Executive Coaching For Developing Leadership Capability – Creating Opportunity in Tough Times
Creating Opportunity in Uncertain Times
Are you working in a company or law firm where your Human Resources Department hires executive coaches to help high potentials develop their leadership capability? Does your Human Resources Department currently have sufficient resources to offer employees essential training and development programs?
One of the most powerful questions you can ask is “Are leaders receiving the coaching help they need to stretch their inherent capabilities?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent leaders provide leadership coaching and leadership development programs for their best and brightest.
Crisis or Opportunity?
The upside of a financial crisis and recession is that they offer all of us the opportunity to stretch our skills in our current jobs-and I mean everyone. That means you. But you already know you’re being stretched, don’t you? You feel it. The question is, how are you going to welcome your own particular crises and use them to benefit your personal and professional development?
Managers often redirect people’s careers based on insufficient evidence that they have talent (or lack thereof). Unfortunately, we don’t give ourselves the same opportunity. We’ll try something new, and if it doesn’t come naturally or we don’t immediately excel, we conclude we have no talent for it. We often don’t give ourselves the time and effort it takes to establish new behaviors.
We abandon pursuit. We never give ourselves the chance to practice and make progress. We don’t like the feeling of discomfort that comes from doing something poorly, so we don’t hang in there. Scientific evidence, however, is beginning to show that our definition of talent is wrong. In fact, “talent” may not mean anything at all.
In studies of accomplished individuals, researchers have found few signs of precocious achievement before their subjects began intensive training. Similar findings have turned up in studies of musicians, tennis players, artists, swimmers, mathematicians and chess players. Accomplished athletes and artists get better by developing a strong work ethic and putting in hours of hard work to improve their skills.
Leaders at all levels can get better by getting out of their comfort zone and be willing to make mistakes as they learn and grow. Nothing can replace a lot of hard work and stickiness to achieve success in new endeavors.
Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help company leaders develop top talent. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become fully engaged with the vision and mission of your company or law firm.
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Dr. Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist, executive coach and trusted advisor to senior leadership teams.
The Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC) awarded two rare Board Approved designations for Dr. Maynard Brusman in the specialties of Executive Leadership Coaching and Trusted Advisor to Attorneys and Law Firms.
Dr. Maynard Brusman
Working Resources
Tel: 415-546-1252
E-mail: mbrusman@workingresources.com
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Leadership Development For Exemplary Leaders – The Leadership Challenge
Leadership Development
Are you working in a company or law firm where modeling good leadership skills is a high priority of management? Do leaders in your organization have a favorite model of exemplary leadership?
One of the most powerful questions one can ask is “Do our company leaders model excellent leadership qualities?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent leaders are motivated to develop their leadership skills and achieve both personal and business goals.
The Leadership Challenge
Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner wrote Leadership Challenge which is one of the finest books on leadership development. In the book they describe five practices of exemplary leadership. I incorporate the five practices in all of my executive coaching and leadership development work with clients. The authors also developed an enormously popular 360 degree feedback instrument the LPI based on the five practices.
The five practices of exemplary leadership are as follows:
Model the Way
1. Clarify values by finding your voice and affirming shared ideals.
2. Set the example by aligning actions with shared values.
Inspire a Shared Vision
3. Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities.
4. Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.
Challenge the Process
5. Search for opportunities by seizing the initiative and by looking outward for innovative ways to improve.
6. Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins an learning from experience.
Enable Others to Act
7. Foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships.
8. Strengthen others by increasing self-determination and developing competence.
Encourage the Heart
9. Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence.
10. Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.
Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a leader who models exemplary leadership. You can become a leader who demonstrates emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged and aligned with the vision and mission of your company or law firm.
Subscribe to Working Resources FREE electronic newsletter at http://www.workingresources.com
Visit Maynard’s Blog at http://www.WorkingResourcesBlog.com
Dr. Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist, executive coach and trusted advisor to senior leadership teams.
We provide strategic talent management solutions to select and develop emotionally intelligent leaders and lawyers.
The Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC) awarded two rare Board Approved designations for Dr. Maynard Brusman in the specialties of Executive Leadership Coaching and Trusted Advisor to Attorneys and Law Firms.
Dr. Maynard Brusman
Working Resources
P.O. Box 471525 San Francisco, California 94147-1525
Tel: 415-546-1252 Fax: 415-721-7322
E-mail: mbrusman@workingresources.com
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Free Business Services BackLinks
Hello Everyone,
I know it is getting hard to find a place to get some good business backlinks. To help your business increase marketing while creating a backlink we have created a new directory. It is just getting started so feel free to provide suggestions and add your site for a backlink starting right now. We will remove any sites that do not have a well written description or that deal with drugs or pornography. Thanks so much and start backlinking today.
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Economic Turbulence – A Window of Opportunity
By Rick Johnson 
The state of the economy is a fact. How you feel about that fact and what it means to you personally is a belief. Your beliefs have a major impact on your employee’s attitude. Beliefs that drive your sales behaviors are the keys to becoming successful in a down economy. If you believe that this economic crisis can provide you with opportunities than your attitude will drive the behavior of your employees.
Sales Belief
One sales person might believe that a “bad” economy means it’s going to be harder to make a sale. “It’s just not possible to hit my numbers when the economy sucks.”
Another sales person might believe that a “bad” economy means you can now win lots more business. “I am a good sales person and I am prepared for this downturn. We have quality value propositions coupled with our ability to reach out – network and build customer relationships is far superior to the competition that generally only has price going for them. I know I can take business from the competition”
So, ask yourself these questions.
What Do Your Sales People Believe? What Do You Believe?
Is Your Glass ½ Full or ½ Empty?
If you believe the glass is ½ Full, then you believe there is a window of opportunity built on the following foundation.
• Distribution market share growth normally occurs in the down cycle
• High unemployment creates opportunities for the upgrade and recruitment of quality people from competition-
• Cost containment means trimming the fat from the “Top Down” – NOT the bottom up
• You take the “Smell the Blood approach”
• Taking advantage of vendor discounts and special promotions because inventory management has always been one of your core competencies and you are now in a position to capitalize on it.
• Refocus on customer service
• Refocus on best practice
If you believe the glass is ½ Empty, then you have adopted an attitude that may demonstrate fear, panic and confusion. Your leadership model becomes one of panic response management built on the following foundation.
• We must fight to keep from losing customers – cut prices
• We need to cut cost and the quickest way is a reduction in force (RIF)
• Cut expenses to the bone “Bottom Up”
• We must “Stop the Bleeding” which includes RIF
• Cut commissions
• Sell off inventory
• Reduce services
• During economic turbulence judgment can become cloudy and you can confuse personal needs with business needs. This means you put your personal wealth and objectives ahead of the business needs and objectives. This is a major mistake.
Attitude
This is Not the Time to Panic. Yes, there are economic problems, but there are also opportunities! Leadership during these tough economic times is about not panicking, and that’s exactly the message I want to get across… don’t panic! Panic causes knee jerk reactions, and they’re rarely correct. This Economic Panic that could be caused by “Media Sensationalism” can create a knee jerk reaction that negates effective leadership.
Panic Creates Fear —– & Fear
• Paralyzes Potential
• Ruins Relationships
• Sabotages Success
• Inhibits Initiative
• Circumvents Creativity
• Promotes Poor Productivity
We must understand the difference between panic and caution.
Panic – (noun) a sudden overwhelming fear, with or without cause that produces hysterical or irrational behavior that often spreads.
Caution – (noun) a prudent forethought to minimize risk: a warning, a precaution.
Deliberate Leadership, clear thinking and solid strategies leads to success in any economy. Panic leads to failure. As leaders we need to be deliberate, thoughtful, and take the actions necessary to stabilize the future of our individual businesses.
The Pygmalion Effect
The wrong attitude can create a Self fulfilling Prophecy. It’s called the Pygmalion Effect. You Must Believe in Yourself. You must believe in your own ability, the ability of your team. You must have the will to succeed even though times are tough. You must openly demonstrate the desire to succeed. Look inwardly at your own thoughts. Thoughts are powerful as they shape your attitude and your attitude shapes your beliefs which control your actions. Hard work is a direct expression of your beliefs. Effective leaders fall back on the five basic principles of success.
1. Commitment with a passion — Leaders must demonstrate a commitment for success that leaves no doubt in the minds of their employees.
2. Realization that “You don’t have to have all the answers. Seeking input from employees and openly discussing ideas and strategies is the best way to demonstrate a confidence in the team you have and the employees that will execute your vision.
3. Empowerment & Delegation
Delegation is the handing of a task over to another person, usually a subordinate. It is the assignment of authority and responsibility to another person to carry out specific activities. It allows a subordinate to make decisions, i.e. it is a shift of decision-making authority from one organizational level to a lower one. Delegation, if properly done, is not abdication. The opposite of effective delegation is micromanagement, where a manager provides too much input, direction and review of ‘delegated’ work.
Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capabilities. In the sphere of management and organizational theory, “empowerment” often refers loosely to processes for giving subordinates (or workers generally) greater discretion and resources: distributing control in order to better serve both customers and the interests of the company.
4. Employees are the most precious asset — This means you must walk the walk and invest in employee development and employee training even more during tough economic times. Employees are the profit and success creators of every organization.
5. Communicate intentionally & effectively following these ten tips.
• “Manage by Walking Around”. Get out and meet your people, talk to them, show an interest in them and in the job they are doing for you. This includes everyone from the forklift driver to your Vice President of sales. Everyone likes to know they are appreciated.
• Eliminate unproductive – unnecessary lengthy meetings. I know a CEO that refuses to allow chairs in the conference room. All meetings are held standing up. I don’t believe there is a company that exists that can’t do a better job making their meetings more productive.
• Written communication should be precise and clear. Don’t write like you are a journalist for USA today. Avoid excessive and lengthy diatribes that become confusing.
• Create flexibility in your organization structure. Rigid organization charts that are too restrictive can get in the way of getting the job done. job functions and descriptions must have clarity but don’t make them so restrictive and detailed that cross functional inter action, support and cooperation is limited.
• Open your ears and your heart. Learn to listen more effectively. That means becoming disciplined at not interrupting. You might be amazed at what employees will tell you if you just listen. You might be amazed at what employees can do for you and the company if you just let them.
• Constructive feedback can be helpful. Don’t criticize the messenger. Frank opinions can be helpful if we allow our ego to get out of the way.
• Put a filter between your brain and your lips. A passing comment that seems frivolous to you could devastate your entire staff and you may never hear about it. Think before you react spontaneously. Don’t say what you think they want to hear and remember; even the simplest or dumbest complaint to you is serious to the one expressing it. Be sensitive to the environment, the values and the culture of the person or persons you are communicating with.
• Don’t build a kingdom on the backs of your employees. If economic times dictate cutbacks, layoffs and expense control… Start at the top. Share the pain. Look at corporate overhead, perks and fringe benefits of management and the executive staff. Consider a pay cut at the executive level.
• Keep your hand on the pulse of your business environment. Make sure you are well informed on the external and the internal environment of your business. Network with industry colleagues. Benchmark friendly competitors or businesses outside your region. Stay close to the communication channel of your vendors.
• Make sure you have a definitive focus on employee training and development. This must always carry a priority. Make sure your orientation program for new employees is continuously updated. The first sixty days is critical to retention. Communicate the company’s value effectively.
Today’s Reality
Unemployment expected to reach 10%, Consumer spending is falling like a rock and it represents seventy percent of our economy. Recovery could take two years — so…….Don’t count on the government bailout to fix things. Seek New Ways to Improve
If you are like most people, you are content with the status quo until something disturbs it. You should be constantly re-evaluating not just your sales plans, but all of your business strategies including policies, pricing, and employee performance. The idea is to eventually be as efficient and effective as possible so your company runs smoothly and profitably. Look closely at your competitors. Talk to business leaders you respect. Read business management books. Experiment; solicit feedback from your workers and customers. By doing several of these things you will accumulate a wealth of knowledge and experience crucial to the survival of your business.
Take Advantage of the “Window of Opportunity”
In a practical sense, what this means is that you view this time as providing you a unique window of opportunity to cut the non-profitable elements of your sales and marketing system away, to pare down to a dedicated and competent core, to sharpen the focus of every element of your system, and then to expand your market share so that you can weather the hard times and be stronger when the economy inevitably turns.
Evaluate your markets. Over the past few years have you stretched into markets which are not profitable? Are they unprofitably siphoning time and talent that could be more effectively focused on your core markets?
Evaluate your customers. The same approach applies here. You are probably losing money on half of your customers. Get tough, prioritize and target your accounts based on the stability and likely growth of their business
Carefully and methodically exam each piece of your structure. Look at this temporary economic downturn as a window of opportunity to jettison some of the policies and procedures that are vestiges of the past, and reconfigure your system for the next wave of future growth. Look at your inside sales department, customer service staff, marketing and sales administration, etc., with the point of view of reducing the unprofitable and focusing on the profitable.
Focus on gaining market share. Approach your good customers with sole source proposals. Capture the business and lock it up by forming long-term contractual relationships with those customers who are solid and supportive.
Finally, keep your antenna sensitive to the opportunities to add key salespeople, managers and executives. Many of your competitors will struggle to stay in business. Some good people will become available. The pool of available talent will swell. Look for opportunities to upgrade your personnel by picking off proven talent when it becomes available.
Turn Your Vision into a Cause
“Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them”. If you aren’t a visionary —- hire one —- more importantly — turn your Vision into a Cause. I wonder how many of you remember the movie “Rebel without a Cause”. Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 film directed by Nicholas Ray that tells the story of a rebellious teenager played by James Dean. In this movie James Dean played the part of a rebel but he had no cause that could provide direction, guidance or an ethic to get him on the straight and narrow path; the path to success.
Paradoxically to Dean in this movie, every effective leader I have ever known has had a vision. But, having a vision alone does not make you an effective leader. In fact there are hundreds of “Unsuccessful “companies and “Ineffective” leaders that have Vision Statements posted on their web sites, in their brochures and even posted in their lobbies. A Vision without a Cause? You see, almost anyone can have a vision but if you have a “vision without a cause” you are just a dreamer. Let me repeat that — “A vision without a cause” simply makes you a dreamer. I have known plenty of dreamers in my lifetime whose ship never has and never will come in. One thing I know for sure — If your ship misses the harbor — it’s generally NOT the harbors fault.
http://www.ceostrategist.com – Sign up to receive “The Howl” a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues. – Straight talk about today’s issues. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution’s “Leadership Strategist”, founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com. Don’t forget to check out the Lead Wolf Series that can help you put more profit into your business. E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com for your special Howl discount order form. Get the CEO Strategist Interview Guide and Conducting an Effective Sales Training Session Guide just for signing up for “The Howl”. Don’t forget to check out the Lead Wolf Series that can help you put more profit into your business. E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com for your special Howl discount order form.
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The Four Primary Functions of CEO Leadership
By Rick Johnson
The majority of effective CEO/President leaders seem to be natural visionaries. Although, I admit, that there are successful leaders that can’t see past lunch. However, those leaders without the vision that are successful are successful because they have the unique ability to surround themselves with high quality people. Almost unanimously this type of leader has at least one member of his team or Board of Directors that fills that visionary void. Today’s individual leadership models, to be effective, must embrace an empowering framework not a commanding one. The most effective way to get employees to release discretionary energy, ideas and information is to mobilize their human energy through empowerment. That is the basis of the “Lead Wolf Model” of leadership.
1. The Visionary — This is the platform for the functions of leadership. A visionary leader defines the company’s destination. They craft the core values and define the culture of the organization. Clarification of goals and initiatives are a primary responsibility and the leader must distill a concept of success throughout the organization.
2. The Cheerleader — The cheerleader’s primary responsibility is to keep the team focused and motivated. They in essence are the primary team builder starting at the top with the executive team. But creating an effective executive team isn’t enough. The leader must instill the coaching and mentoring concept in the core belief system of his executive team to insure that these values are passed down throughout the organization.
3. The Role Model — Do as I do. That is exactly what employees will do. The leader is and must be highly visible to all employees. The leader has a responsibility to reinforce the success principles and core values of the organization. Day to day actions, managing by walking around, open communication, empowerment and generating employee feedback are key responsibilities of the leader as a role model.
4. The Last Chip —- The ultimate decision maker for the toughest decisions. This requires mental toughness, total honesty and integrity. These types of decisions are often forced by external forces, unpredictable circumstance or long term investment activity. The leadership function called the last chip is defined this way to reinforce the concept of empowerment. A leader’s primary responsibility is not to make day to day decisions but to empower his employees to make the majority of those decisions with only those critical, long term, high investment, futuristic decisions reserved for the leader.
All four of these functions are critical to the success of the leader and critical to the success of the organization. All four of these functions including the “Last Chip” apply to all other leaders in the organization to the degree that is relative to their functional responsibility. The definition of “Last Chip” is the only function that carries with it a level of variability. Keeping these four functions of leadership in the forefront when building your own personal leadership model will help you maintain a servant style embedded in your model which is the only way to maximize success in today’s environment with today’s workforce.
Check out Rick’s new CD and workbook Real World Leadership Kit — “Learning to Lead So Others Will Follow: http://www.ceostrategist.com/resources-store/real-world-leadership.html
http://www.ceostrategist.com – Sign up to receive “The Howl” a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues. – Straight talk about today’s issues. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution’s “Leadership Strategist”, founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com
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Clustering Articles For Greater Link Popularity
Clustering is a methodology used in many aspects in today’s societies. Typically, it is used to tie similar, but different systems, functions, or ideas together into a single structure while each piece of the structure stands on its own merits.
Strength in Numbers
The old axiom, “Strength in Numbers”, best defines the basis of clustering. People have been using clustering since the dawn of man by gathering in groups to establish a community and utilize the strength of the community to overcome their adversaries. Likewise, they have used that strength to produce food, tools, clothing, and other material items for the use and survival of the community. Countries have even joined together for a common goal and defense. During disasters we often see countries and organizations joining together to help the people to overcome the destruction that has been caused. All of these groups and organizations working together have formed clusters for “Strength in Numbers”.
Today we can see many examples of clustering in the business world where companies join together to form larger and stronger companies. However, today we often term such actions as mergers and acquisitions. Never the less, such actions are still a methodology of clustering.
Cluster Marketing
When the techniques of clustering are applied to marketing methods the effects can produce some pleasing results. For years, internet marketeers have been applying the methodology of cluster marketing in their everyday marketing practices. When they launch a product they join forces with several key marketeers to advertise the launch. Now, if you were to be a member of each marketeer’s opt-in e-mail list, you would receive an e-mail about the same event from several marketeers instead of just the originator of the launch. This act of joining together is the very basis of cluster marketing.
When marketeers launch a product they don’t just use e-mail as their only medium of advertisement. In addition to e-mail they will use press releases, direct mail ads, webinars, tele-seminars, etc. All of these different types of advertising are pointing to the one web site that the marketeer wants you to visit. The one limitation to cluster marketing is that it is a one way methodology. Cluster marketing in itself can be very powerful if the advertiser wants to throw enough money into the advertising campaign to sustain it long enough for the general public to catch on to the message it’s trying to deliver.
With cluster marketing techniques you get one way links to your site as that is the direction the methodology is designed to support. The cluster methodology of marketing with the one way design has been very useful and powerful over the years as it emulates the human desire of pointing people in the right direction. Search engines have also found the one way links to be popular in ranking the popularity of a web site. Within the last few years we’ve even seen the introduction of three-way links and have found how popular they can be with search engines. However, setting up three-way links between various sites can be extremely time consuming unless you already own many sites where you can add all of the links required for three way linking.
For years, marketeers have been experimenting with ways to build more links, with more “link juice” from authority sites. For the most part the results have been the same, the more advertising and the more articles that are produced the greater the link popularity. It has all boiled down to “Strength In Numbers”.
Clustering Articles
A few years ago I started to experiment with the broader technique of clustering articles. Soon, this method started to take hold within the internet marketing community as its ease of use became evident. This technique involves using a group of topic related articles to create back links to the target web site. These back links would not only relate to the target web site, but to other related locations. This inter-relational organization technique showed that over time, the link popularity increased while using fewer resources than the conventional one way link or three way linking methods.
One of the more popular aspects of clustering articles is that it can be accomplished using free internet resources instead of extensive paid advertising. Also, back links can be established in a shorter amount of time using variations of the original related topic articles. While it is possible to use un-related topic article groups, the link popularity isn’t as good as using related themes throughout these groups.
It’s important to note that these groups should be created from original content instead of copying someone else’s work. The article directories and search engines are smart enough to know when you’re faking it with copied content. Original content and variations of the original content in clusters have been found, in all cases, to produce the greater desired results.
Social Networking and Video Sharing
With the introduction of Social Networking the ease with which this technique can be implemented has increased over time. Additionally, the introduction of video sharing sites, do-it-yourself video production software, and camera systems with enhanced video production techniques has also enhanced link popularity when coupled with clustering articles. In future articles, I will expand on the “Techniques of Cluster Marketing” and “Proper Creation of Variations for Clustering Articles”.
Gregg Sterner is the author and developer of the Article Clustering and Cluster Marketing systems. Please visit http://www.ArticleClustering.com, to discover the in depth techniques used to increase the quantity and authority of back links for your web site. View our YouTube video “Link the World” at http://www.youtube.com/articleclustering As a former Director of Marketing Support for a major division of a Fortune 200 corporation, Gregg has developed and written numerous marketing strategies for the corporate world.
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Contextual Link Building – Is it Worth Your Money?
Link building is an essential part of an internet marketer’s daily undertakings. To be specific and to give further emphasis, the more links our websites get, the higher search engine rankings your site will get. Aside from the traffic that you will get once you once on top of the search engine results, this is also critical in establishing your website’s reputation online. This actually has a direct and/or indirect effect on your page ranking. Although, there are some webmasters who are not too particular with page ranks, I still believe that high PRs can really boost one’s online business.
In this article, I will talk about contextual link building and whether it is really worth investing on. There are several ways that you can build links. Some do it on their own, while bigger online businesses acquire the services of link building companies. If you want to dominate the search engines, you have to work on building natural links for your site. Gone are the days when webmasters would just exchange links indiscriminately. These days, search engines (Google in particular) are very keen on how websites exchange links among themselves. It is important that you are only linked to sites that are relevant to the nature of your business.
Thus, you don’t simply accept offers from irrelevant sites because it will be an utter waste of your time. Furthermore, natural linkages will make your site more appealing to search engines. For this reason, website owners allocate a good portion of their budget to outsource services of a link builder or a company that specializes in these types of services. Since this can be quite tasking and time consuming, I personally recommend to have a professional link builder who will ensure that your site gets relevant linkages with other sites. I know this may be a bit expensive but the results are very beneficial to your business.
In the long run, you will be able to recoup the money that you have invested. Just make sure though that you invest on the right person or the right company. I have heard a lot of stories of fellow internet marketers who paid hefty amounts of money to “professionals or experts” who were supposed to do link exchanges for them. But they ended up with no good results in the end. Going back to what I’ve mentioned about contextual link building, you have to learn the benefits of contextual links in order to have a clear vision on how to do contextual link building.
I don’t necessarily mean that you learn it and do it yourself. You can always have somebody else do it but having enough knowledge on contextual link building will help you in finding the expert who will do this for you. Knowing will spare you from being fooled by scumbags online. Good companies that do contextual link building will make sure that other blog sites and websites write about your keyword topic. There will be contextual links on the contents of their sites which will point back to your own homepage. Therefore, links will be embedded on their contents making it look more natural.
This makes contextual link building more powerful. It can boost your popularity over the net. Contextual link building is one of the best ways of creating inbound links. Not to mention the fact that it leaves permanent links to your website. Isn’t it worth investing after all?
The author of this article Menno Spijkstra is an underground Internet Marketer who has been successful selling products online for many years. Menno is now coaching people how to make real money online through his program http://www.IMachiever.com. This course includes a detailed manual plus 5 products to sell and keep 100% of the profit.
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Celebrity Phone-Ins – How Charities Can Benefit From Premium Conferencing
By Marc Jarrett
Celebrity sells, and no one knows that better than hard-pressed charities. The economy might be in the doldrums, but the public’s voracious appetite for all things celebrity remains as strong as ever.
Wouldn’t it be nice, therefore, if a forum existed that allowed celebrities to chat on the phone directly with their fans, and raise money for a worthy cause in the process? Well, now, thanks to premium conferencing, they can.
As the name suggests, premium conferencing is powered by premium-rate numbers which have been key revenue generators for the media in recent years. The prize money on offer on shows like ‘who wants to be a millionaire?’ is typically raised by such numbers.
Here’s how it works: the celebrity decides a time and date in the future when they will be available for the event, which can be hosted anywhere with internet access and a phone.
The event is then marketed both on and offline, as an opportunity for fans to call for a chance of speaking directly with the celebrity, the conference host, and raise money for the celebrity’s favourite charity in the process.
When the time arrives, the host dials in on an 800 number, whilst all conference participants dial in on a premium rate one. These typically begin with the ’09′ prefix, and are charged at a higher rate which is collected by the subscribers’ phone company. When employed in a fund raising capacity, some or all of the accrued revenues can be paid to the hosts’ chosen charity.
Callers that wish to speak to the host are placed in a queue, which the host can then monitor and control in real-time on the web. If the celebrity in question prefers, they can engage in the services of a trusted intermediary to act as a moderator for such an event. Needless to say, the CLI of the host is suppressed, so callers will be unaware of the host’s location when the event takes place.
Premium conferencing therefore is the ideal vehicle for celebrities to hold QA sessions with their loyal army of admirers and meet three key needs at once: raise money for the chosen charity, deliver a ‘reality’ event to an audience obsessed with both reality and celebrity, and — depending on how the host interacts directly with their fans – good PR for both them, and indeed the premium rate industry as a whole.
Furthermore, celebrities have worldwide appeal: thanks the worldwide reach on the web and the underlying international telephony infrastructure which acts as its veins, such phone events can be marketed to an eager global audience: Participants dial in on a local premium rate number in those countries that support them, or make a regular international Direct Dial (IDD) call in those that do not.
A caller from India, therefore, calls Liechtenstein for a chance to speak to the host who is in, say, the USA — premium conferencing is globalization, alive and kickin’!
As with twitter, eBay & Co, such technology simply facilitates the end-user experience which is generated by the users : so called User Generated Content (UGC) : The success or otherwise of such phone events will in large part rest on the shoulders of the host, the ‘star of the show,’ and how they interact with their audience.
Premium conferencing is essentially a hybrid of the latest web and conferencing technology, coupled with a proven billing mechanism – an excellent example of the ongoing convergence and bundling of existing products that make premium conferencing possible.
One thing is for sure: premium conferencing will certainly give a celebrity obsessed public something new to talk about – “You’ll never guess who I was chatting with last night…”, could be heard more often.
If Brain May from Queen ever hosts such an event, I’ll be tempted to call myself…
Marc Jarrett
http://www.chatterwith.me
Money Talks
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The Importance of Cultivating Your Major Donors
By Sandy Rees 
How a major gift is defined depends on your organization. It might be $500 or $5,000 or somewhere in between. Typically, we think of a major gift as cash, but it could be an annuity, stock or something else. The defining characteristic is that it is a “Stop And Think” gift. The donor has put some thought into it.
Create a cultivation plan for your major donors and work it. Examine the ways you are communicating with them. Do you send them a newsletter of some kind? Do you provide them with a name and phone number and invite them to call you? Have you invited them for a tour of your organization? Have you learned all you can about them including their interests and their reasons for giving? Knowing all you can about a potential major donor will help you develop the best strategy for cultivating them and asking for the next gift. The better prepared you are when it comes to the Ask, the more likely you are to get the gift.
Build a relationship with your major donors by getting personal. Get to know them. Send handwritten note cards or better yet, call them just to thank them! Find out about their families, their hobbies and what other charities they support. And, most importantly, find out why they support YOU!
Involve your Board. Do any of your Board members know any of your major donors? If so, they can likely provide valuable information or assist in cultivation.
Make sure you have some kind of tracking system in place to keep up with all this data.
Beware of cultivating a donor for too long. Don’t spend so much time trying to gather every possible bit of information that you never get around to making the Ask. You’ll know when you have enough information and the time is right. Don’t procrastinate about it either. If you get scared and put it off, you are losing an opportunity. What’s more, you are denying your donor the chance to participate in your organization’s mission.
Want more practical tips and ideas for successful fundraising? Get the twice-monthly “Bright Ideas for Fundraising” at http://www.getfullyfunded.com
Sandy Rees is a nonprofit fundraising coach and speaker who shows small nonprofit organizations how to raise more money, gain more supporters, and strengthen their Boards.
(c) Sandy Rees, CFRE
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3 Ways to Identify Potential Major Donors
By Sandy Rees
Major donors can be a great source of revenue for any nonprofit organization. Gifts from major donors are usually pretty easy to cultivate and receive. But how do you identify the ‘diamonds in the rough’ from a large pool of potential donors?
1. Watch for donors who self-identify themselves.
A donor who has a strong tie or belief in your organization and who has the means to make a large donation is your best candidate for a major gift. Many times, people will self identify – they will make a good-sized donation through the mail or at an event. You can usually multiply this kind of gift by 10 to 25 to determine the donor’s real potential.
2. Consider using a wealth-screening service.
There are services out there that will run your house list through a series of databases to help identify who on your list has deep pockets. Wealthengine and MAGIC are two of those. This provides you with a targeted list of potential major donors that you might have otherwise missed. But remember, just because they have significant wealth doesn’t mean they will necessarily make a large gift to you. Once you uncover your diamonds in the rough, you must cultivate them and develop a relationship with them in order to upgrade them to major donor status.
3. Look for LIA in a potential major donor.
Look for LIA (Linkage, Interest, Ability). A donor must have all three or you just won’t be able to get a big gift from them. Linkage is some commonality with your organization – usually they’ve received services from you as a client, someone they know has received services from you, or there’s some other reason that your cause hits close to home. Interest is the donor’s desire to help you. They are interested in what you are doing. Ability is the donor’s potential to give. They must have resources to be a potential major donor.
Once you identify potential major donors, it’s time to put a cultivation plan together and get to work. One day, you’ll likely reap big benefits from spending time with these donors who love your organization.
Want more practical tips and ideas for successful fundraising? Get the twice-monthly “Bright Ideas for Fundraising” at http://www.getfullyfunded.com
Sandy Rees is a nonprofit fundraising coach and speaker who shows small nonprofit organizations how to raise more money, gain more supporters, and strengthen their Boards.
(c) Sandy Rees, CFRE
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