Your opinions are in high demand and this company will pay you to complete short surveys.

The Consumer Advisory Group* is an on-line research group where you can freely share your thoughts and views about certain products or services. They offer their panel participants rewards, gift certificates, sweepstakes entries and more for ongoing participation and for providing valued feedback and opinions.

The research data collected will be shared with the affiliates of the Consumer Advisory Group and used to generate investment ideas and strategies. Through your participation in their panels you may help provide insights into:

• How to improve products that are in the market today,
• What exciting new products to introduce,
• How to improve a company’s marketing efforts,
• What advertising is most effective,
• What promotions work, or
• How to improve the overall shopping experience no matter what channel you shop and purchase products and services in.

You must be a registered member of Consumer Advisory Group to participate in their surveys, in home tests, focus groups and other projects.

Membership is free and there is no minimum number of panels that you must participate in to remain a registered member. If you change your mind you can cancel at any time.

Click here to sign up: Register

Some people are using it for personal reasons. They are sharing their recipes, their photos and their ideas to stay up to date with their friends and family. Business people are using social networking sites to build their careers, promote their business and grow their reputations.

The most popular social networking sites are Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter. Each one of those sites is uniquely positioned and serves a particular population or purpose. There are other online networking sites, numbering in the thousands, so at this point, they shall remain nameless.

The purpose of this article is not to provide information on which networking sites you should choose and why, but to provide you with tips on the etiquette of social networking. Once again, as with e-mail, cell phones, Blackberries and other technological devices or technologically driven communication, we got the technology up front and we have backed into the rules for using it with courtesy and consideration.

I am starting with a list of twelve tips on the etiquette of social networking for the polished professional. The list will, no doubt, grow with time.

1. Fill out your online profiles completely with information about you and your business. Use your real name and your own photo. Your cat may be adorable, but unless you are a veterinarian specializing in the care and treatment of felines, don’t get cute.
2. Use a different profile or account for your personal connections. Business and pleasure do not mix in this medium.
3. Create a section on your main profile detailing who you are seeking to befriend and ask that visitors abide by that information. Everyone need not apply.
4. Offer information of value. Don’t talk just about yourself and your company.
5. Don’t approach strangers and ask them to be friends with you just so you can then try to sell them on your products or services. You will quickly lose credibility and your so-called “friends.”
6. Pick a screen name that represents you and your company well. Don’t call yourself “Loser1″ unless you want to be known by that name.
7. Don’t send out requests for birthdays, invitations to play games or other timewasters for those using the site.
8. Don’t put anything on the Internet that you don’t want your future boss, current client or potential clients to read.
9. Check out the people who want to follow you or be your friend. Your mother was right when she said that people will judge you by the company you keep.
10. If someone does not want to be your friend, accept their decision gracefully. They have the right to make that choice and you have to accept it.
11. Never post when you’re overly-tired, jet lagged, intoxicated, angry or upset.
12. Compose your posts, updates or tweets in a word processing document so you can check grammar and spelling before you send them.

The world of online networking is new to most of us, but there is little difference in connecting with people online and offline. The same basic tenets hold true. Trust and authenticity remain high on the list.

© 2010, Lydia Ramsey. All rights reserved. Reprints welcomed so long as article and by-line are kept intact and all links made live. Lydia Ramsey is a business etiquette expert, professional speaker, corporate trainer and author featured in the Wall Street Journal and many other off-line and on-line publications. Lydia shares her business etiquette tips in her monthly e-zine, her blog and on Twitter. To register for these free services visit http://www.mannersthatsell.com today!

As a Baby Signs Instructor I teach parent workshops, play classes, early childhood educator training and more to parents, teachers, and medical professionals.

I used the Baby Signs Program with my boys for over five years before I came across the Instructor opportunity. I was a SAHM looking for something that I would enjoy doing, something that was “mine” and something that would help bring in some extra income. I about jumped out of my chair when I came across an ad for this opportunity! I already loved the program and was currently using it with my youngest; this was something I could do!

I completed my Certification and began teaching classes. Being an Instructor has surpassed all of my expectations. I finally found something I Love, something that allows me to still stay home with my boys while earning money and something that lets me share some amazing benefits with other families in my community. I loved it so much I decided to get more involved with the company and joined our small team of recruiters looking for quality teachers Worldwide.

You can join our team of amazing professionals from all walks of life

* Educators
* Sign Language Interpreters
* Speech Language Pathologists
* Therapists
* Teachers
* Mothers, Grandmothers
* Social Workers
* Medical Professionals (nurses, childbirth educators, lactation consultants, doulas)
* child development center owners and directors
* other child development professionals

Teach:
* Parent Workshops
* Play Classes
* Early Childhood Educator Training
* Family Childcare Provider Training
* Potty Training Presentations
* Enrichment classes for parents and children from birth to age 5

The Baby Signs® ICI Program is designed to train, certify and support our world wide network of instructors – we provide training – in both infant sign language, early childhood development and a certification to teach the Baby Signs® Program. The ICI Program is a self-paced, distance learning training program, consisting of both written and video materials. It includes ready-to-teach curricula, business administration documents, marketing tools and resources, training DVDs and CDs and much more.

Watch this Introductory video on my blog: babysignswithelizabeth.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-post.html

Company Information
The Baby Signs Program is the world’s leading sign language program for hearing babies. It is an early-intervention program that has been proven through scientific research to boost babies’ cognitive, language and social-emotional development.

The Baby Signs Program was chosen by the U.S. Department of Defense for use in their Child and Youth Services programs for military families around the world.

Baby Signs®, the ORIGINAL sign language program for hearing babies, has been bringing powerful, research-proven benefits to babies and their families around the world for over 25 years. The Baby Signs® Program is the world’s leading sign language program for hearing babies because it’s the only program:

* created by child development experts specifically for babies.
* proven through scientific research to provide positive benefits for babies.
* based on American Sign Language but flexible to fit the needs of all families.
* with a full range of classes and products for parents, babies, and child development centers.

For an information packet and application to become a Baby Signs Certified Instructor, or just to ask a question please email elizabeth@babysigns.com

It happens all the time: A full-page ad is placed in a major monthly publication. The ad touts the service excellence of their product. Catchy phrases. Great promises. Major dollars are spent to create an implied image in the mind of the consumer. And it can vanish in a heartbeat if promises made are not promises kept-if the derived image cancels out the implied image!

Perhaps this has been your experience: You have been standing in line at the bank looking at a sign hanging on the wall that says “Our Customers Are Our #1 Priority” while the customer in front of you is yelled at by a teller for not having the proper forms needed for the transaction. Or perhaps you’ve had the interaction with a clerk who rolls her eyes when you ask one too many questions about the product. The point is: we will all talk about the derived image-not the glossy ad. Couple this “talk” with chat on the Internet and you’ve exponentially reached thousands.

Why should you care what your customers are saying?

* It costs 6 to 8 times more to get a new customer than to keep an old one.

* There is a 12% higher profit margin with your existing customers.

* Companies that keep their existing customers enjoy a 9% higher growth rate than ones who don’t.

* When each customer leaves they tell at least ten people they know and with e-mail and Internet they may potentially tell thousands or millions. Just look at the power of City Search and Yelp! to make or break a company.

It doesn’t take much to make a negative impression. Here are some of the most common customer complaints: unprofessional staff; disinterested staff; bad attitudes matched with a sense of boredom; more enthusiasm for chatting with co-workers than with the customer and a lack of an ability to solve problems.

Your employees have probably had customer service training but perhaps you are still seeing customers leave. Why is this you ask? It’s because leadership didn’t take the time to find out how the customer service “rules” affect the actual customer. Here are ten tips to take your customer service from drab to fab:

1. The single most important thing you can do to increase customer satisfaction is to treat your employees well. One disgruntled employee can easily alienate dozens of customers. Find out what is wrong and fix it.

2. Keep employees in the loop so that they are in the know and FEEL like valued insiders. With the power of the Internet your employees can find out corporate news before you do. Don’t let this happen to your company. Talk to employees often and in-person.

3. Teach employees to think of themselves as business consultants rather than employees. Empower them to make customer-pleasing decisions without having to call a supervisor.

4. Ask employees to change their viewpoint. Have them look at all customers as multi-million dollar businesses and treat them accordingly.

5. Embrace new ideas and reward innovation. Seek and act on advice from your frontline because most of the time they are the only contact a customer has with your company.

6. Recognize and reward each other. Think in 360 directions. A manager needs praise from a subordinate a much as from her boss. Encourage peer-to-peer recognition for helping each other resolve customer issues.

7. Constantly seek innovation. Ask everyone to study the competition and find out what they do that makes them better. The frontline will see what a higher-level manager will not.

8. Seek and act on customer feedback. Don’t bother with customer surveys. Assign an employee or employees to scour the Internet for both positive and negative conversations about your company.

9. Make your current customers feel important. Offer them price cuts or coupons, make every transaction with them pleasant, communicate transparently and have a live person answer your phones, thanking the customer for his business .

10. Seek and reward referrals from current customers. One local chiropractor provides a free adjustment to any patient who refers someone else. She gets dozens of referrals every week and her practice thrives even during economic turmoil.

Don’t just pay lip service to improving customer service. Good customer service is the linchpin to survival at any time but especially during difficult times. Start by treating your employees well, keeping them in the loop, and releasing them to do what it takes to send each customer away happy.

© 2009, McDargh Communications. Publication rights granted to all venues so long as article and by-line are reprinted intact and all links are made live.

Since 1980, Hall of Fame speaker Eileen McDargh has helped Fortune 100 companies as well as individuals create connections that count and conversations that matter. Executive Excellence ranks her among the top 100 thought-leaders in leadership development. Looking for help with work and life challenges? Visit http://www.eileenmcdargh.com/shop.html today!

For the sake of argument say you wanted a baby so this is like a windfall. You bring the child in the house and it only takes a couple of moments to realize that you have no diapers and no formula, so out you go (or you send your husband) to buy the necessary items.

When he returns, you change and feed the infant and begin rocking her to sleep, but once she drifts off you are at a loss as to where to put her. You don’t have a crib, a playpen or even a stroller.

You and your husband start making a list of the items you are going to require in the coming days to properly care for this little life. The list grows longer and longer. The cost of the items quickly exceeds your budget. You start wondering if you can keep this baby.

While this story may seem crazy, this is how many people start their businesses. They want a business, so one day they make some business cards and say, “Here I am world, hire me.”

As with the child, it doesn’t take long for them to realize that they need some essentials to do the bare minimum for their business’ survival, so they rush out and take care of those things.

Once those pressing needs are handled other things surface. As the list of items they either need to buy or need to do grows, it becomes apparent that the business requires more care and feeding than initially thought. When the cost of everything is calculated it’s likely more than they anticipated.

At this point, doubt around whether they should have started the business in the first place and whether they can make it successful if they keep going creep in smothering the initial passion for the idea.

But it doesn’t have to play out like this.

Think about when you got pregnant or decided to adopt. If everything went as planned, you had at least nine months to plan, prepare and line-up everything you would need for the nurturing and care of your new baby.

In those nine months, you focused on getting ready. You did everything from create a space, to buy items, to engage family and friends in contributing, to read books to gain parenting knowledge, and to choose the professionals you would rely on to assist you. If you were anything like most parents I know, you spent hours and hours mulling over names and envisioning how it would be when the baby came.

This is the mindset I recommend you adopt when starting a business.

For many momprenuers your business is both a way to make money and a way for you to contribute. Make sure that you take the time to properly gestate your business concept by taking the time to prepare. Depending on the type of business, your family’s current situation and the amount of time and resources you have to commit, preparing to give birth to your new business can take from one month to two years.

Remember that premature babies require more attention and often costly care to nurture to health. A business opened prematurely will also require more of your attention to fix and can drain your bank account and resources quickly. (© 2009, Leah Grant Enterprises LLC)

Contributor and New Business Mentor Leah Grant publishes Startup Success, a weekly ezine. If you’re starting a new business or are in the early phases of entrepreneurship, visit http://www.leahgrant.com. In her Special Report: 15 Absolutely Important Things You Must Do Before Starting Your Business, she shares the things you need to do to prepare for your newest child: your business.

Even the tour they offer is short and sweet. This really is a simple online tool that handles invoicing. Here’s what you can do with it:

- Replace your manual invoicing process and create invoices online using your Internet browser.

- Send invoices to your customers online.

- Stay on top of your cash flow by knowing who owes you money, how much, and by when.

- Keep your customer list online for quick reference.

- Track taxes collected from invoices.

- Grant access to your data to your bookkeeper or accountant.

If you have an accountant or bookeeper they can:

• Directly access your invoice and payment information online in order to prepare your books.
• Get an accountant’s view of your data with information such as taxes collected and total invoices sent.

Your invoices can be sent via email or as PDF files attached to emails and if you’re dealing with a dinosaur you can always print the invoice and mail the old fashioned way.

The only thing it doesn’t do for you is sell your products or services giving you a reason to invoice a customer! : )

If you try it out please let me know what you think of it and if applicable how it compares to whatever you currently use.

Learn more at: Billing Boss

Scene ONE: a world away in the remote regions of the western Himalayas.

Our team had been warned of the dangers in crossing the white water rivers fed by glacier melt. The crossing would be on foot and had to be done as early as possible in the day-before the sun would begin to melt the ice pack and the rivers rise within minutes. Our team of locals had gotten us up before dawn-sending us briskly on our way after a hot breakfast. They stayed behind to pack up gear, tent, and load the mules. We made it across the frigid water by forming a human chain. Our team was too late. They had to spend the night on a rock pile, in below freezing temperatures, and cross at 5:30 am the next day.

My husband and I were up early that morning with the head guide. Suddenly, we heard a shout and in the distance saw the figures of our team coming down the slope. We cheered, waved, hollered and wrapped them in an embrace with the words, “Welcome Home.” We stood around beaming at each other. For the rest of the trek, this team seemed even more helpful, solicitous and full of extra effort for those of us who welcomed them home.

I frankly had not made the connection until another incident happened.

Scene TWO: a combination assisted living and memory care facility in Southern California.

Mom, age 93, had fallen and broken her hip. Now, two months’ from the time an ambulance sped her away to the closest hospital, I wheeled her back through the front door. Her mind and body had taken a terrible assault coupled with embolisms and a decreasing ability to emotionally or mentally cope. She would not be going back to her upstairs studio but rather into the rooms behind the locked door.

As soon as we entered, the receptionist jumped up to give Mom a big hug and said “welcome home.” Other care managers came up and knelt down and hugged her. When we walked down the hall toward the locked doors, residents who had known Mom were sitting in the activities room. They shouted to her and applauded. As I pushed her down the hall to her new room, more care managers came up to us Lastly, at the door of her new room were balloons and a big sign, “Welcome Home, Mary.” I cried.

Any lingering doubt about the wisdom of this move vanished. Despite the fact Mom can’t remember them and alternates in moods that range from pleasant to belligerent, this team of caregivers continues to serve with compassion and care. They come from different parts of the facility to tell me they are so glad our whole family has come home.

Funny. The first day I left her, the security guard at my building hollered out “welcome home.” I swear I had never heard that.

Welcome Home Insights for Leaders

(1) How do you make employees feel as if they are welcomed home? One surgeon was overheard telling a custodian, “Hey, Frank. Glad to see you this morning. I never worry about the cleanliness of this hospital when I see you here.” Don’t you think the employee felt as if he was, “welcomed home”? I do.

(2) Do you notice when employees are absent-whether for illness, travel, or even vacation? And when they come back, do you welcome them home? Sounds trite, but I am beginning to think it is the small things that help us feel valued.

(3) As the economy turns around, you might very well want to bring back employees who have been laid off. How will you welcome them home?

(4) What about your customers or clients? How do you welcome them home? One bank teller not only didn’t welcome a long-time customer “home” but insisted that he could not validate a parking ticket unless the customer made a transaction. The customer was so angry, he made a transaction: closed an account that had several thousand dollars in it.

Welcome Home Insights for Employees

(1) There are some people who bring joy by entering a room and others by leaving. Which one are you? If we had not cared for the staff at Mom’s residence and if she had not been kind, trust me-they would not have welcomed her home.

(2) Watch out for negativity, mean-spirited comments, and “all-about-me” behavior. Behavior like this, even if one is a solid performer by way of numbers, will not generate a “welcome home” feeling. In one law firm, the top rainmaker was fired because the managing partners determined that his behavior so undermined the office that they were better off without him.

(3) Always leave well. Should you leave for another company, another career or even retirement-make sure you leave speaking only well of your employer. Who knows-you might want to return someday.

Remember: home is not given but made. What will you do to make your work a place in which people feel welcomed home?

Since 1980, Hall of Fame speaker Eileen McDargh has helped Fortune 100 companies as well as individuals create connections that count and conversations that matter. Executive Excellence ranks her among the top 100 thought-leaders in leadership development. For more articles, products and services that help you deal with uncertain times visit http://www.eileenmcdargh.com

By Bonnie Jo Davis

Individual article submission sites are websites, blogs, forums and e-zines that accept article submissions.  Each site seeks articles on a particular topic or a narrow range of topics.  Accepting articles directly saves the publisher from having to search newsgroups or directories for fresh content.  Each site has its own set of guidelines that authors must read and understand before they can submit their article.

Some of the primary benefits of submitting articles to individual submission sites include:

• Direct Delivery – Articles go directly to the publisher who is interested in their particular topic, saving publishers hours searching for the perfect article.
• Improved Response – Because authors screen submission sites before submitting their articles, they have a better idea of what a publisher wants.
• Editorial Suggestions – Some publishers offer valuable feedback on articles to help you improve submissions.
• Expedited Publishing – Direct submissions, if on topic and compliant with guidelines, often are published much faster through individual submission sites than through other channels.
• Strategic Relationships – Authors can and should create a relationship with each individual site’s publisher, letting him or her know that they can provide original articles or a customized version.
• Return Link – A reputable website that publishes an article will provide its author with a one-way active link to his website.  If this is not provided the author has the option to have the article removed from the site.
• Direct Control – If an article isn’t published according to its author’s wishes, he’ll know how to contact the publisher directly for corrections.
• Submission Tracking – Article marketers rarely know who has reprinted their article.  Submitting articles directly to an individual site enables them to track their submissions easily.
• Negotiate Terms – Because authors create a strategic relationship with their publisher, they can negotiate the terms of future submissions.

As with article directories, editorial guidelines often are provided for authors, which requires them to submit only their own original work or work that they paid a writer to create; offer only articles that include proper grammar, spelling and punctuation; allow their articles to be published anywhere on the submission site, and possibly on partner sites; and agree that an article can be edited.  They also might be told that the link in their byline is the only payment they will receive.

You should submit articles to individual article submission sites only when they can comply with the rules, and not waste their or the publisher’s time by ignoring those rules.

There are so many specific article submission sites that it’s overwhelming to consider them all.  To build a list and find topic-appropriate sites, go to Google.com and search “topic + articles” or “topic + article submission.”  Either of these terms, combined with a particular topic, should net plenty potential submission sites.

Article contributed by:
Bonnie Jo Davis is an article marketing expert and prolific writer who created Article Submission Sites to teach others how to profit from the Internet marketing strategy.  Visit http://www.articlesubmissionsites.com for a free copy of “Writing for Publicity” and her Article Submission Summary Sheet.

The article below was contributed by Leah Grant. I hope you find it motivational and useful!

Top Five Reasons Why Now Is The Perfect Time To Start A Business

Turn on the TV and all you’ll hear is how the stock market still hasn’t fully recovered and how unemployment is still rising, so you might think I’m out of my mind to suggest that now is the perfect time to start a business.  But I stand by my statement.

If we look at history, more millionaires were made during The Great Depression than any other time in US history and during our last recession in the early 90s many companies still thriving today were born, like Clif Bar.

There are numerous reasons why starting a business now is advantageous, but these are the top five.

1. Increased Opportunities
Anytime the economy changes or a new technology is introduced it creates opportunities in different fields.  While some industries are shrinking, others are exploding.  For example, while Chrysler is claiming bankruptcy because their gas-guzzling vehicles have become irrelevant, a San Diego-based company, Jitterbug, who produces simplistic cell phones with extra large numbers on them designed for the elderly is hiring and growing at breakneck speed.

2. Less Competition
In the first two months of 2009 the Department of Labor reported that over 800,000 small businesses closed.  I can guarantee that these were businesses that may have been barely making it when the economy was flush and when the recession began they realized they did not have the proper infrastructure, their overhead was too high or their business model was flawed.  These closures create a lot of space for smart new business owners to open and serve their customers.

In addition, many companies have cut their advertising budgets to lower costs which can give the public the perception of fewer businesses offering the same products and services as yours.  The perception of less competition allows you to stand out and strongly establish your brand.

3. Decreased Trust
Let’s face it, the big companies melting down faster than Chernobyl this past year have withered the public’s trust.  It’s become obvious that large corporations are not looking out for their employees and many didn’t even look ahead enough to protect themselves.  Whenever the big businesses that people have equated with security go belly up, it creates a fear-based marketplace.  First, people contract and don’t buy at all.  Then they start wanting to buy, but look to do business with people they know and trust.

People who purchased their lotions and body wash at the mall are now more open to purchasing from their Mary Kay consultant.  It feels good to them to know that the money they spend with someone they know helps out that family.

4. Discounted Resources
With many companies cutting back, businesses want to maintain cash flow so they are often willing to discount their services or products or offer longer payment terms than in the past.  These options help a new business owner’s startup funds go farther.

One area these discounted resources should definitely be capitalized on is in the advertising market.  Several larger companies that ate up available ad space have lowered their ad budgets, not only creating space for smaller companies to come in, but creating open ad space that publications, radio and TV stations need to sell.  Many of these outlets will negotiate if asked.  One of my clients got two ads for the price of one.  These bargains allow business owners to make more of an impact for less money and to stand out while others are fading back.

5. Control of Your Future
Having a job is like putting all your eggs in one basket and then handing it over to a clumsy kid to carry.  You have no control over whether you will get laid off, have your pay cut, have benefits taken away, have your hours lowered, etc.  You have one line of revenue and if the powers you report to decide to cut that off, there’s nothing you can do.  No matter how many hours or how hard you work, in most cases your salary stays the same.

None of the above has to be true if you own your own business.  You can build a business model that allows for multiple streams of income so if one dries up, you still have the others.  You control the amount of income you make because you are in charge of pricing and how much and how hard you work.  You create your eggs and then you carry the basket yourself.

(c) 2009, Leah Grant Enterprises LLC.  Publication rights granted so long as article and byline are reprinted intact with all links made live.

Will you be one of the millionaires who create their success during this recession?  You could be!  The timing is right.  Get the info you need to launch a profitable venture in the New Business Mentor Leah Grant’s free success kit including a timely special report and audio Secrets of Successful Business Owners at http://www.leahgrant.com

On twitter too: @leahgrantbiz

First, the best free blog directories: (the very best are in bold)

• Blog Search
• Blogarama
• Blog Catalog
• Blog Explosion
• Blog Flux
• blogged
• Bloggernity
• BlogHop
• BlogHub
• Bloglines
• Blog Listing
• Blog Rankings
• Blog Top List
• Globe of Blogs
• iBlog Business
• MyBlog2U
• MyBlogLog
• Technorati
• We Blog Alot

A few quality paid blog directories:

• BigGuide/blogs
• BOTW/blogs
• Bloggeries
• Blog Universe
• Joe Ant/blogs

Happy blogging! Please send a message with the good ones I missed.