Waiting to win the Lotto like every one else

Putting a name on your business or company

2009-04-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

These days what you name your business is just as important as what your product is, be it a service or something more tangible. The name is how people know what you sell. You don’t want a name that you need to educate people about before they know what you are all about. Don’t waste the marketing money and time trying to sell the name when you can make the name sell you.

People are not interested in cool exotic names or unusual named companies; they want simple names that quickly identify what that company can do for them or sell to them. Does the name tell people what you do or sell? If not what is the point of the name? Are you going to have to spend fortune marketing or branding your name so people know what your company is about? Why put the effort into selling your company name when you could be spending your time marketing your product with the name. What is more important having an unusual name or one that tells people what your company is about?

How well do you know your product and your target market? You need a name that is connected to your product and appeals to your target market. You want to keep it simple and straight forward, easy to understand, say and remember. What good is a name that is hard to remember or say? You want to have people think of your company when they are looking for your services or product. If they don’t remember the name clearly they will move onto one that they do.

Put some real though and time into picking the name for your business or company. The easier it is to market the better.

Why make an appointment if you are not going to show up?

2009-04-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

The problem with being in a business where people book your time is the no shows. People who book up your time and then don’t show up or call to cancel. You hold a time for them and waste your time waiting for them, losing money because you did not book someone else in. In the business world if you make an appointment you are expected to show up for it or call with an explanation. Why is it that so many people don’t show up and don’t call? It is like because I work out of my home and not an office it is not a business.

So again today I had two people book and not show up, no calls or anything. Now one of two things will happen, I will never hear from them again or they will show up late and expect me to drop everything and everyone to deal with them. It does not matter that I am not available; they will expect me to make myself available because they had an appointment with me. It does not matter to them that they are a ½ an hour or more late.

I just want to be treated with respect. If you are unable to make your appointment, call me and let me know why. If you don’t want to re-book that is fine but at least have the common courtesy to notify me of the change in plans. I run a business. Just because I run the business out of my home does not change the fact that it is a business. My time is valuable, just like any other professional’s time is valuable.

Strategy for marketing companies to manipulate social bookmarking sites like Digg

2008-09-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

It is a simple concept actually. Company “A” knows that there is a positive online newspaper article about them and they have also paid several blogers to write positive reviews about them or their product. Now they want people to actually see the articles. They pay a marketing company to get exposure.

The marketing company hires people to submit and vote for their client’s stories on social bookmarking sites, like Digg. People are willing to surf the net for pennies a site, there are people who will submit and vote for articles and blogs for money. It only takes 50 or so votes to make an article popular on Digg, so it is quite possible to manipulate the system to get articles popular. If you have a 100 people not connected in anyway submitting and voting on articles that they don’t have any connection to (i.e. don’t work for the company) then it would be hard to catch the manipulation.

The way it would work is that the marketing company would bulk email a list of clients stories URL’s a couple of times during the day. Each time an “employee” gets a list they start submitting the articles to Digg. If it has already been submitted they Digg it and move on to the next URL. Once a person has Dugg the list they email the marketing company that it has been completed. All the marketing company has to do is look at the persons recent Digg activity and they have proof the person did so. The “employee” could be paid 5 cents per Digg or Vote, 10 cents per story they submit and a $5.00 bonus for every article they submitted that goes popular.

It may not seem to be a lot, but if a person submits and votes for 50 stories in one day they would make at lest $2.50 for just voting. If they submitted 10 of the stores they would make at lest $3.00. Not much but if the 10 stories all became popular they would have made $53.00 just for a little bit of work. There are people who have the time and could use the money, even $2.50 with the possibility of $250.00 if they submitted all 50 stories and they became popular.

As people would be trying to be the first one to submit the story the order of submission and voting should be random again making it harder to catch. Also it you had a 1000 people willing to vote for money and you only gave each list to a 100 of them it would again make it harder to track or catch. This system would also motivate people to make stories popular, as they get a bonus out of it. This would be very cheep marketing. The cost to have a 100 people vote and make popular would be $10.05. So lets say the marketing company charges $25.00 per article, that would still be very cheep marketing for almost any company considering that when a story becomes popular on Digg it can receive 1000’s if not in the 10,000’s or more hits. This would be a winning situation for both company “A”, the marketing company and the people being paid to vote. Not so fare to anyone else though.

Please note that this is just a theory. I do not know of any one doing this, I just think that it is possible and would make people money. I used Digg as an example because it is one of the largest ones out there, but it could be done on any social bookmarking site. Would it be right, no but I think it would be an inexpensive marketing strategy that would appeal to many.

Running an online retail store is harder then it looks

2008-08-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

At first when you look at it it seems easy enough. But when you get right down to it there is a lot of work involved. When you get started you have to decide between building a site, renting a site or shopping cart by the month. Both require some time and work to find out what is best for you in the short term and long term. Once you have you decided and things are set up the real work starts.

Unless you have a limited product line there is going to be a lot of work put into getting product into your shopping cart. It is not just a matter of slapping a picture on and the products name and price. No each product is really a mini add and should be treated as such. What information you have in the description and title are what is going to be used by search engines to find your product. Then the description that shows up under your link is what people are going to use to decide to look at your product. The competition starts way before people see your product. You are competing with millions for each view. Please note that was view not buy. Just because you get someone to view your product does not mean they are going to buy from you.

The idea is to market your product online with a description and key words that will attract the people interested in your product. There is no point in using key words or descriptions that will bring lots of people to your site, but only a few of them are people interested in your product. You want to focus on your target market and attract them to your website or online store hoping that once they are there they will buy something. These means you have to think about what you put into the description and title of your products. What key words will your target market be using to find the product? Are they in your description or title? Once it come up in a search will your description stand out from all the others? Will it attract your target market to your site?

So now you put some time into reaching your target market and they click onto your product, what will get them to buy? There are a million and one other web site’s selling the same or similar items, why should they buy from you? What are they going to see first your product or home page? If they are searching for a product your link should open to the product. So how you have your shopping cart set up is going to give people their first impression of your company. How it looks is going to influence people to buy or not buy. Other things that will influence people to buy or not buy are your prices for the product, product image or picture, shipping costs, shipping options, return policies, where you are located, overall appearance of site; feed back from other customers, your home page, about us page and any other information you provide. How much information you provide or don’t provide will help people decide if they want to do business with you and not the other million sites.

At all points of contact with potential customers you need to be marketing your company, store and product. This is from the fist search people use to find you, to how easy it is to use the check out to buy and pay for your product and how the product was shipped. Even how the product was packaged can influence a repeat buy or not. Once you have a customer you need to do everything you can to keep them. Word of mouth is still the best marketing tool out there. Once you have a customer keep them happy and hope they tell everyone about you. But first you have to get that customer, and that is not always easy to do no matter how great your product, prices and company are. It is not just a matter of putting your product out and having it available to buy. You have to put a lot of time and some times money into marketing your product, store and company even after you start making sales. The marketing never ends because there are new online stores showing up and you have to compete with them and any local stores that can and will sell to your customers. In other words the work never ends if you want to keep brining in customers and making sales.

So if you are thinking about opening up an online store because it is easy money, think again. You only get out of it what you put into it. If you plan to put product out and sit back and wait for the sales to come in, save your money and find something else to do. There is no easy money to be found on the Internet anymore, it is a highly competitive market that is becoming more competitive everyday.

Your trade show booth is as important if not more so then your product

2008-08-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

If you are a whole seller you already understand how important your trade show displays are. They are what sell your company to the buyers. Having an excellent presentation of your product increase orders, just the same way as having a good commercial will sell a product. Your booth is your ad or commercial and you must use it to sell your product. Retailers are looking for something that will sell in their stores, but you have to get them into your booth before they will buy.

Wholesale and trade shows are nothing but extreme competition these days. It truly is a world market now. At some of the larger shows you can have companies from all over the world all with Trade Show Display Booths designed to capture buyers attention. It is no longer enough that you have great product, prices and reputation you need to have a Trade Show Display Booth that will bring in new customers as well as old customers. Your booth has to sell not only your product line but must also brand your company image.

A booth is no longer a table and walls with product and info packs and cardboard displays, now they are mini stores and show rooms. They have to be very professional looking and give a company image that buyers will be using to judge your company even before they look at your product. It can be more important to invest into your booth then invest in any other type of marketing as this is going to be what the people who buy will see when they are looking to buy. It will have more impact at the time then a flyer or catalogue later on. It is as simple as this, you are not going to make sales to the end customer and create a demand for your product if you cannot get your product into stores and your not going to make the sales to the retailers if you don’t have the right display booth.

You always need updated anti-virus programs on your computer.

2008-07-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

These days you cannot have a computer online and not have some type of anti-virus program. If you don’t have a firewall and a million and one safety features your system is going to get hit with something nasty. Even with a top of the line security system your computer can still be hit by something designed specifically to get past the anti-virus program. That is why the best ones update all time.

We got hit with one that was designed to get past Norton, it turns out we were the first to notice. We contacted Norton and they spent 4 hours on our computer, found and copied the virus and then used what they had to send out an update to block it and prevent others from getting hit. Then they told us it was going to take months of work to analyze the coding so they could come up with a way to destroy it. We were very lucky that we have our anti-virus program set up to automaticly run a diagnostic everyday at the same time. We got hit a few minutes before Norton ran its diagnostics. With in those few minutes it hit and damaged a lot of our core data. I am so glad we back up everything. It is scary how much time people put in to nasty programs designed to damage or destroy your data or even computer hard drive, or to steal your information so that they can drain your bank account and wreck havoc in other areas of your life.

Not every one understands that you have to upgrade your security every year and that you need have whatever system you are using to update as often as possible. I know people who thought that they only had to buy the program once and never update it. Yes they lost their computer and had no idea why. Also don’t go with a system just because it is what you know. Computer technology changes fast and what is available to protect your computer has changed as well. Take the time to check out the top 10 anti-virus programs before you buy any anti-virus program.

We just made a change to Bitdefender from Norton and are very happy. However both of these can be found as #1 on any number of top ten anti-virus lists. You need to take the time to figure out what anti-virus program will be best for your budget.

How to get fired or promoted

2008-07-09T08:23:00.000-07:00

Depending on whom you work for this will either get you fired or promoted:

1) Tell offensive jokes that target every race, religion, age, sex and more. Then get deeply offended when someone else tells one.

2) Take a two-hour lunch everyday. If possible eat at your desk playing video games, listening to loud music (Christmas carols if you have them), and talk on the speaker phone with a very personal call.

3) Show up late, have your two-hour lunch, go home.

4) Show up in anything but what the dress code is. Shorts and a tee shirt or club wear goes nice. If you do wear something that is in the dress code make sure it is all mismatched, rumpled and only half done up or on. Cross dressing will probably get you promoted before being fired because companies don’t want the legal headache of a possible discrimination lawsuit.

5) Spend your day talking on the phone with your friends, family and significant other. Use the speakerphone when ever possible. Have at least one very private personal conversation a day. Glair at everyone who looks like they are listening and say things like “What is your problem, don’t you have your own life you have to listen in on mine.” Then talk even louder.

6) Pass your work onto the next person only half done, put notes on it about how you would like it done. If they pass it back to you criticize them for the terrible job they did on it as loudly as you can.

7) Repeatedly go back to your boss asking, “so how do I do this again?” Each time you go into his or her office talk louder, look more confused, hold your paper work upside down or bring in the wrong paper work.

8) Ask the boss or the boss’s significant other, or children out for a date.

9) Spend your day making paper airplanes and seeing who’s cubical they will land in.

10) Randomly hold soapbox derby’s using office chairs. Try to get others involved. If no one will, have a race around the office to try and beat your last score. Make sure you do the celebratory lap throwing water on everyone and screaming I won at the top of your lungs.

11) Complain about everyone, and everything they are doing and then do what you just complained about.

12) Show up everyday in some outrageous costume and then refuse to dress up for Halloween.

13) Call in sick every Friday, and then hung over Monday.

14) Call in once a week with a sick kid, this works best if you don’t have kids.

15) Bring your kids to work and then try and get everyone else to watch him or her so you can do your work. If someone does watch them don’t do any work.

16) Bring your pet in. Set it up in someone else’s cubical. Place the litter box (if there is one) outside your supervisor’s office door. Spend your day talking to your pet and taking it for walks. This works great with real pets but to take it to the next level bring in a pet rock, talk to it and take it for walks, dress it up in different outfits and ask people for their opinion on each one.

17) Make your cubical a home away from home. Bring in a bar fridge, hot plate, microwave, couch or bunk bed, clothing rack, TV and a stereo. Start inviting people over, spend the night, and have a party.

18) Fill your garbage can and recycle box with empty alcohol bottles. See if you can balance empty beer cans around the top of your cubical, then build a wall to make an office. If this does not work, bring in a water gun or elastic shooter and tell everyone you are doing target practice for when you bring in your BB gun. Start shooting at the beer cans with the water gun or elastic shooter yelling "Incoming".

19) Start running a book making business from your cubical (taking money bets), run an online betting site on your work computer, have poker games in the lunch room all day. Invite VIP’s to play at them.

20) Paint your cubical. This works great if you use different colors for the outside and inside. Offer to paint everyone’s cubicles.

21) If all else fails throw all your paper work in the air screaming “I can’t take this anymore, you are all to normal!” and start taking off your clothing as you run around in a big circle crying. (When in doubt flip out)

Gas prices are changing how we do business

2008-07-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

The price of gas is changing how people buy. The higher the price of gas, the more expensive everything else is. This is reducing people’s disposable income dramatically. People are less likely to give into impulse buys; they want to feel they are getting great value for their money. They are less likely to buy something just because it is there and it catches their attention.

People are buying less luxury items, such as jewelry and purchasing necessities instead. Buying over the Internet is also down as the cost of shipping is up. Why buy something that has to be shipped when you can find a similar product at a local shopping mall and don’t have to pay for shipping. Just because an item seems to be a deal online does not mean it is once you include shipping and handling charges.

So how we market product has to change. You have to concentrate on the perceived value of the item, or that it is cheaper to buy from you then the local store even with shipping charges. Some places are even covering the cost of shipping. With fewer dollars available the competition for those dollars is becoming even more intense. I am quite sure that some small businesses and some big ones are not going to be able to survive for very long unless things change.

So the real question is how do we stay in business with a reduction in sales? For us it will be by cutting costs wherever we can. We are offering several different shipping options so people can get the one that fits their budget. We are reducing the amount of packaging that goes with products to reduce shipping cost. We are not purchasing any manufactured products for our inventory. Other then what we already had to put onto the website we are only adding our own handcrafted pieces to the website inventory. That is about all we can do. We don’t have staff to let go, other then ourselves. But until we make more sales we are not paying ourselves. It is going to be hard and our ability to stay in business will depend on how long this goes on for. We will be fine for at least a year. Hopefully things will be better by then.

I would like to win big at poker or the lottery someday

2008-06-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

Every time I buy a lottery ticket, play a game of Bingo or Poker I like to think I can win big. So far that has not happened. I still like the occasional game of chance though. It is the idea that maybe this time I will win.

For me the lottery ticket is that you cannot win if you don’t have a ticket, and it only takes one. That does not mean I buy a ticket for every draw, but I usually buy a couple a month on the off chance I might get the big one.

Bingo was always a social outing. Yes I have won the big one a few times over the years, but that was many years ago. To be honest it was more that it was a night out with my friends with the chance of winning something. I have played some online bingo and it is fun and I can chat without leaving my home.

Poker I like to think of as a game of skill and chance. I love playing it at online casinos, and yes the 10-cent game is more thrilling then a free roll any day. The money does makes a difference, even just a dime, but I like to see how far I can get and if I can place. I keep to the 10-cent tournaments because I know I could spend a lot if I did anything else. I only gamble what I am willing to loose, which is about 10 cents. One day I hope to play a game face to face, not just online.

I do admit that I actually like watching poker on T.V. and like to read up on the game. Poker just never seemed like something that would make a great spectator sport, or that people would want to read about it. Seems it is, On Line Casinos has a community area for individuals blogs about gambling, forum discussions and more. I actually enjoy the thrill of a good game even when I am not playing it. Today gambling is news on some sites like On line casino reports. They have interviews with the big players, event coverage and even tips on how to play better. I guess money is not just made at the table anymore, big winners are celebrities now and are being treated as such.

Here is one of the stories found on “On line casino reports”. They actually do relevant and interesting news reports on gambling. Who knew it could be news?

I have found that I am not into sports betting, I guess you have to be big into sports to get into it. Though that is not actually the case because I have met a few people who will bet on anything and everything.

I am more interested in a game of skill like poker or backgammon, though I have never bet on backgammon. I guess I am not much of a risk taker or gambler when it comes to real money. I still like to play though. I did spend sometime looking around at different casinos to find ones that had free games so I could learn and improve my game. Then I ended up playing free rolls, won some money and started playing for money. Now all I have to do is go to an online casino guild to find what promotions are on, what the payouts are and more. It makes it easer to find a game I can afford to play in at a time I can play.

I have to admit that I have a long way to go before I could ever try to make a living from playing poker. For me it is just a fun game with as little or as lot of risk as I want to take. I don’t like to take a big risk, so I guess it will always be the penny tables and 10-cent tournaments for me. Unless I win the lottery, that is.

How you display your product helps create your company's image

2008-06-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

How you display your product shows how much pride you have in it. It also develops the image of your company. It does not matter if you are providing information, giving away samples or actually selling, peoples first impressions go a long way to developing an brand image for your product and your company. You always want to make the best impression possible.

I love selling at festivals, craft shows and even the odd trade show. One of the things I learned very quickly is that the look of your table or booth is just as important as your product. If you do not look professional then people are not going to want to buy from you, or even take your information. Image is everything when it comes to sales. How people perceive your booth in the first few seconds is what they use to decide if they are going to come over to it or walk around it. So you know your staff and the booth need to look tidy, clean and professional to get people to come over. At the same time you need to stand out from all the other booths.

How you display your product will have an impact on how your booth looks, and if people will come over to look. Over the years I have developed a weakness for displays. I am always looking for the newest table top display. There are always better ones coming out. I use them to change and improve my booths look every year, and yet I have to try and make it so that people recognize that it is us and come over to see what new products we have this year. Having table covers with our name and logo on the front of the table makes it easy for people quickly identify that it is us. It also gives us a nice professional look to attract new customers. It really does make a difference in our sales when we take the time to maintain a professional but unique look to our booth.

I can also say as a buyer at a wholesale show how a trade show exhibits looks does determine if I check out their product or not. It also influences me in desiding to buy from someone. If they don’t take care of the booth, have a professional looking display of their products, and looks different from the 100 other booths all selling the same or similar products I am less likely to buy from them. If they don’t take the time to take care of their booth what quality of product can I expect from them? On the other hand if the booth is easy to identify, professional, and looks good I am more likely to trust their quality. It is like shopping at the dollar store where everything is crammed together or a fine jewellery store where everything is professionally displayed with each piece is placed with care and thought to its value.

If you don’t care how your booth looks or how your product is displayed then why should anyone care about your company or product. I had learn the hard way that if you don’t spend the money to make sure your booth looks good it does not matter what you are selling or giving away, you will not make sales or contacts. Over the years the quality and look of my booth has improved as I was able to afford better displays, table cloths and even a better looking booth. The more I invested into the image of my company the better I did.

What you need to know before contracting a web designer or developer

2008-05-30T06:25:00.000-07:00

We learned a lot over the last few years about the do’s and don’t when dealing with a web designer. We had some real problems. I would like to keep others from having the same or similar problems. The first thing you need to understand is that there is a big difference between a web designer and a web developer. A web designer will make pages for a web site and are wonderful if you have an information site. Web developers create the coding and programs that web designers use to create the web sites. Web design is the icing on the cake; the web developer made the cake the icing goes on.

If you are doing anything that is more then just an information site I recommend going with a web developer or learn to do it yourself. If you have just an information site that does not require the integration of other programs like a shopping cart then a web designer is the right person to go to. However, if you have the time and inclination you can also pick up a great book called “Beginning HTML with CSS and XHTML modern guide and reference” by David Schultz and Craig Cook. My husband used it to create our new web site.

There are some wonderful web developers who can integrate existing programs and software into the pages they create for you. The main purpose of a web designer is to design the look of your website and that the programs being used on your site function well together. The more complex the site is the more knowledge and experience will be needed. You need to understand what you want and need your web site to do before you design how it looks.

This means that you need to find out if pre-existing programs will work for you and will work together with any other programs you want. If they do then great find a web designer, buy the programs and let the designer make your site look and work how you want it to. If there needs to be a lot of tinkering with the programs you are interested to make them work the way you want and together then you need to make sure your web designer can do the work, or find a web developer who can make them work or create a new program that will do what you want. Do not assume that a designer can do it; their job is to design the look of the site, not create programs.

That is the biggest thing most people do not know, a designer creates the look, a developer creates the programs and can create the look you want. We made that mistake thinking that a designer was a developer. We needed a developer as our site was more complex then what our designer could do and he used up our service contract with our shopping cart program provider to get them to do the installations of their programs. We know this from the from our shopping cart provider after we forced our designer to transfer our shopping cart licence to us. We now have to buy a new service contract if we need their help with the shopping cart program. This would not have been the case if we had hired a web developer. Know what you need for your website and hire the right person for the job.

Does negative marketing work?

2008-05-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

I understand marketing and advertising. I know that Realtors leave their signs up, with a sold sign, after they sell a house because it reinforces that they will sell your home or find you one. It is a good way to get clients. Toy companies will create a cartoon with the sole purpose to develop a market for a toy line. It is the best advertising possible for a toy line. Stores always place the candies or other impulse products right by the cash register so you see them as you wait in line. This all makes sense; it all reaches a specific market.

Suddenly I am seeing more negative ads. The ones that tell you, "don’t drink and drive", "don’t smoke it kills you" and "put on a life jacket when boating." I have to wonder how well these work. It is easy to understand positive marketing and advertising because it is targeted to our needs, wants, desires and impulses. How effective is advertising at keeping us from doing something?

I completely understand and support why the Canadian Government is using negative ads and restrictions to reduce cigarette sales. I even use negative conditioning with my kids, young as they are. I tell them cigarettes are yucky; they make your teeth yellow and your breath stinky. I hope it has an impact on them when they are older. I have watched all the changes forced onto the tobacco industry, both to the companies that manufacture and sell cigarettes.

First it was the regulations on what they could show in ads, they could not be targeted to the young anymore. Then they could not advertise or sponsor events and activates any longer. You had to show id to buy cigarettes and can be charged for buying for or selling cigarettes to minors. Soon the negative advertising started with comments and pictures on the actual cigarette packaging. This did not seem to work very well. Though I did like the TV ad that showed teens how smoking changes their appearance, makes their skin shallow and their teeth stained, that it ages them. That one seemed to work by targeting vanity not health. There came kids against smoking ads, famous people against smoking and now people who are dieing of lung cancer or have lost people to lung cancer ads.

The newest negative marketing strategy came as a shock. Behind the counter at a corner store appeared to be at first glance empty shelves where cigarettes had been. Nope it was metal doors hiding the cigarettes. You can still buy them, but you cannot look at them. This is to try and reduce impulse buying I guess, or the out of sight, out of mind idea. It is going to be interesting to see how it works. It is becoming expensive to sell cigarettes with all these restrictions and fines. I wonder if it is still worth it to stores to sell them. I think that eventually it will not be cost effective and they will stop. If stores stop caring them then the Government will have effectively reduced sales of tobacco products with out actually banning it. But is it going to work?

When hiring someone to create a web site do your homework

2008-05-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

In the last two years we have dealt with three different web site designers, and learned a lot what not to do, and how to do things on our own. We are upset about the time and money we lost dealing with the different people but at the same time we are grateful things happened the way they did. We now have a wonderful website that James designed and created on his own. He decided that instead of paying more and more money to get people to work on our site that he would just learn how to do it. Now he has 100% control of the website and what is on it. I was forced to learn how to market a website with both hands tied behind my back. Now that we have a properly functioning website I can use the tools and skills I had to use before, but ever so much more effectively. We learned and changed because of our experiences, but I don't want anyone else to have to go through what we did.

With anything you need to do your research. Put the time into finding the right person or company that fits your budget and creative ideas. Never forget that it is your website and needs to reflect who you are or your companies image. Don't just go with the first person or company that fits your budget. You are hiring someone to do a job for you. Treat this as you would if you were hiring on staff, contact references and find out what other people have to say. Don't just look at what is posted on the persons website as reviews, actually call them and talk to past clients. You’re the boss, not the other way around.

Look on the Internet for other sources of information. If there is something negative about a designer or company it is probably out on the net, it is just a matter of finding it. See how many websites have links back to the designer. Try to find a couple that indicate that they were created or designed by this person or company that is not being used as a reference. Contact them and find out their opinion. Sure it is going to take time and work, but it can save you a lot of time, money and effort on your part.

When you have decided on a designer make sure you get a clear contract that stipulates exactly what you want the website to do and look, when you need the site up and that everything needs to be purchased in your name or your companies name so that you own the website, not the designer. You may also wish to include the term functional website in the contract, small thing that can make a big difference. This helps both of you to know what is expected and when. This way if something was not done you can refer to the contract and have the work done. If you find that the web site is not doing something you want it to do now the web designer can refer to the contract to show you it was not included in it and you can either re-negotiate the contract or do another one just for that part.

It is important to make sure that you keep on top of the project, not just assume things are being done when and how you want. Our first designer took 3 months and no website. He had all sorts of reasons for why there was nothing to see, but we knew there was something wrong. Our dead line came and went and still no website. We put some pressure on and finally was told our website was done, take a look. Then came the sucker punch, before he would give us our site we had to pay 3 times what we agreedapone. Why because it took him longer then expected and he wanted to be paid by the hour, not the job. So after three months we had no website, but a nice lawyer.

The second designer agreed to do the work in a timely manner and within our budget. He came back to us after three weeks and let us know that a retail website of our site was beyond his experience. He was fine doing information sites. We accepted that and appreciated his honesty, but were also glad we had a contract.

Always make sure that you change your passwords once the work is done and if you need more work you create temporary passwords for the designer. Also make sure hosting companies, licences and software are all purchased in your name, or companies name or signed over to you once the work is done. The third designer was hired because he could get the site up and running in two weeks and we were 4 months behind schedule. We did our research, and got a very clear contract. He did give us a site with in the two weeks that appeared to be functional. We had some problems and concerns but that was explained away as issues or restrictions caused by the shopping cart. There were things that did not do what we wanted and some of his explanations did not make sense to me, but he would not talk to me and explained everything away to James as a problem with the shopping cart that could not be fixed. Eventually the only solution he would suggest was to buy a new shopping cart and pay him to do all the work again.

Every couple weeks something would go wrong and it was $50.00 to fix it, or there was an upgrade that would make things easer with the shopping cart but again $50.00 for the designer to install it. I kept asking for contact information for our hosting company and shopping cart company. He would not release the information, so every time something went wrong or we had a question we had to go through him, and yes it cost money. We started to question things, had some independent web designers look over the coding only to be told that there was malicious coding causing the problems, not our shopping cart. We tried to contact the hosting company and shopping cart company only to find everything was purchased in his name and there was no record of us purchasing anything. We demanded the license be transferred to us, why had it not been transferred when the job was done. We had to threaten legal action to get the licence in our name. At that point he severed business ties with us.

What we found, he had charged us for installations and used up our service points with the shopping cart company to do a lot of the work, so we actually paid for it twice. There was what is called malicious coding causing our website to not function properly, our products would not index on the Internet and we were limited to the smallest pictures for our product. The shopping cart company discovered this, and they insisted that it was deliberate coding designed to prevent the shopping cart from working properly. This could not have been done by accident. Then Canada Post previewed the non-functional shipping calculator and discovered something called a siphoning code. It was designed to invoice a customer extra for shipping on their invoice, show the correct shipping on our copy and then deposited the difference into his paypall account. I guess he did not expect us to test it when we got it, we just thought there was a problem with the Canada post calculator and did not use it. There were quite a few other coding issues discovered and we were looking at legal action when suddenly our hosting company shut us down and we lost the site.

It seems he had kept the hosting company contract in his name so he cancelled it without warning and we lost the entire site. Or at least he thought we did. What he did not know is that James was already in the process of designing a new site. It was a work in process still and we did not have the shopping cart up and going but it was there. It took 4 days to have the shopping cart installed and be a working site. We also had backed up the old site the day before. All we lost was some time, though we have to re-enter our entire product manfully due to an incompatibility between the old shopping cart and the new one.

Over all we learned a lot, are able to do things ourselves now and have a much better website that is just going to keep on improving and growing.

I am so tired of people trying to rip me off

2008-05-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

I run a small business and struggle like everyone else. I don’t have money to burn; I invest what I do have into my business and family. I expect value for my hard earned cash. So why do people constantly think that just because I have a company and I am my own boss that I have money to spend on what they think I need. I take the time to find out what I actually need and that is what I want, but consistently I run into people who think they can pull a fast one and make some money off of me and not give me what I actually need.

At first I thought that it was because I was buying things for my company so they assumed that I just did not care what I spent. Then I realized that people are trying to get the most cash they can out of everyone. I think that in some ways pushing or up grading a sale is what a good sales person does. They try to get the best sale they can. But at the same time I am more likely to go back to the person who gave me what I asked for and did not push me into buying more then I needed. I think that person has treated me with respect and I will buy from them again. The person who tried to push the sale will just annoy me and I am not likely to buy from them or the company they work for again.

The result of people actually ripping me off is that over the years I have learned how to build my own computer and web site. I am not going to have to trust what someone says I need because now I know what I need and how to build it myself. I really should thank the people who burned me because I had to learn to fix what they did wrong. I am in a much better position now because I don’t have to pay someone for a service anymore. I can do it myself. In the long run they lost out because if they had been honest and provided me with what I paid for they would still be making money off of me, now I just don’t need them.

Be smart when starting and running your own business

2008-05-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

Over the years we have built up our business the hard way, mostly with luck, hard work and unexpected opportunities. The biggest thing we have realized is that you have to be constantly learning and changing. Just because something works or sells today does not mean it will tomorrow. It is a lot harder running your own business then being told what to do by a boss.

If you are your own boss then you need to be smart about it. Put the time into market and product research. Don’t assume that because you can sell something at place A that you can sell the same thing the same way at place B. We started selling to a very large hobby group, with a very focused market.

I started buying and selling used items to a medieval historical re-enactment hobby group. I was doing what everyone else was doing and that was working well for me. I made some money and had fun. Then I started talking to everyone, found out what they liked and were searching for; Market research. I made sure that is what I brought in; Meet the needs of the target market. I ended up having people giving me shopping lists and they would pick up the items from me at the next event we were both at. This was great, I was making money and people where getting what they wanted. I soon discovered that I could not always find what people were looking for as used items. I saved my money and then started buying from wholesalers and designing my own line of jewelry; Created a new way to better meet the target markets needs.

Suddenly it was a whole new ball game. I was the only local merchant selling new product; Created a market. My sales when out the roof, I had cornered the market. I re-invested the money into more stock and displays; Meeting ever changing needs and building a brand image. Sales increased and I started selling all over Ontario; Increasing my target market. After about two years other people started to copy me and eventually I started to loose some sales as the market was small; Recognized a change in the market. I expanded to a larger market, selling at craft fairs and then moved to large festivals all over Ontario; Changing my target market.

Again I had an unusual product as everything had a medieval theme to it. This helped make us stand out from other vendors; Creating an image branding my company. However we had to learn how to sell at festivals, it was much different from selling at smaller group events. Both my husband and I had to be there, selling and creating; Expanding the business to meet customers needs in a timely manner. Before I had an established market and because we had consistent contact with our customers we could take orders and almost guaranty sales at the next event. Suddenly we had to earn peoples willingness to part with their money to buy from us with out the established relationship I had with my other customers. We had to develop an entire different way to market our product and ourselves.

We were very fortunate in that we only sold at juried festivals, this limiting the number of competition and pretty much guaranteeing that no one else was selling exactly the same thing as us. We also had several different product lines and prices, that all fit the theme we were able to meet the demands of several different target markets at the same time. As one of the only theme vendors we stood out enough that people brought their friends just to look at our both, and usually buy something.

It was strange because what sold at one festival was not what sold at the next. We had to be able to quickly identify how to market our product and our company at each festival. This was usually accomplished with our displays and even what product we displayed front and center. It was learning experience every festival. Eventually we developed a brand image as we did the same festivals every year. Again though people saw what was working for us and suddenly we have competition starting to sell at the festivals. So we are no longer as unique and different as we used to be. Time to make some changes.

Just over a year and a half ago we opened a theme online store, http://www.medievalmagic.ca/, yet again expanding our target market. We have spent the time learning about selling online. It is a completely different beast then selling retail to impulse buyers or established customers. There is no end to the competition so you don’t market your product you have to market your site and build a brand image. It is a lot harder then it sounds unless you have a lot of cash to throw around.

We have taken what we have learned have made some drastic changes in our website this month. We changed the look, redesigned how our site works, whom we market to and how we market to them. We are even changing our product from mainly manufactured product and some of our handcrafted pieces to a 50/50 split. We will slowly move away from pieces we buy from a wholesaler to what we make. However the key is flexibility to change with market demands.

I went for a internet marketing conference, not a sales meeting

2008-04-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

Today I spent almost three hours of what I consider my valuable time at what was supposed to be a conference on Internet marketing for retail websites. What I was actually at was a presentation focused on telling me I could make lots of money on the internet, but I need to use this companies store front that is included in their hosting package. Come on people, I could not believe what I was put through. The worst part was that if I wanted to get the actual course for marketing it was included in the package as part of a full day of how to be successful using their store front and hosting company, but I had to pay the one time fee of $25.00 right then and there (which is $199.00 any other time, don’t you know!)

They tried to pressure me by telling me that I must not being doing everything I need to do in marketing my web store Medieval Magic, because if I were I would be rolling in money and would not be there. Um, actually I was expecting to have spent my time learning about other methods of online marketing and had hoped to find some new ways or better ways. I am always looking for a way to positively market our product and web site. Only a fool thinks that they know everything and does not understand that there are new programs and methods developed all the time. I am not a fool and did not like being treated as one.

What I did find shocking is the number of people signing up and handing their $25 for their new website. They don’t even have an idea of what they want to sell or who their market is, but they have a web site. Next week they are going to this full day course on how to be successful with their stores. These are set up to hold them by the hand and show them what to do step by step, including giving them a list of drop shippers and some one-on-one time with someone who is going to help them do it all.

The basic idea is that they are getting an out of the box web site, a list of drop shippers and instructions on how to market the web site. As this wonderful company pointed out, if these people are not making money they will not keep their website up and they will not get their $24.99 a month. They want people to succeed. They also want people to have multiple web sites as diverse income streams. All good ideas, except I feel it has more to do with the $24.99 they get each month for each site you have. The more sites you have reaching out to different markets, or using different branding strategies the more money they make off of you.

I may or may not be going as a guest with one of the people who signed up. It depends on them right now. For me it is just to make sure they don’t get pulled into the, "oh by the way to be successful you need to add these add-on’s to the original shopping cart." The company has already indicated that you need $5,000 of add-ons but they are selling them for $3,000 but they are willing to give you a deal on the day of your training. The sad part is that up until I heard about the add-ons I was actually comparing their price and service favorably to other companies I did research on when we were looking for a new shopping cart. I don’t like any company that said here is a web site and hosting fee, oh but your going to need to buy all this other stuff to succeed. I don’t think they are going to have much to add to my online marketing strategies, or at least not ones I am willing to use. It will be interesting to see what they have to say if I end up going, but I would not be upset if I don’t go.

Medieval Magic web site dealing with unexpected issues with hosting company

2008-04-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

We were contacted by EWD Hosting to find out if we were going to renew our contract with them in June. James replied that we had already found another hosting company and would be transferring our web site to them. Within an hour our web site was gone and our account with EWD was closed, a month and a half early. So our slow building of the web site on our new hosting company has just gone into overdrive. Thank God James had just done a back up of our website so we have some of the data and pages. Gone is our record of sales. That was to be down loaded just before we switch over so it would be right up to date. Nice shock. Good thing we printed off the invoices. Now we have to do a year’s worth of accounting manually. Nice of them to let us know that they were going to do this. Oh wait; they did not let us know that they were going to close down our account a month and a half early just because we were not going to renew our contract in June.

The best part is that because our web designer did the contract in his name if there is any refund (and there should be) it goes to him, not us. We suddenly have no web site, and no shopping cart. It is a good thing that James has been building our new website for the last month and we at least have a home page up and some information pages. Suddenly we have to try and get our new shopping cart installed on a Friday night. I don’t know if we are going to be able to have it installed before Monday. I don’t know how long before we work out any bugs and can transfer the inventory over. We had expected to have some time to make sure the new site was complete before the other one was shut down. Now we are scrambling around trying to get every thing done fast. We are going to have to work out any bugs live. It is going to be interesting to see how things go and how people like the changes we have made. I just hope that we get the shopping cart up and running sooner then later and can download the inventory data successfully. Then all we have to do is put the pictures in and clean it up a bit. Otherwise we are going to be spending a lot of time redoing our inventory.

I just hope that people like the changes enough to forgive the time it is taking to change it up. I don’t like being thrown to the wolves like this by a hosting company that we had paid for our space till June. I am so glad that we started looking into this before Christmas and then actually started working on it in January. Otherwise we would have been completely hung out to dry and SOL with out any type of web site. We would have just vanished for a few weeks. Something told James that he needed to have what he needed for the new website months before our contract with EWD was up. He was in the process of getting the new shopping cart installed next week when this happened. So we are doing much better then we would have if he had not done all this work.

For those who love checking out what we have, please have patients and know that we are trying to get the shopping cart up as fast as possible.

Identity theft is everywhere, even my home

2008-04-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

My husband received a phone call a few days ago from Canadian Tire. They had received an application for a Canadian Tire card that just did not seem right. The lady who was to process it decided to contact the person whose name was on the application. She took the time to do some research and found our phone number, which was not the same one on the application, and called us.

Yes, someone filled out an application for a Canadian Tire card in my husband’s name. I have no idea what caused the lady at Canadian Tire stop and investigate this one application but I am glad that she did. You see my husband was not the person who did this, though he had applied about 4 months ago. It seems someone went into our mail box and took out the "I am sorry but we cannot give you a Canadian Tire card right now but you can reapply in 3 months" letter with the form to reapply. Someone did so, but used their own address and phone number. We have no idea who’s SIN # they used, but it was not my husbands.

We are so happy that the lady at Canadian Tire felt there was something off with this application and put the time into finding our phone number and contacting us. I know that we would have found out eventually that someone was using my husband’s name, but it much better to find out before they use it. The good thing is that this lady also reported this to the police. The person can be charged with attempted fraud against Canadian Tire. I don’t know what kind of punishment that will get them but at least something will be done, even if it is just a slap on the wrist.

We are going to be keeping an eye on both of our credit records for the next little while. I am sure if they tried at Canadian Tire, they have tried using his name and maybe mine for other things. We are not sure if they actually got our name from our mail, though that seems to be the most likely place. They could have just picked a name out of the phone book and picked up an application at Canadian Tire.

I guess it is a good thing that our credit is to the max right now. I doubt that anyone is going to give more credit under our names at this point in time. That may change as we lower are debt load, but we are going to continue to be very careful. If someone has tried it once, they will try again. I never thought I would be happy about being in debt, but I guess there is good in all things if you look hard enough. I am thinking about looking into the Identity Theft Shield provided by Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc., or Lifelock, or a similar service provided one of the many companies that seem to be popping up everyday. Protecting people’s identity is turning into a booming business.

Here is one tip that might save you some money and time: Do not sign your credit cards, put please request photo ID this means that before someone can use your card they must provide photo ID showing that they are the same person that the card is made out to. The first thing you are going to be surprised about is how few people even notice that you have that and not your signature. They will just ring it through. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy knowing anyone can use your card and the cashers don’t even notice. Second this will not stop someone from getting fake photo ID made in your name, but it will slow him or her down, add another step to the process. Anything that makes it harder on a thief is a good idea. It may give you enough time to realize your card is gone and report it before they use it. I am not so fond of the automated card swipes showing up all over the place, now there is nothing to stop someone from clearing out your account. There is no one checking to make sure it is his or her card. I think this is just going to make it easer for thieves, and harder for us to prove we did not buy something.

How safe is your identity?

2008-04-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

I have been seeing the commercials, TV shows: fiction, documentary and talk shows about identity theft and how it is destroying people. Identity theft is a growing industry both the prevention and repair as well as the actual fraud. People are making money at both ends of this. You have to pay to keep yourself safe or to fix it or you end up with someone else’s debt in your name and your bank account cleaned out. There are books and websites telling you how to prevent it, and how to steal someone’s identity. This is a big issue, the fear of having your children or your own identity taken. So now you have to ask yourself how safe is your identity?

You may not think you need to worry. You are not rich so why would anyone target you? It is not a crime done to the rich but to the average person. It is more often a crime of opportunity. The people doing this don’t care that you only have $1000.00 or $300.00 a month to live off, they want whatever money they can get and will take it out of your bank and use your credit to get more. So if an opportunity comes up that they can get your information they will use it. What information about you is already out there, and where can someone find it?

Your mail and garbage is one of the more common ways to get your information. If you have an open mailbox or garbage area I can guarantee someone is going to look into it to see what he or she can get. What do you receive in the mail that has your important information on it? Have you ever not received a bank statement, or a credit card bill? Did it get lost, or did someone take it? What do you put into your garbage? A credit card application you did not want, a pay stub you don’t need anymore, old bank statements, credit card slips, a paid invoice or bill? All of this can be used to get information that can be used to steal your identity. What can you do to protect yourself?

Get a mailbox with a lock. Buy a shredder and use it on anything with your children or your own information on it. Contact your bank and find out if you can look at your statement on line or get it from the bank. Don’t have them mail it to you anymore. Contact your credit card companies and get them to stop sending out applications. You don’t need more credit right now, and if you do you will contact them about it. There are just a lot of simple things we need to do to try and prevent someone getting access to our information.

There is a lot of work involved. It seems that you have to contact your credit card companies every 9 months to request a credit freeze. Credit reports cost money and you should look at them every 6 months, for both you and your children. To make sure your not being taken you have to keep on your toes and know what is in your name. I am thinking that it is easer to let a company like lifelock deal with all the calling and paper work. I don’t have to make it easy at my end by having a mailbox with a lock and shred my paperwork, but I am the type that would forget to re-freeze my credit every 9 months. I figure I will control what I can and try to prevent damage from things I don’t control.

I am not sure if lifelock is here in Canada, but I am sure that there are other companies like it. Identity theft is such a growing crime that helping to prevent it is a great business to be in right now. Lots of companies are going to start showing up with the soul purpose to be the one you hire to keep your identity yours. If I had the know-how and contacts it would be a business I would start. I never thought I would support paying for protection. It is paying person A to keep person B from stealing from you. What a strange twist.

PS: I have just been informed of Identity Theft Shield provided by Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. for Canadians. Information about this can be found at www.identity-shield.ca.

Let NAFTA die. We don’t want it.

2008-04-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

Someone who lives in the US stated that they should just close the boarder and not do business with Canada anymore because we are not grateful for all they do for us Canadians. Here is what I think.

First I must say that I am not Anti-American, I am Anti-American Government; which currently does not reflect American people. I love being a Canadian, with our Canadian health care that keeps us alive even when we are poor. I disagree with policies that let US people die from lack of medical care and fresh water. Could Katrina make it any clearer? And we tried to help and were told that our boats and planes would be fired upon because we were prepared to save people and feed them. It would have been days not weeks, thank you; people did not have to suffer or die. After that we were to think the US Government was operating with all its marbles? I do not think so.

NAFTA has been one sided for a long time. Canadians did not like it when the agreement was made in the first place. I remember how angry the soft wood lumber industry was then and is now. What I find funny is that for some reason we would sell our wood to the US for a low price only to buy it back as a finished product at a much higher price. That never made sense. I remember growing up being told that we had to sell to the US because we needed the money to buy their products, and the US was our only market. So we are now quite capable of keeping our wood, oil, energy and water for ourselves and make our own stuff with it thanks to some big changes both in attitude and economy. Our Government reflects that change.

We take pride in being Canadian and have come to realize that having the US threaten us with closing the boarder is bad for the US, not Canada. What did the US Government think we would do, curl up and die, cave in and give them what ever they wanted? No we started talking with other countries. So what does the US government do, start making it difficult to cross from Canada to the US. I sell world wide, even to the US and only in the US has an item be held up for three weeks at the boarder, an item that should have taken no more then a few days to be delivered.

Do you think Canadians like having the US be responsible for protecting us? No, that is one of the worst deals Canadian government ever made and we are happy that the contract will soon be over. It is Canadian land, not US. We have increased our military, supplies and equipment so that we can provide sufficient protection for our own country when it ends in next year. We were not interested in extending that contract.

Fishing in our water, no thank you. Keep giving away our natural resources for next to nothing and say thanks for the stipend you have been giving us, when other countries are more then will to pay market price, not a special price where we loose out. Canada in the 60’s became way to dependent on the US for everything, and the US became to used to dictating to us as a country. We as Canadians did not like this, so we don’t dislike the American people, just the attitude that we should be thankful for what ever the US is willing to give us.

I know that Canadians have realized who has the real power now. We do, and we will have more if we can get out of NAFTA. US as a country needs us far more then we need them. Wake up, Canadians are making good business decisions and no longer feel we have to sell to the US. Why should we when we get treated better in our dealings with other countries that don’t think they are doing us a favor?

I am Canadian and I am proud of the stand and decisions my Government is taking with the US government.

YES I KNOW I AM ABOUT TO GET HATE MAIL, BUT TAKE A MOMENT AND THINK ABOUT IT.

Debt consolidation sooner then latter is better

2008-03-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

Most families are in debt. Credit cards make it so easy to spend more then you have and then you get stuck with interest rates that eat up all your payments so you don’t ever get ahead. All your doing is paying off the interest and a very small part of the principle. Then you find that you have to pay so much on the card that you have to use the card to live. You can never get out from under the debt load with out winning the lottery or getting some help. The credit card system is designed to get the most money out of you as possible. To clear up your debt with them you need to deal with people who understand how to best work within the system to get you out of debt.

There are a lot of debt consolidation companies out there now because there is such a big need. The good thing is that there are local debt consolidation places that you can walk in and deal with someone face to face or you can go with online debt consolidation where you can deal with it in your own home, when the time is right for you. Both have pros and cons all dependent on what you are most comfortable with. With walk in places you will need to make appointments with in their business hours. With using an online debt consolidation company you can deal with your debt when the time is right for you. Which is really good because what usually happens is there is a moment that you just cannot deal with being in debt anymore and you want to fix it right then and there. With doing it over the Internet you can get the process started right away. No waiting to get an appointment and then start the process.

The other problem is that people tend to be embarrassed about being in debt and will just keep putting off dealing with it for as long as they can. This is bad because it just gets worse, not better. The longer you don’t deal with it the more money you end up owing, and the more stress you are under. Dealing with it online takes out part of the embarrassment because you are not dealing with someone face to face. For some people it does make it easer. What is really important is to recognize that you are in over your head and get help. Find the right debt consolidation company for you and use them to get out from under the debt. The sooner you do so the better off you are.

Translation services are still needed in this day and age

2008-03-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

Over the years how people do business in the world has changed. We now can deal with anyone any place in the world. Some times people forget that English is not the only language people do business in. When you deal with people all over the world eventually you are going to need the services of a translator no matter what language you use. It used to be that you had to have someone on staff to do the translations for you or you had to send your documents to someone and wait for them to translate them and then send them back to you. Often if you had more then one language to be translated you would have to deal with different translators. So if you needed an Arabic translation, a Farsi translation (Persian) and a Hindi translation they would all have to go to different people. This was very time consuming. If someone is waiting for an order, confirmation or wants to do business with us we don’t want to be waiting a long time to get back to them. It is important to respond as soon as possible.

At one point we were looking at importing some handcrafted belly dance belts as well as some of the costumes from a company in India to sell at festivals. The costs were quite reasonable and the company we were looking at had an English website. It was still kind of daunting for us to think about importing. When you are dealing with another country and a different language you want to make sure that there is no confusions about anything. As we live in Canada we have experience with language issues and confusion just by going to a different province. When you deal internationally you never know whom you will end up dealing with and what their written language is. It is always best to be prepared. These days you can find companies that will translate multiple languages for you, and even better you can send your items by email, fax or as a computer file. This saves a lot of time. The sooner you can get a translation, the sooner you can make a decision, fill an order, make a sale, or fix a problem. As everyone knows, time is money, even when dealing with people across the world. Business is business no matter what language it is done in.

Youtube

2008-03-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

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How to go from entrepreneur to successful manager

2008-03-04T06:50:00.000-08:00

So you are an entrepreneur with a successful small business, you have grown enough that you need to hire people. You have to take time from "doing" to interviewing, hiring, training, motivating, supervising, disciplining, and firing. You have to depend on others to keep your business successful. You have to let go, trust others to do as good a job as you do. On top of that you are not going to have as high a profit margin as staff are expensive and increase your cost in many ways. You need to find quality, skilled people that are reliable because poor staff can damage your business. Now your role changes from doing what you love and do yourself to being a manager dealing with paperwork, payroll, scheduling, and employee issues. How do you become a successful manager and keep your business going?

To be a successful manager you need to know what the needs of your company and employees are and how to balance them. Keeping your staff happy is very important to keep up productivity and reduces turnaround. Most research has shown that employees who feel valued work harder, take less time off and are loyal to their employer where those that do not feel valued slack off, take more time off and are often looking for a new job. Taking the time to hear what your staff needs can be extremely beneficial to you, and your company. Your employees are the people doing the jobs, you never know what insights they have about their job that can improve the job or save money for the company. People are more willing to change or work harder or meet unusual dead lines when they feel a part of the company, not a clog in a big machine.

Being able to deal fairly and promptly with your staff and their concerns goes a long way towards the perception your staff has of you and their willingness to work with you. For example, if your employee has issues with scheduling and your able to help them out then they are more likely to put that little bit extra when the need is there. Treat people with respect, you hired them, if you did not respect them or their ability to do their job why did you hire them. If you no longer feel they can do the job, let them go with their dignity intact.

You also need to be consistent and clear in your expectations and instructions/directions to your staff. Train your people to do the job the way you want it done. Do not assume that they know to do it your way. Once they are trained trust them enough to let them do the job, but still be available for when they have questions, concerns or some thing unusual or unexpected happens.

At the same time you need to keep meeting the demands and needs of your customers. You cannot sacrifice the needs of the company to meet the needs of your staff. As important as it is to work well with your staff you have to be able to recognize that having a good relationship with your staff helps but is not all that being a manager is about. Getting work done is. You need to be able to fire people as well as work with them. Liking some one is not enough of a reason to keep someone if they are not doing their job.

Knowing what needs to be done and when is also very important. As is being organized and able to prioritize. You need to make sure that you keep on top of deadlines, make sure you have everything your staff needs to meet them as well as make sure your staff is doing what they need to do to meet them. If you are a good manager you will have staff you can trust to do the work, being a successful manager means keeping on top of it and keeping things on track.

To be successful you need to be well organized, able to prioritise and work well with people. You have to have an understanding of how to get the people working under you motivated and wanting to get the work done. It is a mix of talents and personality. Some times it is better to hire a good manager then doing it your self. If you are not as good at managing your people as you are at managing your business you could be doing more harm then good. Poor management can destroy a business as fast as poor employees.

Small business cash flow problems, credit cards solutions?

2008-03-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

More business go under because of the discrepancy between the inflow and outflow of cash. What good is it if you have $1000’s in accounts receivable if you cannot pay your debts and daily operating costs today? This affects both small and large businesses, it is the way you handle the difference that counts.

If you have a cash flow problem you need to look at your payment terms and contracts. See what you can change. Can you do a % discount on the receivables if your customers pay in 15 days instead of 30 days? This can speed up the turn around from invoice to cash in hand. Also take a look at your budget, can you decrease the discrepancy by changing your budget. There are lots of ways to improve cash flow.

However, no matter how good your cash flow is you still have to deal with slow payers and no payers. This can have a large impact on your cash flow. Large projects can also place a strain on cash flow. So how do you supplement your cash inflow with out ending up with a crippling debt load?

Budgeting always plays a big part of business. You budget your expected returns and expenses but always try to leave a cushion of cash to off set the unexpected. Like having to go to court to get payment or having to write off a large account receivable, or actually getting an unexpected contract. When budgeting alone is not enough and you have to look out side for an influx of cash what do you do? Where do you turn to, what options are open to you? Well that depends on your existing debt load, how much you need and for how long.

Selling your accounts receivables is a good way to get ready cash with out going into more debt. The question is, will any one buy them and at what % on the dollar will they buy them. What good is selling off our receivables at a loss? It might help now but in the long term loses you money and throws off your cash flow and budget. Only use this when things are dire or you are selling off bad accounts you expect to have to fight for, or wait a long time for, or not receive payment.

A loan or mortgage lets you pay it off over a long period of time. This is good if you expect a long time between spending the money and getting a return on it. It is also good if you expect a long-term cash inflow from this investment of cash. Not so good a choice if this is for a short-term solution.

Short-term solutions, for when you expect a quick turnaround, are line of credit, over drafts and credit cards. If used properly these are great tools for day-to-day operations. Like when you have a cheque to be cashed on Monday but payroll is due on Friday. These options need to be used in the short term, when you can pay them off in days or weeks, not months or years. Real problems arise when people use these short-term solutions for long-term problems. These options usually have higher rates of interest then loans and mortgages can eat deeply into your profits if not paid quickly.

You need to know what your money needs are and find a financing solution that is best for each situation. All the planning, barrowing and such will not work if you don’t have a good understanding of your cash flow, develop a good budget and follow it.

The value of human contact in branding and marketing

2008-02-21T03:49:00.000-08:00

There is a lesson to be learned by examples set by some of the larger companies who have forgotten the value of human contact in branding and marketing. There is nothing like getting an automated system when you call a company verses getting a real person. I know of some companies that have lost a lot of customers, like me, this way. All you ever got was a machine you had to fight with it to get an answer or directed to the right department, then maybe you might get a real person. I am now dealing with a company that advertises that they have real people answering the phones. I know that a lot of companies have re-evaluated the cost savings of automated systems verses customer loss due to perceived poor customer service. Quit a few companies now advertise the fact that you reach real people when you call.

If you have a store and your customers spend more time looking for some one to help them then looking at products you have a problem. If the staff they find tells them it is not their department so they cannot help, you have a problem. Every thing people do or do not do when representing your company affects how people view your company. If some one gets poor service in a restaurant, they are not likely to go back. It’s the same in any area of business. Word of mouth is one of the strongest marketing tools out there; the people working for you have a direct influence on what is being said.

If you don’t have good people in contact with your customers you will not have a good relationship with those customers. This goes from the person who answers the phone, to taking orders, or resolving issues. If you are not going to take the time to help me I will take my business else where thank you. To day the customers control where they buy from, and if you don’t meet their needs and wants they will find some one else who will.

There are more companies out there succeeding because they know how important any and every contact with a customer or potential client is. People are willing to pay more when they get good service. People judge your company on how they perceive their treatment and the quality of your goods/product. I don’t care how good your product is, or what a great deal it is price wise if your employees treated me poorly.

The bottom line is customers want to feel valued. Having a person willing and able to help resolve problems effectively and efficiently makes some one feel more valued then having to fight with a phone system, or search on a web site for answers or dealing with an unhelpful person. Every person who works for a company represents that company when dealing with others, they are branding your company no matter how much marketing you do.

Should you butter up your boss?

2008-02-19T18:23:00.000-08:00

It seems like such a good idea at the time. Maybe if you butter up your boss they will remember that next performance review, job assignment or promotion. It cannot hurt to try, right. So how do you butter up your boss?

The whole point of butting up your boss is to get on their good side. You want to be well thought of by your boss and get some sort of benefit as a result. Are you doing this as a short cut, to bring positive attention to yourself, or deflect their attention from your work? Unfortunately how we do our job is not always what gets the promotion or raise.

There always seems to be some one who gets away with all sorts of things just because they are "friends" with the boss. As an extreme example, I remember one who would come in, sit at his desk and spend his shift on the phone with his friends and doing artwork. Some how he never had any problems keeping his job or meeting his quota. That was until the people above his supervisor noticed a change in staff productivity and retention. No one wanted to work when he did not, and some how he was reaching his quota but other people got fired for not reaching them. Lots of questions about what was going on. Turns out he was the supervisors boyfriend and they both got fired.

Now I would not recommend going to that extreme, but we all know having a friendly relationship with the boss can have its benefits. Another extreme example; at another job all of the long-term employees in the department were "friends" of the manager and supervisor. Some had started as school friends but all the long-term staff was a tight nit group who spent evenings and weekends hanging out with each other. If you did not have the time to hang out with the manager after work or go to their parties then you did not fit in and it showed in your job performance reviews. Several of the people would even bake and bring cookies or cake in to share with the department every week. The manager had a sweet tooth. You either conformed to fit in or lost your job or you found it so difficult to work with them you looked for other work. This resulted in the loss of quite a few skilled and educated employees and the retention of people who had on the job training but not the education.

In most places of employment things are not quite that bad but there is usually some one who goes out of their way to cultivate a "friendship" with their boss. They can be seen doing any number of things to get an in with the boss. Buttering up the boss with complements, gifts or finding ways to socialize outside of work. They always seem get the good assignments, or raise and some times the promotion.

Some people can argue that their work performance is what gets them the good assignments, raise or promotion and that buttering up the boss only gave them an edge. We know it works with some bosses, the question you need to ask before you try to butter up your boss is, will it work? And then figure out what will work with your boss without alienating your coworkers. Bringing in a batch of brownies for the whole department, not just the boss is a good way. In the long run though only you can see what will work with your boss, or if it will work at all. However, being friendly and helpful with your boss and co-workers should not hurt their opinion of you and may open up some opportunities for you.

How to avoid sabotaging your career

2008-02-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

There is nothing like the fear of success. So how do you avoid sabotaging your career? There are a lot of ways to sabotage a career. Don’t think that just because you have the job that’s it. You still have to keep the job, work with others and survive the politics. Being able to do the job, and doing it well is not enough.

There is nothing that destroys a career faster then alienating your co-workers. Trust me, management notices when some one does not fit in, or work well with others. No one likes some one who is disruptive to the harmony of the work place. If you don’t fit in will anyone recommend you for a better position, or more responsibility? You may even find yourself with out a job. Working as part of a team toward a common goal looks much better.

Take all jobs seriously. Doing poorly at one job can have a long-term affect. If you are looking for a job would you be able to use that job as a reference? Even if you'r boss gives you what looks like a make work job still do the work to the best of your abilities. If you don’t then how will that look, will they trust you with other jobs, more important ones if you slack off on this one.

Follow through. If you commit to doing some thing, do it, even if it is just picking up coffee. Other wise you are just full of empty promises and are not to be trusted. Not following through means you are not dependable or reliable.

Be truthful. Take responsibility for when you make a mistake. If you don’t know some thing then be honest about it and ask for help. Don’t hid it, dishonesty in any way will always come back to haunt you.

Be on time, both getting to work and completing your work. It is a sign of disrespect when you do not show up on time. Not showing up for work on time means you do not care about the job. Not getting your work done on time can be seen as you are unable to do your job.

Dress appropriately. Appearance does affect how people perceive you. If you dress like a slob, or like you don’t care it does not create a feeling of confidence in you or your abilities. If you don’t show that your respect yourself, why should others respect you?

Don’t make work your place to socialize or over share you life. There are times and places to make friends, and share what ever you want with them. Work is not that place. It is not professional for one; you are there to work. Being friends with your co-workers is fine, but do your socializing and chatting outside of work. Never say bad things about co-workers and keep your personal life private. You never know when you tell some one some thing if it can be used against you. It is office/work place politics, never give people ammunition.

Treat others with respect even if you don’t like them. You never know how you deal with some one is going affect how people see you. If you blow up at some one then you are a hothead, unstable and untrustworthy. If you keep your head, be polite, use your inside voice for what you are really thinking, it looks like you are diplomatic, a team player, and dependable.

Don’t take a job just because it is offered; make sure it fits your needs. There is nothing like a bad fit. If there are no growth options then how are you going to move your career up the next step? You are going to have to look out side of that company or be stuck in the same position. So you have to spend your time doing the job searching, find the right job, and establish yourself all over again.

Most of this is common sense. When you are stressed, or unhappy at work or with work it is easy to forget how this job can affect your long-term career. How what you do and say today can haunt you or help you. You never know when some one in your past can be part of your future, or how they can affect your career.

The pitfalls of telecommuting jobs

2008-02-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

I work from my home, or I should say I have a home business. How much work that actually gets done depends on the day. There are a lot of pitfalls with telecommuting jobs and I fall into every one. The great plus about working at home is the flexibility. Unfortunately that is also the biggest pitfall out there. It is too flexible, you ether do nothing but work all the time or never get any work done. You’re never away from your work; it is always in your home waiting to be done. It is easy to get caught up in what you are doing and loose track of every thing else. Or you get every thing else done because you can always do your work later and nothing gets done. You want to sleep in, go ahead, you can just work latter. You can fit appointments in any time, but then you find your day is full of nothing but appointments.

Working from home can be very rewarding or the most frustrating experience ever, or both at the same time. To be able to work at home you have to be a self-motivator, police your self, be very organized and get the work done. There is no one to help you when you have problems; you have to rely on yourself. Sick days, what are those? People also expect you to be working all the time. So its 6 pm your at home so it is ok for me to call you about a job or to give you more work. What do you mean you have a life out side of work, other commitments? You work from home you should be available all the time.

People do not treat you with the same respect as they do people they see as having real jobs. You know, ones you have to leave the house for. It does not matter how successful you are or busy, you stay at home so you don’t have a real job. Friends or family call or drop in any time, they know you are going to be home. Do they respect the fact that you are working? No, you can make time for them. It is not like you have a real job where you have to go to work. If your kid is sick, you end up taking care of them at home. Why, well you were going to be home any way. How hard can it be to get your work done at the same time as taking care of your child? So what if you have a deadline or have to run around to get some things done. You work at home, so work around having to take care of your child.

For me I am lucky in that both my husband and I work on the business together. How well the business does is up to us. We help motivate each other, and help each other from falling into the pitfalls. It took some time because when we first started it was too easy to find the day gone and no work done, or we just worked 12 hrs non-stop. But we learned that we had to have an area that was just for work. It keeps our work life apart from our home life. Our commute may only be to the basement but it is still a commute. If I don’t make jewellery we don’t have any to sell. If we don’t put the items on our e-store we cannot sell it. If we don’t ship ASAP our customers are not happy and we lose sales. We control what we do and how we do it. We don’t have to answer to any one but our customers. We love what we do so the work gets done. That all said and done, I have to get back to work.

How promotional gifts ensure your company is remembered

2008-01-30T14:55:00.000-08:00

Who does not have half a dozen or so company logo magnets stuck to your fridge? They work great as a promotional gift for the delivery food industry. Most people use them, so there they are right on the fridge, so you are usually hungry when you see them. Chances are if you are hungry and have the money your going to call them instead of going to the phone book and looking for some one else. This works for the delivery food industry because it reaches the target market, hungry people about to make or get food. It is also not very expensive with a long-term affect so it is cost effective. This promotional gift does not work for most other industries.

For a lot of retail places coupons can be seen as promotional gifts. They work to get people in, it can be seen as getting some thing for nothing, in this case money off or 2 for one. But people don’t associate coupons as a gift, and they only have a very short term affect. This also goes for food samples given in stores. You want some thing that is seen as a gift, and will have a long term affect so it is cost effective. Promotional gifts do not work if they are short term, consumable, expensive, not easily associated with your company, or not seen because it is not used, packed up or tossed.

There is a lot to think about when looking at promotional gifts for your company. One thing you have to remember is that it is part of branding your company. It needs to fit in with how you want to be seen. A cheep promotional gift is not going to work if you are going for a high-end image and an expensive one may not be cost affective. A nice quality key chain works for high-end car sales. People will use it, it reinforces positive feelings toward the dealer, this leads to positive word of mouth and repeat sales as well as having the customer using the dealership to service the car. As you already made the sale it is a cost affective promotional gift that ensures your company is remembered.

Gift certificates work in some retail situations. If you have a monthly contest then people come in to enter, so you get increased traffic. Increased traffic usually results in sales both in walk in retailers or on line ones. People will also check to see if they won or some one they know did, more traffic. The person who does win will use the gift certificate to buy some thing that will give them a positive association with your company. This also helps with word of mouth marketing. Every one loves to talk about winning, or getting some thing for free. This is a good way to get positive company branding.

However, you want some thing that any one seeing it thinks of your company. How do you find the right thing to use as a promotional gift? You need to take time, put the work into research and design. It is better to not give a promotional gift then spending money and time on one that does not work. Especially when putting a little bit of time and effort can give you one that does. You need to know whom your giving the promotional gift to, how they are going to use it or see it, and will it stand out from all the other promotional tools other companies use. Take a look at what other companies are successfully using, why it works for them, and what will give you the same results.

How to develop leadership skills

2008-01-25T09:36:00.000-08:00

What is the best way to learn how to develop leadership skills? Well you can go find a book full of lists of skills and personality traits that make a good leader. In it you will find the same old list of skills and traits that are seen as being needed to be a leader. Or you could take the time to take a closer look at people who are actually in leadership positions. We all know that leadership is a combination of specific skills and personality. So lets find out what they really are.

When you look at some one you see as a leader what characteristics stand out? A leader may not know how to do a job or a project but they do know who can. A leader may not always be the smartest or the most charismatic person in the group, but they are the person taking action. You will notice that most leaders listen, voice their opinions and do. They take action and expect others to follow. They also tend to be organized and quick to grasp a situation and find solutions or the person who will. Not all leaders are well liked, but they are respected. People trust them to do what is expected. They show confidence in their abilities and a willingness to learn what they don’t have or know. Or at least listen to some one who does.

The skills you find these people to have may or may not be in those books about leadership skills. You will probably be surprised by what makes people in leadership positions stand out from those around them. No one is going to have the same mix of skills or personality traits. So know you have to figure out what is going to work for you?

What skills do you already have? What skills can you develop? You can see what things you need to work on and change with in your skill sets. Is there an opportunity for you to develop your skills at your work place? Don’t expect to be able to learn or change every thing over night and be a leader the next day. It is going to take hard work. Skills need to be practiced, a balance learned as you figure out what will and will not work for you and your personality.

So you see the skills, you may even have them all. Now you have to realistically look at your personality. What do you need to change or work on? How much do you have to change? Are the things you think you need to change in your personality just skill sets you need to learn? Things like positive assertiveness, anger management, communication, negotiation skills, or even time management. If you have to change a large part of who you are to be a leader your going to have to decide if it is worth it to you. If it is, start taking courses, classes, and seminars. You don’t need to try and do it on your own. See if you can take more responsibility on at work. Take the INITIATIVE, because that is what makes a real leader.

Making money on the Internet by writing a blog, truth or fiction?

2008-01-20T20:13:00.000-08:00

People kept telling me that I could make money online, that there is contract work available for people who write blogs. I was quite sceptical about it; I could get paid to blog, right. I had to many of the get rich working from your home spam emails. I had one person telling me, on a forum, about how he was making so much money by writing web site reviews. I thought sure, and when are you going to ask me to sign up and give you all my information. Well strangely enough he never did. What he did was answer my questions honestly.

He had been writing a computer technical blog for years and one about software, coding and programming. The blogs built up a huge readership over the years. He had been approached about doing reviews for different companies, everything from the technical side to reviewing games, and programs. They would pay him to write about their product with a link back to their website. He started small and now gets paid any where from about $100 to $500 per article he is contracted to write. So of course everyone was asking were to sign up to do this. He explained that at this point he is usually contacted by the company directly to review their products or sites but that there are quit a few different companies out there that act as a middleman. They have bloggers register with them, and then will either offer them a job to write an article at a specific price or will let them bid on jobs and let the companies pick who they want to write the blog.

I was expecting him to tell us to all sign up to one company, as some companies will pay for everyone who registers under you. He actually told us to look on the Internet and find ones for ourselves. I liked that. He gave us the information we needed and then told us to do the work. I spent some time looking at some of the different sites that I could get paid to blog. I signed up for several to see how they worked. So far Smorty has offered me assignments that actually fits with my blogs. I have found Smorty easy to navigate and I don’t feel any pressure to take an assignment. I don’t think that I am going to make large amounts of money doing advertising blogs or website reviews. I do think that I can make a little money writing about things that interest me and I would probably have written an article anyway. Mind you I am only willing to write about things of interest to me no matter if someone wants to pay me or not.

I think that if you are already writing a blog then doing blog advertisements that fit with your blog then it is not a bad thing, as long as your writing the truth and just give your opinion on the site. If you are writing about some thing that is of interest to your readers, with a link to a site that has more information or might be useful then that is actually a good article, even if you were paid for it. However if you are thinking about starting a blog just to write blogs for money it is not going to work. People are not interested in reading ads about anything and everything, no matter how well written. Like every other business decision you have to do your research and don’t do something because someone told you that there was a lot of money to be made. The reality is that if you are writing blogs to make money you have to put time into it and the payout is not going to be the big bucks for a very long time, if ever.

How firing your customers can lead to bigger revenue

2008-01-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Restricting yourself to concentrating on one market segment can be loosing you money. This is especially true if you are completely missing a larger market or multiple markets. If you are not flexible enough to change with the market or see other markets your company will not grow. So sometimes firing your customers can lead to bigger revenue by opening up more or larger markets. Companies need to evolve to meet new markets needs, concentrating on the old market can prevent you from making necessary changes for your company to grow or survive. Firing some customers can also let you focus on or finding clients you have a better profit ratio with.

For years I concentrated on one market, and I did very well. I was marketing to a specific historical re-enactment hobbyists group. It was a great fit; I had found my niche in the market place. Then I realized that there was a much larger market for my product. There are a lot of other re-enactment groups and live role-play gamers to market too, so my target market grew. Then medieval and fantasy became big in the general public over the last few years with all the epic movies that came out. Now there is a resurgence of the vampire and werewolf theme with all the movies and TV shows coming out. So my market is growing and changing. I have to be flexible to change with it. I thought I was doing this.

Then I realized that I had been restricting my self to still meet the historically accurate standards set by my original target market. Some of the customers in my expanded market place would be interested in those products but I was not taking advantage of the full potential of that market. Most of that market likes the look but don’t care about historically documentation. So I had to re-evaluate who I was marketing to, what was my real customer base. I found that my old market was not willing to pay the same prices that other markets are, so I was no longer limited to a specific price range. My old market I had a limited product, slower sales and a saturated market. It was no longer cost effective to continue catering to that market. Firing my original customers opened the doorway for me to change and increase my product line. Meeting the needs of the larger market resulting in an increased profit margin.

I had also been concentrating on selling at local festivals, events and stores. I did not recognize the international interest that is out there. So again I had to re-evaluate to where I was selling, and what methods I was using to sell. I have not stopped selling locally but I have expanded the market by opening a store on line. However, these are two different markets needing completely different marketing strategies. These days I do not limit myself to just the market I perceive to be there. I am actively searching for multiple markets, and the methods to target them.

My business is retail so I do not have to deal with slow payers or no payers. These are the other customers that it pays for you to fire. Why keep clients that are reluctant to pay for product or services once they have them when you can concentrate on ones that do pay. Every business has to change and grow as the customer base evolves with new trends, needs, technology and competition always finding new ways to take our customers.

Finding the right online Casino

2008-01-20T10:38:00.000-08:00

I love playing poker online. I enjoy chatting with people over a friendly game, and I get to meet people from all over the world when I play online. I think that most gambling card games have more to do with skill then just luck like most of the other gambling games like roulette. I found that I even enjoy watching the pros play on TV. Poker is my game. Now mind you I do tend to play online at sites that have play money games, though I do like to play the odd 10 cent table or even the 10 cent to $1.00 tournaments. I have found that winning money is great, but I just enjoy the game so it as much fun for me to play the play money games, as it is to play for real money. Which is good because I don’t have the money to loose. If I am not willing to loose the money I will not play it. Good rule to play by when gambling.

I found an interesting website Pro360.com that is a Casino Review Site. The idea is that they have pulled all the data for quite a few online casinos and then have put it together in an easy to use list so that you can compare each online casino to find the one that is right for you. What I liked was that there was a review done for each casino by the editor and then right beside it was the reviews done by people who have gambled on that casinos site. It made it easy to find out what people thought about the casino. I also liked that they had a list rating each casino for each type of game. I could look under poker, and other people could look under bingo, craps, Baccarat, Keno and more to find out what casinos had the best games.

I have to admit that I like playing backgammon but never thought about gambling on a game. I believe that it originated as a gambling game so it makes sense that people would gamble on it. If I was more of a gambler I might actually try a game or two just to see how I would do. I suspect though that most people gambling on the game are better at it then I am. I do think it is also one of those games where skill is important, but you still need some luck. Poker is still my game because you don’t need the best cards to win; you just need others to think you have the best cards. Mind you I am not going to quite my day job and try to become a Poker pro.

Common job-hunting mistakes and how to avoid them

2008-01-16T17:25:00.000-08:00

So you have decided to look for work. That was the easy part, now you have to go job-hunting. Save your self some time and work; find out what are common job-hunting mistakes and how to avoid them. Hear are some questions you need to ask yourself

Are you treating looking for a job as a job? Are you put as much time and effort into it as you would be working for some one else? Or are you putting just enough time and effort to find a job ad and mail your resume in?

Where are you looking for jobs, are you limiting your opportunities? Most people just look at the ads in employment offices, newspapers and online. Other people will also use networking with friends and family to get unpublished job leads. Very few people think to find companies they would like to work for and then contact that company to see if there are any positions open or coming up. Yes, the dreaded cold calling a company. If done right this is a great tool. You already have a head start on getting a job with the company; it is a great way to make a good impression. If you get a rapport with the HR department, or other contacts in the company they might contact you when a position comes up. Did you sign up with any and all temporary employment companies? A lot of companies prefer to let them do the recruiting and interviewing for them and then see if the person sent over works out. It is a good way to keep working when looking and gives you a chance at jobs that may never be posted. Also a good temporary employment company will do the work for you, to find the right job for you. They don’t get paid unless you are working.

What type of jobs are you looking for? Are you shopping for the best job for you or just any old job? What criteria do you have? Why waste your time looking at jobs that don’t meet your criteria? If the job does not meet your requirements you’re not going to want the job any way. What criteria you ask: Is it a job you are actually interested in? Is it a job you can do? Is it in a location you can easily get to? Is this job going to take you to where you want to be in your career, or is it a dead end job? Will the hours work with your schedule?

Have you done your research both in your abilities, the company and the job? Do you know what your abilities and skills are? Have you confidence in your abilities and skills. Do you know what your transferable skills are? Are you over-qualified, under-qualified for the positions you are looking at? What are the requirements of the job you are looking at? What do you know about the company, their needs and how you would fit in? Did you make sure your cover letter and resume are targeted to the job and company you are applying to? Or did you just look at the ad and say I think I can do this and sent your resume to them?

Did you just send or drop your resume off and moved on to the next job posting? Did you call to confirm they received your resume or to find out when they would be doing interviews? Why would you call? So that they know your name, and you stand out from the 100’s of other people who just gave them their resume.

You have the interview, now what mistakes do you need to avoid. Yes the interview is still part of the job hunting. If you do every thing right but mess up in the interview your not going to get the job. Here are some things you need to do to be prepared for the interview.

Be early.
Don’t be eating or drinking when you come in or are waiting in the reception area.
Be polite, courteous and professional to every one you come in contact with. You have no idea who they are or what they are in the company.
Dressed appropriately for that industry. For most jobs it is a suit you need to be in. For construction or plant work still wear the suit but bring a change of clothing and safety gear so you can take a tour. No matter what the job is take extra effort on your appearance.
Have several copies of your resume and cover letter with you. You always have one for yourself, and one for each of the people interviewing you. You may not always know how many people will be in the interview so make sure you have extra copies.
Never show if you were a disgruntled employee or have hard feelings toward past employers.
Be honest and confident about your abilities and skills.
Make sure you did your research. Try to figure out what you can do for the company before hand so that when they ask you questions you can give them answers relevant to them and their needs.
Have several copies of your references. Make sure your references are relevant and meet the company’s references requirements. Make sure the people on your reference list know that they are on it and to expect a call.

Balance in life and work

2008-01-15T05:11:00.000-08:00

Who are you? How do you see yourself? Is there balance between your work life and home life? Many people identify themselves with their job or job title and not with other achievements or aspects of their lives. We all know people who spend their lives working until that is all they have. Being determined and dedicated at work is good, but not if you sacrifice friends, family, and life out side of work. At the same time there are people out there who work for the paycheque because they need the money to socialise or help their family. Family and friends come first and they are willing to lose jobs so they can socialise. I am not referring to the people who take time off to take care of a sick child or family member, but the ones who just don’t show up for work because they want to hang out with a friend. In both these cases the people are leaning too heavily towards one aspect of their life and are neglecting other aspects. You need to have balance in all aspects of your life to have a full and healthy life.

The people who are workaholics lose out of a lot that life has to offer. They tend to have problems outside of work that will often invade their jobs. It is hard to have a good family life when you are not there. This often results in poor or dysfunctional relationships with partners and children. It is lonely when all you have is work and every one in your life is work related, scrooge comes to mind. People who are like this are often extremely driven and stressed out. This tends to lead to health problems. If all you do is work it is very easy to burn out. You have to have some thing to balance all the work, other wise what is the point to working? What do you do if some thing happens to your job? If your job is the end-all important thing, or how you identify yourself, what happens to you if the job is gone, or the dynamics of your job changes? What do you have to support you then? Most people in this position don’t have any thing else in their lives, and tend to fall into depressions over big changes like this.

On the other hand you have the people who never get any where, always seem to be loosing jobs or staying at low paying positions. Why, because they don’t care about their job, all they care about is having a good time. They seem to have no ambition. This is just as unhealthy as the workaholic. It is hard to keep a job and after a while it becomes hard to get a job. It is hard to have a good life you don’t have money. It is very stressful when you are living from paycheque to paycheque, always struggling to keep up with the expenses of living. The stress can lead to health problems, as can not having the money to eat right, or pay for medical treatment. It is also hard to have healthy relationships when people see you as being not very responsible, never pulling your own weight. If you don’t have a job, how do you live?

Both sets of behaviours have consequences. People need balance between work and home life to keep them selves motivated and recharged. Being at work should be rewarding, and some thing you enjoy doing and so should your home life. So what do you do if you find yourself leaning too heavily towards one aspect of your life and are neglecting other aspects?

Take a look at why this is happening, chances are you are not happy in one aspect of your life and are overcompensating in another area. If all you want to do is hang out with friends and not work then you need find a job that you like and hopefully are good at. See if there is some way you can bring in the aspects you like about being with your friends into your job. It may be as simple as you don’t like what you are doing or the people you are working for or with. Realise that you need to work to pay bills and live so you might as well find a job you like, not just one you do just to survive. You have a better chance of keeping the job, and doing well at it if you like what you are doing and the people you are working with.

If you are finding that all you do is work ask yourself “why are you spending so much time at work?” Are the demands of the job too much and to do the job you have to give every thing else up? Think about what you are missing out on by working all the time. What is important to you, working all the time or seeing your kid take their first step? If the job is to demanding then re-evaluate the job. You may want to get a different job, or find a way to delegate some of the work so you can spend some time having a life. If it is not that the job is to demanding then try and see what is missing in your home life. What else do you do that gives you a feeling of accomplishment, some thing you don’t mind identifying your self with that has nothing to do with your job or title. If it is relationship problems, working to get away from them is not going to make things better. You need to spend some time fixing or changing that part of your life, even if it is not some thing you want to do.

It comes down to this, if you are not happy in one aspect of your life you need to make changes in that area to make it better. Not move away from that aspect and end up having a big imbalance in your life. It is just not healthy. It is better to have a good job and home life that you enjoy then a high paying job and no life or a great social life with no means to support yourself.

Cskills website review

2008-01-12T13:26:00.000-08:00

One of the growing industries is construction. However it is no longer a job that you drop out of high school and go do like it was when my father was a teenager. Now it is much more complicated and you need to know what you are doing before someone will hire you. Even apprenticeships for the construction industry can be a combination of collage study and on the job training. Apprenticeship is still a great way to earn as you learn and get a good start on a career in construction.

If you are looking into starting a career in construction you might want to check out CSkills. Cskills is a partner of the sector skills council for construction. I spent some time on their website and was actually overwhelmed by quantity and quality of information they have on todays ConstructionSkills and how much things have changed in the last 40 years. This web site has information on what you need to know to get a job in construction, where to get the education, funding, and even apprenticeships. Their website has all information about what you need to get your NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) and SVQs (Scottish Vocational Qualifications) so you can get your CSCS card (Construction Skills Certification Scheme).

If you are already in construction but need something to advance your career Cskills also has a section on getting a CSCS card threw OSAT (On-Site Assessment and Training) or EWPA (Experience Worker Practical Assessment). As well as information on how to get a CPCS card (Construction Plant Competence Scheme). These show that you have all the up to date information in health and safety as well as being skilled and capable within your field. These cards show you are a professional and can make a big difference in your career path.

The website also has information for people who own or run construction companies. They can keep us with all the rules and regulations as well as find apprentices. Cskills site is up to date on health and safety legislation and how to meet the requirements for construction workers to be certified by 2010. This site is so full of information that it is worth taking the time to visit and look around.

Benefits and risks or running an online business

2008-01-04T11:52:00.000-08:00

So you see all these work at home, start your own online business ads. You think, "Hey there must be some thing to this. I would like to stay at home and make lots of money just like all these ads say I can." Before you leap you need to find out what are the benefits and risks of running an online business.

There are a lot of benefits for running an online business.

You are your own boss. This way you control what you do, how you do it, and when. So if you are a stay at home parent, you can work around your kids. If this is a second source of income, then you can work around your regular job. I like being able to spend time with my kids and work when they are asleep.

There are a lot of different types of online businesses you can get into. It is easy to diversify by having several different online businesses at the same time. It is quite possible to have multiple streams of income with the same business.

The potential income is often only limited by the time and money you choose to invest. Once you have your online business set up most of your time and money is going to be spent on getting people to find your site, also known as online marketing. This will be done through a high rank on search engines, links, ads, word of mouth and any other way you can think of. How well you did your work setting up your site will determine if they buy from you, or sign up or click what every ad system your using. When your site is successful you may be busy shipping, restocking and putting new product on the site. However, no matter what you will always need to invest in bringing new, and old customers back to your site. You never stop your online marketing.

There are online businesses that are almost self-sustaining with only a little work or money from you. You set up the site, maintain it, and keep it online, and away you go. A lot of this type of business is in partnership with drop-shippers, some who will even set up the site and maintain it for you. There are always already established online businesses up for sale. You just have to get people to go to it. The real work of anyone with an online business is getting people to come to their site.

There are a lot of risks to running an online business.

Getting scammed is a big risk for those who do not do their research or go for the get rich quick schemes. There are a lot of online businesses out there that only make the seller rich.

Not cost effective. You invest your money and time and make a little money but nothing like you expect. The competition online is great. It is not like you are the only supplier of product "widget" in a small town. Your competition can already be well-established selling "Widgets", "Wedgets" and any other type of "ets". It’s an uphill battle getting people to find you and then buy from you instead of company ABC or XYZ. You could have the greatest product, best price and service but if people don’t know you are out there, they are not going to be looking for you. How much do you have to spend in time and money to become established and get the sales you need to break even? Is it cost effective in the long run, or throwing good money after bad. You can be doing every thing right and still not succeed.

It always cost more then expected, in money and time. You may find yourself spending all your time on click exchanges trying to build up hits in the hopes of making some money.

Your email and web site becomes a prime target for spammers. You end up with 100’s of spam emails a day if not more. Most of them seem to want to sell you an online business or get you to pay them to do online marketing for you.

Having to spend lots of money to keep your computer system upto speed with the needs of the anti virus programs. The anti virus programs out there are not going to be compatible with older systems soon. Can you afford to upgrade your computer system to the newest technology so your system can support the newest anti virus programs? Can you leave your computer system vulnerable with out the most up to date anti virus programs?

I have an online business; it is an extension of our already existing business. Online businesses are completely different then off line businesses. I like what I do, but it has been hard and I had to learn a lot, and am still learning. We have a retail site and we don’t use drop-shippers so we have been able to avoid a lot of the pitfalls of running a retail site. But the amount of established competition can be very daunting at times. And new sites show up every day. I some times have to question our expectations for our web site and the time lines we have set for it to be cost effective. I think it is going to take more time and money then we first thought simply because marketing online is very different then marketing offline. An online business can be great and successful, but only if you go into with your eyes open. As with any and all business ventures do your research.

The importance of recognizing acceptable workplace attire

2007-12-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

I learned years ago the importance of recognizing acceptable workplace attire the hard way. I am so happy I work from home now. I don’t have to worry about how people are going to perceive me or judge me by my clothing. I can work at home in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and do not have to spend my money on suits I don’t even like to wear. But trust me I know that when I am out in public how I look is going to affect the opinions people formed about my company and me as a person. I need to look professional, and competent. No matter where you work, there is an appropriate way to dress and you need to be aware of what that is and conform.

If you are working in the corporate world you need to spend the money on real suits. Men and women need to dress in the standard the company expects. In some companies image is every thing. How you represent your self is how you are judged. You don’t get points for putting on cheep suits, even when that is what you can afford. Some times how you dress can be more important then the work you do. Companies have an image and an expectation of their employees to live up to it as they represent the company when they are at work. This in not to say you don’t have to work if you look good, but you will be seen as being more professional if you dress professionally.

For when you are working in an office where the dress code is casual you still need to keep in mind what the actual dress requirements are. Often a company will have a very specific idea of what they consider casual. I have known people to push the boundaries of casual. They forget that how they dress still influences the way people see them and will judge their ability to do the job by their appearance. Trust me, shorts and a tank top is not a professional look. If you are sloppy, miss matched and not concerned about your appearance people will expect the same in the quality of your work. The same goes if you are always dressed well, take care of how you look, showing that you respect yourself. How you dress is how you represent yourself to your employers and co-works. You will find people will treat you accordingly.

When you work in a place with a uniform, make sure you still take care of how you look. Having a uniform that is clean and well taken care of is very important; it shows that you care about yourself. This shows that you care about your job and how you do it. If you don’t keep it clean and in good repair is shows you don’t care. That how you look at work is not important, so the job must not be important.

Now there are a few jobs out there, most of them manual labour, where the perception is exactly the opposite; the worse shape your clothing is in the better worker you are. Why, because your clothing got that way because you were working. Old and shabby clothing are more then appropriate for these jobs. It shows that you expect to get dirty, that you are going to be getting right into it and work hard.

No matter where you are, work or play, the way you dress is used to form opinions about who you are and what you are like. This directly affects how people perceive you and treat you. Show that you respect and like yourself in the way you dress then you are treated better then if you look like you don’t care.

These ladies dress this way because that is the acceptable workplace attire at their job and for the tips.

Tips for a successful internet business

2007-12-28T11:42:00.000-08:00

Like with any business you need to do your homework. Do not waste your time on the get rich quick types of Internet businesses. Even if the costs less then $10.00 to get started. If it seems to good or easy then it is. There are a lot of scams out there, do not be one of the people taken by them. Taking surveys from home is not going to bring in the money, just suck up your time. You get paid pennies for reading emails or surfing/clicking web sites. It all takes time and work. However you can make money as an affiliate getting people to sign up to do surveys, read emails, or surfing/clicking for money. Do the research on any type of business before you go ahead.

A business plan works just as well for an online Internet business a for a non-Internet business. You need to know what you want to do, and how to do it. You need to know what Internet business’s are out there.

1) The most common one is a retail site of your own. This can be costly to start, as you have to make it yourself or pay some else to make it for you. Then you will have to pay for your domains name every year and monthly hosting fees. However, you have control over content and revenue streams. You can sell product directly, sell dropship items, get money for being an affiliate with retail stores, or get paid for putting other peoples ads on your site, or have something like Google ads where you get paid each time some one clicks the ads.

2) You can also have a web site that sells a service like hits to websites, or connect advertisers to people with sites to put ads on or people to take their surveys or read their email ads. Or be an affiliate broker, getting sites that are looking for affiliates connected with people who want to be affiliates and you take a % of all sales through all the affiliates. You can sell a “How to run a successful Internet business” package for $7.00 or $9.00 a pop. You get them to register for $7.00 and then they get a letter that explains how to be successful making money on the Internet. You might even send them a monthly newsletter with tips for a successful Internet business so they feel they got their moneys worth.

3) A free web site that is really just an affiliate program where they provide you with your own storefront, but you sell someone else’s products that they dropship.

4) A free web site that is actually free. With most free web sites you are limited on your options of what you can do. The company giving you the website is usually getting advertising revenue from companies like Google ads. You may end up having to pay a hosting fee, and they give you the template for your website to work with. Just remember even free comes with a cost these days.

5) A free selling site like Kijiji, livedeal, or Blujay where you advertise products for free. There are usually some limitations to what or how many ads you can have. Though for a monthly fee on livedeal you can have a storefront that you can sell your items. Blujay does not charge you for your storefront. There are 1000’s of these types of sites out there you just have to find the right one for you. There are often limitations with these sites, such as not being able to do link exchanges.

6) There are the auction sites out there, most well known is eBay. You pay a fee to list your item, more fees for any extra features, and a fee if you sell it. You can have a storefront, for a monthly fee, as well as still having to pay all the other fees. Keep in mind that you have to pay a fee when you use an online payment system like Paypal. This all cuts into your profit, but for the most part people can find you and buy from you. So it is all a cost of business. You do not have to pay as much start up money as you would to have your own retail site, and the auction site does the marketing and advertising for you. If you do start selling on an auctions site just figure out what the real cost is so you don’t end up spending more money selling an item then you receive. i.e. all the $1.00 or less items on eBay. Look at the cost of the item, fee to list, end of auction fee, and Paypal fees. It actually cost you more then you made to sell the item. You can be very successful with this if you do your homework on what to sell and at what price to start your auction at.

7) Blogs. You can make some money from having your own blog. You can put advertisements from places like Google ads, or any of the other advertising companies out there. You get money whenever some one clicks onto one of the ads. You can also have affiliate links on your blog. If some one clicks on the link and then buys something or registers you get some money. If you are interested in being an affiliate, www.medievalmagic.ca has a good affiliate plan with contests for the top affiliates. However, you cannot just sign up and expect money to roll in. You have to use the promotional tools they provide, and promote the link or banner to the site, or the actual product links. You can always find sites that will match you with other affiliate programs as well.

8) Splash pages or sites that are just links to retail sites. This is for when you are an affiliate, you get a % of sales when some one uses your link to go to the store and buy something or registers for something.

9) Sign up to read emails, take surveys or click/surf for money. There are 1000’s of people waiting to sign you up so they can get their $5.00.

10) Write on blog sites that share the earnings from people clicking on the ads, like Google ads. There are a lot out there that claim to do this. You have to figure out what ones actually do. Helium not only gives you part of the revenue from the ads, they help sell your articles to publishers. You can make money several ways on Helium, compete to sell articles on the marketplace, compete to place or win in the many writing contests every week, and in the shared ad revenue.

You need to figure out what of all these options work for you. Then you have to realise no matter what option or path you take you only get out of it what you put into it. You still have to know if there is a market for what you are selling. Then you have to market and promote your website, blog, splash page so people can find it and buy, click or register. If you are doing surveys, read emails, click or surf or write for money, you still have to actually spend the time and do it. If you do not do the work, you don’t make any money. No matter what, time, energy and knowledge are required for any one to succeed on line or off line.

Cold calling: What not to do

2007-12-26T05:59:00.000-08:00

I spent one summer working in a telemarketing company making cold calls. It is not an easy thing to do. It is incredibly frustration trying to get people who don’t know you to give you enough time to get their interest. Then you have to compete with whatever system, process or business relationships they already have. Most people don’t survive more then a few days. I saw a lot of examples of “what not to do” when cold calling, some of them I made myself.

The biggest what not to do is: Do not call some one unprepared. By this I mean research the company, the people you need to talk to. Find out if they actually could use your services. Understand what the company does and how what ever you are selling would fit in, especially if what you are selling is you for employment or a contract. Take the time to know your product/sales pitch so you don’t have to read a script and can actually answer questions if the person is interested. Nothing kills a deal having to stop a “sales pitch” to bring some one else in to answer questions. It is not very professional to not know what you are selling and this does not make the company look very good. Would you want to deal with some one who did not know the product they are trying to sell to you.

Other “what not to do’s” when cold calling are:

Taking your frustrations out on the people you are calling. You may only be talking to an underling but that person is your current contact in the company. Your actions reflect on you, and the company your working for. Curtsey may not be that common, but it is required when you are making cold calls. You never know whom you are really talking to or how they can help you.

Expect people to say no. What is the point of calling if you don’t expect to be able to get the persons attention and give them a chance to let you know what they need? People can hear defeat in your voice. If your not confident about what you are doing or your product how can you expect the potential client to give you their time.

Be eating, drinking, have candy or gum in your mouth, or be having another conversation when some one is on the phone with you. This is not very professional, and actually offensive.

Forget to follow threw. If some does not have the time when you call and they ask you to call them latter do so. This is a lead people, use it. Get the contact name, number and time correct and then call them at that time. If some one did not want to talk to you the first time, why would they ask you to bug them again unless they did want to hear more about what you are selling.

I am sure that there are a ton of other examples of what not to do when cold calling. However I feel that these are the most common mistakes done by both inexperienced and experienced cold callers. Every one can have a bad day some time.

Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
www.medievalmagic.ca

Just started making a leather Celtic Shield

2007-12-22T05:34:00.000-08:00

Starting on new Celtic Shield. It will be 15 1/8" in diameter. The shield is cut from 16 oz. Armour grade Leather by hand. Design drawn, burned and painted by hand by James. The Cross is set in the center with Celtic knot work. The 8 phases of the moon are set in their celestial pattern surrounding the cross. The word Protection is written in runes starting at the top of the cross and running clockwise around the edge.

Here you can see the background pattern of knot work being done.

Next step will be the waxing and then the wrist and forearm straps will be riveted on the back. Once they are in place the shield will rest on the arm and leave some room for the hand and wrist to move. I plan to make the straps adjustable to fit a range of arm sizes.

Waxing the shield

Wax drying

Almost done. Waxing is all done, and I have added the two adjustable arm straps. I don't like how it fits so I am going to change it. I am going to make the wrist strap into a handle, and that will change how the shield is held. Though I am sure this well end up on a wall as decoration. So far I have put in about 5 to 6 hours into this Celtic shield.

New handle - all done.

I had a great time making this shield. I have the shield available for sale if any one is interested at http://www.medievalmagic.ca/.

What you need to know when giving Gift cards for Christmas

2007-12-21T09:57:00.000-08:00

If you are giving gift cards for Christmas then there are a few simple easy things to do to make sure that some one else does not get and use the card. We just learned this the hard way. Grandpa sent a $50.00 Wal-Mart card for our two year-old. It never made it here and he does not know what card he sent her so we cannot have the missing one cancelled and a new one issued. We just have to wait and hope that it shows up after Christmas and was not delivered to someone else. Here are some things you should do just in case something happens, like the card gets lost in the mail.

1) Keep the receipt.
2) Mark on the receipt to which person the card is being given. If you are buying a large number of gift cards then buy them in lots. If you are sending 5 cards to one family, 3 to another and 2 to a third then buy them like that and mark on each receipt what family or friend each batch is going to. If you buy several all at once and are mailing them out in individual cards then mark down on the receipt which gift card was sent to whom. If the receipt does not show the card # on it, then write it down on the receipt with who is receiving it. You may have to scratch off the area that has the pin #. This may not look as nice as an unscratched card but it is important information to have if the card never makes it to the person you are giving it to. If the card goes missing there is no way to get the information.
3) Send card by registered mail or signature required or give them in person. This saves a lot of trouble, even if the card is only $10.00 it makes sure it gets to the right person in time.

I hope this information is helpful. Things like this happen all the time. When we get travelers checks we keep track of the numbers so that if they are taken or lost we can cancel them and have new ones issued. We need to think of gift cards the same way. They are money, but if we keep track of some thing so simple as the cards pin # it can be protected.

Wal-Mart would have been able to cancel the card and issue a new one if Grandpa had recorded what card he sent our daughter. Now we have to wait until after Christmas, have every one use their cards and then go through the list of 15 gift cards with Wal-Mart to see if one was not used. Then they will cancel that one and re-issue a new one. What this means is that if some one was delivered out daughters card in error, opened even though it was not for them, gets the card and uses it then to bad for us. They got her $50.00 and there is nothing we can do about it.

At www.medievalmagic.ca we are very lucky because when some one buys a gift certificate from us it is on line so we have their information. They can have the gift certificate emailed to them and they can print it off, or we email it to the person they are giving it to, or it can be mailed. Why is this good? We have a record of who bought each certificate, and usually whom it is being given to. If the gift certificate was lost, destroyed, or the email was deleted (it has happened), we can easily find the gift certificate number and reissue it or a new one. If someone has used a gift certificate that is not his or hers, if the person who actually owns the gift certificate lets us know, we know who used it. Or at least where the gifts were shipped. It is easy for us because of the way we sell gift certificates.

We have been planning to pre-print and sell gift certificates at festivals this summer. This incident has made me realise we need to make some changes on that plan. We need to take a computer with us and sell them off the web site and then just print them there. That way all the important information is recorded and it will make things easer for us to help any one that has a problem with a lost gift certificate.

Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
www.medievalmagic.ca

Why static landing pages are good for Internet marketing

2007-12-21T03:17:00.000-08:00

A landing page is an html page that you use as an ad for web sites you are promoting. You can think of it as a one-page web site that you use to direct people to other sites. You can focus on marketing this page instead of trying to promote several web sites. The page promotes the web sites for you. It does not matter if the page is marketing retail web sites that you own or are an affiliate of, or ads. The idea is to use the landing page to get more search engine traffic.

A landing page also helps target for specific products. If a web site has many diverse products it is very difficult to use key words and phrases on the home page for all the products. You use landing pages to optimize key words and phrases for just one product or category of products with direct links to the products on the web site. This way when someone uses a search engine to look for a product you have a better chance of being found with the targeted landing page, then with the more general home page.

This is also a great way to capture a hidden market; people misspell words when using search engines. You make a landing page that uses common misspellings of key words and phrases. Your competitors may not be marketing to incorrectly spelled words so they are not showing up on the search engine, but you are. It is useful if you make the landing page to look the same as your home page but with the misspelled words, and then link it to your web site. This way people don’t notice that they did not open your web site in the first place.

Another reason to use static landing pages is because they can be used for both Adwords and Overture. As of January 12th, 2005 Google lets one affiliate advertise one product per domain. This makes it hard to promote affiliate products. When using landing pages you don’t need to put “affiliate” in your ad, you meet the requirements of Adwords and Overture.

Before making a landing page you need to know what type to make, reference or transactional. A reference landing page provides information that is of interest to a visitor. The information can be text, images, a selection of links, or any combination. The information is used to bring people to the page and needs to tie into the ads so the ads are relevant. You can write an article on the history of Celtic designs and the meanings of them with pictures. Maybe have a short video on the page. Then have ads for Celtic jewelry sites, trips to Ireland, Family history research company, books on Celtic designs and more. You use the right key words on the page so a person interested in Celtic designs or Celtic history finds your page. Now they see your ads and are more likely to click on them because every thing has been targeted to them.

The other landing page is transactional. The goal is the sale of a product or service, or capturing information such as email addresses. Again you have some type of write up that is designed to use key words to get visitors. Once some one is on the page you want them to buy some thing. You have an actual ad that they can buy the product directly. If you are an affiliate of a retail site you sell their product on your page or have an affiliate link so people can buy the product on their site. You are interested in the sale, not a click through. If you are trying to get some ones email address you are still getting them to buy into whatever idea or offer you are promoting, but to get the “product” they have to fill in a form. Reports on how to be successful or make money online are usually the type of product being promoted. The pay off here is the email address, name or phone number that can be used as a lead.

Not every one knows how to make landing pages. If you are like most of us and do not know how to make a landing page then you want to look at the many different programs available to create landing pages. I am lucky, my husband has learned HTML just so he can create our landing pages. He has indicated that it is not as hard as he thought it would be, but that he is looking forward to when we can get a program that is "what you see is what you get" that does the coding for you. You just put what you want, be it text, pictures, or ads where you want it and your done.

Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
http://www.medievalmagic.ca/

An informative guide to Google Page Rank

2007-12-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

So what is Google PageRank? Google describes PageRank as “PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important".”

So what does that mean? It is like a popularity contest in high school. The more people who like you the more popular you are, but if the in crowd likes you then you are even more popular. The more popular you are the more people see you or know how to find you. So the more links you have for your page on other sites the higher Google rates your PageRank. The more popular or higher PageRank of the page that has your link on it, the higher your page is ranked. The higher your PageRank the higher you are on the list of related web sites Google shows when some one does a search inquiry.

Google uses a very complicated PageRank algorithm to figure out all sorts of factors. But the general idea is to calculate the chances of a person randomly surfing coming across your site. This calculation determins where a site sits in a search enquiry. The Google toolbar shows a sites PageRank as a number between 0 and 10. 10 being the most popular. However no one out side of Google knows how they get the number they assign to the toolbar for a web site. It is kind of hard to know how valuable the toolbar PageRank is if you have no idea what it is bassed on.

So you type in Medieval Magic and several pages of sites show up with the words Medieval and Magic on the page. There are several sites called Medieval Magic, or Medieval Magic is part of the name, or some were on the page. The site on the top of the first page has the highest PageRank. So it pays to have the best PageRank possible. Most people will look at the first 10 web site or pages listed in a search enquiry. Some will even go to the top 20 or 30 sites, but not many.

So you work hard doing link exchanges, join every site registry out there, advertise your site on other sites so they have your link up, web rings, any thing to get links back to your site. Now if some one types in Medieval Magic as their key words you show up on the first page. Your site has been found and chances are some one will at least open your page and look at it. They may even look around, read what you have to say, bookmark it or buy some thing.

What happens if some one only looked for Medieval, or medieval jewelry or medieval jewellery? Unless you have a huge PageRank Medieval Magic web site is not found in the top 100 sites. It does not matter that if the words Medieval, jewelry and jewellery are all on the home page. There are a lot more sites or pages with the words Medieval, jewelry and jewellery that have a higher PageRank and are going to show up first. They did not show up when the person looked under Medieval Magic because they did not have the word Magic on the page.

This is why people tend to be as specific as possible when using a search engine. If you do not use the exact words for what you want then you have lots of sites that are not what you wanted. It is like typing in the word ring. You will get millions of sites and pages with the word ring. So you type in sterling silver ring. You still get millions of sites that may or may not have what you are looking for. Are you looking for a sterling silver ring to make jewellery with or a ring to go on a finger? Still need to be more specific. So now it is a sterling silver ring size 6. Still millions of sites to pick from. Lets say you want a sterling silver dragon ring size 6. So now you have the top sites or pages with the most links with sterling silver dragon ring size 6. Did the site Medieval Magic show up? No. Why not? The page that has the size 6 sterling silver dragon rings does not have a high enough PageRate to compete with the other sites.

The bottom line is that if people cannot find your site, they cannot buy from you, or read your work, or find the answer they are looking for. Google PageRank is what decides where your site is on the list when some one does a search. And the search is only as good as the keywords used.

Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
http://www.medievalmagic.ca/

Assessing the effect of email on common business courtesy

2007-12-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

Gone are the days that you can respond to every one who contacts you with in 24 hrs. It used to be standard to return a call no latter then the next business day. Now you get calls and a ton of emails. It is so much quicker and easer to send an email these days then to call some one and hope to get them. If you think of some thing you can send an email at any time, 12 pm or 3 am. The result of this is tons of emails, legitimate business contacts, spam and friends and family. It is time consuming and frustrating to open, read and delete or respond to them all. So instead of getting back to people in a timely manner you have to prioritize and depending on the subject line emails may or may not be even opened, let alone read.

Why is it that people understand not to call some one at work to tell them a joke or funny story but it is ok to send it as an email to some ones work email. Then they expect you to take time from your work to respond to their emails and chat at work. It is easy to find yourself receiving lots of non-work related emails and fall into the trap of responding to the emails instead of working. It only takes a minute, but that is not your job. I am not going to even try to understand the people who send inappropriate material to your work email. I had to ask people to stop emailing me at work. It is such a large problem that a lot of large companies actually have computer programs to track and read your incoming and outgoing emails. Think about that the next time you forward a joke or respond to a personal email.

At work I would not go to every one in my department and show them my vacation pictures, or tell them the joke I just heard. It looks bad and would be keeping them from their work. But people seem to feel it is ok to do the same thing by email. Same with having conversations that you don’t want people to over hear. It is easy to be sitting at your desk, look like you are working but you are really gossiping with a co-worker.

Emails tend to be viewed as a more casual form of communication. This changes the tone we take when we send an email instead of a letter, memo or phone call. It is very easy to loose “common courtesy” that we would have in other forms of communication. We try to keep them brief and to the point and this can also seem impersonal and by some seen as lacking in respect.

When you are sending an email are you still being professional in your tone and the information being passed? Did you take the time to check your spelling and context? Or did you just dash off a quick response or question with out thinking it through first? Instead of bugging a co-worker could you have thought about what you were asking or do some research yourself? It is so easy to send an email about some thing we would not have bothered some one if we had to get up from our desk and find them, and ask them in person. It is a trivial thing we could have resolved ourselves. It was easer to send an email then doing the work. Just because it is easy to email some one we need to ask ourselves “should I”.

Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
www.medievalmagic.ca

A guide to developing an effective brand strategy

2007-12-16T09:12:00.001-08:00

When working on developing an effective brand strategy make sure you know what you want your brand to mean to you and your customers. Your brand is your image, how people perceive your company, and this affects what people expect from your company. In this case image is everything. Does your brand strategy convey everything you want people to know or think about your company? What is the message you want to give? Who is your market, how do you use your brand strategy to reach them?

When you start to develop an effective brand strategy for your company, you should have a logo designed that would be easily identifiable with symbols relevant to your target market. Your company name should be created to strike a chord with your customers, but also contains key words that your customers will use on search engines. The design of your web site should be tied into your customer base and how you wanted to be seen. For example you may want to go with simple, uncluttered, and no flash. Your product should be the focus. Make sure you show your integrity, both on the home and about us pages. So now you have put the work into the imagery, what’s next?

You have to build brand recognition through customer relations. You are trying to get uniqueness, quality and value associated with your name and logo. Make sure you respond promptly to any customer inquiries and comments. What people see on the web site is what they must receive when they buy from you. Items need to be ship as soon as payment is received. Stand by your product and don’t play games with the return policy. What you do is just as important as how your web site looks. Every interaction you have with people affects how people see you, your company, and what they associate with your brand. Even when you just have a casual conversation with some one that can affect the image of your company. As the owner you represent the company even when you are not working.

You design and build your brand image, now you need to have a strategy to protect it. You cannot just stop selling and promoting your brand image once your brand is known. A brand image can be destroyed much faster then it takes to build it up and maintain it. You have to be careful with customer relations because word of mouth is a powerful thing. As the saying goes, one happy customer will tell two of their friends about you, one of them might come to see you and maybe buy. An unhappy customer tells 20 people who will each tell at least two other not to deal with you. So once you have built your brand image you still need to spend time and money to maintain it. Other wise everything you invested into building your brand image is wasted.

Written by: Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
www.medievalmagic.ca

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2007-12-16T08:48:00.001-08:00

Technorati Profile

Christmas 2007 Astronomy gift ideas for adults

2007-12-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

What do you give someone interested in Astronomy as a gift? Astronomy has been around for a very long time, so there are traditional gifts available. Also with the huge advancements in technology there are constantly new astronomy equipment becoming available and there is always something new to discover. It can actually become overwhelming to decide what to get them. I have made a list of the top Christmas 2007 Astronomy gift ideas for adults.

1) Novelty items and just fun astronomy gifts:
“You Are Here”, is a 100% cotton heavyweight t-shirt black. On the front, a view of the Milky Way galaxy with a sign that reads "You are Here" pointing in the general direction of Earth. $16.99 www.thinkgeek.com.

Astrolabe Kit. Use this handy device to determine the declination (elevation) and azimuth (horizontal arc) of any star or celestial body. You provide a compass. Astrolabes have been used in navigation for more than 2000 years, although their heyday was during the explorations of the 1400-1500s. Now the Global Positioning System has eliminated the need to rely on the stars for navigation, but using an astrolabe is still a fun astronomy activity! Instructions are printed right on the plastic body. This is $13.50 at www.hometrainingtools.com.

Galilea Moon Phase Clock. This lunar phase clock shows the current Moon phase, the time and date. Galilea's revolutionary design precisely reproduces the daily evolution of the moon phases during it's 29.5 day cycle. This clock is $69.95 at www.physlink.com/estore.

Constellation Illuminated Globe. This illuminated globe shows a spherical map of the sun, moon and stars that appear to surround our great earth. Using your globe, you can actually determine what stars are visible at certain dates and times. The globe also breathtakingly displays over 70 zodiac images when illuminated. This globe is $79.95 at www.physlink.com.

T-shirts, hats, cups, posters and a clock are all available with wonderful pictures taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the Cat's Eye Nebula, The Crab Nebula, the Orion Nebula, NGC 2264, the Cone Nebula, IC 4406, a dying star dubbed the "Retina Nebula, the Spirograph Nebula, and many other wonderful pictures. These are unbelievably cool and can be found at www.spacemartgifts.com

Kinetic Solar System. Brilliant colors and movement add a decorative flair to this scientific desk sculpture. A series of rings and a sphere representing our solar system rotate and spin in a sturdy base, creating a miniature moving galaxy. It is $12.95 at http://scientificsonline.com.

Solar System Shower Curtain Liner. This vibrant vinyl shower curtain boldly displays the solar system in accurate representation along with fascinating facts about our galaxy. It is $29.95 at http://scientificsonline.com.

2) Telescopes, Binoculars, and Accessories:
Little Mak Hand-held Telescope. The Little Mak is the smallest Maksutov Gregorian telescope on the market. It’s small enough to fit in any pocket or purse, has crisp 10x magnification, and can be used as a telescope the images produced by the Little Mak are as sharp at the edges as they are in the center. It is $39.95 at http://scientificsonline.com.

Konus Motor-500 Telescope. This heavy-duty telescope is an electronically advanced tool that is designed to give a wide-angle low power view of outer space; this telescope is lightweight and easy to use. It is 114mm (4, 5”) in size and has a focal length of 500 mm. This set includes an R.A. Motor for tracking, a moon filter for observing a full moon, a 50x Eye piece Plossl and a 30x Eye piece Plossl. It is $199.95 at www.physlink.com.

Konus Giant-80 Binocular. These giant binoculars are perfect to view the moon, planets, International Space Station, constellations. They are built to maximize the field of view and provide outstanding panoramic vision. T they are quite heavy and it is recommended to use them with a tripod. Tripod connector is included with these binoculars. They are $99.95 at www.physlink.com.

Telescope Digital Photo Adapter. This lets you attach a digital camera to most telescopes and spotting scopes and take digital photos. This is $19.95 at www.physlink.com.

Electronic Night Navigator. The portable, hand-held Night Navigator automatically shows you where to look to find the four visible planets—Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn, all first magnitude (brightest) stars visible from your location, and 43 different constellations and Zodiac Signs. Sixteen different illuminated screens chart the night sky. To operate just press the find button, type in your request and Night Navigator™ tells you which chart to select, highlights the object on the chart, and helps you locate the object in the sky by beeping when you are facing in the correct direction. This is $79.95 at http://scientificsonline.com.

3) Gift Certificates:
You can always pick up gift cards so that they can pick out what they want. However the best gift card is the Slooh 50 min Telescope Card. This is a pre-paid card gives them 50 minutes spectacular deep space objects streamed real-time live to your computer from powerful telescopes located high on a mountain off the coast of Africa. This is $9.95 at www.physlink.com.

4) Books, Maps, software and Calendars:
A subscription to “Astronomy” magazine. Here is the web site www.astronomy.com to get the subscription.

“What's Out Tonight?” This is a 50 Year Astronomy Field Guide 2000 to 2050 (Paperback). “What's Out Tonight?” is a popular celestial almanac and astronomy field guide provides the enthusiast, beginner or the seasoned amateur with a snapshot of the heavens until 2050. There are star charts of the entire sky as well as tables indicating the Planets that are out, the phase of the Moon, meteor showers and more. At a glance you will know what is happening in the night sky for 50 years. This book is $39.95 at www.iglou.com.

“Space Encyclopedia”. Contains thousands of photographs, illustrations, graphics, maps and charts. It is $29.95 at http://scientificsonline.com.

“What Your Astronomy Textbook Won't Tell You.” Learn how science figures out how nature works-and how it debunks bogus claims. See how stars, planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and meteoroids compare. Norman Sperling, a top-rated teacher, author, inventor, and expert witness penned this original astronomy book discussing thousands of term paper topics, clears up confusing jargon, and chortles at blunders you can dodge.
This book is $24.95 at http://scientificsonline.com.

Starry Night Enthusiast Astronomy Software. This software provides a comprehensive astronomy course. The 3D graphics will take you on a journey from the stars visible in your backyard to distant galaxies deep in space. You can also view live images from special observation equipment via the Internet, keep track of upcoming events, create videos and files to easily view an event again later and read detailed information about each of the 2.5 million celestial objects. This software is $79.95 at www.hometrainingtools.com.

Astro Pack. This handy pack is a great tool for the beginning astronomy hobbyist. It includes a planisphere that shows the positions of the stars and constellations for any hour in the year; a book on how to choose, set up, and use a telescope; a month-by-month guide to the night sky; and a star chart that contains detailed comprehensive maps of the heavens. This is $21.95 at www.hometrainingtools.com.

Hubble Picture CD. This feature packed CD-ROM that works on both PC and Mac computers includes 450+ pictures & captions, educational text of a full paragraph on each image, screen saver with 20 Hubble images to enhance your screen. Image Browser software allows you to easily review the photos, search & read detailed captions or print the catalog for handy reference. Also includes drag and drop features for publishing programs. This CD is $14.95 at www.physlink.com.

Deep Space iCD. This CD is filled with hundreds of images and amazing facts; this multi-media program lets you explore space with the very best images from the Hubble Space Telescope. This CD features a complete collection of Hubble images from the Space Telescope Science Institute's, plus 32 superb earth-based astronomical photographs. This is $19.95 at www.physlink.com.

Calendars with night skies or even pictures from space can be found almost any place. Some of them will even have reminders of important viewing events and historical date for astronomy. Calendars can make great gifts.

5) DVD’s:
The Stars DVD Set. This set has three star DVD’s:
“Death Star”, Learn how these violet explosions could have the power to eradicate life in an entire galaxy.
“Death of a Star”, Experience one of the most violent celestial events since the creation of the universe.
“Runaway Universe”, Join a dramatic quest to unlock the secrets of the universe, including the mysterious "dark energy."
This set is $39.95 at http://shopping.discovery.com.

The Mysteries of the Cosmos DVD Set. Explore some of the greatest mysteries in the Universe. From the Big Bang to the Hubble telescope, this stunning collection brings you up close and personal to the mysteries and wonders of space. Learn about current research being performed by the greatest minds in space exploration. Witness stunning animation, actual satellite photography and archival NASA footage that bring the farthest reaches of the Universe. This DVD set is $29.95 at http://shopping.discovery.com.

6) Models and posters:
Map of the Universe Poster. Shows all major constellations, nebulas, stars, precession cycle...and it glows in the dark. It is 36" x 36". This is $18.95 at http://scientificsonline.com.

The Caldwell Objects Poster. Caldwell Object Poster is an informative color poster (approximately 36"x24") that displays and lists the 109 Deep-Sky objects from the Caldwell Catalog. It is $14.95 at http://scientificsonline.com.

7) Games:
The MONOPOLY: Night Sky Edition brings the wonders of the universe right into your living room. Move around the game board as you purchase comets, planets, star clusters, nebulae and galaxies and build observatories. Comes with six custom pewter tokens (Meade telescope, Hubble space telescope, binoculars, radio dish, observatory, Mars Rover) and custom dice. Mars and Moon cards replace classic Chance and Community Chest cards, respectively. Read all about the different wonders featured on the game board. This game is $34.95 at http://scientificsonline.com.

8) Home Planetariums:
Planetica Portable Planetarium. With this portable planetarium you can determine the planets' positions in the solar system at any time from 1970 to 2049. Planetica can be used in both hemispheres and is set to the solar time at the place of use. If necessary, allow for summer/winter time differences. This planetarium is $59.95 at www.physlink.com.

Star Theater SE. Watch as a darkened room is transformed into a home planetarium. Project hundreds of stars and constellations on your walls and ceiling. Continue your exploration of the galaxy with the included Stellarium computer software. This is $45.95 at www.physlink.com.

9) A Vacation Plan:
If you live in a city it can be hard to see the stars. Plan a vacation some place that is “dark”. There are also quite a few places that will give unusual sites like the Northern Lights in Alaska. Take the time to look around and see what you can do with your family budget. It does not have to be expensive or a faraway vacation. It does not even have to be longer then one night. Any lover of Astronomy would love to go out into the country and get to stay up late, spending the night looking at stars they cannot see at home.

If you are looking to have an Astronomy vacation you may want to look into www.astronomyvacations.com, Mayhugh Travel is owned and operated by Roy and Bonnie Mayhugh. Developing and marketing Astronomy Vacations is what their business is about. They are astronomy buffs that started selling travel because they couldn't find a travel agent that really understood the particular requirements of mixing astronomy with one's vacation.

Written by Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
www.medievalmagic.ca

A sale before Christmas at www.medievalmagic.ca

2007-11-11T14:05:00.000-08:00

I always hate it when I find all the Christmas gifts I picked up for my friends and family on sale Boxing day. It never fails I spend hundreds of dollars only to find I could have bought the same things for a hundred dollars after Christmas. Well Medieval Magic, http://www.medievalmagic.ca/, is having a sale before Christmas.

They are putting every thing on sale. If you find something that you want and it is not on sale, you email them and they will put it on sale. So if you are looking for Celtic, Wicca, Pagan, Christian, or just unusual in sterling silver jewellery/jewelry or one-of-a-kind handcrafted necklaces then check out what Medieval Magic has. They also have dragons, unicorns, fairy, and medieval themed items. There are even some unusual pieces for the hard to buy for. All of it on sale, 25% to 50% off.

So if you are on a budget like me http://www.medievalmagic.ca/ is a good place to get a great deal for Christmas, before Boxing Day.

Secret Santa Gifts for the person you do not know at all 2007 list

2007-11-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

Secret Santa Gifts for the person you do not know at all 2007 list.

It is almost time for Secret Santa pick, so here is the 2007 what to buy Secret Santa list.

Every year at work, and with family and friends I end up doing the Secret Santa gift exchange. It makes it easer and less expensive to buy for one person, and it is fun guessing who has your name. I always end up with the name of some one I don’t know that well. Or if we do it by hints, not name, I always get the ones that make no sense. So I struggle every year to find a decent gift in the price range that I hope the person likes. I figure I had better put some work into it as I am hoping the person who got my name or hint is as well. If the hint is good always go with that, but when you have no idea you need to be careful and go with a nice neutral or general gift. So for every one out there who is like me and could use some help, here is a list I have come up with.

The good thing is that most Secret Santa gifts have a price range so I have organized my list that way. However there are just some things you never go with unless you know the person well enough that you know they would like it.

Coffee/tea mug
Coffee/tea gift sets
Cologne or perfume
Alcohol or any thing related to alcohol
Clothing
Joke or gage gifts
Personal care products sets, like hair or nail care sets.

$10-$20 range:

1) Kinetic Motion toy - classic perpetual motion desk toys such as the galaxy – perpetual motion toy
2) Newton's Cradle, also known as balance balls - The same number of balls will swing up on the opposite side and the clicking will go back and forth until it stops
3) Mini Digital Camera with 16MB SDRM memory, image quality shift and auto shoot modes, USB cable, and carry pouch. It requires 1 AAA battery
4) Mini Pool Game or Mini Zen garden.
5) Desktop water fountains – large selection to pick from in this range.
6) Gourmet food basket – no nut or alcohol products
7) Gift certificates to for a mall. Ones that can be used in all the stores in the mall, not a specific store.
8) Seasonal “theme” gifts like a Laughing Santa or singing snowman.
9) Candles are always the quick and easy gift. Just keep in mind that every one gives candles and not every likes candles.

$21-$40 range:

1) Keychain Digital Photo Frame. It is compact 1.1” size and has 512 kb flash memory that holds about 40 pictures.
2) Kinetic Motion toy – Such as: Pit & Pendulum, give the swinging arm a light push and watch the pendulum make designs in the sand. Or Stellanova - a magnetic levitating globe with computer controlled levitation.
3) Executive Sandbox - Construction Zone, Day at the Beach, Great Outdoors are all a fun twist on the traditional Zen Garden.
4) Desktop water fountains - larger selection to pick from in this rang.
5) Gourmet food basket – no nut or alcohol products
6) Gift certificates to for a mall. Ones that can be used in all the stores in the mall, not a specific store.
7) Seasonal “theme” gifts like Christmas Tapestry throws.

$41-60 range:

1) MP3 Player
2) Curtis Home theatre system
3) Kinetic Motion toy - Solar Motion Ferris Wheel
4) Desktop water fountains – large selection to pick from in this range.
5) Gourmet food basket – no nut or alcohol products
6) Gift certificates to for a mall. Ones that can be used in all the stores in the mall, not a specific store.
7) Seasonal “theme” gifts like a Laughing Santa or singing snowman.
$61-$100 range:

1) Levitron AG Anti-Gravity Globe – This electromagnetic toy uses minimal power to create real levitation. Suspended in mid-air, the Earth globe defies gravity.
2) Portable DVD Player
3) Digital home weather station
4) 2 GB video MP3 player
5) Kinetic Motion toy - Dancing Helix
6) Desktop water fountains – large selection to pick from in this range.
7) Gourmet food basket – no nut or alcohol products
8) Gift certificates to for a mall. Ones that can be used in all the stores in the mall, not a specific store.

What you need to know when buying sterling silver jewelry.

2007-11-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

Sterling silver jewelry is very popular right now, so there are a lot of people selling it. I have been selling quality sterling silver jewelry for over 12 years. Over the last few years there have been some disturbing trends in retail as sterling silver became more popular. Here are some tips for buying sterling silver jewelry so you get what you pay for.

What are you buying?

1) There are all different types of silver out there, not all of it is sterling. You need to know what you are buying. Italian silver will be stamped “Italian 925” or “Italian Silver”.
2) Nickel silver is a metal alloy of copper with nickel and some times zinc. It is named for its silvery appearance even though it contains no elemental silver. It is also known as Alpaca silver, German silver, paktong, or new silver. People can advertise Alpaca silver as being silver as long as they do not claim it is sterling silver.
3) To make sure you are getting real sterling silver you need to look for the 925 stamp. If there is no stamp then it is not sterling silver.

What is the stone or gem in the jewelry? Most places use semi-precious gems and stones.
It is not uncommon to find coloured glass “gems” in some of the less expensive pieces.

1) Make sure the person selling you the sterling silver jewelry knows what the stones are.
2) It is important to know what the stone is because it changes what you can use to clean your silver. Amber cannot be cleaned with a harsh chemical or have the usual cleaning cloths rubbed against it. It will damage the Amber.
3) Knowing the gem is also important when looking for birthstones or for Crystals to be used for Crystal Healing of the Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Emotional Elements for over all Health of Mind.

When it comes to the cut, style or design of sterling silver jewelry what should you buy?

1) Where you are will decide what is in fashion. Different designs are popular in different areas. Some times a few blocks will make the difference between what is popular and what is not.
2) I have always said to go with classic lines and look, as those pieces never seem to go out of style.
3) What is popular, by sales, on http://www.medievalmagic.ca/ right now is our Celtic, Medieval and Goth pieces. The Celtic is always popular and never seems to go out of style. The medieval and gothic pieces are popular due to the recent movies placed in medieval and fantasy settings.
4) Most important, buy what you like, not what is fashionable today.

Once you find sterling silver jewelry you like always take the time to check out the quality of the piece.

1) How thick is the piece; if a piece of jewelry is thin it can break easy. I have seen pendants snap and rings become misshapen quickly if it is too thin.
2) Are there any burrs? Poorly made silver pieces some times are not cleaned up and may have burrs. A burr is a raised edge or a sharp piece that sticks out. This can cut you or catch on things. I have even found burrs on some quality pieces that just did not get caught by the manufactures quality control.

There is a good way and a bad way to butter up your boss

2007-10-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

Now the bad way may work with your boss but the words brown nosier and suck up come to mind. I think of it as being the bad way because it is obvious to most people what you are doing. It can be seen a being demeaning to yourself and your boss. Often it comes across as being phoney, leaves a bad taste in people mouths and causes people not to trust or respect you. It can actually be more harmful in the long run. I am talking about people who are the yes man, always bringing coffee in for the boss, always complementing them on their appearance, showing interest in their family and home life. Always finding what their bosses opinion is on something before forming their own, which is just the bosses. Always willing to go that extra mile for the boss, but only in front of the boss. Some people even start dressing like their boss, join the same groups out side of work, or start doing the same hobbies as their boss. Yes doing this would give you some common ground and things to talk about but come on don’t we all know people can see right through this tactic?

There is a good way to butter up your boss and the good news is it also works on people who are not your boss. There are ways to make your boss feel positive about them selves and you at the same time. Ask for advice, or for their opinion showing that you value what they have to say, even on things not work related. Do not do it all the time otherwise it looks like you cannot do your job or make decisions on your own. Or it becomes obvious what you are doing. Listen, pay attention to them at meetings, and show that you understand what they are saying. Show them support when it is appropriate, when you actually agree with them, not just because they are your boss. Show them respect. If you see potential problems be discrete and let them know about it so they can resolve it. This makes them look good and most bosses will remember that you helped them look good. Being nice and helpful works very well but you have to be careful because it can be a fine line between being helpful and being a suck up. There is a big difference between giving your boss a Christmas card and making a point of wishing them happy birthday then buying them a $100.00 gift.

What works to butter up your boss is going to depend on your boss and your work environment. No one likes a suck up, but that does not mean you cannot be complimentary and respectful to your boss and others around you. A sincere complement or observation can go a long way, and is much better then one said just to butter up the boss.

What is the importance of following-up with employee candidates after an interview?

2007-10-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

At the end of the interview you tell the employee candidate that they will hear from you. It can be a call or letter asking for a second interview, or letting them know they got the job or that the job was given to someone else. You made a commitment to that person to communicate with them. What does it say about you and the company you work for when you fail to follow through? Think of it this way, would you treat a customer that way? Then why would it be ok to treat any one that way, it still has an impact on how people feel about the company.

How you treat potential employees shows how you and the company deal with people. Taking the time to call helps with positive branding. If some one did not get the job getting a call letting them know that shows that the company follows through on their commitments, and treats people with common courtesy and respect. People are more likely to continue seeking employment with the company. It is easer to find quality employee candidates when people see the company as a place they would like to work at.

By treating every one with common courtesy and dignity you leave your options open. You never know what is going to happen. What if the person you hired does not work out. Do you need to go through all the hassle of interviews again, or do you call back the other top candidates you did not hire and just re-interview them? What if one of the candidates was not right for the job that they were interviewed for but another job opens up that they would be perfect for. If you did not let some one know they did not get the first job that indicates you did not have any respect for them. Why would they want to work for you?

Following-up with employee candidates after an interview is part of the hiring job. If you do not do that part of the job what else are you not doing? Do you do every this way, only doing the part of the job. How reliable and trustworthy are you. Oh, you did not think any one noticed that you did not contact the employee candidates who did not get the job. Well I am sure several of those people took the time to call when they did not hear any thing from you. How professional do you look now?

It is that time of year again, time to help others

2007-10-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

So it is that time of the year again. Thanksgiving is over in Canada and soon to be in the States. We are all starting on putting that average 11 lbs between now and Christmas. We are starting to get ready for Halloween but thinking about Christmas. It is also the time we start to think about those who do not have. It is the time for people to step up and help other celebrate Christmas. It is the time we start putting things into the food bank box and soon the toy boxes will show up in all the malls.

So what can we do? What effect can one person have on the ever-growing tide of people in need? I think of it this way, if one person helps even just a little it is better then no one helping at all. If we all do a little a lot gets done, a lot is given. So it may feel like you are not doing much by adding a can or bag to the food bank box, but you are because it all adds up. If no one gives though, even a little bit, lots of people will go with out.

I know that with the gas prices so high, all prices have gone up. It is hard enough at times to pay for what you need let alone buy stuff for other people. Well there is one thing we can do. When there is an item on sale, by ONE extra and put it into the food bank box. If we do that every time we shop it is not going to hit us so hard in the pocket book and it helps people out.

I keep an eye out all year for toy sales. Some times I can find them at 75% to 90% of at Zellers clearance tables. I buy them when they are on sale and then store them till Christmas. That way I can still afford to put some thing new and nice in to the mall or the police station, or radio station toy boxes when money is really tight for me.

It is stress full trying to buy things for your own family at Thanksgiving and Christmas let alone trying to buy for other people’s kids. However, I can not help thinking that no matter how hard or bad it can get for us, there is always some one else more in need. I cannot help but think of the kids who have nothing to open on Christmas day and no Christmas dinner and how it would feel to be that child’s parent. Having to look at my kids face when there is nothing (or very, very little) for them to open Christmas day. Knowing that I don’t have the money to buy the gifts my child asked Santa for, let alone special food for Christmas dinner. If we all do what little we can, we can make a difference for some one else.

Bat Plaque

2007-10-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

Bat Plaque

Here is the latest piece James has just finished,
Bat Plaque

Bat Plaque

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving and a turkey pizza recipe

2007-10-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving.

May every one find some thing to be thankful for in their lives!

I am thankful that:
We are in a new home, are healthy and together, with room to actually have guests over.
Our cupboards are full even though our bank account is not.
We survived a long weekend with two big meals, and hyper kids because we had guests over.
The butcher at the grocery story was willing to cut up a turkey so we could buy one of the breasts. That way we could afford to have turkey this year – even though the one breast was $14.00.
The turkey was not over cooked, nor was it dry. It was perfect for the first time.

So what to do with all that left over turkey? Well we came up with a recipe a few years ago for turkey pizza.
You get a shell (or make one)
Use ranch dressing (or tomato sauce if you like) on the shell
Add the leftovers onto the shell then cover with cheese.
I like it with turkey, stuffing and a bit of cranberry sauce, not every one likes it with cranberry sauce though. We some times add whatever vegetables we had left over, though not potatoes.

Most times it ends up ranch dressing, turkey, stuffing and cheese.

We love it so much we would take some of the turkey and stuffing and freeze it so we could make the pizza other times.

The Magic Cauldron October 2007

2007-10-01T16:55:00.000-07:00

The Magic Cauldron
Newsletter of http://www.medievalmagic.ca/

October Newsletter

What is new with Medieval Magic.

All right everyone here it is.

Our “Halloween Spooktacular - All Hollows Eve Celebration”

Look for some great sales and fabulous new items over the next month for Halloween. Costumes, Ornaments, and anything scary we can come up with.

It is time to fright for the scariest ideas of the season. I have some suede left from the festivals and will be making some new items for our costume section. Along with some heavier leather for some scary new accents. We will also be bringing in some items for accessories to go with them. So keep an eye on our Garb and Costume section.

We do have a few custom orders for the holidays, but still have room for a few more.

As our goal is to bring our Customers the highest quality and variety we would be happy to hear from our readers about any items they would like to have available. Please click Here to let us know.

Featured Products

Smoky Black Glass Skull Earrings
Smoky Black Glass Skull Earrings. Hypoallergenic earring hooks. Earrings hang 4 cm’s. Skulls are 1.5 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm. Please see our necklaces if you are interested in a matched set, as I have also used this skull for necklaces.

Red Leather Pentagram / Pentacle Necklace
Handcrafted Large Red Waxed Leather Pentagram / Pentacle Necklace. The pendant is drawn, cut burned, painted and waxed by hand. The pendant is 5.5 cm x 5.5 cm x .4 cm. The cord is 19 inches or 48 cm.Like a Christian cross, the pentagram tends to be the religious symbol of the Pagan religions. It encompasses elemental beliefs and is one of the strongest protective amulets ever "designed". The Pentagram dates back thousands of years to pre-Babylonian Sumer, roughly about 3500 BC. Many religions have once used this symbol; the Jewish people saw it as a symbol of the Five Books of Moses, and Christians once used it as a protective amulet. According to Heather Child's Christian Symbols, Ancient and Modern, the pentagram is a symbol of the five senses. Also, when the letters S, A, L, V, and S are inscribed in the points, the pentagram is a symbol of health. It has been called such things as the Druid's Foot and the Witches' Star. The Druzee, descendents of exiles from Fatimid Dynasty-ruled Egypt also keep a five-colour pentagram as their symbol. The pentagram appears on the shield of Sir Gawain in the 14th Century poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In the poem the five lines of the star are given multiple meanings: they represent the five senses, five fingers, the five wounds of Christ, the five joys that Mary had of Jesus (the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Resurrection, the Ascension and the Assumption), and the five virtues of knighthood which Gawain hopes to embody: frankness, fellowship, purity, courtesy and compassion. It would seem as though the Pentacle is gaining a new meaning in Modern-day Paganism, in that it is seen as a unifying symbol of the Pagan community. In modern day Witch Craft, the Pentacle tends to be used more than the pentagram. Each point of the Pentagram traditionally represents one of the five metaphysical elements of the ancients. The pentagram represents Spirit ruling over the four elements. The Pentacle is simply a pentagram with a circle around it. This symbolizes eternity, totality, and unity. It emphasizes the interconnectivity of all of the elements. The direct and indirect relation of one element to the other. Spirit (At the topmost point) - Represents the All and the Divine Air (East): Intellect, Imagination, Knowledge, Mental Powers, Vision, Psychic Powers, Wisdom (Upper left hand corner) - Represents Intelligence and the Arts Earth (North): Money, Prosperity, Fertility, Healing, Employment, The Body, Foundation, Strength (Lower left hand corner) - Represents Stability and Physical Endurance Fire (South): Will, Vitality, Passion, Lust, Courage, Strength, Exorcism, Protection, Health (Lower right hand corner) - Represents Courage and Daring Water (West): Emotion, Intuition, Compassion, Sleep, Meditation, Purification, Prophetic

Principles Of Wicca - Vivianne Crowley
Wicca is the religion of Witchcraft or Wisecraft. It is based on the spirituality of our ancestors - a worship of Goddess, God and the natural universe - in a form meaningful to women and men today. Wicca is a magical path witch empowers us to grow, change and heal. It is a harmony with the universe, others and ourselves.This introductory guide explains:Witchcraft ancient and modernthe Divine as Goddess and Godveneration of Naturemagic and spellcraftcreating ritualwhere to find out more.

Special Promotions

We have placed all children’s costumes at 50% off. And for the rest of the month keep an eye on our “Sales” category for any others prices that may “drop” dead.

Monthly Coupon

Because we will be doing sales over the next three months for the holidays. We will not be issuing coupons

Contest Winner

Aug.-Sept. Contest - We would like to Congratulate RENEE for winning our Aug.-Sept. Contest. The contest prize was a $10 Certificate to our site.

Our current contest for a $10.00 gift certificate will run from Oct. 1st till October 31st, 2007.You must find this picture to enter. Just tell us the day and what the sku # is.

Festivals

Festival Season is over.

Articles

Pentacle, Pentagram – Anonymous Submission

Like a Christian cross, the pentagram tends to be the religious symbol of the Pagan religions. It encompasses elemental beliefs and is one of the strongest protective amulets ever "designed". The Pentagram dates back thousands of years to pre-Babylonian Sumer, roughly about 3500 BC. Many religions have once used this symbol; the Jewish people saw it as a symbol of the Five Books of Moses, and Christians once used it as a protective amulet. According to Heather Child's Christian Symbols, Ancient and Modern, the pentagram is a symbol of the five senses. Also, when the letters S, A, L, V, and S are inscribed in the points, the pentagram is a symbol of health. It has been called such things as the Druid's Foot and the Witches' Star. The Druzee, descendents of exiles from Fatimid Dynasty-ruled Egypt also keep a five-colored pentagram as their symbol.

The pentagram appears on the shield of Sir Gawain in the 14th Century poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In the poem the five lines of the star are given multiple meanings: they represent the five senses, five fingers, the five wounds of Christ, the five joys that Mary had of Jesus (the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Resurrection, the Ascension and the Assumption), and the five virtues of knighthood which Gawain hopes to embody: frankness, fellowship, purity, courtesy and compassion. It would seem as though the Pentacle is gaining a new meaning in Modern-day Paganism, in that it is seen as a unifying symbol of the Pagan community. In modern day Witch Craft, the Pentacle tends to be used more than the pentagram.

Each point of the Pentagram traditionally represents one of the five metaphysical elements of the ancients. The pentagram represents Spirit ruling over the four elements. The Pentacle is simply a pentagram with a circle around it. This symbolizes eternity, totality, and unity. It emphasizes the interconnectivity of all of the elements. The direct and indirect relation of one element to the other.

Spirit (At the topmost point) - Represents the All and the Divine

Air (East): Intellect, Imagination, Knowledge, Mental Powers, Vision, Psychic Powers, Wisdom (Upper left hand corner) - Represents Intelligence and the Arts

Earth (North): Money, Prosperity, Fertility, Healing, Employment, The Body, Foundation, Strength (Lower left hand corner) - Represents Stability and Physical Endurance

Fire (South): Will, Vitality, Passion, Lust, Courage, Strength, Exorcism, Protection, Health (Lower right hand corner) - Represents Courage and Daring

Water (West): Emotion, Intuition, Compassion, Sleep, Meditation, Purification, Prophetic Dreams, Healing, Love, Friendships, Fidelity (Upper right hand corner) - Represents Emotions and Intuition.

The Circle (Around the Star) - Represents the God-Goddess it refracts and reflects all Light, bringing to the wearer Intelligence, Universal Wisdom, and Protection.

If you would like to submit an article, question or Business Ad for the newsletter, we welcome your submission. Please see the Newsletter section on our site for submission deadlines and conditions.

Owners
Medieval Magic

You have received this Newsletter by subscribing at http://www.medievalmagic.ca/
If you have received this in error please contact us at info@medievalmagic.ca

Monsters are everywhere, some hidden in plain sight.

2007-09-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

I was part of the SCA for years, however I have not been going to events for about four years. Now I am glad. I found out a few weeks ago a story about some one I knew. This story was confirmed last weekend. So what could this story be?

Well when James moved down here one of the household showed great interest in him, as he was a fighter. He joined the household, the Marines (known as the squids). I had known most of these people for years. Bruce was part of the group. I had known him for about 5 years. When we went to Pensic and camped with them we had some issues. Bruce and James did not get along and this caused us to pull away from the household, but James was still part of it. We came home from Pensic with a very common souvenir, I was pregnant. Once we had our son we found we just could not manage merchanting at events and a baby, so we decided to stop doing events for a bit. Our son is now 4 and we started looking at the SCA again. It turns out that it was a good thing we had stopped going.

It turns out that Bruce is a pedophile. He was preying on children in the SCA and had been doing it for years and years. Kids I knew! The children of people I had known for years. He was charged and is now in jail. My response when I found out was shock, not that he did it, but that he was still living. I knew some of the people hurt by this and the people around them. I have no idea how Bruce made it out alive.

I know that people think I am over protective of my kids, maybe even paranoid some times. Now I don’t think I am. I am glad that I have never let any one take care of my children outside of daycare/pre-school. Why, because this monster was in my home, with my baby. I used to spend time in their home every week and see them at fight practice. His wife offered to baby sit! I cannot think of how I would be feeling now if I had let her baby sit. I think about how I knew this man for years and never much though any thing about him, he was just one of the fighters and an ok guy, friendly but not my type. James disliked him and that is a big reason for why we had stopped hanging around that particular group of people.

There was nothing about this man to put up flags. He was for the most part known as a friendly helpful guy with a bit of a temper but over all a good guy. I never saw him act inappropriately with any one, let alone a child. There was nothing to let any one know who he really was, or what he really was. How can you tell? The reality is that you cannot tell who is the predator, the pedophile, the child molester. How many people do you come in contact every day? Can you tell if some one is a pedophile? I cannot, but I do know that they are out there. I am going to stay over protective of my kids. A pedophile can be behind any face, even one you know.

Hamilton Pagan Pride Day 2007 was an excellent event

2007-09-16T04:26:00.000-07:00

The Pagan Harvest Festival 2007 at Gage Park Hamilton, Ontario seems to have gone very well. It looked like a good time was had by all. Even though the day started off very cold and windy, it did warm up enough in the afternoon so we could unbundle and enjoy the day. I love the new layout used for the vendors, bring us all closer together and in the same area was a great idea. From what I could see there was a very nice mix of vendors with lots of unusual and unique product. I could only see so much as I was playing with my kids, as we “looked” at all the vendors. So I did miss out on a lot of the vendors, but I did like what I saw.

From what people were saying the workshops were well done, informative and small enough to still have a lot of individual attention. I never did make it to the kid’s area but I did see kids with their mosaics. The live entertainment was a nice mix of music and dance.

The entertainment was
Heather Dale www.heatherdale.com
Cold Barn Morris Dancers no web site was given
Castalia www.castaliamusic.ca
Jenn Ryan www.myspace.com/jennryanmusic
Tahira Badre and her Desert Gypsies www.tinkerwoman.com
RiverSong no web site was given

They also had an announcement for Hamilton Pagan Pride Day 2008. The featured guest speaker will be Laurie Cabot, also known as the “Official Witch of Salem”. She is an ordained High Priestess descended from Celtic ancestry. Having practiced Witchcraft for over forty years, she founded the Cabot Traditions of the Science of Witchcraft and the Witches’ League for Public Awareness, an anti-defamation organization aimed at correcting the many misconceptions about Witchcraft. She is the author of Power of the Witch, Love Magic, Celebrate the Earth, and The Witch in Every Woman. Sound like she would be an interesting addition to next years HPPD.

I look forward to next year.

It never hurts to ask for advice, even from some one like Sir. Richard Branson

2007-09-06T16:37:00.000-07:00

Last week James found an interview with Sir. Richard Branson where he said that if you had a business and wanted some advice to send an email. There was a link so you could send an email. It took James to www.virgin.com, and there was an email address for general and press questions in the “contact us”, “your questions” section, point #3. So James emailed them telling them that we were a small business and that we did not want any thing from them but would very much appreciate it if Sir. Richard Branson would give us some advice on how to improve our business.

Within 7 days we received an email back. One of the Virgin staff actually took the time to look at our website www.medievalmagic.ca and let us know that they liked it and felt that Mr. Branson might be interested as well. And seeing as all we wanted was some advice they will forward the email to him. Wow. Even if he is too busy to respond it is nice to know that some one in his office took the time to look. They actually followed through with his offer for advice; it was not a hollow gesture. Sir. Branson and Virgin are now my hero’s even if we never hear from them again.

I have to say that I would be incredibly grateful if he did find the time, even 10 minutes out of his busy schedule to take a look at our site and email us some advice. As it is it means a great deal to me that they took the time to read the email, respond to it and actually look at our site. They must get millions of emails. This is my way of saying thank you.

The Magic Cauldron Sept 2007

2007-09-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

The Magic Cauldron
Newsletter of www.medievalmagic.ca

September Newsletter

What is new with Medieval Magic.

Okay people as we told everyone last month we are moving this month. So here is the scoop.

We are moving on Sept.17. It will be an all day thing so no orders or commissions will be processed till after. We will be taking a couple of days to do inventory to make sure of the quantity and quality of all items. This is to ensure no loss or damage caused by the move. So all orders received will be processed on the 22nd. for shipment on the 24th.

We appoligze at this time for the delay. But you as our customers have come to expect the best we can give and we wish to continue to give it to you all.

We will be adding and producing some great new products for Halloween and Christmas. Look for our new ceramics line as well as some new and unusual supprises. If there is anything you would like or need us to find or make we will be checking e-mail every day.

We do have a few custome orders for the holidays, but still have room for a few more.

If any one wishes to pay with cheque or money order please contact us when you place the order so that we can confirm our new address. This will start the 1st of September. The system will be updated with the new information on the 18th.

Special Promotions

None This Month.

Monthly Coupon

No coupon this month.

Contest Winner

Our courent contest for a $10.00 gift certificate will continue till September 30, 2007 as planned. You must find this picture to enter. Just tell us the day and what the sku # is.

Festivals

Festival Season is over and we wish to thank all our customers for there support this year. We did better in sale this year and received great feedback from you all about the new site and company look.

As our goal is to bring our Customers the highest quality and variety we would be happy to hear from our readers about any items they would like to have available. Please click Here to let us know.

If you would like to submit an article, question or Business Ad for the newsletter, we welcome your submission. Please see the Newsletter section on our site for submission deadlines and conditions.

Owners
Medieval Magic

You have received this Newsletter by subscribing at www.medievalmagic.ca
If you have received this in error please contact us at info@medievalmagic.ca

When Heather Dale was Heather who?

2007-08-29T14:45:00.001-07:00

I remember Heather Dale when she was just another SCAer selling her CD’s at events. She was at most of the same events I was. Some times our tables would be side by side. She would discreetly play her CD’s, hiding the CD player with a cloth so it would not bother the period police. I always enjoyed having my table or booth by hers, the music was always wonderful to hear and I would buy CD’s whenever I had the money. I still have some of them. She usually shared her table with a man who did paper making, and bookbinding. He did great work. Heather took the time to record other SCA musicians and sold their CD’s as well. She was the person responsible for making SCA musicians in our area realise how good they were and how far they could go. A lot of people grew as musicians because of her. Most out grew the SCA and started performing elsewhere and busking and doing renfestivals. She let our musicians feel valued and did a lot to strengthen and support our local musicians. Now 8 years latter she is world famous and a headliner. It is funny how things go. If you don’t know her or her music please take the time to look at her website HeatherDale.com.

Heather Dale to be featured musical performer at Pagan Pride Day

2007-08-29T14:19:00.001-07:00

Heather Dale will be the featured musical performance at Pagan Pride Day in Hamilton Ontario on Sept. 15 2007. For more information here is the PPD link http://www.ppdhamilton.org/index.htm her initial performance will begin at 12 Noon.

Heather Dale:modern folk music with Celtic roots

Heather Dale cheerfully discards the stereotypical limits for both folk singer-songwriters and Celtic balladeers. Tapping into the continuing evolution of Celtic peoples worldwide, this Canadian singer-songwriter offers a new type of Celtic music for the 21st century: a playful, passionate and fearless blend of tradition and innovation. "Her music is powerful stuff, reminiscent of Loreena McKennitt and Sarah McLachlan but with a depth and resonance rooted in its mythic sources." (Vancouver Sun)

Heather fuses traditional stories with a healthy mix of Celtic folk, blues, jazz and world music influences. Particularly known for her interpretations of ancient legends, she excels at finding modern themes within old -- and often overlooked -- material. Her songs celebrate honest love and the personal search for meaning, as well as delivering cunning commentary on such modern concerns as self-image, sexual tensions, and even civil disobedience. "Although steeped in Celtic culture, Dale's approach to the music is contemporary; there's nothing faint or wispy about this Celtic folk singer." (K-W Record)

Her innovative live shows with fellow multi-instrumentalist Ben Deschamps feature over a dozen folk instruments, from bodhran drum to mountain dulcimer, along with Heather's rich and evocative voice. The performances feature original songs from Heather's five CDs, along with traditional folk and Celtic material from North America and the UK.

Heather Dale released her 5th solo CD "The Road to Santiago" in 2005. A cosmopolitan album of modern folk songs, Heather co-produced the CD with folk veteran Paul Mills (Stan Rogers, Tanglefoot). With strong vocal performances and tight songwriting, Heather's songs draw their inspiration from many diverse cultures, including New-World Celtic, Irish, Spanish, Caribbean, Greek, and even Canadian Inuit. "Heather Dale soars on this recording, an unabashed and uninhibited romantic who has found her voice and her musical wings." (Toronto Star)

Additional info and sound clips are available at HeatherDale.com.

Good Eats in Hamilton Ontario

2007-08-29T09:46:00.001-07:00

Today we found a great sandwich place. It is called Extreme Sandwich Plus at 2255 Barton Street East, Hamilton, ON L8H 7T4. The name is dead on. I could not believe the sandwiches we got. We got the small ones and ½ of one filled me up. I had a salami one, on a cheese bun. It had 5 layers of meat. There was a huge choice of sandwich fillings, like lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onion and more. They even had havarti at no extra charge. James got an egg salad sandwich. The man took out a container from the fridge and James thought that it was just the container that they stored the egg salad in. Nope all of it went on the sandwich. It was so big the guy said he would not cut the sandwich because James would not be able the eat it. He also told James to keep the bag on it when eating to keep the egg on the sandwich. (Not to eat the bag, just in case some one takes it that way lol). These were the small sandwiches; I don’t know how big the bigger sandwiches are. The man making the sandwiches was the owner and he did not chinch on any thing. I was very impressed. They even do catering, and I would say based on the sandwiches we got it would be worth having them as caterers.

So if you are in the Hamilton area this is a good place to go. The only thing that would make the place better was some tables to sit and eat at. This is a take out place, but worth going to. We had two extremely large sandwiches, an extra large coffee, and a Fruitopia and it only came to $11.00. Why am I telling every one about this place? Because we find these great places that are a bit out of the way or not in the best locations that are great, but go under because they don’t have enough exposure to build a good customer bass. I would like to see this one stay around. We don’t go out for food very much so it may be a year before we would go back. Just because we don’t have the money to eat out, trust me if we did this place is worth it and we would go again.

Here is the link that will give you the map and phone # if you are interested in finding this place. http://canada411.yellowpages.ca/business/0%2C1/602962.html?what=Extreme%20Sandwich%20Plus&where=Hamilton&how=onlyonefound&pstype=si

The joy of making cake with your kids, well making any thing with your kids

2007-08-25T18:38:00.000-07:00

I tend not to let my kids help me make things because we just don’t have a lot of room in the kitchen and it is not the safest place to be with a little kid. However a few days ago we finally found Dunkin Hines Cream cheese icing. I love that stuff. I have tried a few other icings but the only thing that is as good (and maybe better) then the cream cheese icing I make myself is the Dunkin Hines one. The local store does not carry it any more, but we found a store that does. We picked the kids up and told them we would make cake. Sure enough as soon as the kids were done snack, it was “lets make cake”.

For a change I decided to let my oldest help with the actual making of the cake. He likes to help and well it is fun. So he picked out what cake mix, poured it into the bowl, helped Mom pour the water. I did the oil and eggs, but he had the job of counting the eggs and spoons of oil. So he was even part of that. Then he got to mix the cake. Well he held onto the mixer with me, but as far as he was concerned he mixed that cake. Then we each buttered a cake pan. Then he started trying to eat the batter before I could get it into the cake pans. Lots of laughing with that. I made sure I unplugged the mixer; no taking chances with his little hands getting in the wrong place. Then he got one beater and his sister got the other to clean off, letting me get the batter into the pans and oven. Now that was fun. What made it fun was the look on his face as he got to do all this. You could tell it made him feel good about himself and well we got to spend some time doing some thing together. It was great.

The cakes cooked as we ate dinner. When the cakes were done we let them cool and then got them onto some large plates. Now the real fun began. Out to the living room where the kids table is, two cakes, two kids, one can of icing, two butter knives and a spatula, a little container of sprinkles and a half bag of coloured little marshmallows. Was it fun, oh yes. I took the spatula and put half the can on each cake and let them go. With a little help from me. Once the cakes had icing all over, the sprinkles went on and then marshmallows, most of which ended up in mouths not on cakes. Then my daughter used her butter knife to try and cut chunks out of the cake and started to eat. I gave them each a fork and the race was on. They had icing all over themselves, big bald spots on the cakes and smiles like you would not believe.

Finally I figured that they had enough fun (sugar) and took the cakes away, but then gave them each a piece from their cake. Mind you they ate the icing and left the cake. Each day they got a piece from their cake, and it was great. We still have a small piece left but it will be eaten tonight. The kids loved making their own cakes. I hope to be able to do this, or other things with the kids way more often once we move. We will have more room and a place to actually do things like this. It is so easy to forget to make time for things like this. Sure it took more time then if I did it by my self, but would it have been as much fun, no. Was it worth it, yes, just the looks on their faces as they got to make their own cakes, how good it made them and me feel is worth the little extra work.

Winning the lottery

2007-08-15T18:05:00.001-07:00

So I was standing in line to check my lotto ticket. The lady in front of me was also checking hers. The music came out of the machine. The casher got kind of excited. The lady had just won second place, over 100,000.00. She looks at the ticket and said, what am I going to do with this. She was in her late 80’s, with no family or friends left and on top of that she had Cancer. She just liked the idea of wining but never expected to win. It was hard not to say, then trade tickets with me, lol. It was nice to actually see some one win, but I wish it had been my ticket. It is always interesting to see who wins. I like it when it is some one who is on welfare or a single parent or a student.

The best one was when this single mom won. Her husband had just left her, signed over his parental rights as he did not want to pay child support. He wanted to live the high life with out his family, but with the new girlfriend soon to be trophy wife. He did have money, but he left them as high and dry as he could. The day after the divorce was final she bought a ticket, using the money from the divorce settlement, and won the big prize, in the millions. We all laughed at the idea of him trying to get back with her.

Then I was working at a temp. job a few years ago. I was told that the person I was covering for had to take some time off for legal matters. Her husband came home one day, and well out of the blue up and left her. Told her it was over. Started divorce proceedings that day. No explanation or any thing. So they divorced, he gave her custody of the kids, signed over his parental rights (see the theme here). He found a nice apartment, new girlfriend, and then almost a year latter found the winning ticket for several million dollars. He cashed it in. His ex found out about it because the papers made a big deal about how this ticket was found just before the year was up, and how lucky the guy was finding it in time to cash it in. It was just days before it would have been to late to claim. Big news. Well, the legal battle started. Why, because it was purchased when they were still married. He had checked the ticket, found out it was the winning one, came home and told her it was over. He figured that if he cashed it after the divorce she would never know about it, and because it was found after the marital assets had been divided, he would get all the money. He knew he had the ticket, spent a lot of money before cashing it in, got a new place, new car, new boat, and new girlfriend. I found this out because the lady called her place of employment to let them know she would not be coming back. The court decided that as the ticket was purchased when they were still married that she got half of it. Then they got into the fraud aspect of it and that he was hiding marital assets. The end result was that the court turned over part of the divorce settlement. Not only did she get a lump sum of half the money, he now had to pay a large alimony, and child support (but did not get to see the kids), so she ended up with more then half, the kids got a good chunk. The girlfriend left him; he lost his wife and kids, most of his friends, and most of the money. All because he was greedy.

It is interesting to see what things happen when people win. Years and years ago I was up north for a camping weekend. On the way there we stopped for coffee, and overheard people talking about how the town was in trouble, and that the pulp mill (paper mill) was closing, and with it went most of the jobs. It was depressing. On the way home, Sunday, we stopped for lunch at the only dinner in the area, same place we had stopped for coffee. It was a different place. We could hear all these people talking about getting together and buying the mill and keeping the town open. We did not know what was going on. Then we found out that a group of guys who worked at the mill had a lotto pool and they had just won about 20 million on the Saturday. I was kicking myself because I had wanted to buy a ticket on Friday when we got into town, but forgot to. So I always think I was that close to buying the winning ticket. Mind you though, I know the right people won that one. Mind you I don’t know if they did buy the paper mill or not. I do know that they told the newspapers that they were going to try to buy it.

I just keep buying my ticket, it only takes one and you cannot win if you don’t buy at least one. Maybe one day I can tell every one I won.

I tried eBay again

2007-08-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

So I decided to try eBay again. Not to sell, never that again, but to buy. I have so far have been ok buying things. I think it has to do with the fact that there is more protection for the buyers then the sellers. So what happens, I buy from two people. I asked for a quote before bidding as they only gave shipping for in the US. Both gave me an ok shipping quote. So I bid and win. The first person, hawkl921 gave me the shipping quote based on the weight and the US postal web site. They told me they would take the item to the post office to make sure the quote was accurate before invoicing me. They came back and let me know that the US post office was going to charge $10.00 more then what the web site had said. They then let me decide if I wanted to pay the extra or not. If not then hawkl921 would not hold me to the bid. I was not able to pay for the extra shipping cost, as it would bring the shipping cost to 3 times more then the item. I found that hawkl921 dealt with the whole situation in a professional manner and I would do business with them again.

Now the second person was a completely different story. They had given me a shipping quote and their ad said that if you bought more then 1 item you only had to pay half the shipping cost for the second item. So that is what I did, I figured out what the shipping cost should be and paid for it. We got an email saying we had short paid, and had to pay another $10.00 (that $10.00 again lol). We looked at the payment and realized I had paid $14.00, not the $18.00 I should have so we owed them $4.00 not another $10.00. We let them know, so they emailed us telling us that we had lied to them about our address and had shown them a US address first when they made the quote. Um, no I showed my address in Canada. What would be to point to get a quote for a different address, one that was not even in my country? Nice try, I kept all the emails and was able to show them that. Then they said that their add only said ½ price shipping on the second item if in the US and they expected us to pay full shipping for both items. Um, no went back and looked, it did not say US only. So we said we would be happy to pay the $4.00 I had accidentally shorted them. Then they came back and said that the original quote was for a different item, that it did not have glass in it and that the ones with glass weigh more so it cost more to ship. Um, no I still had the email threw eBay with the link to the product I was getting the quote on. The difference was the colour of the insert, that was it. At this point we decided we did not wish to do business with these people. We had all the proof we needed to know that yes I had short paid by $4.00 but that was it, and if they would not honour their ad then and quote then they were not professional. I would never do business with them. They are a large seller of jewellery displays, but I cannot see how they expect to stay in business if treat their customers this way.

Contest for $15.00 Gift Certificate for www.medievalmagic.ca

2007-07-21T06:08:00.002-07:00

So every month we have a contest on www.medievalmagic.ca to find a picture in our products. It is very easy to do, however only one person has found it so far this month. Please come to www.medievalmagic.ca and see if you can find the picture. The prize is a $15.00 gift certificate for www.medievalmagic.ca.

Here is some more great old Medieval/Mystical Fantasy book cover artwork.

2007-07-21T06:08:00.001-07:00

Here is some more great old Medieval/Mystical Fantasy book cover artwork. I love some of the old book covers. They have great monsters, mystical beings, good-looking men, women and other things (elves, fairies, trolls, dragons and every thing else). There is some great artwork in these. People just don’t look at them any more. Most are out of print and so people never see the book covers. However, it is the original artwork I found, and it is wonderful. It is much easer to see the art with out all the printing over top of it. See if you know any of these books.

tagfantasy.com

tagfantasy.com

tagfantasy.com

tagfantasy.com

tagfantasy.com

tagfantasy.com

tagfantasy.com

tagfantasy.com

tagfantasy.com

tagfantasy.com

New online bingo site to try, Bingohouse

2007-07-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

I like to play bingo, poker and the lottery. I used to go to the Bingo Hall with my friend and play for a few hours. It cost a lot, but we had fun. It was the socializing I liked the most. We won some, lost some but talked a lot no matter what. Now I tend to play online Bingo. I just don’t have the money or the time to go to the Bingo Halls any more. With kids at home I don’t want to hire a baby sitter just to go out when I can play at home. I enjoy chatting with people as I play, and making friends.

I have played on about 20 different online bingo sites. I tend to play on two of them all the time because they have free games or give out bingo bucks every week so I can play for free. I was just told about a new online Bingo site, http://www.bingohouse.com/. They have all sorts of interesting games. I liked the Bingo Central Hall, it looks like it would be a lot of fun, and I could chat with people from all over the world. I have not signed up yet, but I am thinking about it. Every one gets $30.00 bingo bucks just for signing up. I guess that is so every one can check out the site before spending any real money. If any one has played on this site, let me know what you think.

2007-07-10T13:43:00.001-07:00

Toddler left in sweltering car

I have to say that I am sick to my stomach after reading this. How can any one even think about leaving a child in a car any time, let alone in this heat. There is no excuse for this. I would like to see them charged with attempted murder for this one. Maybe if there were some real consequences for this, like going to jail for some time, people would think twice before doing some thing like this. Obviously the loss of the child is not a big concern for this couple. Any one could have taken this child from the car, and the heat could have killed the child.

The real sad part is that it happens all the time. I know people who work in security at a local Casino and others at shopping malls. It is not unusual for them to save a kid or a pet at least once a week, some times more. Most people would say, I just ran in to get some thing or I was only gone for a minute. A few years ago, also outside a big store, I was picking up my husband and pulled up behind a car with two little kids in the back seat. It was a hot summer evening, and I sat there for 20 min. watching the two little kids before some guy came out of Chapters and got into the car and drove away. If I had a cell phone, I would have called to cops. As it was I had tried to find a phone, and had tried to get some ones attention to call the cops. I did not want to leave the kids to get some one to call for help, but I had started trying to get my husbands attention in the store (they were closed and doing the nightly closing routine they would not even come to the door to find out what I wanted). I was trying to get them to come to the door and find out what I wanted when the guy got in the car and drove away. The kids seemed to be ok, but a little upset but I wish I had a cell that day. The car window was open a little, but again any one could have taken those kids, and the heat could have harmed them. Who cares so little about their kids that it is ok to leave them unattended any place.

I know, lots of people do, they just don’t think about it. Their needs come before their kids or their kid’s safety. Right now we are keeping an eye out because we have been informed of a 5 year old who is left in our “park” all buy himself on a regular basses. We are waiting to see this ourselves, and trust me a phone call will be made if it is true. It is not safe here to leave a kid alone, at least not a 5 year old.

Any way read this story and tell me what you think, and then send it to your family and friends. Again, if we do not do some thing, things will not change. We need to let other people know about this and how unacceptable it is.

Here is the link to the story so you know where I got it from: http://autos.canada.com/news/story.html?id=95c59f46-577a-413f-b8dd-17b140c8a486

Toddler left in sweltering car
Parents were shopping at Best Buy
Dalson Chen, The Windsor Star
A Windsor couple will be investigated by the Children’s Aid Society after they left their two-year-old boy sweltering inside a locked and sealed car while they went shopping at Best Buy Monday night. Sgt. Tony Garro of Windsor police said an off-duty firefighter discovered the child apparently unconscious in the backseat of a grey Saturn in the parking lot of the electronics store at Walker and Provincial Road around 7:30 p.m.

A Windsor police officer, left, questions a man who's child was left unattended in a locked vehicle for a period of time. An off-duty firefighter noticed the two-year-old child sleeping in a vehicle parked outside the Best Buy store in east Windsor. The unidentified person notified emergency agencies who responded to the scene. The car's window was broken in order to rescue the child from the extreme heat. The child was transported to Windsor Regional Hospital for examination. Windsor Police a
Photograph by : Jason Kryk, The Windsor Star

“It baffles me when people do this,” Garro said. “It’s hot enough just walking outside and standing there, let alone being trapped in a car with the windows up. It’s like being in a greenhouse.” The city has been under an extreme heat alert since the weekend, with nighttime temperatures on Monday remaining above 30 C. Garro said that when he arrived at the scene in his police vehicle, he noticed the outdoor temperature of the parking lot was around 95 F (35 C). Asked how hot it could’ve been inside the Saturn, Garro said: “I imagine it wouldn’t take long to get into triple digits. Within minutes.” Firefighters arrived first in response to the off-duty firefighter’s 911 call. After knocking on a window and getting no reaction from the toddler, they smashed open the front driver side window to unlock the car and get him out. “The child was very, very hot and sweating,” Garro said. An ambulance took the boy to the Metropolitan Campus of Windsor Regional Hospital for treatment. Speaking on Monday night, hospital spokesman Ron Foster said the child was still being examined. Garro said he believes the boy is okay. According to Garro, about five minutes elapsed between the firefighter’s call and the child’s rescue. “We don’t know how long the child was in there before the firefighter actually observed it.” Asked what was the parents’ explanation for leaving the boy inside the car, Garro said: “They just said he was only in there for a couple minutes.” Garro said a report was made to the CAS and investigators will look into the matter. It’s the second time in the past month that Garro has had to deal with a parent leaving a child inside a locked and sealed car in the same parking lot. Garro said there was a previous incident of a mother who left her 18-month-old child while she went into the Real Canadian Superstore that’s next door to Best Buy. Garro said the public must be aware that “any child or animal left in a car locked up that way can pass out and dehydrate,” and it’s also dangerous to leave a defenseless child unattended.
©The Windsor Star 2007

Medieval Magic will be merchanting at Its Your Festival this weekend

2007-06-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

For any one in the Hamilton area, and who likes our web site Medieval Magic, we will be merchants at It’s Your Festival this weekend. This is going to be the only big festival we do this year. We are going to be located by the greenhouses, in area 34 – see map. Every one keeps saying it is going to be a good festival this year. We are hoping to see lots of our customers face to face over the weekend. We are gong to have a festival sale on our incense, 100 for $5.00 (half off). We will have a sign up sheet to sign up for our monthly newsletter. We usually put a coupon in for 10% off purchases on the web site, or what special we have that month, so it is worth signing up.

For those who know us, you know that what we have on the web site is about 10% of what we actually have, so you will always find more at the festivals then on the web site. I am trying to catch up with the web site, we just end up spending our time making things and not as much time putting them one the web site. Once It’s Your Festival is over I will put some more items out onto the web site.
Hope to see you at It’s Your Festival this weekend

News on my Grandmothers ring and Indonesia

2007-06-19T20:55:00.001-07:00

Some thing very interesting happened today. Rose from FedEx called. The Indonesian Government has decided to wave the “storage” fees for my Grandmothers ring. Please note, that it was not the Indonesian Customs who decided to wave the fees. It turns out that some of the information Stormy on mySpace gave me helped us big time. Stormy gave me a link, that took me to more links, and some how I ended up with the person in charge of Indonesian foreign trade’s email address. I am not sure how I got there, but I used it. Lets just say I used all the email address’s I found. On top of that there was a very nice newspaper story done about my Grandmothers ring, and that has been sent by email all over the place. That helped out a lot. It seems the more people heard our story, they passed it on and more people heard it and so on and so on. So we are not sure how but the story reached the right peoples ears, our blog was mentioned to FedEx as they informed FedEx they would wave the so called “storage” fees. Wow, the power of the Internet and people who will not shut up and just let people, business’s or Governments get away with things.

Now mind you, they did say they would be willing to let us fight over the $330.00 they still want for the original customs fees. However, if we chose to go that route it would take about two years before we would see the ring, and they would charge us storage fees. So we are paying the $330.00 to get the ring back. This time though they said it would take about two weeks before we saw the ring. I will believe it when I have it in my hand. Then I will be happy about it.

Mark Cripps wrote the story, its in the news now

2007-06-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

Mark Cripps wrote the story about what happened with our ring and eBay and Indonesian customs. To see this story please go here http://www.stoneycreeknews.com/scn/viewpoint/viewpoint_802106.html.

I hope it helps some one else from getting burned.

Please pass this story on so others can hear about it.

I have copied the article here as well.

Please let Mark Cripps know what you think about his story.

Grandmother's ring held ransom
Mark Cripps, Stoney Creek

(Jun 1, 2007)
At least twice a week, I receive an email made to look as if it is coming from eBay suggesting my account is in jeopardy if I don't update my information and report back as soon as possible.
I continue to forward these to the RCMP email fraud centre (info@phonebusters.com), despite the fact it seems almost impossible to control the fraudulent use of eBay and PayPal and other companies involved in the sale and trade of goods over the internet.
Recently, I received an email from a reader scammed a few weeks back by an eBay fraud artist who bilked this woman of a treasured family heirloom.
Needing some extra cash for her family, Lori-Lee Craig decided to sell her grandmother's ring, valued at more than $1,200. On social assistance, Ms. Craig hoped to garner some extra cash to pay off some bills, buy her four-year-old son a nice birthday present and use some of the money for a move to a larger residence.
She received a bid from a buyer who has a 100 per cent rating on eBay (ratings are used on eBay so sellers and buyers can determine who they are dealing with) asking whether the ring can be shipped immediately. The buyer says he wants to give it to his mother for Mother's Day.
After payment from PayPal was confirmed, Ms. Craig shipped the item via FedEx. The buyer was in Indonesia. She borrowed the money for the shipment costs, as the purchaser said he needed the ring immediately.
The next day, she received an email from PayPal saying the funds were being held for investigation into a possible fraud.
Ms. Craig called FedEx and asked them to stop delivery. She was told her shipping fee was not refundable ($116 down the drain) but that a stop shipment order had been processed.
Unfortunately, the item had already cleared customs and was sealed in a container. There was no way to get the item back until it was actually shipped to Indonesia.
Ms. Craig said it was a heartbreaking decision to sell her grandmother's ring, but she was trying to do something for her family, who lives on Ontario Works.
PayPal determined the account of a legitimate individual had been fraudulently accessed. They refunded the money to the owner of the stolen credit card used by the thief in Indonesia.
Expecting the money, Ms. Craig had planned a birthday party for her son and promised him a toy he had his heart set on.
"He does not understand we are $116 short of our monthly budget and now it is just not possible. No party, no money."
They continue to check with FedEx, hoping at the very least they will get the ring back. They find out from FedEx an individual attempted to pick up the ring but did not have the $360 wanted by Indonesian customs officials. He walked away. Indonesian customs now wants Ms. Craig to pay $360 to release the ring. She agreed. As soon as FedEx responded Ms. Craig was willing to pay the $360 to have the ring returned, they decided they wanted $900.
"We were prepared to spend our month's budget for food just to get the ring back," said Ms. Craig.
Through this entire ordeal, neither eBay or PayPal offered any assistance for what was basically a fraud orchestrated through their online services. eBay said it would refund the $1 posting fee they charge to put an item up for auction. How sweet they are.
"eBay and PayPal might as well put up a sign - Thieves Welcome," said a frustrated Ms. Craig.
Knowing she will likely never see her grandmother's ring again, Ms. Craig said she just wants to let others know eBay is becoming a target for scam artists all over the world. She started a blog and has received numerous responses from others who have been scammed.
She said she's learned eBay is being abused by fraud artists in numerous ways:
1. people are cracking the system and eBay is not addressing security concerns.
2. fake eBay emails - don't ever respond!
3. scammers who phone people and say they are calling on behalf of eBay and ask for personal info. Once they get this info, they go into people's personal accounts and change passwords, post fake items and always use Western Union for purchases.
4. letters arriving via pre-paid envelope. Look like they are from eBay or PayPal, ask for updated info.
I contacted eBay's PR firm Environics based in Toronto and they did not provide any comment on this specific case, offering up only basic rules for keeping eBay accounts safe.
"PayPal and eBay have flaws in their security and nothing to protect sellers," said Ms. Craig.
Personally, incidents like this reinforce for me why I will never purchase anything on eBay.
It's swimming with scammers and as long as eBay and PayPal continue to ignore problems, it's only going to get worse.
For those who use eBay, review the following Web site - http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/mrkt_safety.html.

Why you want to use Must Have Hits to get clicks

2007-06-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

If you want more then just hits then Must Have Hits is for you. If you just want hits, then Must Have Hits will give that to you and a lot more if you put your time into it.

I have used over 30 traffic exchange programs and looked into more. It takes a lot to stand out from all the others. Must Have Hits goes that extra mile for their people. If you are looking for very high volume hits, then you have to put the time into it (or money) just like any other hit exchange. It is the owner, Juli Norwood aka Naughty that makes the difference. Why because she gives you some thing much more important then clicks, she gives you her time. Not just to help you do well on her site, Must Have Hits, but to help you with your site or other programs you are on. How does she do this, she makes splash pages for you, with the information you want on it. She even hosts it for you, runs it on Must Have Hits, and will give you the URL so you can put it on other hit exchange programs.

Juli has helped me in several ways, one she took the time to explain to me how the down line builder works, and why a down line is important even when you are only doing the free programs. She also noticed that I was putting blogs with adsence adds on and she emailed me to let me know that I was going to have a problem with adsence because of that. Then she let me know about a few other ad programs that are out there that don’t mind you using click exchanges. She did not have to do that; it did not help Must Have Hits in any way. However, it did help me. Sure enough I got an email from adsence saying just what Juli said they would. I took adsence off my web sites and will be looking into the other ad programs Juli told me about. Then she made me splash pages, ones that work. I was having problems getting people signing up for http://www.medievalmagic.ca/ affiliate plan. The plan was good; my advertising page was not getting people to stop surfing to read about it. Juli made me a splash page that works, it gets peoples attention and once they took the time to read it, they signed up.

How did I get the splash page, I surfed. Some thing I was doing any way. Juli has surfing contests. If you surf 1200 in a month you become part of the 1200 club with a free upgrade to Basic Pro along with 300 credits and 200 banner impressions. If you surf 4000 in a month you become part of the 4000 club with a free upgrade to Enterprise Pro Then you will receive the upgrade along with 800 credits and 500 banners. Then one of your links is placed on the actual surf page. I also place your Must Have Hits affiliate link in a rotator that I rotate on various Traffic Exchanges. 4000 Club members also receive a BRAND YOU splash page created and hosted by Must Have Hits Admin.

I don’t usually tell people to go to any particular hit exchange; I figure there are so many out there that people can find the ones that work for them very easily. I am telling you to at least check this site out and see if it works for you. I know it works for me.

Paypal is back up, why did it go down?

2007-06-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

Paypal is back up. No explanations yet for what happened that had Paypal down for most of the day. I wonder how many sales were lost, how many websites are now looking for other payment gateways. It is not like there are not 100’s of them out there. What ever caused this has hit Paypal a large blow. People are not going to be so trusting with their money now. It only takes one time not being able to access my funds to make me to start looking around for another payment gateways. Even if it is just a back up so I can continue to do business if Paypal goes down again. At this point most sales at www.medievalmagic.ca are done threw Paypal but now we are going to spend the extra money to get the software so we can use other gateways. I am sure that there are a lot of other companies doing the same thing, not to mention the number of individuals who are going to start questioning using Paypal. I guess it all depends on what explanation they give every one. I doubt that they would tell us if some one hacked in and did this. It would destroy our perception of security. Not that people are not having their accounts broken in all the time, it is just usually because some one gave their information to the wrong people. Darn those scam emails. At this point in time most people feel secure using Paypal. However, I want to know why Paypal was down for so long.

Paypal is down, no one can access their accounts

2007-06-01T15:18:00.001-07:00

Does any one know what is going on with Paypal. It’s down. Go ahead; try getting into your account. You can try but you will not be able to access your account. We called customer service; they don’t know what is going on either. Here is their number 1-402-935-2050 (a U.S. telephone number), or their contact page https://www.paypal.com/row/contact-phone. Their techs are trying to fix it, but they don’t know what happened, so they don’t know if they can fix it, or when they can fix it. They keep telling every one it is safe to do transactions and that when some one gets into your account that you must have given the info to some one. There is no way some one can hack in, and now this happens. I don’t know. I hope they can fix this, but we will be looking for new payment options for http://www.medievalmagic.ca/ from now on. Keep trying your account; let us know if you can get in.

One news reporter may be doing a story on our ring/eBay nightmare

2007-05-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

Good news. One news reporter, Mark Cripps, Managing Editor, HAMILTON COMMUNITY NEWS is looking into doing a story on what happened to us with my Grandmothers ring. This is great because it might help some one else from getting taken on eBay like we were. It will also tell people not to send things to Indonesia unless they know the person they are shipping to. I will let every one know when he has printed his story. If I can I will put a copy of the story on my blog. I must say that I am very great full that he was willing to hear our story, and even more willing to share it.

One thing that has come out of this is the number of people who have been burned on eBay, both as sellers and buys. If you have been burned on eBay and would like some one to hear your story, please email me your story. I am going to start adding them to my blog. We all know it is happening, but no one seems to be doing any thing about it. Maybe if we share our stories people will hear us. If we can save one person from being taken on eBay by these thieves it is worth the time to write out our stories. Please share my blog with others so we can tell people what is going on, and what our stories are, and how we can try to protect ourselves. My email is info@medievalmagic.ca

Indonesian Customs in now holding my Grandmothers ring hostage for $900.00+

2007-05-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

Robbed on eBay and now by Indonesian customs for $900.00+

Indonesian customs uses ring as a hostage to get $900.00+ from us. We are getting robbed twice.

We made the mistake of putting my Grandmothers ring on eBay for $1000.00. Like so many 1000’s of others we were scammed. Some one used another person’s eBay account and Paypal account to buy the ring. Please note that there is no protection for sellers on eBay. At first we thought that we were going to be out just the $116.00 shipping cost as we had contacted FedEx and did a stop shipment. Well things did not work out, and the ring made it to Indonesian customs. The only reason the person did not have my Grandmothers ring is because they would not pay the customs of $330.00, oh and by the way the Indonesian customs will not release the ring until some one pays the $330.00. Indonesian customs does not care that it was not suppose to even make it to them, or that this is a case of theft. Not their problem.

FedEx tells us to pay the $330.00 as Indonesian customs is known to take up to 6 months to resolve a dispute, and they charge you a storage fee. The storage fee is usually more then the customs fee and the chance of them saying, “oh, so sorry to hear about this person stealing from you, we wont charge you the customs fee” is 0. So we would have ended up paying both storage fee and customs fee. So we make arrangements with FedEx to pay the $330.00 and have the ring shipped back. So it was to arrive here yesterday or today. Guess what? No ring! We call FedEx to find out that Indonesian customs has now issued an invoice to FedEx for over $900.00 “custom fee’s” and will not release the ring until we pay it. Indonesian customs has now decided that $330.00 is not enough; they want us to pay over $900.00. They are holding our ring hostage.

All I could think of was “This is not happening”, but it is. They want us to pay $900.00 to get my own ring back. So if I want my ring back I have to pay almost the value of the ring. What is going on here? FedEx has no idea what Indonesian customs is doing or why they are charging so much. They are going to try and fight it, but as I indicated earlier, they will take up to 6 months to resolve the issue and are going to charge a storage fee, and the chance of them letting us win is 0. Their country, they make the rules, why would they let us win?

Please share my story with as many people as you can. I know it is too late for me, or my Grandmothers ring but please let people know about this. Maybe we can stop it from happening to some one else. I did contact the news shows and reporters in my area, but it is happening so often too people that there just is no story in some one being robbed on eBay or by Indonesian customs. So what happens, every one knows its happening but know one reports on it, so it keeps happening. The only way people are going to know about this is if I stand up on a box and yell as lowed and as long as I can. I am doing that but I need your help to let others know. If no one else is willing to tell this story then it is up to try and let people know.

Thank You,
James Porth
Lori-Lee Craig
Medieval Magic
info@medievalmagic.ca
www.medievalmagic.ca

$456.00 lost but getting my Grandmothers ring back

2007-05-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

Just an update, the ring is on its way back to us, should be here some time this week. FedEx told us to pay the customs because Indonesian customs is known to take 6 months with any disputes, and they charge you a very large storage fee, so even if you win, you end up paying as much if not more then the original fee. Also, they tend not to let any one win a customs fee dispute, so we would have ended up owing the customs for both the customs fee and storage fee. I am past the crying and anger stages and have reached the acceptance stage. The good thing is that FedEx is going to charge our account for the Indonesian customs fee and then bill us at the end of the month. This will let us budget and figure out a way to pay it off.

I just want others to hear my story so they are more careful then we were and don't ship any thing right away and get burned the same way we did. The sad part is I have been getting email after email from both sellers and buyers, who have been taken for on eBay. We are not going to be selling any thing on eBay again. I could write a "How to use eBay to steal 101" book with all the information I have found out. I may do a blog, not to help thieves but to help people from being taken in by the con-artists. What got me the most is not the number of people who have been taken, but by the fact that there is nothing we can do once it happens. The police cannot help, eBay and Paypal will not help because they can not afford to become responsible for this. There must be some way to protect people, but I don’t know what it is yet. If you have some idea of how to make it harder on thieves please let me know.

You might as well hang up a sign on eBay, thieves welcome

2007-05-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

First I had to go through the hard question, do I sell my Grandmothers ring. I don’t have a lot of hers and I miss her very much. We need the money though, so I think she would understand. It was a hard thing to do but on eBay it goes. Then comes the inquiry could we ship it out right away, rush shipment, some one wants to buy it as a gift. So we go out of our way to make sure we ship the ring as soon as the payment hits Paypal. How far out of our way, we barrow the $116.00 so we can ship it. That is just over ¼ of my budget for the month seeing as I am on Ontario works (welfare) right now.

I have a very hard time sleeping that night. I sold my Grandmothers ring so I am feeling sad, but at the same time I am happy that we will have some money to pay off a few bills. But I cannot sleep, there is just some thing eating away at me. The next day we get an email from Paypal, the transaction was fraudulent – some one just stole my Grandmothers ring. We were out $116.00 for food that month, but at least we were able to contact FedEx and get them to put a stop shipment. Things are going to be hard but at least we are getting the ring back.

Mothers Day, just don’t feel like doing any thing, to upset and I am worried about the ring and how we are going to pay back the $116.00. On top of that the 16th is my sons 4th birthday and I have to explain to him that we cannot get him the gift Mommy and Daddy said he would have for his birthday. He does not understand we are $116.00 short of our budget and now it just is not possible. No party – no money. It is a good thing we had picked up a few small things for him. But it was very hard to have to tell him that he was not bad and that was not why he was not getting his big gift, just some bad things happened. What price do you put on a parents tears when they have to tell this to a child.

We keep checking with FedEx, yes there is a stop shipment order. So why does it show that it is still going? Monday the 14th we find out that FedEx did not stop the shipment. The only reason the person did not have my Grandmothers ring is because they would not pay the customs of $360.00, oh and by the way the Indonesian customs will not release the ring until some one pays the $360.00. So we get robbed twice.

So now the ring is sitting at Indonesian customs and we have to spend our months budget for food just to get it back, or we can just let Indonesian customs confiscate it. So now what. What are we suppose to do, other then cry that is. At this point I start finding out what can be done. Nothing. FedEx does not care that we had a stop shipment on the ring, eBay said we can file a dispute on the dispute console but all that will do is get them to give us back the $1.00 listing fee. It does not matter that some one used some one else’s eBay account to buy the ring, not there problem. Seller protection – none. Every thing is for the buyer. Paypal, well they let us know that there was a problem, and they took all the money back and that way the person who’s account was broken into did not loose any thing, oh the seller, to bad, not our problem.

We thought we were dealing with some one we could trust. The eBay buyer had a good record and looked like they could be trusted. The fact that some one else was using the guy’s account does not matter to eBay. There was no way for us to know this was not a real sale. A week after the sale we got 6 emails from eBay to let us know that the email communications from the eBay buyer could be fraudulent. Thanks, a little to late though, um, we told you. Is eBay going to do any thing for us, no. Same with Paypal. Not their problem. So even though it was the security of eBay and Paypal that was breached we are paying the price. I am not very happy with eBay or Paypal right now. Then FedEx let us down as well. We put a stop shipment return to sender when the ring was in Alaska, why did it get all the way to Indonesia after we were repeatedly reassured over the phone there was a stop shipment and it would not get that far. What do you mean the only reason the thief does not have my ring is because they would not pay the customs, and now I have to pay for it. Oh, and its not your problem. Yah, I am never using FedEx again.

So this one person has devastated my family. First by stealing from us, and having us pay extra to ship it to them. Taking ¼ of my family’s money for the month. Then Paypal and eBay will take no responsibility for the unusual circumstances to help us. Now FedEx lets us down and we have pay another $360.00 or say good by to my Grandmothers ring. So I get to chouse between feeding my family and saving my grandmothers ring. It was hard enough to part with it knowing that the money from it was going to help my family, but to lose it this way is unbelievable. That does not even touch on the emotional hell I have gone threw this last two weeks. Or what it made me feel like to tell my son he could not have some thing I promised him. So much for us moving from a two bed room apartment to a three bed room town house. We were expecting to be able to move in a month or two, have to give that up to after working for a year to get there.

This was not some joke or harmless crime; this has hurt my family in ways this thief does not care about. The icing on the cake is that this thief will never pay any price or consequence for their actions. No one is going to even try to find them, let alone charge them. They just get away with it, and do it again. There is nothing to stop them. Any one can be next. As for eBay and Paypal, not their problem. So what if they lose me as a customer, what do they care? They have millions of people willing to use them. There is no incentive for them to stop this, or help the people this happens to. There is insurance for the buyer but nothing for the seller.

You might as well hang up a sign on eBay, thieves welcome. Come in, use some ones account, and steal from as many as you can, then move on to another account. Get caught, no, you may not get every thing you try to take, but you just move on to the next account. No one is going to try and find you, or make you pay for any thing. No consequences, steal until there is nothing left to take.

eBay & Paypal fraud Sellers beware!

2007-05-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

Think before selling on eBay. Take a look at eBay policies. There is a lot of protection for the buyers, what protection is there for the sellers, not much. If there is insurance for buyers, why not insurance for sellers?

As people may have noticed there has been quite a few problems for E-Bay sellers with fraud. Be it fake bids such as the Playstation 3 game system just before Christmas and the General Lee car in the last few weeks or just out and out theft. A person buys an item, then pays and gets you to ship the item, then cancels payment. Or you get what just happened to us.

I put my Grandmothers ring out eBay as an auction and a buy it now. We were contacted by a buyer who wanted the ring as a gift and wanted to know if we could ship it right away, they would pay extra for two or three day shipping. We said sure, we will ship as soon as the money went through Paypal. The person had been on eBay for years and had 100% rating, some one you can trust. It is Mothers day weekend, nothing odd about some one buying a last minute gift and asking for us to ship it directly to the person. Money shows up in Paypal, item is shipped that day.

We rush the Ring to FedEx and send it out right away. I just made it to the office for the last pick up of the day. Next morning we received an e-mail from PayPal saying the funds have been held and an investigation has been started as the funds may have been stolen. I called FedEx and had them stop the delivery and send it back to me after explaining what had happened. At this time I am told that the shipping is not refundable so I am out $116.51 now. I then receive another e-mail from another eBay seller, mrs2620, who was also taken by the same person. They too were scammed and are trying to get their item sent back before delivery.

So here we have two small business owners trying to make some extra money selling good quality items on eBay being taken for a ride by crooks. Some people say that is the cost of doing business. However, I would like to point out that the ring we were selling was not part of Medieval Magic stock, but was my Grandmothers ring valued at about $1,200.00 ten years ago, more now. So this is not a case of a business sale, covered under insurance, this is me loosing my Grandmothers ring. This is personal.

Even though we are getting our ring back, this is not a harmless victimless crime or a joke, we are out $116.00, some thing we cannot afford. We are selling the ring because we need the money, we have some bills coming up and with two little kids things are a little tight. I was not expecting to sell the ring, but it would have been nice. Now things are even harder on us, we are out $116.00 about ¼ of our budget for food and diapers for the month. On top of that we used part of the money in Paypal to buy some thing. So now we are about $130.00 in debt to Paypal. We have to come up with the money to pay for the item that has already been shipped. So that is about ¼ of our food and diaper budget that means 50% of our budget is now gone. Thank you very much.

It is my sons fourth birthday this month, so if you think this crime has no effect on any one, just a business, you are wrong. So now I have a budget of about $200.00, about $100.00 of that has to go to diapers, wipes, and $100.00 for food for two weeks for a family of four. So much for my sons birthday, some one want to come and explain to my four year old why he is not having a birthday party, and why he is not getting that gift Daddy told him he was getting.

So this crime or joke has a very strong impact on my family. I am not telling people this so they feel sorry for me, but because I want people to understand what this person has done to my family. What the impact of this one act has had on us. Crime costs people like us every day. We are not some big corporation that can absorb a loss like this, we are hard working people trying to do our best and one person just kicked us in the teeth, took food out of my kids’ mouths. You don’t want to know what I want to do to this person if I could find them. Making them pay the $116.00 is not enough for the worry and anger I have right now.

It is time that we the consumers and sellers start to put our foot down and stop this. New rules and procedures must be put into place on all the auction sites and payment sites to protect us all. We have to ask for them. People have to look at what the effect will be on eBay and other auction sites if thing like this continue. Who wants to sell items on eBay if there is no protection for them? Look at John Schneider, he has decided to go with a bricks-and-mortar auction firm that strictly screens buyers to sell the General Lee. This would have been a great achievement for eBay. If this keeps up there will be no place for every day people to sell and buy as it will destroy peoples trust in being able to sell on eBay. At this point in time we have changed our shipping policies to protect ourselves from this happening again. But I have to admit I am rethinking about selling on eBay as I have an online store Medieval Magic I am already selling on.

I am brainwashing my children

2007-04-27T19:31:00.000-07:00

Since my kids were born every time we come across a smoker I tell them, “Smoking is yucky, it makes your breath stinky and your teeth yellow”. I am hoping that this will have some effect on them. They are 4 and 2 now. I should know in about 4 to 5 years if it works on my oldest.

My logic is that telling people that smoking is bad for them and can kill you does not seem to be working. Take a look at all the Dr.’s and other health professionals huddling outside to get that puff they need. They know better and yet they cannot get away from the hold nicotine has on them. My goal is to keep my kids from even trying smoking so nicotine never gets them. If health does not work maybe vanity will. Look at the extremes people go to so they look good, the money they spend. Maybe they will not do some thing like smoking to look good. A lot of people started smoking because of the images of sexy sophisticated or cool people smoking, lets turn it around and say if you want to be sexy, sophisticated or cool then you don’t smoke.

Why is this so important to me, well on my fathers’ side every one has died of lung cancer from smoking. Yes, every one of them. My father died at 49, his father died about the same age, his mother died in her 60’s and all the uncles and aunts also died of lung cancer. They are all gone, my kids and I are the last of the line. My mother smoked, and most of the people I used to know smoked, so although I never smoked I breathed in second hand smoke for about 25 years. Do I worry about cancer, hell yes! I am worried that I will end up with it and may not see my kids grow up. My husband’s father is currently dieing of lung cancer, and has already lived past the time they gave him. We don’t know how much longer he will be here. My husband is an ex-smoker and he stopped when his Dr. told him he had to stop smoking and drinking or he would die.

I don’t want my kids to smoke; our family history shows this is a bad thing. So I can put up with the dirty looks smokers give me when I tell my kids “Smoking is yucky, it makes your breath stinky and your teeth yellow”. I hope other people start telling there kids this.

Made a leather spider shield

2007-04-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

My son loves the TV show spider riders. Great, but we could not find any spider rider toys in any stores, not even on eBay. So I decided to make him a shield with a spider on it. Well I knew if I made him one I had to make one for our daughter. So I made three so they could each pick one and I would have one to sell. I made sure the shield was the same size as my sons forearm. The shield is 6 ½” in diameter and is made from 16 oz. Armour grade leather. I originally was going to have the shield fit over the arm, but changed it to a hand strap. The shields are designed drawn, burned and painted by hand. My son loves his, the blue one. My daughter liked the green one, so I have the pink one for sale on my web site www.medievalmagic.ca.

Burned, Painted and Waxed. I forgot to take pictures as I did the work. Here the wax is drying.

All done.

What type of person are you – the one who risks all, or sacrifices the dream for your kids?

2007-04-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

If you have ever had just one of those days, worried about keeping a roof over your head and food in your kids you will understand the video Pursuit of Happyness. In some points it hits too close to home, other times they tell it like it is. Its bad, but they don’t show as bad as it is for those who are homeless. They touch on it and let you have a good idea, but you will never know unless you live it.

This is a great movie for every one who struggles every day, looking for a light, or a better pay cheque at the end of the day. Some days it is hard not to give up and cry, it was nice to see some one win. Me being me, living the life I have had, I have to feel for the other 19 people who did not make it. Who gave their best and still did not get the job, not because they were not good at it or did not give their all but because there was only one job. What makes some one succeed is the ability to pick them selves up and going on any way. That is what Chris Gardner played by Will Smith did. He did not succeed at what he was doing but he kept on going until he found some thing he did succeed at.

This was a very hard movie to watch at times. It hit that fear of loosing every thing, and struggling to find a bead for your child to sleep in, food for him to eat, a safe place to be. At the same time it took a lot for Chris Gardner to put every thing into this one thing, to work for nothing for 6 months for the chance at a job, when he did not have money to live. What type of person does that. I don’t know if I could take that chance at the expense of my child. I think I would have had to find a job just to pay the rent, and gave up that dream to survive. What type of person are you – the one who risks all, or the one who sacrifices the dream for your kids?

How safe are you in your own home?

2007-04-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

From what I saw on the Montel Williams show today, not as safe as you might think. Today they had a show called “ANYTHING TO PROTECT MY FAMILY”. One person killed to protect her child and another died to protect his children. I watch true crime shows and CSI and the like so I know things happen. However there is knowing it happens and thinking about some thing happening to you.

I am not saying that we should be in fear of our safety all the time but that we need to be more aware of how we can make ourselves safer. The truth of the matter is that if some one is out to get us they are going to figure out how. All we can do is make it as difficult for them as possible, hopefully so hard that they give up. There are a lot of new things out there to help, personal safety features in our cars (hart beat monitor on your key ring), personal safety products like pepper spray and the like. There are self-defense classes and more books then one person wants to read. So what can we do?

If you have a lot of money there are lots of things you can do but what can people with little or no money do. What I got out of the Montel Williams show is that there are things we can do that are simple and not to costly. Lets look at our homes. If you have an alarm, use it. Lock your doors and windows. Do a safety check on your home, how can some one get in, what can you do to make it harder with out turning your home into a prison. I liked the idea of motion sensor lights on the out side, and making sure your locks and door handles are as good as you need them to be. Having a safe room with a cell phone is a great idea as well. Do not have your valuables visible to people outside, even if you have to buy some blinds or some thing – if people don’t know what you have they are not going to be as temped to break in to get it. Only you know your home or apartment, look around and use common sense about what you can do to about making your home safer. See if the police in your area have a program to educate people on improving the safety of their homes.

Other places again we need to use common sense to not be a victim. Park in lighted areas; look to see if someone is in your car before you get into it. Don’t go out in unsafe areas by yourself if you don’t have to. Don’t accept drinks from some one other then the wait staff or bartender. If you have kids you think about their safety all the time, now the shoe is on the other foot. Take the same advice you give your kids and use it on yourself.

I would like it very much it you have a safety tip please add it to the comments so we can share them. We need to take preventative measures to not be a victim. It may only be a small thing that makes the difference. I have to tell you, if making sure I lock my door, put on the alarm, lock my windows even when I am home keeps me safer it is a small thing to do.