As you know, we live in an environment where it’s “blink,” and you missed it. Still, there’s always an urgent need to keep on top of what is happening so that you can stay ahead in business. I own several companies and, candidly, I don’t think there’s a single day I’m not thinking about how to make things better and improve our competitive advantage in our industries.

A couple of days ago I read an article about a luxury yacht company that had been in business for generations, and although they had client orders on hand, in the tens of millions of dollars, they fired everyone and shuddered their doors. They were hemorrhaging money and not paying attention to the changing winds.

The reality is that I can sit here today and write what you want to be looking for in business trends and then a year from now, write the same sort of article with different ideas to keep an eye on as business and society evolve. Still, there are some areas that I think will remain constant and you should pay attention to in your company.

Always Pay Extra Attention to Millennials

For decades and decades, the “darling” of generations were the Baby Boomers because of their sheer size and buying power. As the Boomers are now seniors, the same can be said about Millennials. They will be, and already are, a force for years to come and they are the first generation that is pure digital natives. Your products and services should be marketed to them and how they think. By 2020, Millennials will have an estimated $1.4 trillion in spending power.

Get Comfortable With AI, IoT, and ML

What used to be buzzwords such as AI, IoT, and ML, are not anymore. They are not the future; they are the present. Most of you know about AI (Artificial intelligence), IoT (Internet of Things), but maybe you have not heard about ML (Machine Learning). Machine learning is when computers do things without being programmed to do it because they are learning it for themselves. Through machine learning, we are given self-driving cars, excellent web search tools, practical speech recognition programs and a host of other platforms. As technology evolves, all of these elements will play a more substantial part in life and business.

Remote Workforce

I have a preference for my team to be onsite, but for some functions and aspects of our work, these elements are outsourced. Currently 40% plus of American workers are doing some work remotely, without having to be present at their place of business all the time. This trend creates demand for adequately training remote employees through video conferencing platforms, especially for social media and programming positions. All that is required is a computer and Internet.

Get Past the Clutter

The way you brand your business is essential. People are drowning in data and information, and you have to be able to cut to the chase immediately. Branding, which encompasses the name, logo, etc., creates instant identification. With excellent branding, you are perceived as an authority, successful and trustworthy because you pay attention to the details. Also it makes prospecting easier. Customers find you. You can hire better talent. Candidates seek you out rather than looking to apply for a position with an unknown company. Because of branding, it is easier to create more businesses under the same name.

Opportunity Exists in Buying Businesses

There are more businesses for sale due to the retirement of the Baby Boomer and Millennials will be buying them and then reinventing the companies they buy. Keep an eye out for your competition because there’s always an opportunity in looking to buy an existing competitor. For instance, you can buy their entire client base, or perhaps they’ve excelled in e-commerce, and you’re able to bring that into your portfolio. I’ve successfully purchased some of my competitors, and it’s only helped my businesses grow.

Are you the administrator or owner of an ecommerce website? If so then you may already be aware that ensuring sufficient traffic is perhaps the single most important task. Whether you offer products that are known to be incredibly desirable or not, if you receive very few visitors it would be impossible to create a reasonable revenue stream.

Luckily, after months of development and testing the Auto Traffic Avalanche has finally been launched in the market. This is the number 1 traffic generation software in the market developed by 2 underground superaffiliates Kieran Gill and Imran S, to help boost visitor levels to your websites or business.

Traffic Avalanche is known to be one of the most useful traffic generation packages available this year. It has been put together in such a way that enhancing the quality and quantity of traffic is no longer a complicated or tiresome task.

For a small one off payment you will be provided with information relating to the most proven techniques and tricks that are presently used by the internet’s top marketers. If you are interested to find out more then keep reading.

Once you have signed up you will be provided an easy to follow guide that includes information related to how you should integrate blogging into your traffic generation system, learn how to use backlinks in a more effective manner as well as automating the link building process, and acquire a broader knowledge of email marketing.

Other interesting features include information relating to using social network sites for marketing purposes as well as differentiating between paid for and free traffic sources.

I know you are probably asking why should I believe you? Well Imran is the creator of Tweetomatic Profiteer which is one of the best social media marketing tools in the market and Kieran has been a very successful underground affiliate marketer. They have come together to put their name to this tool and you will not be disappointed.

If you are still not sure whether this package would be right for you then ask yourself if you fall into one of the following categories. Traffic avalanche is aimed at products owners, affiliates, and any webmaster who wants to develop their visitor base.

Do not pass this opportunity by before doors are closed to this offer or the price is raised, because this system really works and lots of people are taking advantage of the riduculously low price.

Hosting a contest is a very effective marketing strategy that has been around long before the internet. It’s been around a long time because it works. It helps bring in buyers, cause a buzz, and spread brand awareness. A good contest can pay off for years to come due to the publicity that occurs long after it’s over.

Know Who You’re Targeting

If you don’t know what your goal is and who you’re targeting with the contest, you might not succeed. Is your goal to get more email sign-ups so that you can nurture them and sell to them later? Is your goal to sell products directly? Setting this part up right is essential to your success.

Choose the Right Type of Prize

This is another essential component of your contest. If you don’t select the right prize, you may have freebie seekers joining. You want the prize to be related to your product (or be your product) and something only the audience who wants the product will be keen to get.

Add Incentives to Act Now

Don’t let the contest go on forever. Make it short and sweet so that you can get onto the real thing fast. A contest that lasts too long will get boring for people. Don’t give it more than a week, but do talk about it more than the week leading up to it to give them notice.

Track and Test Everything

When you set up your goals, you’ll want to match each goal with something you can track using your analytics software. You can use Google Analytics or if you’re using special software such as email software, it may have native tracking solutions to use. Don’t assume why things are happening as they are; know why by studying the data.

Build Up to the Contest

Don’t just launch the contest on the first day. Instead, talk about it while you’re planning it. As you talk about these things, you’ll be creating buzz and excitement about the contest in advance, so people will be ready to go when it launches.

Stay Excited and Show It

When you’re hosting a contest, it’s up to you to jazz people up and get them excited. Talk about it before, during, and after. Do Facebook Live videos so that people can hear and see your excitement. Excitement is contagious.

Follow Up

Don’t just let the contest be over and die. Instead, make sure you follow up with people who got on your list due to the contest, to affiliates that did very well, and to your audience by letting them know about the winner that you brag about via your social media and blog.

Let’s explore becoming a blogger and the proper use of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn advertising on your blog and website. Facebook and Twitter have very specific instructions for using their logos, but it seems that on the Internet, very few people are following those guidelines. If you have any questions, you should ask your attorney. Having said that, there are common practices that webmasters and bloggers are using to promote their brand on these social media sites.

It is not legal to take someone else’s brand and alter it. But the Twitter and Facebook logo are everywhere and that is what has made these social media sites so famous. Facebook and Twitter both have trademarks on their logo and their iconography. For example, Twitter’s trademark is the little blue bird. They have their name and logo trademarked, therefore, you can not alter them.

Their guidelines are important so pay attention to those guidelines in relation to their name and logo allowed use. Legally you can not take their brand or trademark and alter them. Both Facebook and Twitter do allow, however, certain kinds of things. Facebook allows webmasters to use the “F” in a square and use it on your branding and include text, for example, “Fan us on Facebook”. They do not allow you, however, to use the F in a different color or FB in a different color. These are their general guidelines. Twitter, on the other hand, does not want you to put a T in side of a blue square. So what you as a webmaster need to ask yourself is whether or not you want to comply with their general guidelines. If you have any questions, it is best to ask an attorney or read their guidelines on the Facebook or Twitter website.

It is not recommended, for example, to use a little F or a little T on any of your online branding at all. A little T that says “Follow us on Twitter” or a little F that says “Fan us on Facebook” could actually cause your website to lose valuable traffic because all this does is encourage visitors to leave your website. It sends people away from your website to the social media giants. Instead, what is recommended is to employ the widgets that are available for webmasters to put on their site so that visitors can like you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter without leaving your website. The old way of doing things is sending someone away from your website. The new way is to keep your hard-earned visitors at your website. By using these widgets, visitors can become a fan or a follower without ever leaving your website. Keep visitors on your website while at the same time encouraging them to be fans or followers. It’s a win-win strategy.

Your Blog and Your Web Hosting Account

Content marketing is a well-known successful way to market a business online without spending a great deal of money on advertising. Blogs are a main way to attract leads and educate prospects. With some companies, all their leads come from their blog and they do not need to do any advertising whatsoever. Instead of spending a great deal of money on advertising, these companies post 500 word articles to their blogs on a daily or weekly basis. Many business owners have been able to leave their 9-5 jobs because of blogging. These companies use blog posts as their number one strategy for advertising. Build a strong following by blogging. It is a great way to start without advertising and spending a great deal of money on a start-up. Blogging is a cost efficient way to build a company online. With your own web hosting account, you will have blogging software that makes it easy to get started blogging and posting your content on your own website or blog.

Traits of Successful Bloggers

What are the traits that someone should have to become a successful blogger? Start with the notion that there are five roles that people play. Every person has at least one of these traits or roles.

Five Traits of Successful Bloggers

1. Are you a dreamer? You are a visionary and you want to tell people about it.
2. Are you a good storyteller?
3. Are you a teacher?
4. Are you a persuader? Every person has an opinion.
5. Are you a curator? A collector of ideas is a helpful trait for blogging.

The idea is to take that one trait that you have, recognize it, and build on it. Some people have more than one of the above traits, which is also good. An example is to take your trait and incorporate real-life events into a blog post. Successful bloggers have one trait and everybody does have one of these traits. If you have more than one or even all of these traits, it is even better. Some people have a natural tendency to blog. Ask your friends or family members to tell you which of these traits you have in your DNA. You will get some interesting feedback.

Do You Need to Be a Good Writer to Be a Good Blogger?

When people think of writing, they think of Pulitzer Prize winning books. That is not the case with blogging. With blogging, you need to be a great conversational writer. Do you have an easy, natural way to get your point across? If, for example, you can sit down with a person and have a drink with them and enjoy a good conversation with that person, you can be a blogger. As a blogger, you wouldn’t talk to that person like you are in a board room, but rather you would talk to that person like they were your friend. You need to be able to communicate in a way that builds rapport and relationships.

How Is a Blog Writer Different Than an Article Writer?

A blog writer is looking to start a relationship that is very personal. Your own opinion is infused in that writing. Even the structure of blog writing is different than articles. Your blog articles need to be intimate and give the reader a feel for who you are. It is very personal. Be a conversationalist. Have a dialogue that is easy for people to follow. Speak in every day terms and your blog writing will resonate with people. If you have trouble starting a blog article, you can always talk it out and record it, then transcribe it back into text format.

Technology That Can Help You Write

There are a lot of great technology options that can help you to write. Text-to-speech tools like “Dragon Naturally Speaking” let you talk and have it transcribed. If you have an iPhone, Siri will do it. Use your voice to write the article and save time. This technique is also helpful if you have trouble writing because it makes the task more of a conversation, rather than writing. This is exactly what blogging involves.

It is not just about text. Video blogging is another way to advertise using blogging. Writing is only one way to express yourself on a blog.

How Do You Decide if You Have What It Takes to Be a Blogger?

1. Do you have an obsession with a topic? This goes beyond with a passion for a topic because if you are talking or writing about your topic every day, you must be borderline obsessed with the topic, otherwise you might not be able to sustain yourself on your topic. You don’t want blogging to be a chore so choose a topic that you are obsessed with.
2. Are there others like you? If you start a blog about a certain topic, you need to have an audience that is interested in your topic.
3. Assess whether you have a marathon or sprinter mind-set. Successful bloggers have one of these two mind-sets. In some cases, a successful blogger can take years. Define your craft, take time, put yourself in a zone of kicking out content, refining it, and realistically looking at what your vision is for your blog in two years. Expect nothing to happen for two years because blogging definitely takes time to become successful. In the beginning, don’t expect any re-tweets or comments for a while. For the first three years, you can literally have only one or two hundred visitors visiting your blog. When you finally figure out essentially the kinds of blogging strategies that “work” in your industry, that’s when you will see results. Eventually, it is very possible to have several hundred thousands of visitors to your blog which can lead to a completely sustainable business of your own as a result of blogging. It doesn’t have to take you that long to be successful. In the early days of blogging, no one really knew what they were doing. The good news is that now there are many strategies outlined on the Internet that can give you a head start. No point re-inventing the wheel.

Tips on How to Create Content

Stick with it. Know that you are fighting the good fight. Train your brain to notice potential topics by writing down every idea that pops into your head. It doesn’t matter if you are writing these ideas on post-it notes, index cards, or on your iPad. Just let your brain learn that every good idea is going to be noticed and used in some way.

Turn content creation into a habit. Set aside some time for at least a couple of weeks when you tell yourself that it is your “time” to create content. Make a daily appointment with yourself. If you are a night person, set aside a couple of hours, for example, between 10:00 and midnight. Turn content creation into a habit. Content creation during your most productive time of day will help you to kick out some great material because it will become a habit.

Done is better than perfect. Some great bloggers are such perfectionists and are constantly refining and refurbishing their content, but because they are never done with it, the content stays in their draft folder forever. You don’t want your content to stay unfinished. Just get your content out there. Get leverage with yourself by telling people how much content you plan on releasing. This will give you added motivation to deliver on what you have promised by increasing the frequency of your blog posts. You will feel like you need to follow through. Get content out on a regular basis, but be careful with the word “regular”. Be reasonable. Find your tempo and stick with it.

How Do You Find Ideas for Topics to Write About?

If you are super passionate about a certain topic, your friends and colleagues will ask you questions about it. Take notes of those questions because each one can be a blog post. Every time someone asks you a question, pay attention to it. Look at the news section at local book stores or other stores, such as Walmart, and take note of the headlines. What are the headlines and how are the other writers leading up to those headlines in their articles? Crack open the magazines to see how others are addressing news or general topics. It adds fuel to the fire and gives you quick ideas.

Multi-purpose your content. If, for example, you give a presentation somewhere you can take that presentation and multi-purpose it into two or three blog posts, possibly even more. Metaphors are important. If you like to do something, you can use metaphors and write about them in many different ways. You can talk about a topic many different ways.

How Do You Draw People to Your Blog?

To get more readers, you need to be relevant. The daily news is your friend. Look at what is being talked about and find a way to connect it to your topic. This draws people into your blog. Tap into the trends of the moment. Hang out at the watering hole, like forums or other blogs and find out what the audience is being fed. Find out where the audience is hanging out and join in. Be helpful to that community and a fixture in that space. See what people want and jump in. Find out what people want, then write about it. People will see your advise and eventually, people will notice you and come to your blog.

Content hubs are websites that collect a certain type of content and use that to attract an audience. For example, SlideShare is a content hub that collects presentations. They have a really large audience of people looking for presentations. Re-purpose your content and put them on those content hubs and your audience will grow exponentially. You will bring in readers from many different sources.

When you write special reports and package them up in PDF format, take them and turn them into online special reports. Every page can be a blog post. Because the pages are interlinked, Google will see it as relevant and not only index it, but list it higher in searches. That type of content can become very successful. Drip the content out over time and Google will take notice of your interlinked content. If the content is focused on one theme, it will do really well.

Email and Blogging

The connection between email and blogging is very important. Email is critical to a blogger. If you have an email list, you can get people back to your blog on a regular basis. When people join your opt-in email list, you should email those people to let them know whenever you have a new blog post. When things are on your mind, email the people on your list. It builds a relationship. Building a maintaining an email address list is absolutely necessary to build your success over time. If you have a blog, get an email opt-in form on your blog immediately. Most of the people that come to your blog are new after a new blog article is posted because RSS (really simple syndication) has a pull and draws people in. So, the advantage of capturing those visitors’ email addresses is that you can re-seize those peoples’ attention and mobilize them. Write a special report and a good piece of content and people will join your email list. By capturing names and email addresses, you can build a loyal following. When you have something to sell, your email list makes all the difference in the world. Some bloggers say that their email list is what feeds their family. Create a product and offer it to your subscribers.

Your voice is unique. Everything that you have to say is important. There are a lot of bloggers out there, but you owe it to yourself to try. With all the blogging tips and strategies online, you can get up the learning curve very quickly and become a successful blogger.

Web Hosting and Blogging

Which software should you use for blogging?

WordPress is currently the most popular blogging platform. In many cases, you can get it for free with your web hosting account. And it is easy to install. For example, some web hosting providers offer WordPress installed with just a few clicks of your mouse inside your web hosting control panel. Don’t be intimidated by the technology. WordPress is easy to use and easy to learn. There are no barriers that are holding you back. So, start blogging and start today building your email list to build a loyal following. And when you ask yourself why you are working so hard to crank out content. Well, it’s because you are a blogger.

Are you a victim of Weak Speak? Do your words betray you?
If you ever wondered why your employees don’t follow your lead or why your ideas are never accepted, here’s a thought. You may be telling people that your ideas aren’t important. It’s not enough to have confident body language and a strong voice if your words are wimpy.

You are minimizing yourself when you say, “This is just a thought,” “I’m only a beginner,” “I’d like to make a suggestion,”
Wimpy words such as if, hopefully, suggest, feel, might, sort of, kind of, I think, weaken your conviction. Imagine a sales person saying,

“Hopefully, I’ve shown you that if you buy from us you might be able to increase your income.” The potential buyer will walk away when hearing this type of message. The real message is “Don’t buy from me. I don’t believe what I’m saying.”
Weak speak consists of tag lines, wimpy words, jargon, apologies, minimizers, colorless words, and sloppy speech.

Here’s what you can do:
Taglines. Eliminate them. Tag lines are added to the end of a statement.. Phrases such as “Don’t you think?” “Isn’t it?” “Right?” will sound like you are asking permission.

Wimpy words. Substitute power words instead.

I feel I know
I believe I’m confident
If When, By
Suggest Recommend
Sort of It is
Might Will, Definitely
Problem Challenge
Worried Concerned
Share Discuss

Jargon. Spell it out. When adding buzz words or acronyms to your presentation, you risk losing part or all of the audience. Define terms and don’t assume they understand your verbal shorthand.

Apologies. Skip them. Don’t apologize or put yourself down.. Excessive use of the word “sorry” will make you sound weak.

Minimizers. Delete them. Using “just” and “only” will tell the listener you are less than something. Don’t minimize yourself or your message.

Colorless words. Paint a word picture. You won’t move people to action if your words are dry. Pepper your talk with metaphors, analogies, and alliteration.

Sloppy speech. Speak slowly and carefully. Mumbling, mispronunciations, and slurred speech create a negative impression and are difficult to understand. Tape yourself and practice sentence drills.

Tune in and listen to your language. By transforming your words you’ll increase your credibility, take charge, and sell your ideas.

Copyright Diane DiResta 2000. All rights reserved.

At a workshop recently I heard someone giving a talk which was really interesting and I took away some valuable points from it. So it got me thinking about what makes a good presentation. Now, I’ve designed a lot of PowerPoint presentations in my time but I’ve delivered very few of them. Like a lot of people, the thought of standing up in front of a group makes me nervous. However, others can stand up for an hour and speak off the cuff about their subject, and make it interesting and memorable. How do they do it? OK, there are a few people who are natural public speakers, but for most of us, it takes a lot of preparation to stand up and speak clearly and concisely about our subject.

So from my experience of both creating and listening to presentations, I’ve put together some tips of what I think can make or break a presentation.

Do

• Rehearse your speech and ideally get someone to listen to you or record yourself.
• Use humour and a personal story to open the presentation but be appropriate.
• Know the message you are trying to get across and stick to the key points.
• Keep the colour scheme simple and ensure the text is readable against the background.
• Have the same slide design throughout the whole presentation.
• Put your company branding and logo on the presentation to make it look professional and help build a relationship with your brand and the audience.
• Keep animations and transitions to a minimum so they don’t confuse and distract the audience.
• Use creative ways of presenting your information eg, pictures, charts, and animations which will grab people’s attention.

Don’t

• Speak without any preparation or notes unless you’ve done it successfully before.
• Start the presentation without checking that everyone can hear you.
• Don’t wander off the subject, and if you do, ensure the audience knows why and quickly come back to it.
• Use technical language, acronyms or jargon unless it is relevant for your audience.
• Read from a script – it can sound stilted and prevents you from making eye contact with the audience.
• Put everything you want to say on the PowerPoint slide and then just read it out.
• Overload the slide with too much graphics or animation. They should be used to make the message clearer not confuse the audience.
• Use different formatting and colour schemes on each slide.

Perhaps you have other tips to add to the list? However, it’s important to remember that a clearly delivered and well-designed presentation will promote you and your business professionally and effectively to your audience.

The pace of change continuously astounds and bewilders me. I just about remember horses pulling coal carts as a kid and now we’re developing driverless cars. The Internet of Things will be part of our daily life soon and humankind seems to be losing the ability to stand up straight already. How long will it be before we start resembling bananas more than apes with a pronounced curve of the spine and neck from staring down at mobiles?

Mobile Phone Addiction

We’re in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

According to the World Economic Forum, we’re now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We’ve already lived through an immense amount of change and who knows what is round the corner. The ever rising march of Artificial Intelligence (AI) shows great promise in many fields for the future but it is also highly controversial and multi-faceted.

Even Elon Musk, the ‘Thomas Edison of the 21st century’ has serious doubts about what we are creating for ourselves. The serial entrepreneur who has had a hand in all types of technology from electric cars, rockets, Paypal, Hyperloop, solar power systems, electric jets to digital technology. The man who is famous for his plans to colonise Mars, further DNA sequencing to identify cures for diseases and viable fusion to create energy for us all for ever.

Mars colonisation

A man who is a bringer of great promise. However Musk also predicts that ‘robots will be able to do everything better than us’ and they will ‘take your jobs, and government will have to pay your wage’. He also believes that we should be very concerned and proactively regulate Artificial Intelligence as it is a ‘risk to the existence of human civilization’ in a way that risks we commonly deal with now are only harmful to a set of individuals in society.

In contrast Mark Zuckerberg, the equally famous entrepreneur of Facebook is more optimistic saying that artificial intelligence will improve life in the future and that naysayers are irresponsible.

Is technology the bringer of great promise?

The positives of AI are certainly immense

“For people with a disability, the Fourth Industrial Revolution will give us super powers”

Birgit Skarstein, Double paralympic athlete and World Rowing Champion, Norway

“Imagine a robot capable of treating Ebola patients or cleaning up nuclear waste.”

Dileep George, artificial intelligence and neuroscience researcher

“Any skilled engineer can take control remotely of any connected ‘thing’. Society has not yet realized the incredible scenarios this capability creates.”

André Kudelski, Chairman and CEO of Kudelski Group

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already playing a massive role in health care and some believe that there is an AI Healthcare ‘tsunami coming’ that will benefit all. Data currently has the biggest part to play in healthcare providing the chance to revolutionise current healthcare systems.

AI Nurse

Google’s Deepmind Health project mines medical records to provide faster and more detailed records.

IBM Watson is working with oncologists to create treatment plans using data from clinical notes and combining that with research, data and clinical expertise. IBM’s Medical Sieve algorithm analyses radiology images to detect issues faster and more reliably.

The new Babylon app hopes to decrease doctors waiting times by giving medical AI consultations combining a person’s medical history, medical knowledge and a database of diseases using speech recognition. It can also remind patients to take their medication.

Molly is a new virtual nurse which supports patients with chronic diseases in between doctor’s visits.

AiCure checks if patients are taking their medicine and helps them manage their conditions.

Deep Genomics looks for mutations and linkages to disease using genetic and medical data and hopes to predict what will happen when DNA is altered.

Human Longevity offers genome sequencing alongside body scans and checkups to spot diseases in their very early stages.

Atomwise use AI to find existing drugs that could be used for other conditions, therefore, speeding up and reducing costs and potentially avoiding future pandemics.

Berg Health mines data to analyse why some people are insusceptible to certain diseases to help current treatments and discover new drugs.

The future certainly looks bright – but have you started to notice the changes in everyday life that are already impacting our lives?

Is technology the bringer of great peril?

“You cannot wait until a house burns down to buy fire insurance on it. We cannot wait until there are massive dislocations in our society to prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

Robert J. Shiller, 2013 Nobel laureate in economics, Yale University

Throughout the globe transportation, communication and education have all improved through high tech. With every improvement, however, there are negative consequences such as resource depletion, increased population and pollution.

In our more mundane everyday activities digital technology is already changing our lives. Many of us are already suffering from distraction, narcissism, expectation of instant gratification, depression, depleted vision and hearing, neck strain and lack of sleep. The National Sleep Foundation found 95% of people when surveyed used electronic devices before sleep and this can cause issues for our overall wellbeing.

We are becoming less dependent now on our memory and more on Google but often feeling that we’re suffering from information overload. If we don’t ‘use our brains’ will we lose our capability to think effectively? Or will we adapt in a different way?

When examining brain scans of frequent internet and mobile users vs occasional users there was twice as much activity in the short term memory and quick decision making area. We are learning to skim where there is too much information. Does that mean that we are becoming shallow thinkers or does it mean our ability to decipher information is actually becoming more efficient?

Technology will affect our jobs

I attended a LinkedIn conference recently on the use of insight and data in recruitment and the potential for AI.

The recruitment landscape is changing rapidly and the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that 46% of the activities in Europe’s top five economies are already susceptible to automation – not in the near future, but right now.

This will affect all of us in some way and we need to be prepared for the shift towards even more hi tech based skills. There aren’t enough key digital workers or software developers already in many countries and this situation will only be exacerbated as the years go by. We may need a future full of coders or at the very least software that professionals can use that removes the need to code.

It wasn’t the AI potential or recruitment issues that grabbed my attention at the conference, however. It was a speech by Baroness Sarah Greenfield, a leading neurologist.

How neuroscientists see our future

Sarah used her neuroscience background to look at what could be happening to many of us in the modern digital age. She thinks that with so many of us obsessed with social media, search engines, mobile apps and gaming that we are actually losing our identity as human beings. We are lacking the enriched environment that creates increased neural connections in the brain and that the average person in the future may behave more like a 3 year old. That alarmist sentence certainly grabbed my attention.

She likened the lack of an interesting life full of different experiences to that of someone with Dementia where someone loses brain connections and doesn’t have a frame of reference (rather like a small child). In other words, their identity is missing, they have short attention spans and demand that needs be satisfied instantly.

Social Networking issues

With conversations taking place more online and less so face-to-face with no opportunity for eye contact or emotions, the true sense of someone’s identity could be slowly eroded. Words are normally only 10% of the total impact of a face-to-face conversation. Are we lacking 90% of normal interaction on Social Media? Do we rely on emojis to perceive emotion now?

Gambling

Gaming rather than reading

Sarah stated that the move away from reading to video game playing was concerning. Reading allows you to have a deep ‘relationship’ with the characters where you become the character in a way that isn’t really possible in video games.

Are gamers similar to gamblers?

Sarah showed us brain scans of gamers vs gamblers and how the Dopamine pathways were very similar and that damaged dopamine can lead to taking greater risks. The thrill of the moment when playing a game or gambling can override the consequences with the senses overtaking cognitive thought. Is our use of social media, the internet and apps reducing us to a society who is constantly craving stimulation, trying to achieve a Dopamine high, only living in the here and now and being driven by our feelings rather than serious thought?

I considered the level of gaming, social media and relentless Google searching via mobile throughout my family and pondered the consequences.

I can already see my children and all of their friends being taken over by gaming. They don’t talk about much else and seem to be totally ruled by it. Then my own usage is much higher than I would like. I work with Social Media and it is hard to avoid but I am certainly far too dependent on it.

I started delving into whether Sarah Greenfield’s comments are absolutely on the button. The scientific community have issues with some of her statements which need more proof rather than just hypothesis So I looked for further evidence as I’m sure that much of this is true to a certain extent as I see it every day with people stumbling through life joined to their mobiles and children not going out to play in the way they used to.

Facebook likes

So many of us use Facebook. The ‘Like’ button is acknowledged to be the same as receiving a little reward. Users gamble when they do something on Facebook – will we get a Like or be ignored? We’re all subconsciously looking for positive feedback and confirmation, and yes it is addictive. Social Media has become a digital drug that has taken over our culture.

And does heavy Social Media usage actually make you feel good? A study in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology found that Facebook and depressive symptoms go hand in hand. “Social comparison” is what links Facebook time and depressive symptoms together. Thinking that your friends are having a better time than you. It suggests that users need to post a balance of good and bad. I’ve been sucked in by this but on reflection if I’m having a great time I’m not thinking of Facebook. I see people at gigs filming the whole night but feel that they’re actually missing the chance to immerse themselves in the atmosphere (whilst I’m dancing like a woman possessed)

It’s not just Social Media, however – there’s the apps. I hang my head in shame at using Candy Crush as a Mum gamer years ago. But it didn’t stop there – I became a master of Sim City and then Fallout Shelter and realised I had better stop when my kids started asking me for mobile app tips #parentingfail. I watch Netflix on my mobile in the bath, I’m always checking Social Media for work and communicating with people in sports/community groups that I need to be on top of. It’s a mixture of positive and negative – I am reminded of what I need to do, could be doing, should be doing – but its constant. I even get mobile app reminders telling me to meditate! Oh the irony.

Tired mobile

Scott Levin, a Director of the US Family Medicine Residency Program, thinks that parents are so focused on their children’s screen time that they forget about their own usage. “If we’re not aware, as parents, of what we’re modeling for our kids, then there are high prices to pay”.

69% of parents and 78% of teens check their mobiles at least hourly.

(Common Sense Media)

So why do we get so drawn into games and mobile apps? Even Mums? I even know a Grandmother who played Candy Crush throughout the night.

Game designers call it ‘juice’ – the feedback or reward that you get from playing a game. Candy Crush plays sounds, flashes brightly and praises you in a strangely deep voice and apparently we like that – a bit much.

Juice is intended to join the gaming and real worlds together. The opportunities for Juice in virtual reality (VR) technology are even greater where the user is in an immersive environment and the juice might even be multisensory soon to include touch, hearing and smell.

Is the future of some of us going to be one of a VR life rather than a real one? If the VR life appears better than your own will users start removing themselves from normal society and living in this VR world?

Can gaming really be addictive?

Researchers have studied the psychological rewards of video games vs gambling vs drug use for over 20 years. They’ve compared the brain’s dopamine pathway (the pleasure part) but we still don’t know whether uncontrollable video game playing is an addiction on its own terms or just a symptom of deeper problems such as depression or anxiety.

New technologies are often blamed for compulsive behaviour when depression and social anxiety are the true culprits. “When you don’t know how to fix that and create opportunities for yourself, you feel helpless. Why not play video games?” (Video Game Researcher, Nick Yee)

What can we do to prevent digital technology impacting our lives negatively?

Sarah Greenfield recommends that we apply a little risk management to our lives and ensure that we are living real lives and not just digital ones. Her advice probably resonates with most as it is standard advice given by mothers throughout recent times. But it is probably more important now than ever.

Go and exercise

– make new brain cells, give yourself time to free your mind

Interact with nature

Sit down and share a meal with someone

– talk to them – share stories and experiences

Do something creative

– be an individual!

Cycling

Harness your individuality and don’t miss out on real life

The UK is known for its creative industries and if we allow our creativity to slide and become an unthinking population of 3 year olds what do we have left?

Is this absolutely true for everyone? How do you become a brilliantly creative games designer without being fairly gaming obsessed? Are our software developers all devoid of cognitive thought? Of course not.

Our world is changing, and our brains are adapting to that new world. Good analysis and research looking at the co-evolution of mind and society can only be a good thing.

Is technology a bringer of great promise or great peril?

It seems to be both but it doesn’t have to be that way. We can reduce the potential peril by researching the effect digital technology is having and taking steps to counteract it. We can put heavy checks and balances into what is being developed and how. The overarching concern may be whether that will happen if the real power behind society lies with the huge technology companies.

People make judgements about you based on how you speak. Your speech affects your credibility and even how intelligent you are seen as being.

I recently watched a presentation where the speaker used “uh,” “umm” and other verbal fillers more than 37 times in 10 minutes. I counted. He fidgeted, put his hands in his pockets and looked completely uncomfortable. He knew his subject, but his nervous mannerisms made him appear less than credible.

Fillers, tics and nervous mannerisms are most common when speaking in front of a group, but they can creep in to your daily conversations, too. At the airport, I overheard two women having a business conversation and I was astounded at how often they used the word “like.”

If you catch yourself using “like,” “uh,” “you know,” etc., it usually means that you are stalling for time to think of your next word. Slow down. Take a breath. Think about what you’re saying.

Ask a friend to signal you when you slip into one of your bad habits.

Record yourself speaking in different situations and listen to how you sound.

Concentrate on removing one bad habit at a time. Trying to fix everything at once may make you more nervous and self-conscious when you speak. Start by, for example, getting rid of “like.”

Remember that anyone listening to you speak, whether one-on-one or in a group, is usually hoping you will speak well and communicate effectively. They’re on your side. Don’t let nervousness affect your ability to communicate powerfully.

If you are small business owner and you have no idea on how to do marketing for your business, you should read this article. In this article, you will find out why investing in online marketing is crucial for your business. And what is really inside online marketing, and you will find out some mistakes small business owners are making right now. After reading this article, you will be able to avoid many mistakes and start doing marketing online.

Why should you invest in online marketing?

So, why SME should invest in online marketing? First of all, a lot of small business owner who just have enough money for their day to day business. And even some of the companies have cash, what they will do is to put them on traditional advertising, like advertising on television, Yellow Pages or direct mail. Compared to traditional advertising methods, online marketing is much more cost-effective and he can reach a lot of people, who go online every day. Next, we’re going to find out what is inside online marketing.

What online marketing are composed of?

To put it simple, online marketing, just like what is described, is doing marketing online. What you need to of and do is to get people to visit your website, and convert them to do custom. To get traffic, you can either pay for it or get it free. If you want to get traffic immediately in order to test your offer, you can try pay per click, pay-per-view, or banner advertising on high-volume traffic websites. One of the drawbacks is that you have to pay in order to get traffic. And if the offer does not convert well, you do not make any money. If you want to get free traffic, you can write articles and submit to article directory, optimize the website using search engine optimization techniques, or use social media such as Facebook or twitter to drive traffic to the website. Advertising using these methods is usually free, the problem is that you may not get traffic immediately.

After driving traffic to your website, the next thing you should do is to build a customer database, or e-mail lists. Selling to existing customers is much more easier than getting a new customer. Therefore, once they are joined your e-mail list, you can sell to you list again and again. Now let’s talk about some of the mistakes small business owners are making.

Mistakes SMEs Make

One of the problems people are making is that small business owners are spending money on search engine optimization with no purpose. They pay $2000 to a search engine company and try to optimize their website for a very competitive keywords like “insurance”, “car” or “business”, which drives no result. Another problem is that, in their website, there is no place to collect visitors e-mail address, which, like mentioned in the above, you can sell to them later on.

Unlike traditional advertising methods, online marketing can give you a lot more opportunities to reach your target prospects. In online marketing, you can get’s website visitor to your website using paid method or free methods, and built your customer database for your business. Finally, some businesses invest a lot of money on doing SEO but did not get any results. It is because they don’t know what they really want, and just optimize their website for a very competitive keywords. Also remember to put an online form to collect visitors email address that you can sell to them later on. So next time if you want to do marketing, please consider doing marketing online.

sia Studio Software or Camtasia screen recorder by TechSmith is a new easy to use video editing software that will help you create professional looking presentations or screencast. Create blogs, videos and presentations that will look like it was created by professionals to impress your boss, clients or even other students.

For those wanting to know on how To create a video using Camtasia follow these simple steps.

The Camtasia screen recorder is very easy to use, with just three easy steps; your screencast will be ready for everyone to see.

First step: Recording

With Camtasia Recorder, you record exactly what you want: The entire screen, specific Dimensitons, a region window or appliation. Camtasia recorder is design to be simple and easy to use starting with your first recording – just click on the red button and off you go and record.

Or once Camtasia is installed, it will put a toolbar inside PowerPoint (adds-in)to easily record any presentation with just a simple click at the mouse button. Add your custom audio files like music tracks and other recordings, and then you have yourself a screencast.

Using adjustable options, Camtasia screen recorder can capture screens in full screen, or if chosen, some regions of the screen only. This possible due to the SmartFocus technology of Camtasia screen recorder, which keeps track of all the actions that are happening at the recording.

Second Step: Editing

After you have recorded your content, it is now time to put some bells and whistles to your screencast with Camtasia screen recorder’s editing features. Add callouts to your video to get the attention of the viewers. Enhance the cursor and add effects on it while you move and click the mouse so your viewers can follow the action. The Camtasia Studio comes with a library of pre-designed assets that you can just drag and drop to your screencast. You can also add in all your custom callouts, slides and others for future use.

Camtasia screen recorder also has a speech to text captioning feature which converts your screencast’s audio in to 500-compliant open/closed captions. And as you continually use this feature, it will improve its capability to produce more accurate captions for you to use. But if you don’t want to use Camtasia screen recorder’s built-in audio captioning feature, you could always do it manually or use another different SRT and SMI transcription files to import the software.

The Camtasia screen recorder will make it easy for anyone viewing the video to watch ant section they want to watch now, thanks to the Table of Contents feature. The Camtasia Studio does this automatically to any PowerPoint presentation by using the slide titles as the source for the Table of Contents. You could also add some custom made flash quizzes to any part of your screencast to make it more interactive.

Third Step: Share

This is the final step in creating your screencast after you have recorded and edited it to your liking. It’s now time to show the world what you’ve made! With just a simple click, you can broadcast your created content to any video sharing sites on the internet. It’s that simple!

Use the Camtasia screen recorder in creating your personal blogs and videos, create professional looking presentation to impress a client or boss, use it to make training and teaching videos for your employees or students. The Camtasia screen recorder will be everything you need for creating your amazing screencast. Order one now or go to their website for a free demo of Camtasia screen recorder.

Writing an academic content is an art and you need to have flawless writing skills and critical thinking ability. Anybody can become a freelance writer, but if you want to stand out from the normal crowd, you need to know how to better your writing skills. If you are seeking academic writing jobs Online, you need to know the tips and tricks to improve your writing skills and earn more as a freelancer.

In this article we will discuss some tips that will help in enhancing your writing skills. If you want to land up with a successful freelance academic writing jobs, you should not only follow the tips but make them a habit. One of the most effective ways to enhance your writing skills is by practicing writing and reading other writers. When you read other writers’ work, you should notice their writing style and start picking up new words to enhance your vocabulary.

Some effective tips to improve freelance writing skills:

Here are a few effective tips that you can employ to become a better freelance writer and earn more:

• Start up

You don’t need to worry about the length of your article, no matter what you are writing about. Keep in mind that you are writing the article for developing your writing skills.

• Write early in the morning

Your brain is rejuvenated in the morning and it is the best time to come up with creative approaches. Morning atmosphere is energetic, so give it a try and feel the fresh experience of becoming a healthy writer.

• Be a good reader

To be a good writer you need to be a patient reader at first. When you read, your mind comes up with newer thoughts and enables you to write on various topics.

• Keep it simple

For becoming a successful academic writer, you need to keep your writing simple. Express your ideas in a simple manner.

• Complete your article in various stages

Writing an article takes time and every writer has to let their article pass through many stages. Firstly, analyze the topic and make a list of some ideas related to it. Elucidate on those ideas and form sentences and paragraphs. Edit your article after it’s complete. Finally, proofreading is a must.

• Write in a distraction free location

You need to keep yourself free from distraction while writing an article. Find a location that is peaceful and allows you to think in-depth. Keep social media distractions and mobile phones away while writing. Distraction free locations motivate you to write a healthy content.

• Go smoothly

You cannot edit your article while you are writing it. First finish writing the article by going with the flow of your thoughts. Editing while writing can hamper your flow of thought and productivity.

• Research well before writing

Whenever you start writing on a particular topic, do a thorough research to increase your knowledge of that topic. It will help you to write freely and more informatively. The more you possess knowledge, the better your content will be.

• Give yourself a specific amount of time

You need to set a specific time for each task, including researching, writing the article, marketing it, etc. Developing better writing skills is not a one day business and you need to devote specific time in it.

• Note down the research work

Writing can never be finished in a single stage. While you are researching on a particular topic, keep a notebook and pen for jotting down eye-catching sentences related to your topic.

• Write regularly

“Practice makes a man perfect.” If you want to improve your writing skills, you need to make a habit of writing regularly. For that, you have to abide by the following steps religiously.

These are some ordinary yet essential tips that can help you in improving your freelance writing skills. Keep yourself motivated in your online academic writing job and that is the key to a successful freelancing career.

For your business to be successful in the modern world, it is crucial to have a robust online footprint in the World Wide Web. Hence, when a business is planning its marketing campaigns, it should integrate a solid strategy for digital marketing. Without an established plan for digital marketing, important aspects of the business are more likely to suffer such as branding, customer acquisitions, customer retention, and profit generation.

The most important elements of internet marketing include organic search, mobile responsiveness, content marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing. All of these elements mixed together will create robust digital marketing campaigns.

Content Marketing

Content is the driving factor in a digital marketing plan. Running a blog for a website is a good way to provide your visitors with fresh and reliable content. This will help you increase website visitors and customer engagement for better conversions. Creating new and valuable content for your website also creates credibility for the business. Through effective content marketing strategies, you can position your business as an expert in your niche.

Organic Search

People today search for information online in different ways, the most popular is through search engine results. The first phase of ensuring that your website will appear in front of your prospect clients and current customers is to properly optimize your web pages. Proper Search Engine Optimization or SEO will help leading search engines – Google, Yahoo, and Bing – to determine what your website is all about, and how it relates to what the person is searching for. With a cohesive organic search plan, you can improve the visibility of the website within the search engines and help in attracting more traffic back to your website. This will also help your business to increase its potential for different opportunities.

Mobile Responsiveness

Mobile browsing is increasingly becoming more popular. More and more customers are even shopping online through their mobile devices. The increasing sales of smartphones and tablets are also a fact that you should not ignore. Taking a closer look at what is possible with marketing through mobile means is very crucial in today’s landscape of the digital world. Every facet of your digital marketing strategy must reflect responsiveness to mobile platforms. It is also important to consider having a mobile optimized website for a more enjoyable user interface experience. Visitors to your mobile optimized website will love the simplicity and ease of information accessibility.

Social Media Marketing

Marketing your business through social media platforms is a good strategy in building and increasing brand image online. This is also a very effective channel in sharing information and distributing information about your products and services. Using different social media channels can create new opportunities to engage potential customers as well as retain your existing clients.

Email Marketing

About 5% of website visitors buy products the first time they visit a website. If your digital marketing strategy is driving traffic to your website, what will you do with the 95% of visitors who clicked the close button? You need a strategic email marketing campaign to help your business get a higher ROI. Based on a research, about 60% of consumers are encouraged to buy from a website with a well planned email campaign. Also take note that most emails opened today are opened through mobile devices. Thus, you need to make certain that all emails are mobile responsive.

Do you need extra income?

Are you a mother looking for ways to earn at the comfort of your home? Or a father who would like to use his talents, hobbies and interests to make money at the same time? Or an educator who would like to share his knowledge and expertise? Or a mere student who would like to be independent to support his studies? Or a team of experts with the goal to gain for value and profit? Or someone who wanted to set up a home business, a micro entrepreneur and who would like to be his own boss? Or are you the one who would like to change his career path or would like to have some sort of career break? Or simply someone who would like to have additional work and bonus income?

In this eon of high technology and social media proliferation, earning through freelancing is one of the ways to increase household or individual income.

Earning by freelancing can be your chance to achieve your vision, your dream and a decent way to gain extra income. This can even become a source of your full time earnings.

Why not read on and let us traverse the world of freelancing…

What is freelancing and freelancer?

Before, freelancing work is not so popular and not given any worth at all. Others perceive freelancer as person with no stable job and who do job hopping and hunting from one place to another. In short, no value.

Nowadays, in electronic media and eCommerce development, freelancing is already a “word of mouth”. There is a better connotation today when a freelancer says he belongs to this category. Freelancing is in stratum to compete with corporate giants earning competitively in a blink of an eye.

Others term it as outsourcing skilled and talented people in the project needed by client or buyer. The people in this kind of work are labeled as freelancer, freelance, freelance worker, independent contractor and the like.

The freelancer, the person who is doing freelancing activity, is a self-employed status and has no employee-employer relationship. This is based on mutually agreed arrangement and can be done either verbal or written form stating the requirement of the client including:

the type of work to be done

the deadline

the payment of a certain piece or specified work

the ways to pay the freelancer

and other specific details of a sale or contract

Other freelancers may even require proposal with quotations and deposits from the clients before pursuing the project. They may charge by the hour, day, on a per-project basis, or per piece rate. Some freelancers tried a value-based pricing on the perceived worth of the outputs to the client. It is a common practice to pay fractional fee on the onset as a downpayment or lump sum amount upon finishing the project. For longer period and complex projects, a payment schedule based on results is used which is most common in consulting jobs, where a phase by phase billing is more applicable.

Freelancing in a way is selling skills, talents and expertise with the desired result for a certain buyer or client. Freelancing can also be illustrated as the freelancer providing solutions to client’s problem/s. To optimize the freelancer’s results, one should focus on his own specializations in order to be effective and efficient.

Freelancers are represented by the organization like Freelancer to negotiate on their behalf who at the same time resell their capabilities to the potential clients.

The influence of internet revolutionized the word freelancing into a much detailed explanation, highfalutin terminologies in corporate world such as telecommuting, online outsourcing, offline outsourcing, crowdsourcing and business process outsourcing.

Where can we apply freelancing?

Freelancing has a wide array of applications, vast field, unlimited opportunities and through the advent of internet and uprising technology anything is possible and accessible.

Freelancing can be useful in the following works:

1. Blogging

2. Book Publishing

3. Journal Publishing

4. Magazine

5. Newspaper Publishing

6. Journalism

7. Technical Writing

8. Report Writing

9. Academic Writing

10. Tutoring

11. Article Rewriting

12. Business writing

13. Sports Writing

14. Feature Writing

15. Poem Writing

16. Literary Writing

17. Editing

18. Proof reading

19. Copywriting

20. Ghost Writing

21. Song Writing

22. Consulting (ISO 26000 Corporate Social Responsibility, ISO 9001 Quality Management System, Integrated Management System, ISO 14001 Environmental Management System, ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System)

23. Public Relations

24. Photojournalism

25. Photography

26. Full Marketing Collaterals Designing (from making of company logo, letterhead, business card, tarpaulins, stickers, flyers, billboards, signages, and several marketing and promotional items like corporate giveaways)

27. Photoshop

28. Graphics Designing

29. Logo Designing

30. Illustrator

31. PSD to HTML Making

32. Magazine or Newspaper’s Lay-out Designing

33. Website Development

34. Website Designing

35. Web Scraping

36. Indexing or Market Surveying

37. Content Creation

38. Content Management System (Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, Blogger)

39. Hacked Site Recovery and Protection

40. Coaching

41. Communication (Chat, SMS, Email Support)

42. Language Translation

43. Designing and Conceptualizing Content for PowerPoint Presentations and similar Open Source Presentations

44. Medical Transcription

45. Video Production

46. Flash Production

47. Video Editing

48. Sales and Offline Marketing

49. Telemarketing

50. Online or Internet Marketing

51. Customer Help Desk

52. Tour Guiding

53. Event Planning

54. Event Management

55. Speech Writing

56. Social Media Management

57. Computer Programming and Product Integration

58. Script Writing

59. Film Making

60. Film Reviewing

61. Music Composition

62. Accounting

63. Auditing (Finance and Quality)

64. Researching (Engineering, Mathematics, Science, Technology)

65. Training

66. Recruitment Advertising

67. Virtual Assistance

68. Data Encoding

69. Data Processing

70. Data Mining

71. Interior Designing

72. Gardening

73. Landscaping

74. Home Designing

75. Building Architectural Designing

76. Advertising

77. Open Innovation

78. Mobile Phone Programming

79. Cellular Phones Repairing

80. Game Design and Development

81. Games Installation

82. Operating System and Specialized Software Application

83. Social Media Optimization and Management

84. Search Engine Optimization and Inbound Marketing

85. Link Building

86. Software Architecture

87. Website Administration and Management

88. Finance and Loan Consulting

89. Legal Consulting

90. Business Consulting or Entrepreneurship Mentoring

91. Sports Coaching

92. Business Plan Making

93. Product Sourcing and Manufacturing and a lot more

94. E Commerce

95. Shopping Carts

96. Entertainment

97. Logistics and Product Sourcing

98. Toll Manufacturing and Packaging

99. Food Service Management, Canteen and Catering

100. Public Speaking and Hosting

101. Voice Talent Management, Broadcasting/ Radio Announcing

102. Health Care Management

103. Beauty Care

104. Hair Care

105. Janitorial Services

106. Manpower Services (Bartender, Waiter)

107. Medical Advice Services

108. Metal and Plastic Fabrication

109. Painting/ Repainting, Floor Coating

110. Waterproofing Services

111. Real Estate Development and a lot more…

The prospects and projects are countless. In the internet world, we can get projects and works from Freelancer.com’s website.

Why freelance, what are the benefits?

The client and the freelancer are both in a win-win scenario when they get into freelancing activity.

Essentially, freelancing is a planned action of the organization to focus on their core capabilities and transfer other processes or work to third party such as the freelancer. This aims to expedite work, to increase quality of the product or service and to save fund. In short, this will make the company become more productive and effective as an enterprise. At the same time, the receiver or the freelancer will gain income and experience, too.

Freelancers are paid commensurate to the services rendered to the client and to the negotiation process undertaken.

They can also earn money faster and more frequent than permanent or regular employees in a given period with the same kind of work. This is also dependent on freelancer’s competence, capability, marketing ability, connections and track record.

Flexibility in time or even time freedom to choose the work schedule made freelancing even more attractive to freelancers. They work at their own pace.

Freelancers can choose the place to work. It can be at home or a place conducive to them. It can even be more exciting and inspiring space or an “on the go” mood as it can be mobile too using the latest technology of Apple iPad or Samsung tablet.

Freelancing offers variety of works or projects. So, there’s no place for boredom. Having freelance works at hand, freelancers can earn more!

There could be times that perks may be offered specially for consultants, such as free travel and accommodation! Freelancing is available not only in your community or local market, but also nationally and internationally.

So, freelancing is a very satisfying experience as it gives the freelancer more agility to profit, has the option to work on his choice or market niche and perform at his own time and space.

How to become a freelancer?

There are several ways to freelance as there are also numerous websites regarding this matter. Just be mindful that there are genuine and bogus sites and so it is always necessary that we only negotiate to trusted sites. A newbie freelancer must choose a freelancing site which is known for integrity, reliability and if possible with huge clients’ base. It is no doubt to utilize the website of Freelancer Dot Com with its user-friendly interface.

Freelancer Dot Com is a site with reputation, experience and regarded as one of the top searched website as buzzed by influential world bloggers and SEO practitioners.

In http://www.freelancer.com, it is as easy as, A, B, C. The basic steps are:

A. Sign in

B. Bid

C. Get Hired

Freelancers can sign up for free in http://www.freelancer.com and can bid on the freelance works posted by the buyers or clients or companies.

The numbers of projects and the total amount is so huge and we can get the share of the market most specially if you have the knowledge, skills, talent and attitude.

So, what are you waiting for, let us travel the world of freelancing! This is your time to shine and get more income.

Just try it and who knows you will be surprise how this piece of information can get you going and in turn your time to share this post to all your friends. You may feel free to comment and tell us also your experience about your journey in the world of freelancing…

Continue learning and keep on coming back to our site as juicier and interesting information is in the offing!

“Give your patient twenty dollars and them to go home so at least you can have a cup of coffee while you’re losing money”, is what Chuck Felder of HCS Consulting suggested in his speech at the American Physical Therapy Association’s Private Practice Section Conference in San Diego in the fall of 2007. He went on to explain that with the average cost of a PT visit’s being $81 accepting an insurance contract that pays less can be disastrous.

How Physical Therapy Clinics are doing:

Of the PT clinics surveyed in his study they ran from a 30% loss to a 38% profit with the median profit being 12%.

What Physical Therapy Clinics are Charging:

In the clinics studied charge amounts ranged from $75/visit to a high of $160/visit. The average charge was stated as $137/visit though the average income per visit was only $91/visit. If that sounds good to you remember that the average cost per visit was $81. Chuck says that if you charge 125 to 150% of Medicare Rates you can expect a 30% write off. He also stated that the average accounts receivable for a standard PT clinic is 200% of the monthly charge. Alison Palic, PT, a contributor to the Cash Practice Secrets home study course stated that she charges $95 cash for a 50-minute session and has no accounts receivable.

The president of the private practice section of the APTA, Steve Andersen, PT notes that reimbursement rates seem to be decreasing “beyond our control”.

Chuck stated that cash-based physical therapy was an area we want to grow in because there’s a much higher hassle factor when you’re trying to get paid after the fact.

Chuck showed a picture of his son shooting a black powder rifle but used it to illustrate a good point. He said, “Take good aim at what you want to do and you’ll hit your target”.

In my previous article, I laid out seven fantastic steps you can take to write articles that get read and shared on social media. Those steps laid the groundwork for a concise and high-quality article, but now it’s time to take your article writing mastery even further.

Writing an article that contains info the reader is looking for isn’t necessarily too difficult. The greater challenge is giving the reader an experience they’ll remember and want to share. Below I cover in detail eight more actionable steps to take to supercharge your reader’s overall experience and takeaway.

1. Does the article offer any new, refreshing and useful advice or ideas?

Just about everyone understands that in order to produce something new, you must use at least some aspects of work that’s already been done. In other words, nothing is ever 100 percent original. Despite this, it should never be painfully obvious that you’ve ripped off someone else’s (or your own) prior work.

Take a few moments to contemplate how you can add some originality to the piece you’re currently working on. Does your article provide useful information you haven’t covered before? Does it give the reader your honest, professional take on a new industry practice or technology? Does the article have fresh insight from a recent experience of yours?

All of these (and others) are ideal elements that help your article become and remain original. A fresh, invigorating article full of practical information is exactly what your readers want.

2. Are paragraphs short, well arranged and flow smoothly from one to another? Are sentences short and well constructed? Are punctuation and grammar well-suited and correct?

So often, writers produce a decent article or blog post, but neglect formatting. Keeping your writing easy on the eyes and simple enough to understand is truly as important as the writing itself. You may have written the best new eBook in your niche or compiled a ton of case studies and real-life examples, but if your readers can’t visually comprehend your writing at first, they’re going to ignore it altogether or find another expert to learn from.

Visual comprehension, put one way, is the ability to glance over or skim a piece of writing and be able to understand most (if not all) of it. Having to “force” your eyes through one massive block of text is grueling, and if this is spotted within your article, readers will avoid it like the plague.

People need the opportunity to quickly and efficiently consume your content. In addition to editing for visual comprehension, make sure grammar is on point, spelling is correct, punctuation is accurate and sentences flow well.

3. Is your article descriptive, sensational, thought-provoking, emotive or inspiring?

Any article you write should be at least one of these. If you can’t inject at least some emotional power into your writing, you should re-evaluate it and edit until it has been improved.

Readers love what best remains in their memory! If your writing is emotive, it will be memorable, and if it’s memorable, that’s because it was emotive. These two elements of writing are inextricable.

4. Have you revised the article to remove irrelevant ideas and strengthen your points?

Every piece of writing you compose should be as succinct and action-oriented as possible. If readers aren’t drawn in and given the precise information they need, they’ll be disappointed and hastily search for another expert.

Ruthlessly edit your work until only the most valuable sentences remain. What can be said in fewer words should be. Keep all paragraphs germane to their respective subheadings and cut to the chase at all times.

5. Is your article running the risk of copyright infringement, libelous statements or other distasteful actions?

Using a real-life example of someone from a recent news story to prove your point can be highly enticing, but this rarely has the payoff you may anticipate. On top of this, it’s all too easy to criticize or belittle someone who the news has already painted in a certain light.

Despite all this, refraining from defamation is the wisest choice. No statement within your writing, regardless of the individual mentioned, is worth sacrificing one’s reputation or career for. Keep your writing clean in all regards and you’ll be able to sleep well at night.

6. Have you waited a few hours to give your article “fresh eyes” and polish up any awkward phrases?

When you’ve finished an article or post, it’s best to wait at least a few hours before it goes live. This is because nine times out of 10, you’re going to catch something the second read-around that you missed during the first.

Withholding yourself from always publishing right away is a fantastic, easy and free way to level up your writing. You’ll have more confidence when sharing your writing after doing this than if you simply broadcasted your new post without revision.

7. Does the article make sense?

Here’s another often-overlooked component of steadily improving your writing. You should be able to look back on your article, view the piece from a bird’s eye vantage point and have the whole article still make sense.

A common roadblock writers of all kinds face is getting so deep into the writing itself that the final reader’s experience is muddled and illogical. You should be able to read the article, understand the individual points and still absorb the key takeaway and call-to-action.

Speaking of which…

8. Have you closed your article with a killer call-to-action?

If you’re writing an article and your objective extends beyond personal enjoyment, you need a call-to-action! No piece of copywriting is complete without it.

Put simply, a call-to-action is the final paragraph or sentence your reader consumes; one that prompts them to take a specific action. It’s pretty straightforward; yet, most writers neglect quality here or forget it altogether! Always end your article with a precise call-to-action. Otherwise, the reader will forget who you are and you’ll have missed an opportunity to engage with them further.