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You HAVE to know how well your ads are doing. You cannot just cast thousands of them into the wind and HOPE that maybe you will get the odd result. You must know where is good for your offer, which ads pull best, etc. You need to test and test some more.
Indiscriminate free advertising will not generate sufficient results for the amount of effort you’ll put in. It will get some results, but you’ll be working hard, not smart.
In order to not have to post ads 48 hours a day for 2 clicks in return, you must narrow it down by testing so that you can then spend your precious time concentrating on what works best.
So how do you test?
There’s lots of methods, but let me show you how to make use of some of the simplest online tracking tools for your URLs.
The first one I have been testing myself is the free service from LinkCounter.com http://www.linkcounter.com
Go there and set up a FREE account. You paste your “real” links (the web addresses you want people to actually go to) into their system and they give you a “new” link that you would publish in your ads. How easy can it get?
You can set up as many as you like and keep adding to them, as you wish. You only need one account to track multiple links, ads, websites, offers, affiliate schemes, whatever.
Every day, they send you a report by email that tells you how many clicks you got on each of the different links you set up.
Here’s an example from my report:
Link Title: EACZ Bravenet Classifieds Link URL: pub21.bravenet.com/classified/show.asp?usernum= 1800611284&cpv=1 Link : http://www.linkcounter.com/go.php?linkid=69653 Date: Clicks 2000-12-11 2
I gave it the title I wanted to see so that I could identify it. The Link URL: is the real one (online classifieds) and Link: is the one I publish, which is the one that 2 real live people actually clicked on that day. (Impressive eh?)
I can see several benefits and uses for this:
=> If you have a very long URL, it saves it getting chopped in half in a newsletter or any other email message as the original one in this example obviously would.
If it gets chopped, it won’t be “clickable”, which means to work someone would need to copy and paste it in bits into their browser. Yeah! You think so?
No-one bothers, because that takes too much effort. In reality, they will either click what comes in the first half ending up at the wrong place — usually the right place, but without your reference on, or more likely, they will just skip it altogether.
=> linkcounter.com is generic — it doesn’t identify your program so there is an element of “surprise” that will help you get the click. People don’t click if they think they’ve seen it before.
=> It’s cheat-proof. It is still a URL with a number on the end, but if anyone tries to take the numbers off this, they’ll just get an error or go to linkcounter. If they knock the numbers or reference off your affiliate URL, then they may still end up at the program, but you won’t earn the commission.
=> You will find out if anyone actually IS clicking!
Track a whole ad campaign
If you use different linkcounter links, for the same URL, but with different ads or for the same ads in different ezines, (give each one or “campaign” a title that you’ll remember), you’ll find out which ones work best so you know where to advertise again or if you should maybe “tweak” your ads for better results.
You can also use this on your website, but you don’t need to have one to use it. You can also enter an amount, say if you are in a program that pays you 10 cents per click and it will add them up so you can double-check this against your commission check.
This doesn’t mean you should NOT get your own website, domain and home on the web. If you have that already, then you can use this to see how many people are clicking away to certain links within your site, both internal or external. Your log files should tell you where people go internally, but if you don’t have them, here’s an alternative. Your log files don’t send you email each day as this does!
You’ll also find a similar concept at: http://www.roibot.com/
Or you can do your own ad tracking. At the most simple, give each campaign it’s own page with a (preferably invisible) counter on.
If you do have access to log files on your site, “key” your URLs with references of your choice so you can count the responses to each. Or set up different redirect pages for each ad to see which ones get hits. You can get the code for a redirect page, here: http://www.tucats-design.com/eacz/code.html
Just don’t leave it to chance, or you’ll spend more time chasing your own tail than actually making progress or PROFIT.
Reciprocal links exchange isn’t new to the online market. I remember doing links exchange in late 90s and since that time reciprocal links have helped me a lot. But why some are getting top positions on search terms with reciprocal links, and others fall behind? Where is the line that separates winners and those who blame everything on the changing nature of search engines?
Sharing personal experience I can say that reciprocal links are one of the great inventions of the Internet. Links save tons of job for search engines. Imagine how much information search engines would need to index! They already pay much on all their huge databases, and indexing everything on site could double, triple their expenses on storing and processing all that info.
It is much easier for search engines to index a link only. Because links have title (or anchor) and this title can be analyzed for keyword to check the relevancy. Link has structure and keywords even in the name of link; link has a description. From links search engines can learn about the topic, the popularity of your web site and help to put your site to the proper niche in the eyes of search engines.
Now you see why search engines are destined to love links, reciprocal links including, and why link exchange remains a very important factor to get higher positions and receive free, targeted traffic from search engines.
Reciprocal Links - Play by The Rules of Search Engines.
Most of the problems with reciprocal links exchange emerge when site owners or webmasters start violating the rules of search engines. Let’s face it: if you want to get free, targeted traffic from search engines, you either play by their rules, or try to find traffic somewhere else.
The rules of search engines are very simple.
(1) Your web site must give value.
Don’t make a dummy site with pure directory, and Google listings, and maybe Google ads. This type of site gives no value: no useful info, no quality product or service - nothing. When the user of search engine finds such a web site on the search term, this can irritate greatly. Users report to search engine, human editor comes to the site, sees its ‘value’ and the site gets to black list.
I had a client who had some problems with IP being blocked by Google. When I came to his site - Oh my God - seems like everything that could be violated was violated. It is good that Google gets every site the chance to get back on board, if the violations are taken out.
(2) Reciprocal links exchange must be relevant.
If some years ago search engines wouldn’t go that far in indexing the relevancy of links, today the picture looks absolutely another way. It is easy to index the link and check if the description and title of link coincide with the topic and niche of web site.
Of course, as the owner of web site you have all rights to put any kind of links on your web site - it is your business. But since you want to rank top from reciprocal links exchange with search engines, forget about your ambitions. Pick only relevant web sites and do link exchange with them.
(3) Exchange reciprocal links with reputable web sites.
The hidden truth is that for Google it does not matter what Page Rank the page with your reciprocal link has. Or better say - even PR 0 links count. The more relevant links, the better for your site.
But surely having your reciprocal link on 5 pages with (for example) PR 6 helps you to get indexed very fast, without sandbox for 2+ months and other unnecessary pain.
That is why never lose a chance to do reciprocal links exchange with a page that has nice Google PR, this will add more value to your web site in the eyes of Google. And Google is still the top search engine.
A hint where you can find many web sites that are ready for link exchange and have pages with nice PR. Check the sites that have automatic reciprocal links exchange directories installed. Most of the pages in these directories have PR from 3 to 7. And it is so easy to automatically submit your reciprocal link to all of them.
Follow these guidelines and learn more from those who already succeeded. Be wise and reasonable with reciprocal links exchange, and this will give you tremendous fruits in the end.
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Nickolay Bokhonok, inventor and owner of Internet marketing tools. Latest tool from Nick - Automatic Reciprocal Links Exchange Script |
Is it possible to build a plastic mini-unmanned solar powered micro-aircraft? An unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV with unlimited range and flying time, can you imagine that? So far scientists are getting there and have built bird sized MAVs Micro-Air Vehicles, which can fly for 9 hours or more. But what if they were very light and of thin plastic and if what if that plastic could collect energy through solar panels?
Well it just so happens there have been some recent breakthroughs in solar photovoltaics, as well as plastics that conduct electricity and solar cells can be made out of these things. All these new technologies could hold the keys to making smaller and smaller MAVs and UAVs. These new MAVs can be used to catch fleeing criminals running from the police without calling in the Helicopters using $700 per hour in jet fuel. These MAVs can also be used in the battlefield to protect troops.
Scientists believe they can make this material much cheaper than normal solar cells and ultra light, meaning they will make the perfect material for wings on a tiny flying surveillance plane. Some believe they can be made as inexpensive as $ .36 per watt. It is unknown yet if they will be able to generate enough to constantly power the little birds, but with a combination of material muscle wings to flap and a little gliding in between, it is a good possibility. Think on this.
“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/
Start right now………. The most difficult thing in every task is to start. You are lost in a whirlpool of ideas, but nevertheless, you can’t choose the most appropriate to embody. Do you experience such situations? I presume, you do as most of people.
The same relates to starting work on your college term paper, the fact of getting a low mark or being excluded from the college makes the start-off even more loathsome and daunting. Leave alone all your fears and doubts. Free your mind and remember another philosophy or psychology term paper or even term paper research don’t mean a doomsday.
Here we will share some supportive tips to help you overcome this stressful and tense process of completing your term paper.
The starting point is easy - collect the information on the chosen topic. Fortunately now you have so many sources of information at hand, that you will have no great difficulty in finding sufficient information even on the rarest subject.
Use the library and its archives, surf the net, look through articles in the magazines, bury yourself in books. As you see there are a lot of options, choose the most suitable for yourself. Your next step is to put together all these rather diverse publications, from extremely learned to popular ones, and connect them logically. Mind that your college term paper should be written in consistent style.
Now you can play with your data, inserting each fragment of it in its correct place.
While you are doing it, you have already coped with another significant task - you got rid of useless and irrelevant information.
Moreover, as you are structuring your future masterpiece, you are gaining a clear idea of the image of your final product. In simple words, you almost have a completed plan.
Some resources recommend start working on your college term paper from outlining its contents. But we think that this is no universal instruction. You will compose your plan after numerous manipulations with your text with much less effort. Besides, it is more than evident that you are not always to find information on every aspect you mentioned in your outline.
During the stage of arranging the whole text I also advise you to create a special document, where you will note down all the used references and literature not to torture yourself with the thoughts about the origin of this very quotation afterwards. All the further work is so-called “polishing” your college term paper before you can proudly call it your final product. Your aim at this level is to make your content coherent, homogeneous and rather brief. You will have to leave out some paragraphs, to paraphrase most of them and to add linking passages, to check on spelling, grammar and punctuation, to make a conclusion of your own and to structure it according to the established standards and that is the end!!!
Our attempt here is to show you that writing college term paper is not that terrifying. Because there always will be people who are sincerely enthusiastic about helping you in it.
Learn more about writing college term papers, philosophy or psychology term papers or term paper research at one of sites providing college term paper help - Term Paper Writing Service.
Learn more about writing college term papers, philosophy or psychology term papers or term paper research at one of sites providing college term paper help - www.superiorpapers.com. Susan Kassel has been working as the leading editor at Superiorpapers.com for more than three years. She possesses extensive experience in writing psychology and philosophy research papers and essays.
We’ve always had dogs around ever since I was a kid, and even when our family was “between dogs” I adopted next door’s Boxer dog as my own. Despite this, as a family we didn’t have a clue how to correctly train a dog - as long as it didn’t mess on the floor, chew up our slippers and finally came on the fifth yell of its name we thought things were just fine.
Like many dog owners I didn’t know the first thing about training a dog. Well, we think we do because the dog sits or offers us a paw when we have a treat in our hands but those are just party tricks.
Then I bought my very own dog when I got a place of my own. As she grew she changed from loveable pup into a liability. She wandered off, never came when called and turned into the Tasmanian Devil whenever anybody called around. The final straw came when she tore into the room and scrambled up to sit on the shoulders of a visitor who had come to assess me for a voluntary position. He was not a dog lover and I can still remember the look on his face now…
Trouble was, I had always treated dogs as furry friends, always giving in to those sad-looking eyes and never realizing that the dogs saw me in a totally different way. Dogs are pack animals and as such they are acutely aware of their position in the pack - and you and your family are its pack, even if there’s just the two of you.
Grasp that little fact of dog psychology and you are well on your way to a happier dog. From now on you are going to make it plain to your dog that you are the Alpha male or leader of the pack and what you say goes. See that furniture? That’s mine. You lie on the floor or in your dog basket. Don’t feed the dog tidbits from the dinner table - in fact the dog should be in his basket while you eat, and he only gets fed after everybody else has finished.
But isn’t that just being mean and taking all the fun out of owning a dog?
The leader of the dog pack eats first. He sleeps in the best spot. The Alpha male takes no notice of subordinate dogs fussing around him when he returns from the hunt. When you consistently act as leader you are communicating to your dog in a language he understands.
When you come home, ignore your dog’s frantic attempts at attention seeking until he calms down - then you praise him. It won’t be long before your dog realizes he’s gone down a few notches in the pack hierarchy and acts accordingly. You’ll soon find that your dog greets you quietly and quickly settles down as he’s worked out that is when he receives praise from you.
Still not convinced that training your dog makes him a happier dog? Look at it from the dog’s point of view. He’s living in a human world full of confusing things and behavior he can’t understand. By not teaching your dog his place in your pack he will feel it’s his place to take charge. But this leaves him feeling stressed, resulting in an unruly and confused dog constantly trying to make sense of an overwhelming world it cannot understand.
But when you assume command as leader of the pack, you take that responsibility off his shoulders. Just like a well-trained soldier, he will be happy knowing his place, his role in the pack and what’s expected of him - and happy to defer to your leadership knowing you’ll take care of the “big stuff”.
About the author
Mark Davies is a life-long owner of dogs and is currently Alpha male to his three children and Merlin, his seven year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Actually, his wife is the real leader of the pack.
Mark invites you to visit his site www.top-dog-trainer.com
The mind-body connection has made its way into global awareness. It is known that what we think is what will be. Consider the possibility that your body is a direct printout of your emotional, mental and spiritual states. Our bodies respond like robots to what we tell them. Toxic bodies are merely a reflection of toxic thoughts. In other words, any imbalance in our emotional and mental states creates disharmony in the physical body. When you feel grief it shows up in your chest otherwise known as heartache. When you feel stressed out and overloaded you may get a stomach ache and your shoulders and neck may tense up. If you have been abused you may have poor posture, weakness in the muscles and little strength which is exactly what abuse does to one’s psyche. Everything that shows up in the body is a signal that there is an imbalance somewhere in your being. The body is showing you what is going on in other levels of your consciousness. It is up to us to be open to listen to our body’s messages or not. We have been trained to immediately medicate ourselves when something goes ‘wrong’ in the body. If we would but just take a moment to address the cause we would be living totally healthy lives.
How do you go to the cause if you do not know what it is or how to even get there? This is a common question asked by thousands of people searching to heal their lives. Let us begin with cell memory. Every moment of our lives becomes cell memory. It is recorded into our system and new neurological pathways are created in the brain. Every instant of our lives be it positive or negative, traumatic or not is stored in our body. At the moment of a highly emotionally charged experience we develop belief systems based on that experience. Our reality can only be reinforced through positive experiences or it can be shifted into an illusion which then seems to be reality. Our perception of reality then shifts and we create a new one or a false belief that we then operate from. In other words, what was once real all of a sudden is not. For the most part the ‘new’ belief does not support who we are if it was developed from a traumatic or hurtful experience. It goes against the goodness and purity of our nature. From this stage we then develop the belief that we are our experiences. In other words, if something happens you develop a belief that ‘must be true’. For example a child in third grade may not answer a question correctly according to the teacher or the book. If the teacher reacts harshly or tells the child that he did it wrong the child may develop a belief that he can’t do anything right based on that one experience. The child will then grow up into an adult but continue to operate from the belief that “I can’t do anything right” and strive for perfectionism or be a people pleaser. He now is living life from a false belief that may affect his relationships, how he relates to the world and his career. It is very important to be willing to commit to knowing our selves fully. To noticing and understanding when something doesn’t feel good. To notice when something is making us uncomfortable. It has nothing to do with anything or anyone else. It simply means that there is something inside of you that is not healed. This is called a trigger. When someone pushes our buttons it simply means that they are reflecting back to us something inside of us that is not healed. To be at peace and to feel peaceful one must forgive the past. One must be willing to let go. An angry parent is someone who has not forgiven his/her childhood and healed from it. They take their unhealed wounds and take it out on their children and when the children act out the parent(s) blame the children, punish them and ultimately ignore an opportunity to heal. This is a destructive cycle of abuse that is all too common.
To heal your body start with yourself first. What are you thinking? Do those thoughts support you 100% or do they hurt you in any way? Are they loving thoughts? Are you blaming others? Are you not being accountable for your thoughts and actions? Do you judge and criticize others? Do you spend time and energy focusing and talking about other people’s lives? Are the words that come out of your mouth loving? Do you complain? Have you not fully grieved a loss or stopped in the middle of a major change or transition in your life to take care of yourself? These are just a few questions that you can begin to ask yourself. The answers will give you a clue as to what is going on in your life and where you can begin to focus positive energy. When we do things that go against who we are we hurt. We feel restless, anxious, disconnected, numb, angry depressed and much more. Our toxic thoughts and mental attitudes destroy our bodies. Simply stated, the cells in your body do what you tell them to do. It is up to you to choose what you want your body to do.
Is it impossible to heal anything? No. The key is to slow down, sit down, close your eyes and ask your body what it needs. Healing yourself and your body is an innate gift, a built-in inner structure that exists within each of us. As we become aware of the points of origin and causes of our pain we can access that inner wisdom that resides within in each of us and use it to heal, to see, to love and to create anything we truly desire.
Marilyn Rodriguez is a Master Level Rapid Eye Practitioner, Conscious Life Coach and an Ordained Minister. She has helped many clients overcome, release and heal their past and achieve their goals. She currently resides in Huntsville, AL. For a FREE conditional consult email Marilyn at retblink@yahoo.com or call her directly at 256-797-1500.
Not so long a go it appeared like gaming laptop computers were exclusively available from special manufacturers and they were traditionally built to order. In the past the small number of sales alleviated by the profit margins. The cost was just too massive to justify buying these types of laptop for people. They were like the highest grade of what was capable with laptop technology, the best laptops about. As badly as I wanted one I could not afford to buy laptops like them. The future for gaming laptops is now seen by the big manufacturers as a great opportunity for them.
Lowering prices are not usual is this market so international brands should be making tons of cash. At the moment the profit margins on the majority of laptop computers are so slender that this constitutes as an excellent chance to regain the gross profits. I am quite certain that most of us would buy laptops if marketed to everyone by these large companies. Littler system builders surely have their work cut out for them now. Really what I see taking place here is that the larger companies cutting prices in the beginning to remove the competition from littler companies. I reckon customers would trust the bigger companies more if they buy something high priced.
I reckon its funny that as it comes with a brand name they’re automatically though of as the best laptops. In my view though, this is really a bit of promise for the little players in retail. This is an enormous selling feature that must be mentioned. These consumers have the technical knowledge and would analyse which laptops are best. Consumers like these are normally more worried about the gaming capabilities of a computer than they are in it’s styling.
All consumers concur that it is a favourable thing. Newer technology will be more purchasable in the future for most customers as it will act to push margins down further. Things change so rapidly in this industry that I can’t precisely produce any certain claims. Prices will be held high as an outcome of the constant creation of new laptops. Increased competition typically provides better technology at cheaper prices so the times ahead must be great.
I reckon this company (http://www.rizeon.com/gaming_laptops/page.php) are pretty inexpensive for the computers they are selling.
If you are interesting in learning more about merchant services, you will need to know something about setup merchant account details. This may seem like the hardest part of getting a merchant account, especially if you are uninvolved with many e-commerce or technological business systems. Here are some details that can help to give you a better idea of merchant account setup.
For setup merchant account information, you will want to contact the merchant account provider that you are thinking of working with. This could be your local banker, the one that manages your company’s regular accounts at present. Or it might be another lender with a better merchant account deal that includes lower terms or more useful services. When you select the underwriter for your merchant account, find out which fees will apply. Some merchant account providers seem to charge for a host of things, including the application, setup, gateway, membership, and maintenance, among others. After applying to your account provider of choice and being approved for merchant services, an account representative can work with you to set up merchant account details that will soon have your business equipped for credit card payments.
At that point you can ask more detailed questions about setup merchant account services. For example, if there is a service fee for setup, will you need to pay it first, will it be billed, or will it be deducted from your first month’s sales? Find out who will install the credit card processing software program and whether you must pay for it. Perhaps it will pay for itself in a few months, saving you this initial start-up cost. It is important to find out whether a customer services representative will be standing by to answer customers’ questions and deal with problems that may arise at the Website. Up-to-date contact or email information is essential to reassure customers they can get help when needed. You will need to know if you must find and pay someone for backup of this type or if the merchant services provider will handle this for you.
Your setup merchant account fees should be minimal, but make sure you find out ahead of time what to expect so there are no unpleasant surprises when you can least afford them. After all, you don’t want to go to the trouble and expense of opening a merchant services account only to find that you cannot afford to provide the necessary components to make it operational and customer-friendly. If possible, get a list of services and their prices before signing the contract on your merchant account.
The timeframe for setup merchant account operations should not be excessive. Most underwriters can have your Website ready to start accepting credit card payments within a few days. When they do, you will probably ask yourself why you waited so long to apply for this helpful tool. You also may be interested in getting a wireless credit card processor for travel-related sales and a pager to maintain office-to-employee communications. An e-check processor may be the logical next step.
The commercial sky is the proverbial limit when you inquire about setup merchant account options.
“People improve productivity, not organisations.”
Managers who have had any form of training will be familiar with the idea of setting goals or objectives, and probably with the principles of appraising performance. With this in mind, why is it so many managers keep asking about how to motivate their staff or how to get more from them?
This whole area is a key differentiator of good managers and is a large part of what managers are being paid for! In this article I want to offer some ideas to help you become better at getting the performance you want from your teams. I will suggest some of the reasons why you, and other managers, perhaps do not do it very well and what the benefits will be when you begin to apply the principles.
Let us begin by stating the obvious - in order to manage people for performance you need to clearly establish what good performance is for each person and role. Too many managers think that this means just setting the goals. Not so, as you cannot manage those. Defining good performance can include what the outputs and results are - and how they are being achieved. That is the part you can manage. Recognise that managing for performance is an ongoing process and not an occasional intervention or snapshot.
Why it is not done well.
People do not understand what is needed to manage performance!
Managers assume people will work towards their objectives.
Too many managers think that money is all that motivates people to do what they need to.
Managers are too busy spending their time on the wrong priorities to manage for performance.
Organisations think that because they have an annual appraisal process that they are managing performance.
If you rely on an annual appraisal (or review) as a mechanism for setting objectives and reviewing how people have performed, what problems does this encourage? Are the objectives meaningful? Do they stay in the forefront of peoples’ minds? Do they stay relevant throughout the year? How are they monitored throughout the year? When you come to reviewing them, how valuable is the conversation?
What to do.
Firstly, everyone should have clearly defined standards of performance and/or key performance indicators (kpi’s). These are same for all those doing similar roles and provide a baseline for performance. There are two types of these - the quantitative and the qualitative. The former are more straightforward to do as they will involve numbers, eg. number of calls handled per day, time to respond to queries etc. The latter are more challenging because they require some thought in order to clearly define the standard in a behavioural way which removes most of the subjectivity. This can refer to quality of work, appearance of someone’s workplace, answering the phone or following corporate standards etc. When people are working to these kpi’s they should be in a position to deliver the performance you want.
Although these kpi’s need to be clearly outlined and understood by all involved, the key to managing for performance is to follow the Pareto principle and identify which 20% are the ones which contribute to 80% of the outcomes. These are the things you need to manage. You want to be able to monitor them, to revisit them and raise the standard in order to get even higher performance.
The other thing people need to have a clear goals or objectives. These should be clearly stated, maybe following the SMART principle. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bounded.) The measure can be either numeric or behavioural, which means clear definitions. Goals help in many ways, especially as they link to many of the models of motivation and the fact that a sense of achievement is a powerful buzz for most of us.
When setting goals for people in the workplace, especially if you want to manage performance, think about the timescales you aim for. Giving people 3 or 5 goals at an appraisal with a long timescale will not necessarily provide much drive or motivation. To make them meaningful consider setting several goals with different time deadlines, mainly short and medium term. When they are completed set more - and the process becomes more dynamic. It also enables you to reflect any changes in the business and ensure the relevance of the goals.
How to do it.
Make sure you think of this as a key priority - so give it time! Make sure that the kpi’s are clearly stated, written down and everyone has a copy.
When you set the goals with your team members and they have agreed, get them to develop an action plan for how they will achieve each one. Have them do it, and give you a copy within 48 hours of setting the goals. A simple way of doing this can be to use a simple diagram such as a stairway - and we can happily send you a sample.
Ask them to identify the key steps to take in order to move from “now” to the goal. Between you, agree the timescales for the key stages and also discuss any help required and possible problems. Once this is all agreed and finalised, you will have a copy and the team member has theirs. Now is the first key action for you - put those dates in your diary to make sure that you will sit with the team member and review their progress. This is an “A” priority activity and should not be moved!!
As your team members work through their action plans and you have your regular reviews, you will be monitoring their progress in a timely and effective manner. These reviews are almost mini-appraisals and by carrying them out at the agreed times you will make life easier for all concerned when you have the annual appraisal, because it will be a consolidation of these meetings.
During these reviews ask for what needs to be improved, what has gone well and what is going to happen next. Talk about the kpi’s which are relevant to their plan and make sure they are meeting these. This monitors and manages for performance. Provide feedback (on performance or behaviour, not personality) whether you have to criticise or reprimand or you can praise. By having these regular reviews, you can avoid the management fault of not telling people how they are doing!!
When the goal is achieved, carry on and set the next goal, get the action plans - and continue as before. Not only are you managing performance, you are helping your team to feel more involved, more successful and more motivated. Remember, people just want to know what is expected of them, be given the support to do it and then told how they are doing. What it requires from you is to make time to have the regular meetings with your team, after all they are the ones who provide the performance you need. Give them your time and they will give you the performance.
Graham Yemm is a consultant with 20 years of experience. He runs a Solutions 4 Training Ltd, a UK based consultancy and works internationally. He has worked with many organisations helping them to develop their processes and their managers to improve performance. He can be contacted at Solutions 4 Training or +44 1483 480656.
Kids reach adulthood in no time which means it is critical to consider saving when they’re young. By saving from just £10 to £25 a month with Scottish Friendly’s child bond without delay you could help them when they are older. For instance helping to pay for university fees or for the deposit on a first home.
You can save tax-free for any child with a Scottish Friendly Child Bond. It’s tax-free as it’s a friendly society savings plan, so under present law it grows free of income or capital gains tax. It’s a marvelous way for parents, grandparents, family members and friends to make a big financial difference when the kids are older.
Basically the Child Bond is a with-profits investment plan: It invests for long-term growth as well as an element of security, in stocks and shares, fixed interest funds and cash
Money grows through the addition of potential annual bonuses and when the bond reaches maturity there is a tax-free payout. The value of bonuses is dependent on how much profit we make and how it is distributed by us. Please note that bonuses are not guaranteed.
The Child Bond lasts for a minimum of ten years, but you can invest for longer if you want - perhaps to coincide with an 18th or 21st birthday. You can save either monthly, annually or with a lump sum payment.It’s entirely up to you. It should be noted that if the plan is cashed in prior to the end of the term, the amount the child will receive may be less than the amount paid in.
If you choose the monthly option, you can start saving from as little as £10 a month - up to a maximum of £25 a month. Or you can make yearly payments of up to £270 a year.
You can also take care of all of the premiums in one go through our lump sum funding plan. If you invest the maximum amount of £2,340 for ten years, this actually invests £270 a year into the Child Bond - £2700 in total. The minimum lump sum of £1,040 will provide £120 a year for 10 years - a total of £1,200. This provides a means for you to take care of all your premiums in one go and is especially popular with grandparents who like the reassurance of knowing all premiums for the entire term of the plan are taken care of.
This plan includes life cover so you should consider if this is suitable for your financial needs.