The Info Treasure Trove

1) Wash your pen every few weeks and whenever changing ink color.
2) Use only cold or tepid water when washing the pen. Demineralised water will work best (tap water sometimes contains particles which may clog the feed).
3) Never use hot water, alcohol or solvents as these will damage the feed or other parts of the pen irreparably.
4) Wash the pen by filling and emptying it with water (repeat this until the water is clear). If the pen uses a cartridge/converter, soak the nib section in water for some hours.
5) If you do not plan on using your pen for a prolonged period of time, empty and wash it out before storing it away.
6) Avoid using chemically treated paper, which usually has a slick feel, because it does not absorb ink well and leaves residues on the point of the nib which might clog the ink flow
7) If travelling by plane, it is a general rule to follow with fountain pens to fill or empty them completely and keep them stored in vertical position with the point upward. This will avoid leakage.
Do not loan your pen to anyone, as the nib adjusts only to your own writing style (i.e.: pressure and angle).
9) When not using the pen, keep it stored vertically with point upward to prevent ink from settling in and clogging the feed.
10) If your pen does not write immediately (after not having been used it for more than a month) the ink has probably dried and clogged the nib and feed. To restore the ink flow either wash the nib with water or fill and empty it with ink of same color. If it does not write yet, wash it with tepid water.

from the experience of fountain pens craftsman
www.penemporium.com

If The Viewpoint Character Is A Secondary Character, Have You Established Who He is?

I have said above that if a secondary character tells the story of the main character, then the spotlight should be kept on the main character.

This shouldn’t be taken to the extreme though.

In other words, you don’t just write the story of the main character without telling your readers a bit about your secondary character.

Unless the reader understands the reason a secondary character is telling the story, it will seem peculiar that the main character isn’t telling it himself. It is, after all, the main character’s story.

So, the following have to be answered…

• Who is this secondary character?

• Why is he telling the story instead of the main character?

• What is his connection with the main character?

Weave in some information about the secondary character so we can gain a better understanding of his role in the story.
_____________

Does The Name You Chose Suit Your Character?

How do you choose a name? Do you put down the first name that pops into your mind? Initially that’s what I used to do, until someone pointed out to me that there are a few things to take into consideration when choosing a name…

1. You Have To Be Comfortable With It

We associate names with people we know. If you like a certain name but know and dislike a person who bears it, will you feel comfortable using that name in your story?

Will you mentally shut that person out or will you be reminded of them each time you type that name?

Our characters have to be likable to us before they can become likeable to our readers. Will your dislike for that person transfer to your character?

2. It Must Be Easy To Pronounce

The English language can be, at times, misleading. How many words, and even names we spell one way and pronounce another? If the name you have chosen falls into this category, will your readers know how to pronounce it?

For years I use to pronounce the beautiful name ‘Sean’ exactly how it’s written ‘Seen,’ when it’s pronounced by the much nicer sounding ‘Shorn.’ Will the name you choose bear the same problem?

If you choose a difficult pronouncing name for your character and worse, one that’s not widely known, you stand to lose the effect of that name. A beautiful sounding name can be utterly destroyed if your reader doesn’t know how to pronounce it.

Your story has to flow. If the name you’ve chosen is not easy to pronounce, the readers will constantly stop each time they come across it. This will disrupt the flow of your story.

3. Foreign Sounding Names

The same as the above applies to foreign sounding names. They must be easy to pronounce. Consider the following:

Yahiya
Indihar
Gschu
Lyudmila

These names sound exotic but they don’t exactly roll off the tongue. Should you compromise the flow of the story for the sake of a name?

4. Does The Name Suit Your Character?

Not all names suit all people and not all names will suit all characters. Like clothing and hairstyles, names go out of fashion too.

For example…

Let’s say your heroine is a lively, upbeat, modern lady. Will it suit her type of personality if we choose the name ‘Mabel’? ‘Mabel’ we usually associate with an elderly aunt or grandmother.

What about your hero? Let’s say he’s a young man who possesses a powerful personality. Will the name ‘Hubert?’ suit him? ‘Hubert’ would suit an elderly character or perhaps a ‘quiet’ character.

5. They Shouldn’t Start With The Same Letter

If you’re going to have two main characters in your story and their names start with the same letter, it will read a little awkwardly.

Example…

&61607; David and Debra
&61607; Sam and Sue
&61607; George and Gina

6. Surnames

Like we carefully choose the first name for our characters, we have to be careful when selecting their surnames. Just like first names, there are certain surnames, which sound better than others.

When selecting a surname, make sure it has a pleasant ring, when used with the first name. Using names, which rhyme like, Jeff Jefferson, sound amusing. If this is the effect you wish to create then using it is fine.

7. Stereotype Names

Are you thinking of naming your character Adolph or Judas? There’s nothing wrong with these names, except for the fact that we tend to associate them with that single person in history who bore them. Will your reader trust your hero if you name him Judas?

8. Famous Names

I recall a quote I once read which went something like this…

“Nothing grows under the shade of a tree.”

If you name your character Elvis, Madonna etc.. Will your character be able to outshine the ultra famous person of whom the world knows? I doubt it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When naming characters there are also a few other points to consider…

Naming them will not only depend on what kind of people they are, but who their parents or guardians were (if the parents or guardians play some sort of role in your story). After all, we don’t name ourselves, do we? So take into consideration the following…

1) What kind of people are the parents?

a) Free spirited?

Unusual names will rank highly amongst people like this.

For example,

&61607; The seasons of the year
&61607; Or perhaps a month in the year
&61607; Or an object
&61607; Etc

b) Conservative?

These types of people tend to use the full name rather than an abbreviated version of it.

For example,

&61607; Kathleen instead of Kat
&61607; Michael instead of Mike
&61607; Etc

2) What Is The Parents/Guardians Nationality?

If they’re traditional, they will choose a name, which is popular in their country. Also traditional parents/guardians tend to give their children the names of their own parents or other relatives.

Look at the name you chose for your main characters. Does the name suit them?

About the author:

———————————————————————————-
Besides his passion for writing, Nick Vernon runs an online gift site where you will find gift information, articles and readers funny stories. Visit http://www.we-recommend.com

Most individuals don’t understand how much a debt relief company can help their future finances. By using a debt relief company to renovate your poor credit can help to improve many different aspects of your life. It can also open more doors for you down the road once your credit is fixed. A debt relief company can improve your credit swifter and assist you to execute your future goals.

Using a debt settlement company will mean that you will get a greater chance of being okayed for additional credit or loan products in the future. Being able to be okayed for additional loans is very important for buying a new car or receiving a mortgage loan to buy a house. Fixing bad credit with a debt settlement company can improve your chances of being approved by the lender or the credit card company that you are interested in doing business with.

Individuals that have used a debt settlement company will usually qualify for a lower interest rate on any potential loans and credit cards than a person that has bad credit or has a great deal of flaws on their credit report. This is because individuals that have mended their credit applying one of these services are not seen as a credit risk by the company. This allows for them to provide the person a lower interest rate because they believe that they will be getting their money back in a timely manner. Being able to obtain a lower interest rate on credit products can save you hundreds of dollars in interest every year.

The laws governing telemarketing calls have been toughened due to the outrage of people who have been constantly harassed by telemarketers calling them at all hours of the day and night. One of the most complicated and convoluted of the telemarketing laws are the laws that pertain to telemarketers who make calls on behalf of fundraising organizations. In order to better understand these laws so that you, as the consumer, know whether or not your rights have been violated, what follows is a brief summary of telemarketing fundraising laws. Please be advised that these laws may be slightly different based on where you live. These are general FTC guidelines.

First of all, it is important to know just who is and who isn’t covered by these laws. If you are a telemarketing company making calls on behalf of a fundraising organization and you are doing this for profit on behalf of a non-profit organization then you are covered by these laws. If you are a non-profit agency then you are not.

If you are covered then you must honor what are called in-house suppress requests. This means that you must eliminate numbers of prospects and customers to call who specifically request not to be contacted by your company. This is according to Article # 31, DMA Guidelines For Ethical Business Practices.

After that has been done then the next restriction is that you can only call people between the hours of 8 AM and 9 PM. This is according to Section 310. Each individual state may have different additional restrictions as far as legal calling hours.

When making the call you must transmit your caller ID and cannot block this transmission. You must include, in the transmission, the phone number of the seller, service bureau or customer service number that would be answered if somebody wanted to call during normal business hours. The name of the seller or service bureau must also be included if the technology allows for it.

The call, if put through by an automatic dialing system, must be connected to a live caller within 2 seconds of the completed greeting by the system. The greeting itself can be any length of time but after it is completed a live person must speak within 2 seconds. If this doesn’t happen it is considered an abandoned call.

Once the call is transferred to a live representative, the identity of the caller must be given immediately. After that, the purpose of the call must be given to the customer. Finally, the goods trying to be sold, in this case solicitation for fundraising, must be disclosed. Any attempt to misrepresent the purpose of the charity, tax deductibility, percentage going to the program itself, any aspect of prize promotion, or affiliation with government agency, is in violation of Article 8 of the DMA Guidelines For Ethical Business Practice and Section 310.

These are only the most basic of the regulations regarding calls made by companies for charitable organizations. There are also additional laws based on the type of campaign, such as negative option and continuity programs, or free to pay conversion programs, but the main rules apply to all of these.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Telemarketing

When talking about business sales leads, it is important to understand the buyer, and to create a customer through this understanding. Buyer behavior studies can play a pivotal part in this regard. A lot of time and effort have been spent on this relatively new discipline. And every buyer-study has unfolded some new dimension of this discipline. The subject has been approached and analyzed from different angles and under different premises. Different inferences have been formulated. But the subject, too complex to beat, still remains a theorem without a proof.

What motivates the buyer? What induces him to buy? Why does he buy a specific brand from a particular shop? Why does he shift his preferences from one shop to another or from one brand to another? How does he react to a new product introduced to the market, or a piece of information addressed to him? What are the stages he travels through before he makes the decision to buy?

These are some of the questions that are of perennial interest to business firms regarding the sale of their products. It is around these questions that the product and promotion strategies of the business firm ultimately revolve. In all of their strategies and plans, firms make assumptions as to how the buyers would behave and respond to marketing programs. Knowledge of the buyer and his buying motives and habits is thus a fundamental necessity for getting business sales leads.

It needs to be emphasized at the very outset that there is no unified, well-defined, tested and universally established theory of buyer behavior. What we have, today, are certain ideas on buyer behavior. Some of these ideas have taken their cue from economics, others from psychology and yet others have drawn cues from several of the social sciences simultaneously.

Selling is just a whole lot easier when you know what people really want.

But unless you’re psychic, or know how to do the Vulcan mind meld, “getting into their brains” is HUGE!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve racked my brain trying to make sense of consumer opinion, & up until this point, I have to confess. Ain’t got no voodoo.

But here’s what I know.

Having the right product is certainly important, but it’s not nearly enough. What people really purchase are positive feelings that they associate with ownership, and they rarely express the connection between those feelings & product ownership plainly in consumer opinion polls. You must read between the lines.

People will look at the same identical product in a variety of ways. Is each one really searching for something different?

Actually, there are usually four or five common things that the majority of people in your market are looking for, and statistically speaking, those things are more or less important to them. On the surface, these things seem infinitely varied. But there’s always a common theme lurking under the surface. People at the very core of their being, are driven by human nature, instinct, and emotion. Show me a marketing campaign that doesn’t stir up these things at some level, and I’ll show you one that probably doesn’t work.

It’s easy to sell people what they want. The tough part is mining & gauging consumer opinion to find out what that really is.

A couple of suggestions,

Method One - Testing

Here’s a story from Elmer Wheeler’s “Field Word Laboratory”.

Elmer was asked by the Barbasol Company to come up with some effective sales talk to be used in selling shaving cream at retail counters. Were men at the Sears Roebuck toiletry counter looking for a clean shave, a quick shave, a cheap shave, a safe shave, a shave that didn’t bother their skin, a precise shave to detail their designer mustachios?

Out of 146 sentences tested, it turned out that sales increased an astounding 102% when the clerks approached the customer with “How would you like to save 6 minutes shaving?” Sales increased still further, with “How Would You Like to Cut Your Shaving Time in Half?”

Testing is one way to find out what your customers are after, and how best to dangle it like a carrot in front of their noses. What you’re really looking to determine is a hierarchy of wants. The top want should go in the headline. The second one in the opening lines. The third in further into the piece, and so on. Powerful stuff!

Of course testing is a process of elimination, so it’s a painstaking process. Here’s a tip. Start out with benefits that appeal to one of these three most basic & powerful of all human motives. Self Preservation, the desire for romance, & the desire for money. Can you think of ways to tie a quick shave to these? I’ll leave that to your imagination.

The order of the benefits you’re presenting is also extremely important. If you’ve got it wrong, you’re loosing too many potentially interested prospects. You need to grab them by the lapel with the most statistically relevant top benefit! And then send them careening down a slippery slope to your order form, with the rest.

Method Two - Just Ask

Have you heard of Socrates, and the Socratic method? Here’s a guy who figured out how to answer a question with a question with a question, until the cows came home.

Unfortunately, people no longer have time to hang out under olive trees, and they only accept interrogation from their analyst.

Pity.

So what you need is a little quid pro quo (One thing for another).

Consumer opinion is gold! What can you offer your prospects, or clients in return for it?

“Two Little Words That Never Go Out Of Style!”

Of all the conversations going on inside people’s heads right now, I can tell you with certainty that “How To” is dead front & center. At the time of this writing, 68.8% of the questions received at “Selling to Human Nature”, contain this phrase.

So here’s my advice on collecting consumer opinion. Trade information about “How To” solve problems with your product or service, for consumer opinion from your customers. If you want to know exactly “how to” do this for maximum response, I strongly recommend you look at the work of Robert Collier.

Chapters 1 & 9 of my new ebook, which studies his technique, show you how to not only elicit the opinions & preferences of your market, but also make sales doing it. He did this time & time again with amazing result!

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto Canada. Recently, Daniel & world-renowned publicist & copywriter Joe Vitale teamed up to co author “Million Dollar Online Advertising Strategies - From The Greatest Letter Writer Of The 20th Century!”, a tribute to the late, great Robert Collier.

Let the legendary Robert Collier show you how to write words that sell…Visit the below site & get 3 FREE Chapters!

http://www.Advertising-Online-Strategies.com/ad-strategies.html

1. Make telephone calls
Few things are more terrifying than the unknown. The fear you create for yourself is far worse than the reality of cold calling. Once you start making telephone calls and continue making telephone calls, it gets easier. You overcome fear by doing.

2. Make a lot of telephone calls
If you have only one prospect to pursue, that prospect becomes overwhelmingly important. If you have hundreds of leads, no one prospect can make or break you. The more calls you make, the more success you will have.

3. Prepare
Prepare for cold calling the way you would for any major presentation. Know what you want to say, how you want to say it and how you want to represent yourself, your company, your product or service. And know the goal of your telephone call.

4. Practice
If you are new to cold calling or uncomfortable with cold calling, practice your pitch out loud. Role-play with friends or colleagues. Practice various sales scenarios. This way, you will not have to worry about what you are going to say. You will be prepared, and you can focus in on your prospect.

5. Start with less important leads
It will be good practice and less stressful. Once you feel more comfortable, start working on the more important leads.

6. Stay calm
You will, for the most part, be talking to people who will appreciate your call. If a prospect is rude, remember: This is not personal. They may just be having a bad day. Move on.

7. Your priorities and your prospect’s priorities are different
You want an immediate “yes”; your prospect may want to finish a report, finish a conversation, start their vacation… Be very careful not to read negative or extra meaning into early conversations with your prospect or prospect’s secretary. If, for example, your prospect’s secretary says that your prospect is “on the phone,” “in a meeting” or “out of the office,” that does not translate to, “My prospect knows that I am calling and is avoiding me.”

8. Some things are out of your control
If a prospect does say “no,” ultimately, that is out of your controlbut what is within your control is continuing to prospect and continuing to make calls. It is also within your control to improve your cold calling skills, take seminars, read books or hire a coachthen, fewer prospects will say “no.”

9. Arlene’s Game
The object of Arlene’s game is to focus on rejection. The goal is to reach 100 points. You get 1 point for every rejection. Give yourself 1 point for every “no” answer. If your prospect says “yes,” that’s a bonus! Focus on acquiring points. The more calls you make, the more points you acquire. When you reach 100You Win! Give yourself a prize!

10. Have fun
This is not life or deathit’s only a cold call. The fate of the world does not rest on you and your telephone. You will not destroy your company or ruin your life if a prospect says “no.” Loosen up, be creative, have some fun!

© 2004 Wendy Weiss

Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success, is a sales trainer, author and sales coach.

She is the author of Cold Calling for Women and the soon-to-be-released Cold Calling College. Get her free e-zine, Opening Doors & Closing Sales by visiting http://www.wendyweiss.com.

There are a great deal of logical reasons why you might want a garden shed and as luck would have it there are garden sheds to meet just about every need. Garden sheds can be bought just about all over but what you will notice is the price will vary tremendously. You should not have to forego the garden shed you need because it is excessively pricey though. A garden shed is something you buy once and use for a long time and if you take a look on-line you can find cheap sheds at some pretty silly prices. I don’t mean silly and cheap as in quality but as in cost. You may find you can acquire the shed you want for the cost of the one you were close to settle for a lot cheaper and if you have a garden that you tend to every day you will almost in all probability require to look into a wooden shed as a place to place the fertilizer, water hose and tools and so on.

Protecting your garden tools and making them well obtainable is a real good idea. You can find cheap reliable sheds online that are the very same sheds you’d purchase in the store. In fact, you can go to the store and shop even touch them to find out if it’s what you require and then you can go on the internet and buy it for a lot lower price. The difference in cost is remarkable!

Knowing what to do when meeting a prospective client for
lunch, or going to lunch with the boss or colleague can be
confusing at times. Here is a quick list of items to
remember:

1. Be in the present moment with whoever you are with.
Limit glancing around the room. It’s a sign that you are
looking for something better. There is nothing worse than
having a conversation with someone who is half there.

2. Being on time. This sounds so commonsensical. The
percentage of people being late is over 65 percent. Don’t
push your time to the last minute before leaving the office
so you will be late. Take some reading or work with you,
arrive early, sit in the lobby, and work. Or give yourself
some space to think over how you want to approach the time
together. You introduction, tone, style, or even plan a
quick get away if the union isn’t working. The memory
implant of your lateness will always override any request
for forgiveness.

3. Turn off your cell phone before entering the restaurant.
No one around you wants to hear your conversation. Even if
you let it ring, pick it up and then take it outside. Did
you leave your lunch companion alone? This is just plain
rude. If you have an “I don’t care attitude” about this,
I’ll tell you a story about a lunch guest of mine who did
this and the three prospects she was meeting didn’t even sit
down. They saw her talk, she waved a 1-minute finger single
to them, and they turned around and walked out. They
wouldn’t even answer her phone calls or emails afterwards.

4. If you are woman and this is business, it’s appropriate
now to stand up and shake the hand of a male. This
overrides
the old rule of staying seated. If the meeting is for your
spouse’s business and you are coming along because other
spouses are coming, then you stay seated as your spouse
stands up. This rules applies for either gender.

5. Offer your hand and give a firm handshake. Sometimes,
people who don’t like to shake hands will not meet yours.
Don’t think anything of it if they don’t, this is just their
preference. And particularly don’t say something cute or
funny.

6. Think of an opening statement to make as you are shaking
hands. This is part of your first impression, so make it
good. Always use the guest’s first name either at the
beginning or at the end of the statement. For example,
“Thank you for taking the time to get together today,
Catherine.” When needing to complete a group of
introductions, highest rank rules over gender.

7. Small talk is important–don’t leave it out. The length
of time for small talk depends on many factors. If you are
in the presence of famous or very rich people and not in a
social setting, then the small talk, if any, is going to be
quick and short. It could be as short as one or two
sentences. People who know how much their time is worth, or
who are doing you a favor by being there, also fall into
this category.

8. Aha, who picks up the tab? If you did the inviting, you
are responsible for the check. No matter how more well-off
they are. If a joint meeting, ask at the beginning or when
scheduling the lunch on check splitting. Waiting until the
check arrives to state the check splitting is a sign of
professional weakness. If you are meeting with someone who
is giving you valuable advice, you must pick up the tab. A
personal handwritten follow-up note is also appropriate. If
they have saved or helped you make more money, send them a
gift or gift certificate. If you don’t you will never get
any more of their time again. This has occurred to me, and
the person never gets any time again.

9. Where does the napkin go? Immediately after sitting,
place the napkin in your lap. If you notice the napkin is in
the goblet, this is usually a signal from the restaurant
that the server will place the napkin into your lap. If you
excuse yourself during the meal, place the napkin on the
left hand side of your plate or on the chair. This signals
the server that you aren’t done. When done, place napkin on
the right of the plate and your fork and knife horizontally
across the plate to signal the server.

10. What to eat and use first? Which glass or which fork
can be confusing. Bread and salad plates always to the
left, drinking glasses to the right. Utensils start from
the outside in and the dessert fork is by the dessert plate.
Lay your fork and knife across your plate to signal the
server you’re finished.

Catherine Franz is a business coach and prolific writer. To
read additional articles or find out more about any of her
monthly eNewsletters, visit the Abundance Center at:
http://www.abundancecenter.com. Or Catherine’s blog:
http://abundance.blog

Experts have anticipated that the largest 675 ski domains could be brought down to 405 by 2047. Benedetta Longo said that tourism will suffer prior to then, not because of a decrease in the amount of snowfall just due to a worldwide shrinkage in buying ability linked to the price of crude oil. And what about climate change? Climatologists have shown that a doubling up of carbon dioxide levels will increase floor temperatures by 3 - 5 degrees. All the same there remain two open doubts. The rate of global warming and the consequences on the mountains climate. A couple degrees Celsius warming up in the last 100 yrs has not been seen in the last 1000000 years. During the end of the glacial epoch 18000 yrs ago the heating of 3 Celsius was during a period of six to ten thousand years. Before that La Chavanette and La Grave were beneath ice and Megeve would have been as cold as the Arctic.

Thus what is the future for medium height skiing fields areas? Energy problems will commence to be keenly felt by 2015 to 19, leading to increased costs for ski accommodation, ski taxi operators and ski lift companies alike. Most of the economic output depends upon crude oil and the French buys 90 %. The current bill is 5 percent of gross domestic product. If the cost of crude oil steps up as expected it’ll comprise 37 percent of gross domestic product, one can guess the down turn. The European Alps will see the cost of agricultural commodities going up, plant life species will vary because of a adjustment in rainfall patterns. Lots of people will move out of the region because of the summer heat, although it might be better for Chamonix summer holidays. Hydro-power will be a worthwhile source of power on the other hand it is not certain that it will be a boon because there will be a lot less snowfall, more water in the winter and less in the spring.