Archive for December 18th, 2008

Japanese Garden

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Japanese gardening is a cultural form of gardening that is meant to produce a scene that mimics nature as much as possible by using trees, shrubs, rocks, sand, artificial hills, ponds, and flowing water as art-forms. The Zen and Shinto traditions are both a large part of Japanese gardening and, because of this; the gardens have a contemplative and reflective state of mind. Japanese gardening is much different than the Western style and most would say it is far more meditational and soul soothing.

In Japanese gardening there are three basic methods for scenery. The first of these is reduced scale. Reduced scale is the art of taking an actual scene from nature, mountains, rivers, trees, islands and all, and reproducing it on a smaller scale. Symbolization involves generalization and abstraction. An example of this would be using white sand to suggest the ocean. Borrowed views refers to artists or architects that would use something like an ocean a forest as a background, but it would end up becoming an important part of the scene.

There are essentially two types of Japanese gardening: tsukiyami, which is a hill garden and mainly composed of hills and ponds. The other is hiraniwa, which is basically the exact opposite of tsukiyami: a flat garden without any hills or ponds.

The basic elements used in Japanese gardening architecture include rocks, gravel, water, moss, stones, fences, and hedges. Rocks are most often used as centerpieces and bring a presence of spirituality to the garden. According to the Shinto tradition rocks embody the spirits of nature. Gravel is used as a sort of defining surface and is used to imitate the flow of water when arranged properly. Stones are used to create a boundary and are sculpted into the form of lanterns. Water, whether it be in the form of a pond, stream, or waterfall, is an essential part of a Japanese garden. It can be in the actual form of water or portrayed by gravel, but no matter what form water is in, it is crucial to a Japanese gardens balance.

There are several forms and types of plants that are signature of Japanese gardening, the main one being Bonsai. Bonsai is the art of training everyday, average plants, such as Pine, Cypress, Holly, Cedar, Cherry, Maple, and Beech, to look like large, old trees just in miniature form. These trees range from five centimeters to one meter and are kept small by pruning, re-potting, pinching of growth, and wiring the branches.

Japanese gardening is a tradition that has crossed the Muso Soseki, poet, said: Gardens are a root of transformation. A Japanese garden is sure to bring about many different feelings and is definitely a transforming experience.

 

Multi Level Marketing Success - Is It Even Possible?

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

If you are like most people, even the thought of making money with a network marketing or MLM business just feels scammy.   This is one business model that people have been burned out on over the last 25 years.  We all have the story of the dinner party you were excited to attend only to be pinned down and forced to listen to the host try to sell you on the next big thing in MLM.

People being nice to you just to trap you into listening to them give you the rah rah speech that is going to make you rich.

Getting stopped in a store by a stranger asking if you would be interested in a great money making opportunity.  Amway made this the marketing system for the business.  They are still around after a name change so the companies can make a lot of money offering multi level marketing opportunities.  But does the average person who joins get rich?

The fact is 99% of people who join a MLM company do not build a successful business.  Mainly because they follow the companies marketing ideas and buy all the expensive marketing tools that MLM companies hard sell the members.

Getting away from the old school network marketing tactics is the only way to really build a business that makes you money.  Stop chasing people and get them to actually want to join your group.

To do this you must be a leader and also able to teach your team members how to market MLM opportunities today with the power of the internet.  Now, you can reach thousands of people all over the world.  You don’t even have to bother anyone in your own city or neighborhood.

Simple ads placed in the right places online can drive a constant stream of INTERESTED prospects to your webpages.

So getting on the right team is crucial to your multi level marketing success.  Find a great leader who can teach you what really works.  A team leader and company that helps you sell the business for free.  If they want more money all the time, find a new team and a new opportunity.

If you watch the network marketing business for long you will see the really great MLMers change companies often. They keep moving because that is how you make money in MLM.

The older an MLM opportunity is the harder it will be to sell to anyone.  The reputation gets whittled away by all the unsuccessful members.  The constant dropouts of the program.

By building your own list of partners, you can all stay together and move to new companies as they come up and use your same systems to promote your new opportunity.

One more thing about MLM companies, they offer a lot in the beginning but they really don’t want you to stay too long and make a lot of money.  They make money with new people and selling useless marketing tools at high prices.  As soon as you build a big downline and they have to start sending you huge checks, they look for reasons hidden in the op agreement to get rid of you!

How to best use your autoresponder for your email marketing campaigns.

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Studies show a potential visitor will take seven to nine messages before s/he becomes comfortable with you and eventually contacts or preferably buys your products or services. If you are left with only one marketing tool, what would you retain? Most marketers would say autoresponders or their email list. This tells you how serious you should treat your email marketing effort AND your autoresponder tool.

What is an autoresponder? An email autoresponder allows you to follow up your potential customers at a predefined timeframe automatically through emails. You may acquire this functionality by installing a script on your webhosting or you can acquire this function through third party autoresponder service providers Is your email autoresponder working as effectively as designed? What criteria should you consider when it comes to picking an email autoResponder? What is the single most important criteria when choosing your autoresponder service?

Three criteria you should consider before you invest your hard-earned cash in this vital marketing tool. A great deliverability is the most sought-after feature of any email autoresponder. Any internet user would receive tons of SPAM mails in their mail-box each day. If you use Gmail, you should be familiar with the screen shot below. There are 2808 spam emails in my Gmail account as at the time of writing. I will never read these emails. If you use some poor autoresponder service, your emails will automatically be streamed into these SPAM folders. You may ask, “What determines which email go to “SPAM” folder?” Unless you are gmail.com, you don’t know their “way of thinking”.

But definitedly you don’t want to be the one who emails the optins to their SPAM folder. But what is the main cause for your emails not being able to reach your targetted prospects or subscribers? There are many reasons why it is the case, but by far the most important reason is this: Is your autoresponder a self hosted script OR third party autoresponder service? As mentioned, you acquire your autoresponder function either by the script you hosted on your website or you may build your list and your autoresponder through a third party service provider.The mission of a third party autoresponder service providers is to deliver your emails. Why do I not recommend a self-hosted script which you can install onto your webhost?

The reason is one word: “SPAM”. Some of your subscribers will report you as SPAM, no matter how diligent and sincere you are with your email marketing campaigns. People just forget they sign up on your list. They will report your emails as SPAMs some day down the road. It’s just a matter of “when”, not “If”. When subscribers report your emails as spams, their internet service provider (ISP) may blacklist your future emails. This blocks your emails getting into their inbox in the future. I have previously used a hosted service, which had good results initially (for about 6 months). After a few of my ex-subscribers complaint me spamming them, my emails are not as effective as before. Treat email autoresponders service companies eat and breath on deliverability.

They ensure your emails get delivered. Some autoresponder service us claiming that it delivers 99.34%, meaning it their readers get 99 emails out of 100 emails! There are some free autoresponder services out there. I urge you not to waste your time finding or even trying one. Why? I have used those services and only found myself promoting someone!|s else services. Those free services basically send out your emails with their own embedded advertising. Your readers will read their ads first before your messages. If you are not serious about your business, use free autoresponsers. Price should be the least concern, as autoresponder is your lifeblood of your viral traffic. Usually a quality autoresponder costs around $20 a month.

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