor their request and take them off the mailing list. They may still come back if they like your products. But they will certainly not come back if you continue to flood their email box with mails they no longer wish to receive.

FREE Internet Business Marketing Tutorial: 7 Steps To Establish Your Epresence at http://epresence.biz

It’s easy to get carried away with decorating the interior of your dollhouse, but there is far more to bringing real life down to miniature size than what goes in your house. The exterior of your dollhouse can make your scene look complete. Paying careful attention to detail and spending a little time on the outside of your dollhouse can turn it into a work of art.

There are limitless possibilities as to what you can do to enhance the exterior appearance of your dollhouse. A great place to begin is by designing and building a garden, or by creating some landscaping effects. Not only will this give you the opportunity to utilize your design skills in a different way, but will now have an excuse to learn how to make furniture for a dollhouse garden. You will find a great deal of satisfaction as you hone and prune your miniature garden to create an idyllic outdoor setting for your dollhouse to set in.

Trying to replicate real life outdoors is just as important as the realism of the interior. Many miniature collectors like to have outdoor spaces that look lived in, such as a backyard scattered with tiny child’s games or a small swing set. A pet or two may make the dollhouse look like somewhere a typical family lives and bring a sense of belonging to the scene.

There are certain features that add a greater sense of reality to the exterior of your dollhouse. A dollhouse car, a mailbox, trees, and a driveway are all features that may not be missed when you don’t have them, but that add so much richness and depth to the scene one you’ve added them. You may find yourself wondering how you ever let the display go for so long without them. The difference that they make in your miniature collection will be striking.

Some enthusiasts choose to change the exterior decor of their dollhouse seasonally. In the same way that you would decorate the exterior of your home for the holidays, you can come up with creative ways to decorate your dollhouse. When you roll the barbeque grill out onto your patio for the summer, do the same with your miniatures. Patio sets and metal doll lawn furniture are other seasonal additions that give your dollhouse a sense of reality. It may seem slightly out of place if you have your dollhouse designed in a warm and cozy wintertime theme and it’s ninety degrees outside.

However you choose to utilize your creative abilities on the exterior of your dollhouse, keep in mind that there isn’t really a right or wrong way to do it. As long as you make sure the exterior scale matches the interior scale you can decorate the exterior however you want without ruining the integrity of the display.

Learn more about the fascinating world of miniatures. Visit TheMagicalDollhouse.com/dollhouse-furniture.html today for a great doll house furniture selection and dollhouse accessories from top miniature companies.

An aspiring actor should study very deeply the human interaction, the way we act and re-act to each other during conversation of all arts and at different situations. Make a study of how you re-act with the person you are conversing with in real life, especially during dialogue exchange. This can’t be done in real time of course, but you can review it after the conversation has taken place.

Whatever you learn from this seemingly unimportant event will point you in the direction of how to be natural in front of a camera. Acting in front of a camera requires you “not to act” your character, but to “become” the character. Your facial expressions, the timing of gestures, etc, have to be very convincing, because acting in front of the camera is about trying to convince whoever’s watching you, that you are not acting. Of course they know it’s acting, but you have to make them “suspend their belief” for a very short time. That magical moment when you’re in “the moment” as they say in showbiz.

Samuel Goldwyn once said; “The best thing in acting is honesty, once you learn how to fake that, you’re in.”

Go out to places where people meet: clubs, cafes, restaurants. Watch and study how people re-act to one another during conversation. Really study them. Because that is how you learn to act in front of a camera.

The camera, the director, and the viewing public are always quietly telling you or daring you to convince them. Make them belief you’re actually not acting, that your display of emotions and actions or re-actions are real.

I remember when I was first starting out to be an actor. I had the pleasure of studying under Agnes Moorehead and Anthony Quinn; from each of them I learned something different.

From Agnes, I learned the art of re-acting as opposed to acting. Let me explain. Re-acting is what we do all of our lives naturally. We re-act when a friend greets us with a smile and a hug. We return the favor with our actions.

We re-act when we feel pain or sorrow, our minds and bodies control that. So re-acting should be a breeze for all of us. The hard part of acting, is of course the acting and re-acting in a natural manner.

From Anthony I learn to become the character the minute you accept the part. When he was playing the Pope in “The Shoes of the Fisherman” , his wife often complained about there being no sex in the lives because Anthony was indeed the Pope, and the Pope was not allowed to have sex. So, as you can see, Anthony took his part too seriously at time and get in trouble with his wife every so often.

Never-the-less, lessons learned. Re-acting and becoming the character.

But how does one learn to become so many different characters? The simple answer is, “learn from life itself”, from the people around you. The people that we see everyday.

But how does one do just that?

For me, I would ride the bus routes for three to four hours a day going to school on every person that would be on the bus for that particular route. Once a week I would invest 65 cents, and ride the bus to the end of the line, turn around and head back.

All this time I would write down mannerism, dialects, body movement, and speech patterns; anything that I could mimic that was different from me. Those three to four hours and the 65 cents turn out to be the best investment I made in my career.

My little book was full of character information that I could read up on and apply to my craft. Today you can just go the to mall, sit and observe people all day long. When you find someone that catches your fancy, study them from a distance; so that you don’t appear to be a stoker.

Of course you can always pay to learn character idiosyncrasies. But why would you do that when the whole world is available.

Acting for the stage and film are quiet different. In as much as stage acting is very physical;. big body movements, exaggerations, even a whisper is shouted. The reverse happens in film, subtle moves and expressions are more noticeable because of the proximity of the camera. Each media has it’s own requirements. It would be wise, as an actor, to study both and then learn to apply them accordingly.
What we as actors must learn, is to use the power of concentration. When we concentrate we become one with the object of thought and lose ourselves in it.
Some other writer wrote on becoming a character;

-”The greatness of an actor lies in the fact that he forgets himself in the portrayal of his character, becoming so identified with it, that the audience is swayed by the realism of the performance.”
-What actors strive for is becoming one with one’s self, what the Zen folks would call the “is-ness” and the “such-ness” of everyday life. Actors need to seem natural in their roles.
-A natural performance isn’t one that is spontaneous; it is contrived to seem spontaneous.
-It isn’t “sincere.” It is the opposite. It is a lie, a deception. A person is pretending to be something he isn’t.

A lot of effort is put into making the role seem genuine. It’s art, because the art doesn’t show.
Here’s where taking the bus trip or going to the mall helps you with different character triads. All your efforts are rewarded. You’ll be surprised what you can achieve by combining your talent with your study of people.

Fernando Rio is a working producer in Florida. He’s editor in chief of An Actors Life For Me website. Feel ree to check it out here: http://www.anactorslifeforme.com . He is also the author of several programs that teach how to make many with your voice. For information drop an email at keyactors@bellsouth.net

Many miniature collectors enjoy using the decor of their own home to determine how they will decorate their dollhouses. There are several aspects of home decor that can be directly applied to the style and design of your miniature displays. By taking the time to pay attention to small details, you may be surprised by how accurately you can recreate the ambiance and feeling of your own home’s interior.

Color combinations and the right coordination is the first and most important step to replicating your interior design. Even the smallest differences in color shades can clash, so look at your own home’s room colors and choose those that work well together. Complimenting colors and shading on your walls can make the difference between a room that looks blended and warm and one that seems awkward. Also, be careful of patterns. Patterns that don’t mesh well will have your dollhouse rooms looking out of place. If you’ve used specific color combinations and patterns in your own home and know they work well together, replicate them in your doll house design. Pay attention to flooring as well. Look at your own carpet colors or hardwood flooring patterns and work on trying to reproduce them as closely as possible.

Replicating furniture style is another great way that you can incorporate the feel of your own home into your dollhouse design. A quick and easy way to do this is to get a sample swatch for the fabric that was used to cover your couch or chairs. This fabric can then be used to create the furniture pieces that you place in your miniature dollhouse. Many pieces of furniture can easily be placed in specific period of history or certain geographical locations by their styling. Try to replicate the stylistic features of your furniture into the pieces that you select for placement in your collection of miniatures. Not only will the colors be the same, but also the decorative flavors and styles will match.

Your interior design is unique and you’ve carefully chosen objects or colors to give a certain feeling to the rooms in your home. Use that same creative energy in your doll house design. Taking care to add the special touch of just the right miniature sculpture or painting on the wall can add plenty of ambiance. Adding miniature pets curled up on the couch or in front of the fire does even more for your doll house design. Those who look at your dollhouse will feel an immediate connection to their own pets and the desire to curl up in a chair near the fire as well. Details such as these bring a unique flavor to your dollhouse rooms. You’ll ensure that you have a one-of-a-kind miniature home that no one else in the world has.

Learn more about the fascinating world of miniatures. Visit TheMagicalDollhouse.com today for a great selection of wooden doll houses and dollhouse miniatures from top miniature companies.

Have you noticed that there are not many store front travel agencies these days? I guess it may have had a lot to do with the fact that many people are using their computer to book their own flights online. Also, after the disaster in New York on September 11th, people were scared to travel and a few years ago, a couple airlines lay off their workers and caused a slow period in the travel industry.

However, I think the main reason is the comfort of booking a flight from your own personal computer that fascinates the consumer to a do-it-yourself attitude. In lieu of this fact, it is apparent that an online travel agency is a good idea for a business opportunity to assist these consumers with trip planning and other customer service issues that they may still need.

There are two types of home travel businesses:

·-Referral travel agencies

·-Booking and selling agencies

A Referral travel agent is the easier of the two because all it requires is a word of mouth advertising to guide the customer to the online portal where they can book their flight. It is also a relationship business because the referrals in most cases come from family, friends and associates first.

The referring travel agent is compensated with a paid commission, which is decided in advance by the agency to which the referral will go. It is easy to be an online travel agent because it only requires handing out business cards, flyers and maybe placing online ads. There is no immediate contact with the customer unless it is someone who needs additional questions answered. This can be done on a part time basis until the full time income is replaced, then anyone make the transition to a full time business.

The booking and selling agencies fall into a category of only one travel agency. Since we have already confirmed that these agencies are not so popular anymore, we will only concentrate on the referring travel agent.

A referring travel agent does not need to know too much in-depth information about the specific travel details. All they do is to direct people to the website where they book their own flights and get help directly from the airline. In the case of the booking and selling agencies, they have to do the hard work of finding out all the information for the customer, which can be quite time consuming.

If you are considering the opportunity that is open to being a referral travel agent, be sure to find out if the company is stable, if they provide adequate customer service, what the compensation is, can you work full time or part time, do you need any special training, and is it something I can recommend to others with confidence.

One of the perks of being a referring travel agent is that you can work from home, you work on your own time, you get free trips called FAM trips, you get to travel first class, you get discounted air fares and priority baggage claim.

Once you have decided to pursue a travel business opportunity, make sure you treat this as a real business. Get a business name, if possible and a tax identification number. Keep good records of income and expenses because this business is tax deductible. Your vacation trips can be tax write offs if you use it also to refer travel to others.

I would also suggest that you choose a travel category and learn as much as you can about it and specialize in that category. An example is cruises or honeymoon packages. With cruises, you can target the baby boomers who love to take cruises and for the honeymoon packages, you target anyone you know who is thinking or planning to get married.

Let your enthusiasm about this travel business be infectious to everyone you meet. Make sure you take some vacations that you can talk about or suggest to your clients. Educate yourself and take this business seriously.

Cheryline Lawson is the owner of http://www.booklowertravel.com and writes articles and books on the subject. Ms. Lawson is also a referring travel agent and entrepreneur who works from home. Visit http://www.booklowertravel.com today to get more information on the topic of how to become a referring travel agent.

With franchisees the opportunity needs to be taken to maintain strong lines of communication between them and the franchisor’s business. Finding good franchisees is difficult; keeping them is a lot easier.

The best franchisees need special nurturing so that a strong relationship can be cultivated with the franchisor. If the franchisor follows basic & simple rules, it will be fairly easy to maintain the franchise relationship and keep lines of communication open.

The key qualities that we look for when recruiting franchisees are:

1) Strong people skills - this is the number one quality to look for. All franchisees will be dealing with staff, customers and suppliers. There are many standard questionnaires that the franchisor can use to analyse potential franchisees.

2) Ability to work hard - this is the second most important business quality that any franchisee needs. If they are prepared to work hard almost any problem can be overcome.

3) Basic computer skills - if the franchisee understands and knows how to use basic software programmes, they are far easier to integrate with your own technology and systems.

4) Planning and Goal setting skills - basic skills in analysing and creating realistic goals are required. The worst franchisees are the ones who are far too ambitious for their own good.

5) Ability to work under set guidelines - the best franchisees will work within set guidelines. If a franchisee likes to do things his own way then he is unlikely to be able to work within structured and proven formulae.

The best ways to cultivate and maintain the relationship between franchisee & franchisor are:

1) Keeping lines of communication open - The franchisee should know who to call when any aspect of his business franchise is struggling. A structured and well defined plan which handles all aspects of communication between franchisee and franchisor is vital. This aspect is absolutely critical for any relationship to work.

2) Meeting on a regular basis - nothing achieves more than face to face meetings. This helps to build relationships and often you can deal with problems early on before they become serious.

3) Cultivating relationships between one franchisee and another - this creates a mastermind team where the franchisees can discuss and debate the skills and ideas for improving their business franchise.

4) Continuously improve the companies products - this will help to motivate the franchises as they realise that you are fully committed to their success.

5) Become a friend to the franchisee - I can not stress this too highly. The franchisee should be able to discuss all their problems with the franchisor. In many cases the franchisee fails in his business due to personal problems if you can advice them and assist them with their personal problems not only will they be grateful but are far more likely to succeed in their business.

6) Be consistent with your dealings with all franchisees - This is very important. You should try and have equal relationships with all franchisees. This is often not possible due to the fact that you will have successful franchisees that will need special treatment to take the opportunity to expand their territories.

To sum up - find the right franchisee and cultivate and maintain the relationships to build your franchise network.

Naz Daud is the founder of CityLocal. This Business Franchise Opportunity is for people who would like to work from home and be their own boss.

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Photography is a great hobby that provides fun for many. Sites such as flickr and other photo album websites have allowed beginners to become great amateur photographers. But what about commercial photography i.e. can you make money from your photos? It is not so different from amateur photography as you might think.

Turning A Hobby Into A Career

The best thing about having a hobby turn into a career is that, unlike most people, your job is actually having fun, or to put it in other words, you are paid for your hobby. It’s a bit like being a radio DJ or a talk show host.

In order to become a commercial photography specialist, there are several key elements that are necessary for success.

Getting Work — As someone active in the commerical photography business, to sustain work you will need to go out there and get work. For this you will need various marketing skills. After a short while, you will benefit from repeat business and the flow of work will be self sustaining. The good thing about commercial photography is that the internet offers so many outlets for gaining work. In fact, you do not even need to meet your buyer as there are many piecemeal freelance photography projects out there — indeed, some people work entirely in this manner.

Meeting Supply With Demand — There is more to working in commercial photography than simply taking on projects. First of all, you need to price yourself at the appropriate level. Due to some initial inexperience, you may have to undercut the competition to a small degree, however the market will more than likely dictate your price. A great way to demand market rates is to create a portfolio of your work and upload it to one of the many image gallery websites. You can have a punk hairdo and crazy clothes but if your portfolio looks professional it need not matter! Additionally, to retain your reputation, you should always ensure that you deliver any commercial photography on time, as agreed beforehand.

As you can see, going from amateur to commercial photograpy requires a little preparation but essentially you are enjoying your hobby and getting paid for it. Furthermore, unlike a regular job, the advantage of commercial photography and its project/piecemail nature is that you can do as little or as much as you want, whenever you choose to do it.

Did you know that commercial photography is not as difficult as it might look? Even if you shake the camera badly and have no track record, you can make lots of money with your digital camera! To find out more, and get free digital camera money making tips, click here: commercial photography.

As a real estate agent, your first goal is to sell houses. Of course, the faster they sell and the higher the price, the more commission you make. Obviously, this is beneficial to you! However, it is also beneficial to your client. They, too, want their home to sell quickly and for as much money as possible.

There is one thing you can do that can, and will, make both of these things happen: home staging. A professional home stager is trained to find the home’s selling points and then redesign a room around those points to impress buyers immediately.

Here are some statistics you should know concerning home staging:

*Staging costs less than a price reduction and keeps your commission from going down!

*Your listing will stand out because the home will be “move-in” beautiful.

*Homes that have been staged sell for more, thus increasing the property values in the entire area.

*Vacant homes sell faster when they are staged. This is true if even only a few rooms are staged!

*When sales are slow, staged homes sell 50% faster.

As the market shifts and homes begin to “sit on the market,” you need a solution or competitive advantage to offer discouraged home sellers. You need solutions that get their homes sold. That edge is home staging.

Home staging is a win-win proposition. You may be getting a higher commission, but that means your client will be getting a higher price for their home and get more of their equity!

Teri B Clark is a professional writer and published author. Her most recent book, 301 Simple Things You Can Do To Sell Your Home NOW and For More Money Than You Thought, explains these tips in more detail and offers many, many others. To learn more about Teri’s latest book, visit http://staging-your-home.blogspot.com or sign up for a free newsletter

The impending arrival of the David Beckham roadshow in LA, is a further sign of the decline of one of Britan’s most famous Sport Stars. Then again David Beckham the Footballer has been dead a long time. He died at the flaying boot of Manchester United Manager Alex Ferguson, during one of his famous old Trafford Dressing room rants. Try as he might Beckham has never had the same impact as a footballer since he left United. His spell at The Galacticos of Madrid, has been littered with injuries and sub standard performances. While his off field brand continues to thrive, it was inevitable that a major concession needed to be made.

Enter ‘Posh’ who like all good women knew, what needed to be done. With David’s football career on the wane, she decided it was time to do what all good Gold diggers do; go west. The small matter of 250 million Dollars, was but a trifling sum; the LA Galaxy are after all not Manchester United. While David purred and about wanting to spread the football word to the USA; their was a certain suspicion that it was all a smoke screen.There are no world class footballers in the American version of the Premiership. If he still has the hunger and desire, surely a greater test awaited? Sadly there is only one logical conclusion to be drawn from Becks migration stateside. The Beckham brand is slowly but surely dying a death. In a final frantic last throw of the dice, He has been coerced into taking a new direction. With his deeply annoying Wife by his side, expect to see him courting the cameras; in the company of some serious A list Celebs. Already their burgeoning friendship with Tom and Katie (Cruise); is the first step on the road to movie stardom. If only he could talk with his feet! This shameless publicity seeking duo will not ride quietly into the setting sun, and it is becoming cringe inducing as they pout before the still smitten media hordes.

Sadly this once iconic couple have run their course and now starting to resemble a freak show. King David is dead, long live the king.

Eddie Ryan is a regular contributor to Ireland’s Own magazine and a former writer of the Tribune newspaper.
He is the author of short story collection Storytellers stone.

We hear it time and time again, in all the writing advice books and columns:

Show, don’t tell.

But sometimes that’s easier said than done, especially for new writers. So how do we identify the difference in our writing, and how can we spice up scenes to “show” the reader what we mean, rather than “tell” the reader? Let’s look at some examples…

Mary was spoiled rotten.

This is pure telling. How do we know she is spoiled? Why should we believe you?

Mary stomped her feet and screwed up her face as she wailed, “But I want the pony! You told me I could have whatever I wanted for my eighth birthday!”

Okay, much better. Here, we see Mary’s age, her behavior, and her demanding tone of voice. The author doesn’t need to tell us that Mary is spoiled. In fact, the author doesn’t use the word “spoiled” at all, yet we can figure it out easily enough through the child’s words and actions.

I was miserable after Edgar left me. All I thought about was him. All I dreamt about was him. I missed him so much that I thought I’d never be happy again.

Well, we get the general idea here that the narrator is sad. But all four sentences really say the same thing, and all four sentences tell much more than they show.

For a solid week after Edgar left, I didn’t get out of bed except to find more tissues to blow my nose and wipe away my tears. When I managed to sleep, I found myself in dreams with him, revisiting days long-gone when we ate dinner by candlelight and made love by moonlight. When I awoke alone, the agony that twisted my stomach inside out almost choked me. The telephone rang, and I ignored it. My mother stopped by with soup, and I told her to go away. The sun came up and went down again, and all I wanted to do was grab it by the throat and tell it to stop. If I couldn’t be happy, then time might as well stop altogether.

Notice that in the above revision, there is no one sentence that tells us the narrator is miserable. Rather, through her thoughts and actions, we deduce her feelings of despair. Trust that your reader is intelligent enough to figure this out.

Some Tips to Keep in Mind:

1. Use details that appeal to the five senses. Make the reader feel as if he or she is actually in the scene. Is your hero nervous because he’s just proposed to the heroine? Don’t tell us that. Instead, show us the weather outside, the taste of the food in the restaurant where they’re eating, the texture of the suit he bought for the occasion, the quick pulse in his wrist as he waits for the heroine to make her decision.

2. Use dialogue. I’ve found this to be one of the best ways to get away from telling. When your characters speak for themselves, they naturally show us their temperament, opinion, even vocabulary level and method of communicating.

3. Use actions to show us the characters’ personalities. Have a neighbor who’s a busybody? Don’t tell us. Show us the ways in which she peers through her blinds, goes through her neighbors’ garbage, listens in on telephone conversations. The more active, interesting examples you can sprinkle through your plot, the better. Here’s a challenge for you: write down a list of the 3 adjectives that you think describe your protagonist or antagonist. Then go back through the scenes you’ve written and make sure those words never appear. Find other ways to reveal those character traits. Now you’re showing!

4. Trust your reader. When you create a scene, don’t give in to the urge to tell us how the characters are feeling. Show us instead, through their words and thoughts and actions.

5. Finally, consider using animals/pets to reveal something about your characters’ personalities. I won’t go into it on this post, but I wrote an article on this technique that you can access here. I’ve found that using animals in my storylines, no matter how briefly, can do wonders to show us something about the characters and move away from the boring habit of telling.

Sometimes it’s tough to get used to showing rather than telling in your writing, but once you get the hang of it, your work will come to life.

Allie Boniface
Author of ONE NIGHT IN BOSTON
http://www.allieboniface.com
http://www.allieboniface.blogspot.com