Top 10 Marketing Tips

1. Make your advantages easy to understand

For instance, Computer Resources International AS originally sold consulting, for which they used proprietary software. Only when they started selling the software first, and then customization and consulting as extras did their business take off. Buying software was easier to understand than the more intangible consulting. LifeUSA insurance, and many other businesses, focus on speed in every aspect of their business. They make fun of the slower industry standards and provide a simple advantage clients understand. Other ways to set yourself apart are through great service or association with worthy causes.

2. Don't try to be everything to everyone

Just as customers screen you, you should decide who you want to serve. Printing Resources originally took any printing business that walked in the door. When they realized which kinds of customers they worked with best, they were able to cut down their marketing costs and make more money. Some computer consulting firms only work with one customer per industry so they will have no conflicts of interest. You can bet they select customers carefully, and that customers are flattered by the partnership approach. Consider creating a checklist of who shouldn't hire you! It will help you focus, and may impress the right customers if you share it with them.

3. Work for referrals

Word of mouth is the least expensive, most effective way to get new business. Barry Farber has new customers write on the back of their business cards why they bought. These become mini-testimonials. Bob Brassard calls at least one client a day just to keep in touch. This builds the relationship by showing he doesn't just care about them when he wants something, allows him to update files, and generates referrals. One upscale dentist put up a Web page. He got about six extra referrals a month because his clients thought it was "cool" that their dentist had a Web page.

4. Use online marketing

You don't have to have a Web site like Eastern Mortgage Services to do business online. You can send personalized e-mail like Michael Swartz of DNA Software. You can pay only for the leads generated for you by advertising on many sites. You can research potential clients for better presentations. You can gather customer input inexpensively as Ritchey Design does. Or you can post free ads in discussion groups.

5. Don't sell, help people buy

When you truly put the client's interests above your own, you will become a consultant, a team member, and a partner for your client. When you've earned trusted advisor status, doing business is no problem. For instance, computer consultant, Amadaeus Consulting Group, helps its customers make more money by using computers to help their clients sell more. Of course, the extra business comes around as the client grows. A small accountant's client felt they needed a "Big 5" firm to handle their audit because they wanted to go public. Instead of resisting, the accountant helped the client select a Big 5 firm, thus maintaining and extending the relationship with the client. Conrad International added warehousing services near overseas clients so they could afford to buy in bulk for a lower price. When you put the customer first, you earn long-term loyalty that is more profitable than a larger quick sale.

6. Partner with other companies reaching your market

This might be neighborhood merchants cooperating on a sidewalk sale, or Digital Equipment partnering with Infinite Technologies to better serve the Bank of New York. Or it could be you partnering with a charity to create a fund raising event that brings attention to both of you, like Service Merchandise and Goodwill did.

7. Shift the risk to yourself and you will profit

A believable guarantee makes it safe for prospects to give you a try. Very few people will exploit a generous guarantee compared to the extra business it generates. YoyoDine is one of many companies that guarantee you results from their online advertising. Even Kaiser, the big HMO, found a money-back guarantee to be successful.

8. Be personal

To build relationships you have to build a personal connection. A handwritten invitation pulled great for Frank Candy, president of the American Speakers Bureau and for restaurateur Murray Raphael. Internet consultant Dan Janal gives clients links from his page. One nursing home created a waiting list through great referrals by greeting visiting relatives by name and filling them in on their loved ones at the start of each visit.

9. Create free publicity

Our old Construction Computer Applications Newsletter had a hard time finding reviewers for computer programs of interest to readers. Our reviewers not only got publicity from their reviews, but we gave them referrals. A large CPA firm specializes in citrus growers. Every year they do a survey of their clients' costs of operations. The survey data helps their clients benchmark their operations, positions the CPAs as the experts, and gets the CPA firm publicized in trade articles. Inquiry Handling Services gets regular publicity from newsletters and articles, as well as a book they wrote for their industry. And Luxury Limo received major coverage about a special rate created to allow three
"regular" women to share the commute in a limo at about the cost of carpooling.

10. Integrate your marketing

This means that everything you do should convey the same message and represent what you stand for. Putnam Investments manages $150 billion in assets. All their literature, and even their office, conveys the same message. Viva Knight, a script consultant, rents mailing lists from the same magazine he advertises in. If he also wrote articles for the same magazine, it would add to the integrated approach.

Whether you use high tech or shoeleather approaches to marketing, the best methods will be comfortable for you and prospects, build relationships, and support the setting up of a system that can be done regularly. And perhaps that's the main secret of successful marketing - to get started and keep doing something on a regular basis.

Top 10 mistakes to avoid when buying a bra

1. Baggy back = too much slack:
The back band of your bra provides 90 percent of the support, so the ideal fit should be firm yet comfortable. When such bands are too loose, the back of the bra rises up, causing breasts to sag. This "see-saw" effect also can emphasize what every woman wants to hide: unsightly back fat.

2. Resisting revolution:
As women age they often need to alter our skincare, makeup and even our hairstyle. The same holds true when it comes to bras. Thanks to weight loss and gain, nursing and hormonal changes, a bust line can change at least six times throughout a woman's life. For optimum style and comfort, make sure you get fitted for a bra yearly.

3. There is no perfect bra:
Buying a bra may take a little time. Don't just get the one your best friend raves about -- everyone's body is different. To find the most flattering fit, be sure to try on several styles. Tip: Slip on a shirt so you can see how your shape will appear when dressed.

4. Don't be a softy:
Most women find underwire bras to be uncomfortable, so they make the mistake of wearing a soft, non-underwire cup. The problem? There's not enough support, especially for full-figured gals. A properly fitted underwire bra should rest comfortably against your rib cage with a soft cotton casing. The end result: lift, support and comfort!

5. The big bind:
Minimizing bras, commonly worn by big-busted women, actually bind and compress breast tissue, resulting in a loss of firmness. To appear taller, smaller-breasted and even pounds slimmer, voluptuous ladies should stick with bras that lift and center the bust line.

6. Confusing cups:
Wearing the wrong-size cup is a common mistake. The telltale signs? Breasts that spill over, or worse yet, breasts that don't fill out the cups (resulting in wrinkles). Ideally, cup sizes should be proportional to the body frame.

7. You get what you pay for:
Department stores and specialty boutiques often carry low-quality, poorly made bras that fit badly. Higher-quality brands, which offer more size options, are designed for real women's shapes and sizes.

8. Self-service slip-up:
Don't sacrifice service, style and comfort because you're embarrassed to ask for help when buying a bra. Go ahead, ask questions! You'll be much happier (and more comfortable) in the long run.

9. De-compressed breasts:
Athletic women often rely on sports bras, which compress rather than support. A sports bra with seams, shape and cup depth will prevent jiggling while jogging.

10. Forever free of seams:
While seamless bras are comfortable and look great under your tight T-shirt, wearing them daily is a bad idea. Give your girls the support they need. Since seamed bras offer more support, try alternating between the two.

10 Controversial Banned Books.

1. The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie

“The book that is worth killing people and burning flags for is not the book that I wrote.” Salman Rushdie, Time Magazine , shortly after the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988.

Banned in most Muslim countries as also in India, the book was called a work of blasphemy by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeina who issued a fatwa against Rushdie for “insulting Islam, the prophet Muhammed and the holy Koran.”

As Rushdie saw it, his book “isn’t actually about Islam but about migration, metamorphosis, divided selves, love, death, London and Bombay,” he told Time.

2. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

Jesus wasn’t divine; he married Mary Magdalene, a woman of possible ill repute, and they had kids. The Vatican appealed to all Christiians to shun the book. The bestseller, which is now being made into a movie starring Tom Hanks, is a breathless thriller with madcap chases through the Louvre, code-crunching and sinister intrigue in Rome (particularly the Vatican).

3. Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia- Jean
Sasson

A true expose of life in a conservative, Muslim society, Princess is the ghost-written story of the life of a royal princess of the ruling Saud dynasty of Saudi Arabia. The book created a furore in the Muslim world and was banned in the Gulf countries. Some deeply disturbing accounts
narrated in the novel: teenage girls forced to marry doddering old men; young women killed by drowning, stoning or starved in a padded, windowless cell for sexual misconduct, or worse for having got pregnant after being raped.

4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Although it was published in Paris, it was soon (1956) to be banned there for being obscene. John Gordon, editor of the popular Sunday Express, had called it “the filthiest book I have ever read” and “sheer unrestrained pornography.”

Lolita is the sad story of Humpbert Humpbert, a middle-aged European’s obsession with a 12-year-old American girl. The mother’s accidental death proves the catalyst for the unlikely pair of lovers to set off on a cross-country trip where Humpbert indulges his most secret fantasies. The book details the relationship, ever-changing, always taboo, between Humpbert and Lolita, a relationship that, by its very nature, seems doomed to ultimate failure.

5. The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison

Eleven-year-old black girl Pecola Breedlove prays for blue eyes, “each night without fail” believing her ugly reality will be made beautiful through them. She years to be beautiful so that people will look at her. Instead she is spat upon, ridiculed, and ultimately raped and mpregnated by her own father. This novel by the Pulitzer prize-winning author was pulled from a high school in Alaska in 1994 and cited for being too “controversial.” The novel was both challenged and banned in Pennsylvania in 1994, and faced challenges in both Florida and Massachusetts due to the book’s sexual content.

6. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

In 1856, after publishing Madame Bovary, Flaubert and the editors of the Revue de Paris were put on trial because Madame Bovary was considered to be morally offensive. Madame Bovary is the story of Emma Bovary, an unhappily married woman who seeks escape through forbidden relationships with other men. Ultimately, Madame Bovary’s indiscretions and her obsession with Romance lead to her downfall.

7. Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D H Lawrence

The publication of the book caused a scandal due to its explicit sex scenes, including previously
banned four-letter words, and perhaps particularly because the male lover was working-class. The story concerns a young married woman whose upper-class husband has been paralysed and rendered impotent. Her sexual frustration leads her into an affair with the gamekeeper, Mellors, eventually culminating in their marriage. .

8. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

This novel depicting a teenager’s nervous breakdown has been repeatedly banned and challenged for reasons such as “profanity,” “sexual references,” and the charge that it “undermines morality.” As recently as 1983, “the book’s contents” were cited as justification to ban the book. The book chronicles Holden Caulfield’s journey from innocence to experience and is the quintessential coming-of-age novel—though it’s an unusual one, in which the hero tries to cling to the simplicity of childhood, achieving a kind of maturity almost in spite of himself.

9. Little Red Riding Hood

This could feature in Ripley’s Believe it or not! This classic fairy tale, a favourite with children through generations, was banned by two California school districts in 1989. THey found it very disturbing that a little girl should be carrying wine for her grandmother (in one version she is carrying wine and cake for her ailing granny.

10. "Lajja"

The authorities in Bangladesh have banned the latest novel by the controversial exiled feminist writer, Taslima Nasreen.
The political parties use religion for their own interests and whenever they find any criticism about religion, they can't tolerate it Taslima Nasreen Police have been told to confiscate all copies of Wild Wind, after the Home Ministry declared its publication, sale and distribution illegal. It is the third time in a decade that one of Ms Nasreen's works has fallen foul of the country's laws.

Top 10 Fashion Ideas

1. Hubwear:
   Aspiring entrepreneurs often ask us for ideas that don’t require hundreds of thousands of dollars, euros or pounds to get started. Look no further than the burgeoning arena of t-shirts. Bearer of profiles, of lists, of any kind of self-expression really, the humble t-shirt continues to bestow riches on creative entrepreneurs, or at least guarantee some low-risk entrepreneurial fun. So here’s yet another cool t-shirt start up: Hubwear. Its t-shirts display a wearer’s favorite travel routes, in airport codes (think JFK, AMS, MIA, HKG and so on).
   
   
2. Denim doctors:
   Jeans can now go into therapy. Yes, you heard that right -- New York's Denim Therapy restores, rejuvenates and injects life into worn-out, tattered jeans. Playing on the fact that many consumers have an emotional attachment to their jeans, the service repairs jeans with unwanted holes, denim that's worn, tattered or just plain falling apart. Using a unique
   reconstructive technique, Denim Therapy places existing denim fabric into the jean to replace the holes.
   
   
3. Mormor:
   Nostalgia. Design. Generation C. Storytelling. Knitting. Senior citizens and baby boomers. All these 'trends' beautifully come together in Danish Mormor.nu, an online store that sells baby and children's wear from the time when grandma herself was a wee lass. ('Mormor.nu' is Danish for 'Grandma.now'). In fact, the company's employees stem from an era when everything was made by hand, the youngest employee being 68 years old. All products are handmade, from pure wool, alpaca wool or cotton.
   
   
4. Culturally sensitive sportswear:
   Designing headscarves that can be worn for sports and play, Nike and Capsters are ffering Muslim girls and women a practical alternative to the traditional hijab. Created by young Dutch designer Cindy van den Bremen, Capsters are sleek head coverings made from comfortable, stretchy fabrics, and come in a variety of styles to match different activities and sports look.
   
   
5. Shoes for good:
   While traveling through Argentina, Blake Mycoskie came across canvas shoes that his feet took an instant liking to. He took the alpargatas--comfortable utility shoes that resemble espadrilles--reworked them a bit, and started TOMS Shoes. Not just casual chic slip-ons that were spotted all over L.A. this summer, TOMS Shoes give new meaning to 'two for the price of one'. For each pair purchased (USD 38), TOMS gives a pair to a disadvantaged child in South America.
   
   
6. Vending that kills the frizz:
   Born out of frustration from hearing their female friends complaining of frizzy hair, entreprenuers Richard Starrett and Neil Macka took it upon themselves to devise a solution. They came up with the Straight Up machine. Trading under the name Beautiful Vending Ltd, the two men realised there was a gap in the market, since English weather can turn perfectly styled hair to frizz, ruining a night out for women fixed on having pin-straight hair.
   
   
7. Wearing your profile on your sleeve:
   Here's something that captures the zeitgeist in a novel yet simple way: Canadian t-lists are t-shirts that list the owner's top 5 for *anything*, from five worst movies or five most admired musicians, to five best products ever, or five things he or she will never eat.
   
   
8. Niche-niche skincare:
   Created by UK native and long-time vegan Leesah B, and based in New Jersey, Inky Loves Nature produces products from community traded and traditionally extracted exotic butters and oils from Africa, biodynamic herbs, and other minimally processed plant based ingredients. Exclusively vegan and packaged in funky, eco-friendly and recyclable containers. With names like Warrior Queen Cleanser and Nappaliscious Nutritious Scalp Butter, the company wants its products to "call out to the culture-craving brown skinned urbanista.
   
   
9. Nail taxi:
   Regular readers of Springwise will know that we're a big fan of mobile concepts; they're easy for entrepreneurs to set up, and so very convenient for consumers. Quick spotting from the world of beauty: Nail Taxi, based in the greater Washington D.C. area, provides nail care at customers' homes, offices, hotel suites, hospital rooms. They'll send a professional nail technician wherever a manicure or pedicure is needed.
   
   
10. Bold for bald:
    As a dedicated head-shaver, Abe Minkara tried every shaving product on the market, but none of them worked as well as he wanted. Discovering an underserved segment in the growing male grooming market, Minkara developed his own formula. His new company, Bold For Men, specializes in innovative skincare products for head-shaving men.
    

Source: http://www.springwise.com