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When you welcome a new child into your family, it is an exciting time. Parents usually spend a great deal of resources - time and money - to prepare for the new family member.

As someone who has been parenting for over two decades and has watched my children grow from tiny babies to productive adults, I can understand that any helpful words of wisdom for new parents need to be about more than just which stroller to buy.

My children can tell you that it is not the toys or furniture or gadgets that got them to where they are today. It was the values in our home. Here are a few of the most important values that we used in our family.

- Stability.

Stability is a value that is in short supply these days. There was a time when families often lived in the same home for years and kids attended the same schools from start to finish. A community provided stability just by being there. Those days, for the most part, are gone.

We moved a few times when our kids were growing up and they had to learn to deal with those realities. A lot of that training was good for them, although difficult at the time. As parents, we learned that it was up to us to provide a home of stability for our kids because the externals in our lives were quite transient.

So we focused on making our marriage strong, so the kids could depend upon our relationship together. We focused on nourishing long term friendships so the kids would have stable adult relationships to relate to as they grew. We committed to choosing a church community we could be a part of for years and years. When the kids developed healthy friendships that supported our family values, we made sacrifices so that the kids could maintain those friendships as long as possible.

- Respect.

Cultivating respect in a home means cultivating long term benefits. Want to have teens that will listen to you someday? Develop a respectful homelife now.

Being respectful to your spouse and earning his or her respect in return is one of the best things you can do for your marriage, too. And the best thing you can do for your kids is to nurture your marriage.

Teach your kids how to earn respect. Listen to them and honor their opinions. Then be the leader in your home and make the decisions that will take the best care of your family, whatever sacrifices you need to make. When your kids see that you put your family above your own self interests, they will know they can trust you. And the respect will follow.

- Kindness.

Kids argue. Parents bicker. Being a part of a family means learning how to handle day-to-day conflicts and frustrations. The family is the training ground for being human.

Your kids WILL learn something in your family, the question is, WHAT will they learn? It’s easy to be sloppy with relationships; it’s more difficult to be intentional. Make it a priority in your household to practice random kindnesses. This will smooth out a lot of the daily angst that naturally arises in a family.

You can do simple games such as requiring that family members do two acts of kindness for every act of hurt, whether intentional or accidental. It gets people thinking in terms of being good to each other. It helps people think twice before they’re careless with one another. It just works.

As you begin down the rewarding path of parenting, remember these words of wisdom for new parents. Focus on filling your home with stability, respect and kindness and watch your family flourish.

Colleen Langenfeld has been parenting for over 27 years and helps other moms enjoy mothering more at http://www.paintedgold.com . Visit her website and grab more words of wisdom for new parents today.

If you are like thousands of other students out there, you are considering getting your MBA or Masters in Business Administration. While we all have our own unique motivations for getting the degree of our choice, the amount of money we’ll be making with our degrees is usually of paramount importance. However, not everyone who earns an MBA can be expected to earn the maximum amount of money available for a number of reasons, such as the amount of prestige attached to a particular school’s MBA program, the type of connections you have once you graduate and the type of business you pursue once you have your degree. Let’s take a look at how all three of these variables influence what you can make with your MBA degree.

According to recent statistics, it really is worth staying in school to get your MBA. Starting salary numbers jump significantly when you have your MBA from approximately $56,000 a year to $76,000 a year. When you extrapolate that five years into the future, the earning gap is even larger, with most MBA students earning well over $100,000. There are a number of things that can influence that earning potential, however.

Almost every major university in North America has an MBA program, but not all MBAs are created equally. Just as there are some schools that specialize in microbiology and others that churn out exceptional surgeons, some schools are better known for having solid MBA programs. You can significantly increase your earning potential by graduating from a school like Harvard that has an established MBA program that is highly respected as opposed to graduating from a school that has just started an MBA program.

As many of you know, the real world is less about what you know and more about who you know. Our professors try to hammer into our heads how important it is to network while we’re in school and when you look at the influence networking has on MBA earning potential, you’ll see why. Many times, things like our resumes, where we graduated in our class and the grades we received on our final exams mean very little if you know someone who can start your career off on the right foot. Perhaps more than any other single factor, who you know can determine how much you will make right out of school with your MBA.

Finally, not all types of companies give the same kind of rewards. Just like social work tends to be the lowest earning degree one can get, if you affiliate yourself with a law firm or another business that rakes in the cash, you will likely find significantly higher earning numbers over the life of your degree. The question that many of us have to ask at one time or another is how happy you’ll be working at the job your MBA earns you. Will the extra cash bring you genuine happiness or will working at a job that helps to make the world a better place be a more significant reward?

Earning potential with your MBA is a major concern that almost every student has, however, putting a price on happiness is something that no one can do.

Mark Warner is a Legal Research Analyst for RealDealDocs.com. RealDealDocs gives you insider access to millions of legal documents online drafted by the top law firms in the US that you can download, edit and print. Search For Free at http://www.RealDealDocs.com.

How many times have you or significant other said it: “We’re running out of space here? Maybe you just got married, or had a child, or maybe you’ve been in the same place for the past 10 years. The truth is, you are not running out of space. There’s just too much stuff in the room.

“But”, you might say, “we’ve rid ourselves of everything we can.” Really? I would be willing to bet you have not, and if you have, then your space is being extremely inefficiently used. What are my qualifications in saying this? Well, for one, I live where you live: A small, one bedroom apartment with less than 700 sq feet of actual living space. I share this with my wife. Our bedroom has just enough room for our bedroom set. I’m not saying I am the be-all, end-all when it comes to organization, but I can tell a few tricks that will free up enough space for you to breath. I will attempt to do this, if you will give me just a few a minutes of your time.

We’ll start with the living area, and more specifically, with the kitchen. After our wedding, my wife and I found ourselves in a bit of a predicament: The kitchen was small, and we had just received tons of small appliances as wedding gifts. Add those to the clothes, and other belongings I brought into the marriage with me, and you get some pretty close quarters.

I found a solution to the problem from a restaurant I worked in several years back. The building we inhabited was an old cotton mill, that had recently been rehabilitated for use as a mall. As such, there was no available shelving in the room where we stored our dry goods and catering equipment. To fix the problem, we relied on industrial baker’s racks for storage. We’re not talking about the wimpy, decorative racks with the same name that inhabit Martha Stewart’s house. Nope, we’re talking about NSF approved, stainless steel constructed, commercial duty baker’s racks.

So, the wife and I picked one up at our local home improvement store for about $139.95, and cleared up a vast amount of floor space. The same holds true for our electronics. With things being so tight, we couldn’t have afforded to place a traditional home entertainment center in our living room. Our cable box, DVD player, and Wii were sitting on the floor. So, I purchased a so-called “floating shelf”.This keeps the bracket and support hidden in the shelf itself. While very functional, it has the added benefit of keeping visual clutter to a minimum as well.

We also hung the power strip on the wall, out of sight, behind our TV. Are you seeing a trend here? When we say we are out of space, we are almost talking about it in horizontal, floorbound sense. Very few people use vertical space to improve their storage capabilities.

Vitamins and supplements have been and are a big thing at our house. The only problem was the space they occupied on our small kitchen counter. A two-tiered, rotating shelf ended it immediately. While this seems like a no-brainer, you would be amazed how many people simply do not go out and buy one of these. We actually had a hard time finding one, and ended up going to a specialty home goods store to purchase one.

What about the clothes I brought in to the marriage? Well, I went through quite a few, and put them in the goodwill bag. The others, I put on hangers, even my tshirts. I have found over the years that hanging is a far better method of clothing management, than say, folding. Folding is easily undone while scouring your drawer in the early morning, while looking for something to wear. Hanging your clothes keeps you from needing an extra dresser in your apartment, and keeps your clothes(relatively) free from wrinkles. Plus you can pick out your clothes at a glance, a definite time saver.

Something else that really works well at freeing up space in a closet, comes in the form of the venerated “Space Bag”. Yes, I know the commercials are cheesy, but the invention works extremely well, especially for bulky comforters and blankets. I rarely recommend things by name, but if it works, it works. While we are at it, a shoe rack is a no brainer. You will also come close to tripping and hurting yourself several times a day if you do not own one.

Another thing that helps greatly is to have easily moveable, or multiple purpose furniture. Coffee tables are extremely nice things to have. Unfortunately, most of them are wasted space. Try to get one with drawers, or better yet, get the table that has seats that store underneath it when not in use. If you were really desperate for space, this could take the place of a dining room table.

There are many different ways to maximize your space, without springing for a 2000 sq. ft. house. There are tons of ways to organize your home. I’ve shown you some cheap ones here. If there is one thing I want you to take away, it is this: If you are losing horizontal space, move your stuff up. I’ve taken alot of space to say it. Hopefully, you’ll take a little time to try it.

Kurt Hartman could still stand a little more space to spread out. He is the Head of Employee Training at Mobile Fleet Service, Inc. They sell tires to the mining and earthmoving communities around the world.

The Federal Reserve has been operating like a sovereign power and dumping billions of dollars into U.S. and world markets.

Please remember that those billions aren’t even paper dollars. They are nothing more than computer generated digital blips racing around the globe via the Internet.

Exactly what is a digital blip worth? For that matter consider that the paper dollars in your pocket are backed by nothing more than digital blips.

Washington backs those dollars and blips with nothing more than the promise of “I owe you nothing”. If you walked into the U.S. treasury and asked to exchange your dollars you would be met by blank stares. After all, it’s been a few decades since anyone even pretended that a U.S. dollar had any real value.

That brings us to the problem. With the world’s supply of U.S. dollars greatly enlarged we will soon see more dollars chasing the same amount of goods and services. Actually, in a recession/depression there will be a diminished supply of goods and services. That means the increased supply of dollars will be vying for fewer goods and service.

You don’t need to be a Stanford economist to know that your government is lighting the fuse to an inflationary explosion. The result will be that every one of your dollars will be worth less… and less… and less. It’s the time honored way governments rob from their citizens to pay for politicians misguided financial policies.

When all of this financial craziness begins to spin out of control governments resort to currency controls. Remember, the only thing your elected politicians know about money is taxing and spending. They will promote currency controls as a way to punish “speculators” and “un-American investors”.

Here’s what Wikipedia says: “Currency control is a system whereby a country tries to regulate the value of money (currency) within its borders. From simple to complex policy changes, it can be characterized as a government initiated system to control currency fluctuations through interest rates, bonds, laws, money printing, and many more.”

The Internal Revenue Service has been practicing a unique form of currency control for some time. Under the pretext of stopping the movement of drug and crime money they have intimidated many foreign banks to the point where a U.S. citizen won’t even be considered as an account holder.

In other words, it is becoming very difficult to protect what little wealth you have by moving it out of the grasp of the tax and spend politicians. Their goal is the “Plumber Joe” tactic of “spreading the wealth”. That simply means taking money from you and giving it to someone else. Is that the same as buying votes?

As this is written you can still find a few solid, offshore banks that will accept your money if you do some research. Try banks in Panama, Belize, Austria and Switzerland. Some will open accounts if you deposit as little as $5,000.

A quick look at history should remind you that when FDR kicked off the New Deal in the 1930s, restrictive SEC rules cut off most U.S. investors from direct foreign investments.

That’s exactly what’s happening as IRS “qualified intermediary” rules claim U.S. jurisdiction over foreign banks’ operations and demand they follow Washington’s rules. Your government and the IRS are working full out to keep you and your money at home. May I remind you that under the PATRIOT Act, government guys with guns can confiscate your cash at will and they can do it in secret.

What are the alternatives? Buy Latin American real estate as many North Americans and Europeans are now doing. Or use your dollars to buy gold.

Gold is the only real money with silver a close second. So many people in the U.S. have turned to gold and silver billion recently that it’s now hard to find a supply of physical coins and bars. Call your local coin shop and see what’s available. You may be surprised to find they are sold out. The same is true with the big dealers you can find on the Internet.

When citizens don’t have the freedom to manage their money as they wish they flee the government’s manipulated system and seek to preserve their wealth anyway the can. That’s happening right now!

Mark Walters is a third generation real estate investor and founder of CreatingWealthClub.com. For a limited time Mark is offering his big guide to finding hard money loans for real estate investing free. Free guide to private money loans.

Many people struggle to control their weight. However, while they are going on and off various diets, they fail to realize that they are also struggling to control blood sugar. Actually, the cause of blood-sugar problems may be weight problems, as being overweight and having blood sugar problems tend to go hand in hand. Too many blood sugar swings during the day tend to increase hunger jags, snacking, and overeating. When you overeat, you’re much more likely to add on the pounds, setting the stage for obesity, pre-diabetes, and full blown diabetes.

Sadly, both pre-diabetes and overweight have become modern epidemics that are out of control, with two of every three Americans being overweight and over 100 million people having some signs of pre-diabetes. Both of these illnesses are nutritional disorders that result from eating too many unhealthful foods. However, there is good news: you can reverse pre-diabetes and control your weight.

One can self-diagnose pre-diabetes by looking for the most visible symptom: being chubby or fat around the waist. Other clues are cravings sweets and starchy foods, not being hungry at breakfast, and feeling tired or mentally fuzzy after lunch. Many physicians diagnose pre-diabetes when a patient’s fasting blood sugar falls between 100 and 124 mg/dl. There are several dietary factors that significantly increase the risk of overweight. Some of these being: too many calories, too many refined carbs, especially sugars, and too many unhealthful oils.

The average woman needs about 1,600 calories and the typical man needs about 2,000 calories daily, but the average American now consumes 3,900 calories each day, making it difficult to burn off all these calories and causing the accumulation of body fat. Because most excess calories take form of refined carbs and sugars, which are digested rapidly, rapid or extreme spikes in blood sugar levels, elevated insulin levels, and bouts of hunger result, which stimulate low blood sugar. Trans fats, which are found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, interfere with the body’s processing of fats and often lead to weight gain. Most of these problematic calories are found in fast foods, microwave foods, and other types of convenience foods, which are all best if they are avoided.

Even though pre-diabetes can be scary, it’s actually an opportunity to improve your eating habits and regain your health. To improve your health you can emphasize quality protein, emphasize high-fiber vegetables and fruits, include grapefruit in your diet, use more vinegar, and add some cinnamon. Since protein stabilizes and safely lowers blood sugar levels, be sure to start each day with some protein with breakfast and eat a little protein with each meal.

Most veggies and fruits are rich in fiber, which helps to lower blood sugar, so opt for salads and steamed broccoli while avoiding crutons, potatoes, bananas, and pears. Despite the calories, eating fresh grapefruit can help in weight reduction. The acetic acid in vinegar can also help to improve blood sugar and insulin levels, reduce appetite, and help with weight loss. Adding cinnamon has also been shown to reduce blood sugar levels. There are also several supplements that have exceptional value in improving insulin function or lowering blood sugar levels. These include lipoic acid, chromium, silymarin, omega-3 fish oils, vitamin D, and Pycnogenol.

You can also enhance the benefits of diet and supplements by increasing your physical activity as it helps build muscle and burn blood sugar and fat. Tackling pre-diabetes can not only reduce your long-term risk for health problems, such as heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease, but also can allow you to quickly gain more energy and feel less post-meal fatigue.

More information on blood sugar lowering vitamins is available at VitaNet

Auto accidents are the most common type of incidents giving rise to personal injury claims requiring the hiring of a personal injury attorney. Besides auto accidents there are other common accidents which include bicycle accidents, motorcycle accidents, truck accidents or even boat accidents all of which can result in severe personal injuries and death.

Failure to exercise reasonable care in the operation of car is the primarily reason why car accidents occur. Irresponsible driving is the main cause of auto accidents all over the world, but not all countries have personal injury laws to protect the injured. Drivers of vehicles have a responsibility obey the rules of the road and to exercise care and adjust for changing conditions such as changes in the weather. Failure to act reasonably results in injury to some innocent people who suffer and whose lifestyles are suddenly compromised.

Serious injury can occur when auto collides with a bus, car, or truck. Some serious injuries result when an auto hits a pedestrian or a cyclist. In both the cases the parties can get injured and both may have suffer consequences.

To determine which party is responsible for the accident a personal injury lawsuits is usually not required. The case is taken to court to make a determination as to the extent of fair and just compensation. The party held responsible for the mishap generally has to pay to compensate the other for all the damages including pain and suffering, loss of income, medical bills, and property damage. .

Damages can be to the body, the mind and to physical property damage. The vehicle of the victims might be damaged beyond repair in which case the fair market value of the vehicle has to be paid. When the victims are suffering from severe injuries there is often a job loss or reduced income. Injured persons need medical care which can be very expensive. The compromised lifestyle might also be stressful and depressing; so the victims suffer from mental stress and trauma. All these damages are reduced to a dollar sum and compensation is paid in money. Monetary compensation is intended to put the victim back to where he should have been if the incident had not occurred.. This is an effort to help the injured return to their normal lifestyle.

To insure all rights are protected and the optimum compensation is obtained the personal injury victim should consult with a personal injury attorney. The personal injury attorneys should be licensed to practice in the state where the incident occurred. If the accident occurred in San Diego County California, then a San Diego Personal injury attorney should be retained, even the injured lives in Nevada.

Following the car accident the personal injury claimant should take several steps to protect his rights.

When the injuries are severe there is not much the victim can do, but others can and should immediately call for an ambulance. The police should be called next and the events leading to the injury should be recorded.

If a camera is available or a store where a camera can be purchased pictures should be taken of the location of the vehicles, skid marks, and the injuries to the injured. In many instances there is no immediate bruising or bleeding. Most injuries are not visible to the eye, but some fractures cause severe distortions of the limbs and those should be photographed. This type of evidence can lead to a much better and much quicker resolution.

Collect contact details of witnesses. Occasionally a case can be successful or fail because of a lack or availability of witnesses. This is especially true when the claim is that one of the parties ran a red light.

The injured should consult a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. Not having a personal injury attorney can lead to problems with proving a case and with obtaining fair compensation. Also there are instances where the statute of limitations is very short.

Speak to a San Diego personal injury attorney today San Diego Personal Injury Attorney

Parenting is the raising and nurturing of children in a way that empowers them to lead a better, safer and secure life. But when does the responsibility of the parent actually start? And when does it really end?

In my opinion, the responsibility starts before the birth of the child. In fact, it starts even before the conception! And the shocking reply to the second question is – it never ends!

When you give birth to a child, it is important that you are physically, financially and mentally prepared to take responsibility of its rearing. You should be confident that, under the present given circumstances, and taking into account your future circumstances as you foresee them, you will manage to nurture your child at least to the point that you can take care of their physiological, social, educational and security needs.

Once you’re fully prepared, your parenting responsibility moves to the next stage – after conception and before birth. The mother should not smoke or drink during pregnancy, it adversely affects the child. This could be to the extent of being physically or mentally retarded (or both). If the father smokes, it is important not to smoke when his wife is around. This means that she should stay away from all smokers – passive smoking is almost as dangerous as active smoking. Taking care of one’s own mental and physical health, avoiding stress, having an overall good mood and being in a happy state of mind, etc are some of the things a mother should do during pregnancy. In fact, it is said that the mother’s environment is 100% responsible for the child’s values, even before birth. This includes the music she listens to, the movies that she watches, her thoughts, etc.

Next comes the stage just after the birth of the child. I will purposely skip this section as this information is very common and you can easily get it by searching on google. You will also find this information at http://www.bharatbhasha.com/parenting.php

During parenting, parents play different roles of life which include but not limited to:

Policeman: You need to analyze when it is right to let the child have its way and when you should firmly put your foot down. It is all about balance and socio economic conditions. Give some freedom when required but deny something that is not good for him / her. This does not necessarily have to be similar to a policeman’s behavior, but you can lovingly make the child understand what is good for him and what isn’t.

Friend: More often than not, children trust their friends more than their parents. If you can be “that friend”, you can be assured that the child won’t hide anything from you, much less, do something against your wishes. If you’ve created that attitude from its early understanding stages, you shouldn’t have a problem in accomplishing this goal.

Detective: Yes, you need to keep a hawk’s eye on your child. And at times, it may even be necessary to contract a real detective if you suspect the whereabouts of your child. While some parents do not agree to this on the pretext that they trust their children, I will still agree to it. You can trust the child but you cannot trust the environment, your child’s friends, and the overall things that try to change or manipulate the thoughts, the feelings, the attitude and the general outlook on life, of your child. If you do not believe me, trying answering this question and see for yourself:

Have you trained your child to the point that they can easily understand when someone is trying to persuade / manipulate them to do something which is wrong, and they are completely fulfilled when it comes to all of their physiological needs, their social needs, their need to feel needed, their need to be noticed and felt understood, their need to be right, and their need to have a sense of power?

If even one of these is missing, it means that you need to keep a check on his / her belongings, conversations, behavior, attitude, spending, etc, even if you don’t like to. If you can afford a big allowance and you want him / her to enjoy it, at least make it a point to keep track of the expenses.

Due to limited space, I will have to end this article here. Do remember – your responsibility of parenting continues even after the child grows up, finishes school, finishes college, gets married, and has his own children. The most dreaded words that a parent fears to listen (but many have to listen) are “If you can’t take care of me, why did you give birth to me?” For some more great and free parenting information, do visit http://www.bharatbhasha.com/parenting.php.

Nirjara Rustom moderates the parenting tips section of http://www.bharatbhasha.com at http://www.bharatbhasha.com/parenting.php. The content here is free to read, so do check it out.

Before we begin with the buying triggers, you should know the basic sales process. Below is how it works, in a nutshell:

Your customer has needs. You translate the features of your product or service into benefits. Your product or service has features. Product benefits are the links between your product’s features and your customer’s needs. You satisfy your customer’s needs by translating features of your product into benefits.

Having got that out of the way, let’s take a look at the 11 reasons why people really buy:

1. People Buy To Save Time: Time is the most precious commodity in the whole world. We all have the same 24 hours a day, so the person who makes the best utilization of his time stands to reach his goal faster than others. So if your product helps save time, it will certainly have a lot of demand!

2. People Buy To Save Energy: We need to accept the fact that most humans are lazy. They work because the “have to”, not because they “want to”. So if your product or service can save energy or effort and the price is right, people will want to buy it.

3. People Buy To Save / Make Money: A penny saved is a penny earned. So if your product / service can save money, people will be interested in buying it. If it can “make money”, they are game! Examples are – a software that replaces human labor, automates business, etc.

4. People Buy For Security: If your product / service gives some type of security or protection, it will be sought for. This can be burglar alarms, insurance covers, law services, medical services, etc.

5. People Buy For Comfort: How many times have you “switched over” a product for a similar one, just for the sake of comfort? As and when one progresses his financial situation / ages, he seeks comfortable things. He wants to replace the wooden chair with the cushion one, the old rumbling car with the new air conditioned one with special shock absorbers, etc. Comfort is an excellent buying trigger.

6. People Buy To Reduce / Eliminate Pain: This one is simple and doesn’t require much explanation. Nobody likes to bear pain, especially physical and emotional pain. People will do just about anything to eliminate / reduce their pain. If it can be done with money, they will beg, borrow or steal if they don’t have it.

7. People Buy To Avoid Trouble: Anything that causes trouble is stressful and people hate it. Buying a “stay order” through a lawyer in a dispute, paying taxes on time to avoid the IRS hounding you, insuring a vehicle to avoid legal charges when it is “not your fault” are all examples of this buying trigger.

8. People Buy For Pleasure / Entertainment: We all need to unwind at some point of time. Movies, plays, dancing, eating out, celebrations are all examples of pleasure and entertainment.

9. People Buy To Satisfy Curiosity: Magic games, gossip magazines, gossip parties, “the secrets of ______ (fill up anything like writing, making money online, advertising, etc) are some examples of the curiosity trigger. This is really a big one – an itch which will go away only if you buy. Did this actor had an affair with this married model? This magazine exposes the facts! You get it..

10. People Buy To Take Advantage Of Opportunities: One Time Offers, limited edition cars, limited club membership, fire sales, discount offers are all examples of opportunities. People will buy stuff that they neither need or want, just because they will never get the opportunity to buy again, should they want to buy in future. Big one, here.

11. People Buy For Vanity: Flashy Sports Cars, expensive suits, rolex watches, unique jewelery, antique paintings – are all examples of vanity buying in action. People want to show off, they want to perpetuate an experience. Make heads turn, make friends freak out, make your neighbors green with jealousy, etc.

I hope you got a lot of value from this article. Remember, nobody’s interested in the features of your products or services. Don’t bother with specifications, how long you are in business, etc - nobody gives a damn. They only want to know what it can do for them. Remember the WII FM radio formula – “What’s In It For Me?” Once you can answer this well, you’ve got them hooked!

Nirjara Rustom moderates the sales tips section of http://www.bharatbhasha.com at http://www.bharatbhasha.com/sales.php. The content here is free to read, so do check it out.

There are only 3 things that are required to be successful:

1. Knowledge.

2. Motivation.

3. Action.

But what does “success” really mean?

In reality, success could have entirely different meanings for different people, sometimes even radically opposite! It all depends on their individual goal.

• For some people, success means to make a lot of money, buy cars, a house, maybe a private jet, etc.

• For some, it means to be healthy enough to live up to almost a hundred years “in prime health”.

• Some people want to become famous in their country (or even the world)!

• For some people, success means dominating the whole world in their chosen market.

• Some people consider success as having a loving life partner. Nothing else matters to them.

• Again, some consider providing the best education and values to their children as their ultimate success.

I could go on, but I do not want to bore you… your idea of success could be one or more of the above (or maybe all of them). Or something entirely different. Whatever is it that you want to achieve in life, it is not only possible, it’s probable.

Knowledge: I told you earlier that the first thing required to be successful was knowledge. To become successful in anything, you first need to have the right knowledge. There are several ways to achieve this: books, courses, seminars, audios, videos, tutorials, workshops, one on one training, etc. In fact, you can even get a lot of information for free on the internet. But the problem is, not all the “so called free” information you get on the internet is correct. Some of the information is plain wrong and misleading. Sometimes, this can be disastrous. This is because once you believe in some particular information, it is extremely difficult (and sometimes impossible) to de-program your brain and feed it the correct information. Now, this does not necessarily mean that “all free information is crap” and “all paid information products are great”. I have personally purchased expensive courses which were crap, and come across free information that was excellent. But this was rare. Additionally, when someone is selling some information (packaged in a pdf ebook, physical book, video tutorials, password protected membership website, or any other method) it is far more likely that the person has taken a lot of effort to ensure that the product has been created by putting in a lot of research, personal experience and has been tested to live up to its expectations. Only then will the creator of the product ensure the long term success of its sales. It has to benefit the customer in some way or the other, especially saving the time to research himself / herself. And since time is actually the “most important resource” in the world for any human being, the successful people minimize the wastage of this valuable resource by “buying it”.

This, my friend, it the first “real secret” of successful people! Look, nobody was born with all the necessary knowledge right from their mother’s womb. The successful people learnt it, were motivated enough to implement it, and finally, took the necessary action. They also probably got the “correct knowledge” right from the beginning. Now, some of you may argue with me that there could be other factors that were responsible for their success. Some of these could be:

1. Luck.

2. Support (financial support, peer support, good contacts, etc).

3. Karma (also from past life?).

And guess what? I will not argue with you. You may be partly right (or 100% right). OK, so now what? Will you sit back and let these factors influence your success, or will you lead your life to success?

Motivation: After knowledge, the most important thing you need to succeed is motivation. While the most effective and result oriented motivation is self motivation, there is no harm in taking the assistance of other things. These include but is not limited to: reading books, taking courses, listening to / watching motivational material, taking part in activities that motivate you, forming a like minded support group where you can meet and exchange views and ideas freely, joining an existing group, or simply doing anything that motivates you to do whatever is required to be successful.

Action: The single most important factor that differentiates between successful and unsuccessful people is – successful people take action and unsuccessful ones procrastinate. Look, if you don’t have enough knowledge, you can hire people who have knowledge. Knowledge is not power, applied knowledge is. So don’t be afraid to fail, just take action. Don’t try to wait until you can deliver something that is perfect, because you will never reach that goal. It took Thomas Edition ten thousand trials before he could invent the light bulb. He says that he did not fail 10000 times, but he discovered 10000 ways in which a light bulb cannot be made! So remember – the faster you take action, the faster you will discover stuff that doesn’t work, if you fail. Slowly and gradually, your failure to success ratio will go on decreasing!

Nirjara Rustom moderates the free advice category of http://www.bharatbhasha.com at http://www.bharatbhasha.com/advice.php. The content here is free to read, so do check it out.

Email marketing is the most cost effective form of marketing. Actually, it doesn’t cost anything to send emails, unless you consider internet bandwidth as a cost! However, you do need to have systems to send emails to your mailing list. There are many ways you can do this, ranging from free hosted services and free software, to one time payment owned products, to monthly payment hosted solutions. All systems have their own pros and cons, their own features and advantages. Let us discuss these in detail so that we can decide which one is best for you:

Free Hosted Solution: There are several free autoresponder services available online, if you search on google. One of them is sendfree.com. The problem with these services is that they have very limited features and at some point of time you will require to upgrade to their paid solution, as your business expands. I wouldn’t advice to go for it, unless you’re doing it for entertainment purposes only.

Free Mailing Software: There are quite a few softwares available that you can install on your own server. This is OK to start with. But since it is free, you may be limited with features. Additionally, you won’t get any support and neither will they hold responsibility for any bugs or security holes. You can opt for this solution if you’re just trying your hand at it and are not very serious about it.

Paid Mailing Software: If you prefer to have complete control over your subscriber list and would prefer to pay a one time fee (and maybe a small annual fee for support and upgrades) instead of a monthly fee, this is a good option to choose. Depending on the software you purchase, there are a range of features to choose from, so do your research before taking a decision. Remember, taking backup of your lists is your responsibility. Depending on the number of subscribers you add to your lists on a regular basis, you should take a backup accordingly, like weekly, daily or even every few hours. Your list is your most important business asset, so take care of it. Autoresponse Plus is a good option to choose, if you opt for this solution.

Hosted Solutions: There are a whole range of hosted list management and autoresponder solutions available on the internet. A few of them are aweber, getresponse, emailaces, 123response, etc. Some of these solutions also offer an inbuilt ecommerce module like the 1shoppingcart. In fact, the professional package of 1shoppingcart has a complete online marketing system including digital delivery of downloadable products, affiliate tracking software, shopping cart, ad tracking, multiple payment gateway integration, etc.

Most popular hosted email solutions providers also maintain very good relationships with many ISPs, which is certainly an advantage when it comes to email deliverability. The chances of getting your email lost in a junk folder or not getting delivered at all decreases drastically, when you choose this option. However, this tends to be an expensive option and you need to fork out anything ranging from $10 to a few hundred dollars a month. The cost depends on which provider you choose and also the number of subscribers that you have / expect to have. Choose this option if you’re confident of taking full commercial advantage of your list. Another good but very expensive hosted solution is infusionsoft. It has all the bells and whistles like open rate, click rate, unsubscribe rate, and other statistics.

Whatever solution you choose, remember to educate yourself with the spam laws and also keep your knowledge updated. You never know when an unintentional goof up can land you in serious trouble. Most importantly, use double optin, have your complete address in all emails, and have a genuine unsubscribe link within your emails.

Nirjara Rustom moderates the email marketing section of http://www.bharatbhasha.com at http://www.bharatbhasha.com/email.php. The content here is free to read, so do check it out.