Digg it UP - Writing and Speaking

Planning Your 10 Prospects
I know of a large company that is growing rapidly and their biggest success is traced back to contacting ten people everyday. The ten they contact are usually past customers and referrals from those customers. They almost never do cold calls, the information they send out is always welcome. You may recognize Olympia Funding as one of the top ten fastest growing companies in the California Bay Area. A lot can be learned from their methodologies. Olympia Funding started with one

ests have entry fees as high as $60-$70), it’s fun to participate and wait for the outcome. And if you win, it’ll do wonders to your ego, bring your name out there to the public and serve as a marvelous tool of promotion. It will also look damn nice on top of your mantelpiece, where you’ll be able to show it off to your obnoxious cousin Harold in one of those cozy family reunions.

For more information on these awards:

Child Audio Books
Do you have to do a very long trip by car with kids ? One of the main questions you should be asking yourself is : How will we entertain them during most of the duration of the journey ?Child Audio Books can be an excellent answer for that. They can be a perfect way to spend time as they can make your children develop their imagination being very happy. In addition, listening to a different voice, that they don't know, can be useful to get the childr

There’s no doubt awards can do wonders for a writer’s self esteem. After all, an award is a validation of a writer’s hard work. But is it, in all cases, a validation of that particular work’s quality? Are all awards credible? Can a mediocre writer judge a book or have the ability to see another person’s mediocre work? When judges know in advance the author and publisher of a book, can they be one hundred per cent fair? Do they act with objectivity and professionalism and don’t allow their personal feelings to get involved even if they dislike or like the author? Does belonging to the organization that gives the award improves chances of winning? When I look at the statistics of winners from some of these organizations, I have to wonder.

Having read books which were ‘award’ winners, I really have to ask myself these questions. Sometimes the books have been great and justified the award. But in other instances the books have been poorly written. How did these books get picked up as winners? Is there a chance all works submitted were mediocre and the winner was simply the less mediocre among the rest? When I read ‘award-winning author’ these days, a little red flag goes up in my head. There are simply so many ‘award-winning’ authors out there, the term has certainly lost some of its strength.

Obviously, I’m not talking here about the National Book Award, Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, nor of the HUGO and Bram Stocker awards, but of those that are open to small POD presses like the EPPIE, Dream Realm Award, PRISM, IPPY, Foreword Book Award, among various others. The YPPY and Foreword awards seem to be the ones with more cachet.

As for sales, it seems awards sometimes help and sometimes don’t. I’ve heard of authors whose book sales increased, and from others who really didn’t see much difference. Having myself bought books based on an award, it’s fair to say that some readers may be impressed enough by it to make a purchase. Awards do help to put an author’s name out there among the readers and publishers and can be effective tools of book promotion when used in back cover blurbs, and other forms of advertising.

So what can organizations do about ensuring the credibility of their awards? For one thing, make sure that all writers judging the books are excellent writers—only these will be able to best discern the quality material from the mediocre. Every time a mediocre book is given an award, all those others good authors who have won the same award by writing quality books will suffer for it. It’s just like with POD presses. Those publishers who accept everything regardless of quality and disregard editing are the ones who give the rest of the POD presses a bad name, which is a real pity.

That said, I think an award is a good thing for authors. The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. If you have the cash to spend (some contests have entry fees as high as $60-$70), it’s fun to participate and wait for the outcome. And if you win, it’ll do wonders to your ego, bring your name out there to the public and serve as a marvelous tool of promotion. It will also look damn nice on top of your mantelpiece, where you’ll be able to show it off to your obnoxious cousin Harold in one of those cozy family reunions.

For more information on these awards:

Empowering Your Manager
"So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work." - Peter DruckerManaging is often equated with controls rather than leading and developing a business. The manager feels more comfortable and secure when they are able to put in strict controls on everything that happens in a business organization. This is so especially of Senior Managements where the controls and directing becomes so severe that it erodes any creative free

ns, I have to wonder.

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Learn More About How To Find Work At Home Data Entry Jobs
Today with the internet you can find numerous work at home data entry jobs opportunities, all you need is to know how to search them. If you have some typist skills, then you can easily get some work at home data entry jobs, but you do not need to have typist skills for all data entry jobs.There are some employers who may want you to type an specific number of words per minute, but there are others who just want you to enter the data. In order to be successful wi

s, but of those that are open to small POD presses like the EPPIE, Dream Realm Award, PRISM, IPPY, Foreword Book Award, among various others. The YPPY and Foreword awards seem to be the ones with more cachet.

For more information on these awards:

How Do You Decide On The Best Home Business Possible?
You have committed to starting a home business and are anxious to get started. Your intentions are good and your goals are plotted out for what you want to achieve. All that is left now is for you to start your internet business. That is when you start thinking and worrying about what is to come.Starting a home business can be a stressful point in time because you are embarking onto a new phase in your life. The best way to have success with it and lighten the load in t

organizations do about ensuring the credibility of their awards? For one thing, make sure that all writers judging the books are excellent writers—only these will be able to best discern the quality material from the mediocre. Every time a mediocre book is given an award, all those others good authors who have won the same award by writing quality books will suffer for it. It’s just like with POD presses. Those publishers who accept everything regardless of quality and disregard editing are the ones who give the rest of the POD presses a bad name, which is a real pity.

For more information on these awards:

Highly Recommended 'Pre-Fab' Marketing Business
Unfortunately most 'ready-made' business sites don't seem to be very user or customer friendly and are extremely expensive for what is being offered. Most of these programmes have only one way to make you money, you send the traffic and they close the sale!?However, one 'pre-fab'affiliate marketing business, the CBMall can be highly recommended. The Premier-CBMall has 15 ways to make you money and they do virtually all of the work. You just send traffic to your unique

For more information on these awards:

IPPY (Independent Publisher Book Award): www.independentpublisher.com/ipaward.lasso
Foreword Book Award (awarded by Foreword Magazine): http://www.forewordmagazine.com/awards/
PRISM (awarded by the Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal chapter of Romance Writers of America): www.romance-ffp.com
EPPIE (awarded by the EPIC, or the Electronically Published Internet Connection organization): www.epic-conference.com/eppie_awards.html
Dream Realm Award: www.dream-realm-awards.net/2006.html

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Are you an entrepreneur? Learn the qualities one must have to be a successful entrepreneur.

All this is a timely reminder about insurance to protect your assets from acts of nature over which we have no control. Insurance is one of those intangible things - you pay out the money but you never see anything tangible in return - except in the event of some misfortune.

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Digg it UP - A Closer Look At Literary Awards

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