* Definitions and safe harbor provisions for the routine alterations of electronic files during routine operations such as back ups [Amended Rule 37(f)]

* Information about how to deal with data that is not reasonably accessible [Amended Rule 26(b)(2)(B)]

* How to deal with inadvertently produced privileged material [Amended Rule 26(b)(5)]

* ESI preservation responsibilities and the pre-trial conference. [Amended Rule 26(f)]

* Electronic file production requests [Amended Rules 33(d), 34, 26(f)(3), 34(b)(iii)]

There are many opinions about how ESI should be planned for, managed, organized, stored, and retrieved. Some of the available options are extremely costly in terms of their required financial and time commitments. Constantly changing technologies only add to the confusion. One area of confusion is the distinction between computer forensics and electronic discovery; there is a significant difference. These are described in the sidebar Computer Forensics vs. Electronic Discovery.

Making the Right Choices

Successfully responding to e-discovery within the constraints of the amended FRCP requires organizations to make many critical decisions that will affect the collection and processing of ESI.

Processing Choices

Because of the volume of information available in even the smallest of collections, it becomes necessary to manage the process to control time and budget. The following questions need to be answered:

1. Who are the key people?

The people important to a case should be identified. These key individuals include not only executives, but also assistants and other support personnel from the technology, accounting, sales and marketing, operations, and human resources departments.

2. Where are the files located?

All the potential locations of electronic evidence should be identified. These include home computers and all computers that a key person would use elsewhere (such as a girlfriend or boyfriend?s home), cell phones, PDAs, Blackberries, and any other digital device that might be used. It is important to note that MP3 players, such as iPods, can also be used to store documents or important files.

3. How can the collection be culled?

Methods for limiting the number of files collected may include collecting only those in certain date ranges or only those containing selected key words or terms. This can be done either before or after an entire hard drive is collected forensically. Known file filtering can also reduce the collection by removing standard application files common to all computers (such as the Microsoft Windows? logo file).

4. How should password-protected/encrypted files be handled?

Encrypted files cannot be processed until the encryption is broken. In some instances, files with exact or similar names may be available without using passwords or encryption. File locations may also provide information about the value decryptions provide. Decryption may require significant time. Sometimes a password can be obtained simply by asking for it, so this should be the first step. If that fails, using a subpoena may be successful.

5. How should duplicate and near-duplicate documents be handled?

Electronic file collections almost always include duplicates. Multiple individuals may have the same e-mail, with the same attachments. Two or more people may have reviewed key documents, saving them on their hard drives during the process. In processing electronic collections, it is possible to identify exact duplicate files and limit the number of documents that require review.

Identifying exact duplicates usually occurs during the phase in which the metadata is identified and extracted from the files. De-duping the collection will minimally delay the processing.

Standard de-duping involves identifying files that are exact duplicates and eliminating them. If anything has changed within a document, including formatting such as a change of font, it is no longer an exact duplicate and is not de-duped.

It is imperative that both sides of a case agree on what is meant by ?de-duping.? Many electronic discovery systems literally delete the files so they are gone from the collection. The forensic tools used in law enforcement, however, usually do not delete the duplicates, but merely identify them for future use.

Discussing this definition during the pre-trial conference to ensure that all sides of a case use the same definition is imperative to ensuring that there is not a discrepancy in the number of files that each side later has.

A more significant portion of any collection will be ?near duplicates.? This includes files that have been significantly altered or contain only a portion of the main document. For some projects, the sheer file volume requires that near duplicates be identified and reviewed as a group. This significantly reduces review time and costs when compared to traditional linear review.

Identifying near duplicates requires comparing each document to every other document or using sophisticated software applications that require additional processing time. This technology increases consistency of review categories, reducing the chance of near-duplicate documents being identified as both privileged and non-privileged.

6. What form should the collection take?

The new rules state that the parties will meet and determine the format in which they wish to receive electronic evidence. In the absence of an agreement, the format will be that ?in which it is ordinarily maintained? or in a ?reasonably usable? format.

The choices a legal team has include whether each side prefers to receive the electronic evidence in native file format, converted to TIF or PDF, or in some other form. Often, this will depend upon the team?s standard litigation review system.

Such systems handle both native and converted files, with or without associated metadata and full text. There are pros and cons for both options. Native files with extracted metadata reflect the exact original file; however, they cannot be Bates labeled, which is a technique to mark documents with a unique identification code as they are processed, and are subject to inadvertent change.

Converting native files to TIF or PDF is time-consuming and is the most expensive task in electronic discovery. Because 60 to 80 percent of the files in a collection may be non-responsive or irrelevant, both the time and finances expended in conversion may be counter- productive.

The best compromise involves receiving files in native format, reviewing them for relevancy, and choosing only those that may be produced or used extensively for conversion to image format.

Managing the vast amount of electronic files for litigation requires preparation planning for the production, organization, and retrieval of pertinent and relevant documents and managing both cost and time budgets. Because every case presents unique circumstances, there are no absolute correct answers to the questions above. But a team that understands the choices and their ramifications is prepared to make the informed decisions that will result in the best possible outcomes for the case and the organization.

10 Critical Decisions for Successful E-discovery Part 2 is a post from: Surf Your Work Business Site

Send Half of Your Resume
Find a company you want to work. Write a great cover letter on why you are a good fit, pointing to the enclosed resume. Dont seal the envelope and dont enclose a resume. Theyll think the resume fell out in the mail. They will call and engage in a conversation. Sell yourself shamelessly.

Write A Prospecting Letter
Make use of the power of direct mail. Locate 5-10companies. Write up a letter to your contact network and ask them if they know anyone who works at any of the companies on your list. When a contact says they know someone on your list, send them your resume and ask them to forward it their contact or ask permission to send it yourself.

E-Mail Chain Letter
Create a list of 20 companies you want to work for and send an email to everyone you know to see if they know anyone who works at these companies. Ask them to contact you if they do, so that you can ask for a referral. Finally, ask them to forward your email to 10 more people. However dont do this if youre currently employed!

Distribute A Booklet
Write a booklet with information relevant to your industry and give it away. Everyone loves free information and this demonstrates your expertise. Give the booklet away electronically and advertise it to newsgroups where hiring managers will see it.

Call Human Resources
Sounds crazy, right? Call the human resources department. Ask them what outside agency or third-party recruiting firm they use. They will ask you why do you want to know. Tell them that their company is not currently looking for someone with your skill set right now the agency may be dealing with other firms, so you are looking for a recommendation. They may very well ask you for an interview. If not at least you do get a lead. They would love to save the agency fees. Also being recommended gives you special attention. Send them a thank you note.

These are guerrilla tactics that can give you better results. Be sure to stay toned for another 5 creative tips.

5 Creative Ways To Find A Job is a post from: Surf Your Work Business Site

If you would just take your time to know your way around, you could discover a lot of premium products and services being offered for free. What’s best is that there is a seemingly endless number of these wonderful finds, what with the Internet being a vast network of constantly evolving ideas and all!

Among these magnificent benefits is the chance to be able to promote your business, any business, online, free of charge! It doesn’t matter if your enterprise is a purely online or offline venture, the World Wide Web is home to a great number of marketing opportunities that you could avail of, with no damage to your business’ budget whatsoever.

Advertising can be a big problem otherwise. A lot of companies reserve a big chunk of their budgets to cover marketing expenditures. Sometimes, these gambles pay off, but there are occasions when they fail miserably, putting to waste some good money that could have been used in other areas of development for the business involved.

But with the many channels available online, marketing has become a less risky course of action. There so many avenues available online where you could advertise your business for free and attain more exposure for your products or services. Here are some of them.

1. You could advertise through your own website. Ordinarily, you should pay a nominal fee for web hosting and your domain name. A paid web hosting service is more reliable. Your own domain name would impress upon your visitors an immediate sense of professionalism. But if you don’t want to spend for them, there are a lot of free web space providers on the Internet!

2. You could advertise through other people’s websites. And you could do this in a lot of ways too! You could create a banner that would summarize your business’ offers and have it displayed on existing pages. Or if you have your won website for your business, you could use the said banner to link to your pages, or you could even settle for simple links. Additionally, you could have other webmasters rave about your venture and they could talk about it in their own websites.

3. You could create your own affiliate program. By giving commissions as incentive, you could invite a lot of Internet users to become your affiliates. Each affiliate would work to help you make a sale. It’s like having a battalion of sales representatives that you’d only have to pay if they manage to refer a willing customer!

4. You could try viral marketing. Viral marketing is the online equivalent of word o mouth advertising. By giving away something for free, for as long as that something has a link or a simple reference to your business, you’re encouraging the recipient to spread the word about your business to the people he knows. This would result in the exponential expansion of your business message like wildfire.

5. You could advertise in online communities. Forums and mailing lists are popular venues that could likewise convey your business message. Membership to these groups is usually free. Additionally, you could also create your own mailing list and start capturing leads for future sales by doing some helpful follow-ups.

The Internet is a great place for promoting your business. There are five million people online at any given time and the world is, quite literally, your market. It would be best for your business to capitalize on this wonderful opportunity and expand your audience a thousand fold bigger!

And you wouldn’t even have to spend a penny while you’re at it.

5 Free Online Advertising Channels For Your Business is a post from: Surf Your Work Business Site

There are some dwellers that prefer the yielding repayment timetable, which may be executed around their salaries, but they as well like the renascence points that allow them to budget big charges simpler than any other alternative. While having same-day payday loans UK, you may return the wherewithal in time that is discussed with the online payday loan lender and you may pay for unpredicted costs much simpler. For most citizens that are undergoing a sudden wherewithal requirement, payday loans offer the ideal determinations to ameliorate their financial standing and save them from discomposure or strain.

There are minimal obligations, a simple form and electronically filled in paperwork, which may be managed on your computer with Web access. If you are pondering over why people would desire to receive payday loans in place of asking their master or family for the funds, you don’t understand the mortification of that option. It’s evident that our swiftly progressing environment compels us to perform immediately; hence owning the possibility to get rapid payday loan cash is a perfect alternative. Whilst having payday loans no one will get to know about your ephemeral tight situation.

Think about the moment you required extra cash between paydays and you might most likely relate to the reason that payday loans are rather called-for. For most people, they offer an easy and quick option to solve money flow troubles, while keeping their money problems secret. This might be vital to inhabitants that are suffering a transient wherewithal shortfall, which happens to most of them. The life is very short and you do not need to experience troubles because of cash shortage. It is easy to operate credit process remaining where you are, with your pc.

Don’t You Realize Still What Are the Advantages of Payday Loans? is a post from: Surf Your Work Business Site

If you start committing these business financing mistakes too often, you will greatly reduce any chance you have for longer term business success.

The key is to understand the causes and significance of each so that you’re in a position to make better decisions.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (1) – No Monthly Bookkeeping.

Regardless of the size of your business, inaccurate record keeping creates all sorts of issues relating to cash flow, planning, and business decision making.

While everything has a cost, bookkeeping services are dirt cheap compared to most other costs a business will incur.

And once a bookkeeping process gets established, the cost usually goes down or becomes more cost effective as there is no wasted effort in recording all the business activity.

By itself, this one mistake tends to lead to all the others in one way or another and should be avoided at all costs.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (2) – No Projected Cash Flow.

No meaningful bookkeeping creates a lack of knowing where you’ve been. No projected cash flow creates a lack of knowing where you’re going.

Without keeping score, businesses tend to stray further and further away from their targets and wait for a crisis that forces a change in monthly spending habits.

Even if you have a projected cash flow, it needs to be realistic.

A certain level of conservatism needs to be present, or it will become meaningless in very short order.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (3) – Inadequate Working Capital

No amount of record keeping will help you if you don’t have enough working capital to properly operate the business.

That’s why its important to accurately create a cash flow forecast before you even start up, acquire, or expand a business.

Too often the working capital component is completely ignored with the primary focus going towards capital asset investments.

When this happens, the cash flow crunch is usually felt quickly as there is insufficient funds to properly manage through the normal sales cycle.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (4) – Poor Payment Management.

Unless you have meaningful working capital, forecasting, and bookkeeping in place, you’re likely going to have cash management problems.

The result is the need to stretch out and defer payments that have come due.

This can be the very edge of the slippery slope.

I mean, if you don’t find out what’s causing the cash flow problem in the first place, stretching out payments may only help you dig a deeper hole.

The primary targets are government remittances, trade payables, and credit card payments.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (5) – Poor Credit Management

There can be severe credit consequences to deferring payments for both short periods of time and indefinite periods of time.

First, late payments of credit cards are probably the most common ways in which both businesses and individuals destroy their credit.

Second, NSF checks are also recorded through business credit reports and are another form of black mark.

Third, if you put off a payment too long, a creditor could file a judgement against you further damaging your credit.

Fourth, when you apply for future credit, being behind with government payments can result in an automatic turndown by many lenders.

It gets worse.

Each time you apply for credit, credit inquiries are listed on your credit report.

This can cause two additional problems.

First, multiple inquiries can reduce you overall credit rating or score.

Second, lenders tend to be less willing to grant credit to a business that has a multitude of inquiries on its credit report.

If you do get into situations where you’re short cash for a finite period of time, make sure you proactively discuss the situation with your creditors and negotiate repayment arrangements that you can both live with and that won’t jeopardize your credit.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (6) – No Recorded Profitability

For startups, the most important thing you can do from a financing point of view is get profitable as fast as possible.

Most lenders must see at least one year of profitable financial statements before they will consider lending funds based on the strength of the business.

Before short term profitability is demonstrated, business financing is based primary on personal credit and net worth.

For existing businesses, historical results need to show profitability to acquire additional capital.

The measurement of this ability to repay is based on the net income recorded for the business by a third party accredited accountant.

In many cases, businesses work with their accountants to reduce business tax as much as possible but also destroy or restrict their ability to borrow in the process when the business net income is insufficient to service any additional debt.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (7) – No Financing Strategy

A proper financing strategy creates 1) the financing required to support the present and future cash flows of the business, 2) the debt repayment schedule that the cash flow can service, and 3) the contingency funding necessary to address unplanned or unique business needs.

This sounds good in principle, but does not tend to be well practiced.

Why?

Because financing is largely an unplanned and after the fact event.

It seems once everything else is figured out, then a business will try to locate financing.

There are many reasons for this including: entrepreneurs are more marketing oriented, people believe financing is easy to secure when they need it, the short term impact of putting off financial issues are not as immediate as other things, and so on.

Regardless of the reason, the lack of a workable financing strategy is indeed a mistake.

However, a meaningful financing strategy is not likely to exist if one or more of the other 6 mistakes are present.

This reinforces the point that all mistakes listed are intertwined and when more than one is made, the effect of the negative result can become compounded.

7 Critical Business Financing Mistakes is a post from: Surf Your Work Business Site

Wouldn’t it be great if you could foolproof your selling techniques? Yeah, no more customers walking out with empty hands… no more profits disappearing into thin air! Here are 4 secrets that will help you put money in your pocket, and lengthen your current customer list.

1. Make It Easy
There’s an old adage that says variety is the spice of life, but hey, too many choices can lead to indecision and procrastination. We all know what happens when customers procrastinate… yeah, you lose a sale.

When a customer walks into your business ready to purchase, and suddenly sees several options he didn’t know were there, he’ll stop then decide… which one? If he’s uncertain… well, you lose a sale that was already in your pocket.

Make it easy for your customers to decide… yes, I’ll buy it… no I won’t buy it. Yes and no decisions are a lot easier to make, and are more likely to put cash in the drawer.

2. Offer Several Ways To Buy
Too many choices can overwhelm customers and cost you sales, but options of how to buy open up avenues for customers to purchase the product they’ve decided they need. They say there are different strokes for different folks… your customers don’t all use the same methods to buy. It just makes sense that if the method they prefer is available, they’ll be more likely to take advantage of it.

Convenience it the key to attracting buyers in today’s fast paced society. What will be the fastest and easiest for them… credit card, phone, fax, Internet, or cold hard cash?

3. Keep it Simple
You remember the frustration of spending 10 minutes pushing buttons on the phone just to get through a pain-in-the-neck automated ordering service. Heck, you just wanted to buy one item! Maybe it was the time you had to click your finger raw, just to jump through the hoops of an online shopping cart. Yeah, the temptation to just forget it is right there!

Don’t frustrate your customers with intricate ordering processes. Most likely, they just want to place the order in a few minutes and be done. Let them get frustrated, and they’ll go elsewhere, or just abandon the idea altogether.

4. Follow Up
One of my favorite catalog companies always closes out the sale with a special buy that is available only at the time of purchase. I’m not an impulsive shopper by any stretch of the imagination, but it stops me in my tracks every time. I know it’s a one-time shot, and I really consider whether I want or need it before I hang up the phone.

How many items would your customers buy if you were to follow up every sale with a special offer? Internet marketers have a world of options at their fingertips. The products you offer don’t even have to be yours… and you can still make a profit!

Affiliate marketing is sweeping the Web. Think about it… would your customers benefit from an ebook that deals with the product they are purchasing? You can offer it to them, and let the owner handle ordering process while you collect the commission. It’s as easy as 1, 2, and 3 and profitable too!

Boosting your sales numbers and profit dollars isn’t as tough as it sounds. Implement these 4 simple selling techniques, and watch your sales steadily climb… and just think… they didn’t cost you a penny!

4 Secret Selling Techniques You Must Implement is a post from: Surf Your Work Business Site

Many Internet marketing experts will tell you that the best way to find out what your customers want from you is to ask them. While that may be true, I believe that an even more accurate way is to just listen to what they’re telling you, and to what they’re asking you for.

To illustrate my point, I’ll use a couple of examples from one of my own niches… the recipe and cookbook niche. If you already have even a minor foothold in any niche, my experience should be somewhat instructive.

In-case you’re unfamiliar with my background, I earn six-figures from a soul food cookbook that I wrote and self-published. I wrote that cookbook because my site visitors asked for it.

The full story behind my first cookbook is that, when I first came online in 1996, I was told that I should focus on a niche. After building your typical “Internet marketing” site, which didn’t really take off immediately, I eventually decided to build a site around the “soul food” recipes that I learned while growing up on a farm in North Carolina. I posted a few of my favorite recipes online as search engine bait, and then advertised affiliate products around the site … usually with banners.

I was also told that I needed a mailing list to bring visitors back to the site, and to stay in touch with potential customers. With a recipe site, it made perfect sense to me to create a list where people could trade recipes. That list was an immediate hit, and has been going strong for over 8 years.

While the recipes sent out through the list were primarily from site visitors, list members grew to associate me with great recipes. They eventually started asking me if I had a cookbook. I told them “no” but that I would write one if they would buy it. I also announced that I was taking advance orders (to verify the demand). I had over 100 orders before I wrote the first word. That cookbook has provided me, and my family, with a comfortable living for YEARS!

Over the years, I tried to sell those site visitors, and list members, a variety of different backend products, but nothing sold as well as my cookbook.

For the last six years,list members have regularly told me what my next few products should be, but I wasn’t really listening. List members regularly emailed me saying that they loved my recipes, but that they were on restricted diets. They often asked if I had diabetic, low-fat or low-carb recipes. They also often wrote to tell me that they’d been diagnosed with high blood pressure, and asked if I had any recipes for people with hypertension.

When I finally started listening, I knew exactly what my next 4-5 products should be. They should be versions of my cookbook featuring diabetic, low-fat and low-carb recipes. I also needed to write a cookbook for those with high blood pressure. All of those cookbooks will be rolled out to my list and sites within the next 2 months!

What’s also instructive is that over the years I built up this HUGE asset… people who have bought cookbooks from me and then asked if I had more. They were telling me what to sell them. They were telling me that if I just offered them what they WANTED they would buy it.

The above is just applying basic common sense and a little bit of marketing know-how …which most Internet marketers already possess. Let me share with you a few more insights that you probably already have but are not using.

1) The easiest way in the world to make more money from a proven, profitable niche is to “go deep.” Produce multiple episodes or versions of the product. That’s what movie producers do. That’s what traditional book publishers do. Look at the “Chicken Soup For The Soul” series! That told me that if I produced additional versions of my cookbook, it would sell. My list members also “told” me that.

The way that I will apply this is by re-labeling my first cookbook “Volume 1″ during the next printing. Then, I will introduce “Volume 2″ and as many volumes as the market will bear over the years. Labeling the original “Volume 1″ tells my customers to look for additional volumes. It sets up collectors to collect the complete series.

Speaking of collectors, another version of your product that you can release is a limited collectors’ edition… if appropriate for your marketplace. The co-producer and host of the television cooking show that I’ll tell you about later is doing just that. At my prompting, he’s released a “Limited Edition Autographed Version” of his cookbook, “The Devotional Cookbook.” You can see how he did that with my help at: http://Chitterlings.com/devotionalcookbook.html

What will make the limited editon of the cookbook, in the example above, sell out really fast is the fact that it really is only being released in a very limited quantity, and that a television personality is autographing copies. Ask yourself how you can apply a similar idea to your product. I’ll admit that this idea isn’t something that I dreamed up… it’s somethings that I heard a speaker use as an example at a seminar. All I did was have my client APPLY the idea!

2) Go deep by offering more versions of your basic product. For example, with my cookbook, I offer it in PDF, print, and on CD. In a few months many of my recipes will be available on DVD since I will share them on a television cooking show that I’ll be co-producing.

My mentors long ago told me that I needed not only a cooking show, but a full line of spices and sauces. Instead of listening to them, I went off in search of more exotic markets… largely ignoring the hungry market that I already had (pun intended).

It took one of my clients, coming to me with an idea for a cooking show that he had, to get me into the television business. When you really think about it though, producing a cooking show is just repackaging the information that I already have into a different format.

Listening to my market, will not only allow me to triple my book sales, it will also generate millions when the show is nationally syndicated. The show is just beginning production now, but will grow rapidly. You can follow our progress, and learn from the process, by frequenting our blog at: http://TheDevotionalChef.com/blog

You can also see how I develop and market a full line of cookbooks and related products by visiting my cooking site at: http://Chitterlings.com Go ahead and join the mailing list, as this is where I announce new products and site news.

A few people may ask why I share so much of what I’m doing in my cooking niche with you here. You may wonder if I’m not afraid of competition. The fact is that there are MILLIONS of webpages out there offering free recipes, yet I earn six-figures selling them. The fact is that there are thousands of people who have written cookbooks and are having difficulty selling them. I don’t have to worry about competition because by studying Internet marketing I have learned how to dominate my niche.

What should you do with the information that I’ve just shared with you? Ask yourself how you can apply it in your niche. Ask yourself if your site visitors and subscribers aren’t already telling you what they want to buy!

Once you discover that your product is a hit with the marketplace, listen to them as they tell you how to improve the product, and how to sell more things to them. Instead of going off looking for new and more glamorous markets, serve the one that you’ve already mastered. Apply the many marketing techniques you already know to your existing niche. It will pay off handsomely!

Are You Ignoring Your Customers’ Requests? is a post from: Surf Your Work Business Site

The temptation in this atmosphere is to get very close to another person so they can hear you and you them. This can result in being too close to another person sometimes making them very uncomfortable. This discomfort is heightened when we have been consuming alcohol and the person we are talking to have not.

Each of us has our own comfort zone boundary. This is a space around us that when another person enters we begin to feel uncomfortable. A good way to relate to this is to remember if you have ever had an argument where someone got right up in your face and possibly even pointed their finger very near to it. Remember how that made you feel? In most cases it makes a person feel more angry.

In a networking environment it is important to maintain a distance from a person that you are talking to. This distance should be almost an arms length. Most peoples comfort boundary is about the length of their arm. If you find yourself getting very close to someone in conversation, imagine if you raised your arm and that is the distance that you should be from the other person. If they move closer to you in the course of conversation, it is acceptable to them to be closer. If it is acceptable to you then continue with the conversation at that distance.

You can sometimes tell if you are standing too close to someone if they seem to be moving back while you are talking to them. If they appear to be getting further away from you, do not move to be closer to them. They will stop when they reach the distance that they are comfortable with. If they turn and walk away of course it is time to find someone else to talk to.

To be most effective in your attempts to build relationships with others, it is most important to keep these things in mind. Remember that it makes no difference what you say to a person if they are not engaged in the conversation. Good observance of boundaries can give you the edge you need to make networking work.

Beware – Borders and Boundaries is a post from: Surf Your Work Business Site

There are a lot of people out there who see your ads, think about them, and maybe even say, “I ought to…” They’re just waiting to be convinced to to do something about it. There is something you can do to get them moving!

1. Improve Your Offer
No on can pass up the deal that’s “too good to resist.” Think about it… how often do your customers want your product, but just want something else a little more? That leaves you with a long list of “almost sales” that have the potential to be converted into real sales and profit. Sweeten the deal. Make the offer so good they can’t resist it.

Now, I’m in no way suggesting that you drop your prices to sweeten the deal. You can just as easily load it up with bonuses to increase the perceived value without cutting away at your profit. Bonuses motivate sales, maybe even more than cut prices.

Don’t let them lollygag. Yeah, get them into the store pronto with a deadline. They may have to put a competitors purchase on hold to get your deal, but hey… what’s wrong with that?

2. Follow Up
How would you like to increase your sales by more than 50 percent? Yeah, it sounds good! There’s really a very simple tactic that you can implement… follow ups.

Chances are, prospective customers aren’t going to buy your product the first time they see or hear about it. Maybe it’ll be the third or fourth, but they have to hear from you that third or fourth time before they actually become a customer. Do you have a follow up system in place?

Simply contact the “almost customer” every month with a new offer, or give them more information about the product they are showing interest in. It doesn’t have to be an intricate process. Keeping the contact there goes a long way toward building trust… the key to finding life-long customers.

Internet Marketers experience a high number of customers who browse their site, then click away. You can’t follow up without some form of contact information. A great way to gather the info you need is to offer a free ebook or informative report that consumers will find of interest. Once they’ve given you the information to email them the product, you have what you need to keep in contact, and work on converting them into loyal customers.

Personalize as much as possible. If you can get the firstname of your customer… great! Personalized messages have greater appeal than “addressed to occupant” messages.

2 Sure-Fire Methods Proven To Convert More Customers is a post from: Surf Your Work Business Site

Mistake #1: Believe in Magic

Show up hoping that a coherent, eloquent, useful presentation will magically appear once you start speaking. Avoid any type of preparation. Just wing it.

> What Happens
Everyone is amazed by the presentation because they expected more. They are also bored and disappointed. They may even become upset because an unprepared presentation insults the audience by wasting their time. Unprepared presentations sound like, well, unprepared presentations.

> Instead
Prepare. Identify the goal for your talk. Design a presentation that achieves that goal. Talk with key members of the audience about their expectations. Rehearse.

Mistake #2: Memorize your speech

Spend untold hours committing every precious word to memory so that you can recite it even if awakened in the middle of the night.

> What Happens
You sound like a machine. And if you stumble on a word, you can become stuck–speechless. I’ve seen this happen, and it’s painful.

> Instead
Learn your presentation. Yes, write a script. Memorize the first and last sentences and then practice giving the presentation without looking at the script. Practice many times. Eventually, you will learn how to convey the key ideas in a natural, normal way.

Mistake #3: Talk About Yourself

Focus entirely on yourself. Tell about your background, your credentials, and your history. Tell your story. Just talk about yourself. Make the presentation all about you, yourself, and your life.

> What Happens
They listen politely. If you manage to be entertaining enough, they may actually pay attention. Otherwise, the audience reacts by thinking, “So what?”

> Instead
Talk about the audience. That is, talk about what they need and how they can achieve it.

3 Worst Mistakes People Make in a Presentation is a post from: Surf Your Work Business Site