Sometimes I wonder about myself. I start at Point A only to arrive many clicks later at Point Z - which ultimately ends up providing me with the inspiration for my next post (even when I don’t find what I was really looking for!). Today is no exception.

I’m a regular subscriber to WebProNews and have been for years. Strangely enough I’ve seen “authority figures” poo-poo WPN in their forums, but I can tell you that the insights I get far outweigh the times where the information is intriguing albeit short of the mark. Doesn’t happen often, but some writers just don’t give you the full scoop. Whether their plan is to write more, or just provide surface-level research, I do not know. I have also read article bits and posts where I downright disagreed with the writer.

But that’s what makes WPN so interesting, and, more often than not, I get great input and ideas.

That said (that’s not an intentional plug, but will explain the convolution of the rest of this post nicely) that’s how today started out. (more…)

There are so many great writers out there, imparting wisdom, humor, and more, that a quick trip around the Whole Hog Blogs network is in order for our relaxed, leisurely Sunday post.

Let’s start with a household dilemma… where to take your old lightbulbs, Linda over at Forcedgreen tells you who, what, where and how:

According to the EPA’s Energy Star Program, if every American swapped one incandescent bulb for a CFL, it would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, save more than $600 million in annual energy costs and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from 800,000 cars.

Wondering what the three “s’s” stand for in the word “success?”, there’s Janet (more…)

Of course I emailed him back and forth several times. I’m afraid I climbed on my soapbox and did my thing (which he did appreciate). The crux of the making-money dilemma is something I will cover in the next post (I promise!) and present solutions to that problem.

In the meantime though, I want to take a moment and show you a shortcut to making money - under your own steam, without relying on anyone or anything else online.

After proving to ourselves, for ourselves, that a person can make money writing online, I set off on a journey to uncover a resource that could shave years off the learning curve. A way to step up to the plate much faster in the field of writing - any kind of writing - online.

With income potentials of $85,000 or more per year, this is hardly something you will want to poo-poo out of turn without researching!

I’m happy to report I found such a resource - and  (more…)

This morning I was over at BlogCatalog trying valiantly to get caught up on friend requests, and visit blogs I’ve missed out on all week. Working my way down the list was a request from TheBostonBachelor.

Not knowing what I’d have in common with any of his tags (sex, women, relationship advice (okay maybe that one), dating advice, boston, celtics) nor his description, “What your girlfriend doesn’t want you reading…” I headed over to his blog (maybe in spite of all that LOL!).

Trolling down the page, I saw one of my all time favorite cartoons: (more…)

Depending on my schedule, I may visit many in a short span of time (always allowing plenty of time for their pages to sit open in my browser to avoid penalizing them for my visit - no short visits please!). I try to schedule this portion of my day (or bits and pieces throughout the day) so I can relax and enjoy my visits, read, and comment, comment, comment.

(more…)

“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

Today’s post on social bookmarking can be found over at our favorite content sharing website, Hubpages.

Social Bookmarking: A Useless Tool or Clever Marketing Strategy?

After reading it, and we sincerely hope you will, please take a moment and share your thoughts, comments, input at both spots - hubpages and here below in our comment section.

Quick Reminder: One of the greatest benefits to social sharing sites like hubpages and our blog is your ability to voice your thoughts - and give yourself a nice link back to your own website

Knowledge, sharing, and marketing all in one fell swoop… it doesn’t get much better than that!

And as a P.S. of note, we’ve run across numerous excellent resources we’ll be sharing with you throughout the coming week(s). It’s amazing what you discover when you begin your journey around the (best) social communities on the net! In fact, we don’t even know where to begin having found “standalone” topics that do - in the long run - interrelate. Don’t worry though, we’ll figure it out

Again, we hope you enjoy our newest hub, please let us know (by voting and sharing on the hub itself and back here, too, everything counts as a marketing link for yourself!)