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Today is a double whammy with a new resource that gets listed quickly in the search engines (along with those sought after “indented” listings), and a link out to more information on how BlogCatalog can boost your search engine rankings.

First let’s take a look at Jumptags:

What is Jumptags and Why Should You Be Using It?

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Today, May 15th, is Human Rights Awareness day and bloggers across the world are uniting to bring situations and issues to light through their blogging.

We are no exception.

However, after pondering for days which travesty to write about, we decided to go a positive route and do our awareness part with our writeup of Amnesty International.

What or Who Is Amnesty International?

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Not that long ago, Scott and I signed up for the famous Entrecard. This is a spot where you can freely advertise your blog assuming you have the credits earned on hand to advertise.

It’s a simple process really, and if you look at our right hand column, at the top you’ll see our Entrecard widget.

These cards you are seeing are other people’s blogs. They surfed through Entrecard and/or visited us after we had visited them. If they decide our blog is worthwhile, they choose the Advertise option. If not, normally an Entrecard visitor will drop their card so when we log into our account we can easily see how many visitors we’ve had.

Conversely, you can use this same information to visit their blog, and drop your card or choose to advertise on their blog.

It’s a lot like handing out business cards without any expense except the time it takes for you to put the widget on your blog and surf around inside the Entrecard website looking for appropriate places to visit, drop and/or advertise in turn.

We’ve been using our Entrecard for much less than a month, and while there are many more stats in your own account, here are some that ours is current showing as of this morning:

127 credits in your account:
Scott and I can use these to advertise on other people’s blogs as we find them

7 credits to advertise on your blog
What it will cost if someone wants their card to display here on our blog (again right hand column). We put our Entrecard widget in a prominent position, not everyone does so you might consider that as you’re surfing for spots to advertise your blog on.

Additional stats are there, but here are three more that are of interest to anyone looking for a great way to advertise their blog for free:

Our stats also show:

24 clicks from your blog to others
90 clicks from entrecard.com to you

As well as:

12 ads bought from you

Here are a few excerpts from the Entrecard Help webpage:

“Entrecard is the first and only free exchange network for 125×125 ads. Through this revolutionary platform, you can advertise your own 125×125 Entrecard on any blog in the network, for free, for a number of days.

You pay for this advertising with Entrecard Credits, that you earn for free by networking (a.k.a. visiting blogs and dropping your card for other bloggers).”

Do keep in mind that dropping your card and choosing to advertise on a blog are two different things. You’ll get traffic from your drop directly from the other person’s inside account within Entrecard. People like to check out whose been visiting them, and it’s easy to do.

You must build up credits to advertise, which displays your image on their blog.

Make your imagine attractive! Remember this is something that will show up on other people’s websites. If it’s so-so, they may not approve you. Also keep in mind that as you get people wanting to advertise with you, it’s important to log in and visit these pages first.

Here’s what we created to display on other people’s blogs”

When you log in, you’ll see two columns of cards to the right. The one nearest the middle of your screen are those blogmasters waiting for your to approve their card placement on your site. The farthest column of cards to the right are the one’s you have approved and they queue up to display over the course of time. Typical run times are 24 hours per card.

One more thing to remember is to log into Entrecard before you start crusing the internet. This way if you find another Entrecard member, you can easily DROP your card. If you arrive at someone’s blog and see an X that just means you are not logged in, and Entrecard doesn’t know that you exist (basically) without your being logged onto their system.

The process is very straightforward, and their help button and access to guidance is readily available.

We believe you will find this kind of real human traffic very useful as you build your blog – or even if you have an established one and just want more real traffic.

* * * * * COMING TOMORROW * * * * * *

The program we mentioned yesterday we will be telling you all about on Monday. The Entrecard is just too good to miss though, and we suggest you go join now

PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS – we do link back!

“What Can a Dentist Teach You about Business, Life and Success? Discover Secrets to Achieving Total Success!”, a new book launching this week on Amazon, quickly teaches you that your willingness to be different can make all the difference in how your business is perceived. Dr. Joe Capista gives you an inside view of how he took a struggling business and, with a clear vision of what he wanted to accomplish, built a multi-million dollar business.

The beauty of this book is the way in which the story is told. Forget the dry, disinterested approach, Capista takes you on a journey through his life, the mentoring and direction he received, and sums it all up in a 222-page discovery he calls The Success Triangle(TM). Capista offers a roadmap that virtually any business can implement to achieve higher profits, greater customer satisfaction, more satisfied employees and the ability to sustain any turn in the economy.

With permission, we offer a few excerpts for you to enjoy below, ways you can become familiar with this author; his style of writing. Throughout this book, Capista brings you a wealth of information based on family type situations, business situations, and personal experience. We’ve chosen a few from Chapter 8 (along with the summary of what Chapter 8 covers) entitled, “Five Part Forumla for Success”:

Become an Expert
Have a Great Product and/or Service

“By investing in your own training and education, you will gain more in the long run than you’re giving up. With increased skill comes increased confidence. With increased confidence comes increased competence. The rewards will continue to multiply.

Many are comfortable with the status quo. They feel because they’ve been at something for a long time it qualifies them as an expert. I learned a long time ago just because you’ve got a lot of years in or you’ve done something repeatedly, that doesn’t necessarily make you an expert. Some people work in a vacuum doing the same thing day in and day out thinking they are the best at what they do. Wrong!

You can’t increase your expertise on your own; someone has to teach you. I don’t care if you’re already at the top of your game, there’s somebody that’s on top of you that’s doing it better. That’s the person you have to talk to!”

Develop Sales and Marketing Skills

“Sales is a kind of strategic influence. Too many times we think of sales as manipulation because we have the vision of the slick salesperson; the person who’s trying to sell for his or her good and not for the good of the customer. Sales is about benefits and coming to a mutual agreement with your customer that what you have to offer is of value. Once value has been established, you have the responsibility to influence the person to say, “Yes.”

You always have to have the other person’s highest good in mind. In fact, Charlie used to tell me about the U Attitude. When he first presented the U Attitude idea, it was foreign to me. He would sit in front of me, hold his pad of paper and he’d draw a U. One part of the U started with the customer coming to me and it ended back with the customer to complete the U. This means the process has to start with the customer, come to me, and then go back to the customer. The customer always has to be the person who benefits the most in the sales process and the U Attitude has helped me to remember this over the years.

Selling is about helping the client. The times I have been sold by people who have good sales skills is fantastic; a great experience. They see what I want and what I need. They know how I’m going to benefit by it and they help me get there. Sales require compassion, understanding, and talking in such a way people are comfortable dealing with you. When you create comfort for your customer, they will return again and again.”

Get Help from Experts (Mentors)

“Mentorship doesn’t have to be a difficult experience. There are very informal as well as formal methods of mentorship. Let’s begin with the informal. Consider the top five people you spend time with the most. Each can be a mentor in his or her own right. To be successful you need to make sure those you associate with most are people that inspire you and lift you up. You must be clear about who you want to spend time with and understand the power they have in your life.

There is an exchange of energy in all relationships. Some people enhance our energy; others can actually deplete our energy. I’m very deliberate in choosing people that increase my energy and fuel my dreams. We may not call one another mentors, but the influence we exert on each other’s lives is the same as a mentor/student relationship. I feel so strongly about this I’ve made efforts in the opposite direction, minimizing relationships with certain people because we weren’t on the same track or heading in the same direction. I look to mentors in both my personal and professional life.”

Chapter 8 Success Summary

1. Business Success and Life Success are not exclusive of each other. To have TOTAL SUCCESS you need success in both areas.

2. To have TOTAL SUCCESS you need to:

o Become an Expert (have a great Product and/or Service)
o Develop Sales and Marketing Skills
o Get help from Experts (have mentors)
o Control your Thoughts
o Create Balance in your life

3. You may not be the “best” at what you do, BUT be the best you can be.

4. To be the best in your field requires continued training.

5. The success of your business and the success of your personal life is directly proportional to your ability to sell and market.

6. Our lives revolve around selling a Product, Service or idea.

7. Sales is strategic influence, not manipulation.

8. Develop a ‘U’ Attitude.

9. Always have the customer’s interests foremost and have integrity and honesty in your sales process.

10. Sales and Marketing are skills that need to be learned. Very few people are “natural born” sales or marketing people.

11. You need people – mentors – to teach you what you do not know.

12. Find successful people and study their behavior.

13. Mentors can be living or dead.

14. Pay people to teach you what you do not know.

Again these excerpts are just that, pieces we’ve taken that caught our eye. The stories and information are much more indepth than we can cover here. Suffice to say this is an interesting, informative, and (more than slightly) different way of following key patterns to personal success.

Order you own copy of What Can a Dentist Teach You about Business, Life and Success? within the next 24 hours and receive over $2,551 in bonus gifts from experts around the globe. Go to www.joecapista.com/amazon.htm