Sistem belajar "M.U.R.D.E.R."

Ada salah satu tip dalam mengembangkan sistem belajar yang efektif dan efisien.
Sistem belajar ini dikenal dengan "M.U.R.D.E.R." (English), yang terdiri dari

Mood * Understand * Recall * Digest * Expand * Review

Mood - Suasana Hati:
Ciptakan selalu mood yang positif untuk belajar. Ini bisa dilakukan dengan menentukan waktu, lingkungan dan sikap belajar yang sesuai dengan pribadimu.

Understand - Pemahaman:
Tandai informasi bahan pelajaran yang TIDAK kamu mengerti dalam satu unit. Fokuskan pada unit tersebut atau melakukan beberapa kelompok latihan untuk unit itu.

Recall - Ulang:
Setelah belajar satu unit, berhentilah dan ulang bahan dari unit tersebut dengan kata-kata yang kamu buat SENDIRI.

Digest - Telaah:
Kembalilah pada unit yang tidak kamu mengerti dan PELAJARI KEMBALI keterangan yang ada. Lihatlah informasi yang terkait pada artikel, buku teks atau sumber lainnya, atau diskusikan dengan teman atau guru/dosen.

Expand - Kembangkan:
Pada langkah ini, tanyakan tiga persoalan berikut terhadap materi yang telah kamu pelajari:

• Andaikan saya bertemu dengan penulis materi tersebut, pertanyaan atau kritik apa yang hendak saya ajukan?
• Bagaimana saya bisa mengaplikasikan materi tersebut ke dalam hal yang saya sukai?
• Bagaimana saya bisa membuat informasi ini menjadi menarik dan mudah dipahami oleh siswa/mahasiswa lainnya?

Review - Pelajari Kembali:
Pelajari kembali materi pelajaran yang sudah dipelajari. Ingatlah strategi yang telah membantu kamu mengerti dan/atau mengingat informasi. Jadi, terapkan strategi tersebut untuk cara belajarmu berikutnya.

Business Etiquette

Business etiquette is in essence about building relationships with people. In the business world, it is people that influence your success or failure. Etiquette, and in particular business etiquette, is simply a means of maximising your business potential.

If you feel comfortable around someone and vice versa, better communication and mutual trust will develop. This comfort zone is realised through presenting yourself effectively. Business etiquette helps you achieve this.

Business etiquette revolves around two things. Firstly, thoughtful consideration of the interests and feelings of others and secondly, minimising misunderstandings. Both are dependent upon self conduct. Business etiquette polishes this conduct.

Business etiquette varies from region to region and country to country. For the international business person, focusing too deeply on international business etiquette would leave no time for business. However, there are some key pillars upon which good business etiquette is built.

Behaviour

Your manners and attitude will speak volumes about you. They will point to your inner character. If you come across selfish, undisciplined or uncouth your relationship is unlikely to prosper. Appropriate business etiquette promotes positive traits.

Honesty

A reputation for delivering what you say will deliver goes a long way in the business world. Remember, a reputation for integrity is slowly gained but quickly lost. Understanding a particular country’s business etiquette provides a framework in which you can work without fear of crossing boundaries in terms of agreements, promises and contracts.

Character

Your character refers to what you as an individual bring to the business table. Proper business etiquette allows you to exhibit your positive qualities. For example, knowing when to be passionate and not emotional or self-confident without being arrogant. Just through learning another’s business etiquette you demonstrate an open-mindedness which will earn respect.

Sensitivity

Sensitivity and consideration underlie all good business etiquette. Being prepared for foreign ways and methods and responding thoughtfully is achieved through experience and business etiquette know-how. By avoiding misunderstandings and misinterpretations through business etiquette you lay foundations for a strong business relationship.

Diplomacy

Avoiding thoughtless words and actions protects you from negative consequences. Impulse often leads a business person astray. Business etiquette encourages the careful thought of the interests of others and choosing acceptable forms of expression.

Appearance

Dressing appropriately, standing and sitting in the right place at the right time, good posture and looking physically presentable are all elements in making a good impression. Business etiquette teaches you how to suitably present yourself and what to avoid.

Analysing, understanding and implementing the above will help you recognise what business etiquette is and how it should be employed within the business world.

For the international business person business, etiquette acts as a key. It locks the doors of poor communication and misunderstandings and opens doors to successful business relationships.

© Kwintessential Ltd

Maximum Website Promotion through PPC Bid Management

Maximum Website Promotion through PPC Bid Management


Tools for Internet Marketing have been rising to popularity these days because of cost-effectiveness and the possibility of measuring increase in profits and sales.

Pay per click (PPC) is a means to advertise business through the use of keywords/phrases in the search engines. The advertiser is required to only pay for each click that sends a visitor to his website. Search engines such as Overture, Google Adwords, Search Yahoo and Miva are just some examples of search engines. They offer top positions among the sponsored listings for particular keywords/phrases you choose. The idea for bidding is you have to buy/bid on keywords/phrases relevant to your business. The highest bidder gets to be on the top of the search result listing and the second highest bidder, of course, gets the next top listing and so on. Every time a visitor clicks on your website, you will have to pay the same amount that you bid on that particular keyword.

PPC can be very costly, time consuming and sometimes not worthy. But if you know how to go about the step by step procedures, PPC is a welcome change to traditional advertising.

If you do your searches for products, articles and auctions in the net, you usually type in a keyword or a set of phrase to guide you in your search. Either you use Google or Yahoo Search depending on where you are most comfortable at and where you usually get the best results. As soon as you key in the search button, immediately a long list of keywords or phrase will be displayed containing the keywords you key in. The first or the top link that you saw is most likely the one who bids the highest for that keyword you type. In this way, businessmen will produce the desired results; they get to be advertised, at the same time, saving and spending only for the clicks they need that might translate to potential sales.

The way to start PPC bid management is to identify first the maximum cost per click (CPC) you are willing to pay for a given keyword or phrase. CPC varies from time and even search engine to search engine too. Maximum CPC can be measured by averaging the current costs of bids (bids range from $0.25 to $5). Average of these bids is to be used as the maximum CPC to begin with. As your ad campaign progresses, the actual conversion rate (visitors turning to potential buyers/sales) will be determined and you may have to adjust your CPC (bidding rate) accordingly.

When you start to bid, see to it that you adopt different bidding strategies for various search engines. Search engines have their own PPC systems that require different approaches. It is also worthy to identify different bids for the same keyword phrases in various search engines.

Another thing, it is wiser not to bid for the top spot for two reasons: 1) It is very expensive and impractical, and 2) Surfers usually try different search queries in various search engines before they settle on the right one that fits to what they are looking for. This hardly results to conversion. Try to bid for the fifth spot instead and work your way up.

If you are now going steady on your PPC biddings, it is time for you to develop your own bidding strategy accordingly. It is important for you to track down which sites bring the bulk of your traffic and identify the ranking of your paid ads. This will help your bidding strategy to be effective and you should also decide where you want your ad to be positioned. Usually your maximum CPC will limit your choices.

Bid gaps (e.g. $ 0.40, 0.39, bid gap, 0.20, 0.19, 0.18) occur when there is a significant price increase to move up one spot in the PPC rankings. It is best if you take advantage of the bid gaps by filling them in so you can save up your cents to other bidding opportunities. Often there are keywords worthy of lesser bids to get the appropriate ranking on the list and produce a good number of clicks and higher conversion rate rather than bidding higher but having a poor conversion rate. You have to put in mind that overbidding too is not good but rather the best position for the most effective bid.

Using pay-per-click bid management in promoting your website will only be successful if you take time building many lists across many engines and studying the performance of every listing. In this way, you can make the most value from what you spend in the bidding process. The key is to use the necessary precautions to stay ahead of the competition.

Bid Management Tools

In ensuring best results, you may use bid management tools. There are accepted and approved management tools that will help you in your bidding. They are categorized in two different types:

• Web based (services by monthly subscription) or,
• PC based (a purchased software)

Monitoring tools too may help in the tracking down of your keywords/phrases and search engines as to which among them often generate sales, overall and in relation to your cost per click. This is what you call return of investment (ROI) monitoring.

These bid management tools may include additional functions that may not get from online marketing tools that are readily available. Other tools can monitor competitor’s bids, produce reports for different parties and offer the ability to interface with multiple PPC engines. This is particularly helpful to those who manage more than a hundred keywords across several PPC engines to boost productivity and save time.

Pay-per-click bid management is ideal for the effective promotion of your business online without the hassles of draining your financial keeping too much. It is now fast catching up as a means used in marketing your goods and services to reach to as many consumers as possible.

PPC Appraisal Program: Leave Your Computer On And Earn Money

PPC Appraisal Program: Leave Your Computer On And Earn Money

This program is very simple to download, entirely free and really works!

Requiring no sponsoring, no costs at all to join, once it has been set up, the only thing you do is leave your computer on and the system will just automatically run and you can trace your income by the second.

This program operates comparable to “click on a search engine and get paid” programs, with the exception of the following:

1. It is run automatically similar to auto surf, so there is no need for you to click on any link.

2. It does not provide you with only one search engine, but there are at least twenty one now running.

If you continually run your computer for twenty four hours a day, you may earn up to fifteen dollars a day. At the end of the month, when they will be adding up to two hundred more search engines, you may earn up to sixty dollars a day, not doing anything, just be online.

In addition, you get another five percent of your referrals running time; these referrals could go as far as four levels.

Every search engine builds up an independent total of your time surfing. You must reach sixty dollars before payment be done by each of the search engine.

Normally, when you are running your computer online for twenty four hours each day, without any referral, for you to reach sixty dollars, it would more or less take you up to two months, with the now running twenty four search engines. Now consider this, sixty multiplied by twenty four will equal to one thousand four hundred forty. This is how much you will make in two months, of doing nothing.

Signing up:

Take note of this URL, as you will use this as your sponsor:

http://www.ppcappraisal.com/register.php?fT=1&RefId=14387

1. Go to http://www.ppcappraisal.com/register.php?fT=1&RefId=14387 and fill out the form.

2. Where it is asking for the company name, put PPC appraisal

For the URL, put ppcappraisal.com

For tax ID, put N/A

Fill the rest of the form with your personal information

Take note that ppc appraisal does not accept any email address with full stops or non alphabetic characters in it. If you are in need of a new email address just for this intention, you can register at www.hotmail.com ; they offer a free account.

3. Log in (this will take you on to a menu)

4. Hit select all at the pages’ bottom.

5. Go back again to the bottom of the page and hit “select all” then “request”

6. There will be more than two pages that will appear. Do the same for all of the pages.

7. Go to your PPC account and click on “statistics” and observe the entire search engines appear and your total earnings.

8. Download “test 33” (go to http://66.84.56.206/ppc/test33.exe) and make sure you save it to the desktop.

9. Log in to PPC appraisal, select campaigns on the menu.

10. Write down a copy of your portal URL

11. In the test33 browser, go to tools, analyst, act, setup; you will see two squares that are empty; on the lower left side, click append and wait for the pop up window to appear open.

12. Inside that window, type in set 1 and hit OK.

13. After which, it will fade away.

14. Go back to tools, analyst, act, hit set 1 and the url will load.

15. Go to tools, analyst and hit loop and then click on navigation.

16. At the bottom, click on the word “six” and this will open up six different search engines.

17. Now the test 33 will start on clicking all search engines.

18. Do not adjust any settings. You can minimize the window and still work on your normal computer wok. It will just continue on clicking the search engines and will never interfere with what you do. These are search engines that use up or get a run through this particular program. They are doing this and making payments to improve or increase their numbers so they can have a better chance to compete with google or yahoo.

To SEO or To PPC?

To SEO or To PPC?


The online community is definitely a large market place that you cannot ignore, especially if you have an internet business. There are thousands if not millions of consumers that you can tap in the internet.

At the same time, the internet also poses a quite different challenge. The easy access that internet provides also gives you as much competition as you can imagine. It is too crowded and congested.

Having a website is not enough to make your business running and able to compete. You must take other alternatives to give way for the online community to access your website at any rate or chance possible.

You have to expose your website. Make it known. It has to be visible. It has to be frequently targeted by consumers and surfers.

Invest in marketing your internet site. There are basically two options available to you, the SEO and PPC. These two are probably the most desirable alternatives you can get for your internet business as strategy for search engine marketing.

1. SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Some researches indicate that 60% - 70% of internet surfers and users actually resort to using the Google search engine to find and locate web sites and pages, for any topic they desire. SEO is the process taken to make sure that the internet uses will find your website when ranked among the top results of a search. This way you can make sure that you will be visible and can clearly stand out from the rest.

To get a search engine optimization, you will have to build on your own internet site frequently hit internet links to web site pages. The process will involve IBLN or Independent Back-Linking Network, wherein hundreds or even thousands of pages will be utilized to promote a particular website of a client.

In SEO, there is no need for you to pay for the clicks although it will require you to spend time doing research to get a favorable combination of ads and target audience. The SEO process is a long term one. It requires months, 6 months at the least, before the proper outcome is fully achieved, but once the goal is accomplished, you will definitely get a steady source of profit.

2. PPC

PPC means Pay Per Click. It gives way advertising on a search engine. These are sponsored listings that you see whenever you make a search. There will be a charge whenever a visitor or web surfer clicks on any of your ads. There will first be a bidding process. The highest bidder for the price per click will definitely get the chance to be first listed in the search engine.

With this kind of advertising, you can still basically control your campaign as you get to create your own ad. You will also manage the target audience and still stay within the bounds of your budget. Most of the providers of PPC advertising will allow you to specify the target market, either by topic, industry or geographical location. You can also very well check if your ad gets to be shown at all and if it is competitive with the rest.

There are some guaranteed benefits when you get to maximize the PPC strategy.

? PPC lets you advertise to the whole of the online community. It is also relatively easy to set up.

? At first glance, PPC advertising may seem very expensive. Could it possibly happen that someone out there will go on clicking on your ad? This will definitely give you a large bill without the expected profit on your part. If this provides a lot of worries, be rest assured that there is a protection for you. Networks are able to recognize fraudulent clicks.

? You can also set a budget for a certain period. The moment your budget has been used up by the target number of clicks, your ads will no longer be displayed until the next period you want it again displayed.

? You will also be able to adjust well to changes in market demands and trends.

In deciding which of the two strategies will work right for you, think of your goals and of your resources. They definitely offer benefits and advantages that will work for your good. The better way to approach this two is to evaluate according to your short term and long term plans. Take the PPC course for your short term goals and choose SEO if you have long term ones.

There world is out there for you now. Just make sure you do what will work best for your entrepreneurial endeavors and visions. The secret to success lies in your hands. Just study your options well and you’ll get exactly what you want.

Increasing Sales Through Strategic Internet Marketing

Increasing Sales Through Strategic Internet Marketing

The Internet has now become an important medium for product and service advertisements. Almost every company that can afford print, radio and TV advertisements have also ventured into placing ads on the Internet.

But with millions of websites out there being visited by millions of computer users, how can you make sure that your ad can be seen by your target customers and that your leads will be followed by these users? Here are a few tips.

1. Place an ad on the websites frequented by your target customers. Before doing this, you need to define who will be your target customers. Placing an ad on sites that they usually visit will increase the possibility that your ad will gain the attention and will be followed your target customers.

Also, consider the website's search engine placement, traffic, external linking and the other ads placed on it. External linking will determine if there are other sites that link to this site. This will mean that people can get to the site where your ad is placed, even if they are browsing a different site. Check if many of your competitors have ads on this site.

2. Placing ads on some sites cost some money. However, there are also sites that can place a link to your site, product or service in exchange of having their link being displayed on your site. This is also true about the newsletters sent by site owners to its mailing list members regularly.

Also, having helpful links placed on your site and having sites link to your pages help in boosting search engine ranking. This is similar to making a statement that your site's content is important that other sites have links to your web pages.

3. Pay-per-click (PPC) is also a good method in Internet marketing. You will only need to pay for the ad if the link is clicked. If you prefer this method of advertisement, make sure that you are using services that set limits on daily expenses. There are also services that help you determine effective keywords and monitor the PPC results.

4. Choose your domain name wisely. It is still being debated if domain names matter when it comes to search engine placement. Whether it does or not, having product related domain names help consumers remember your domain, that they can go back to your site even without the links.

5. Make sure you have useful content on your sites. While keyword density is important in search engine placement, having useless information or annoying repetition of keywords will not increase your customer's confidence in your site. It may even affect your sites traffic and can get your site removed from search engines. So make sure that keywords are used strategically.

6. When thinking of keywords, think like your target customers. What do you think are they going to search so they can get to your site? Also, use specific keywords or key phrases. Submitting a single word or a very general phrase to a search engine will not get you to the top of the search results compared to submitting specific keywords that describe your product and services perfectly.

7. Track your ads. Always check how much you have spent on placing links on frequently visited sites and on PPC. There are services that allow you to monitor PPC transactions and how many of these end in sales. You always need to consider if the ads that you have placed on these websites are getting you to your target consumers and if these ads can lead to revenue.

One final tip on marketing products and services, sell the benefits. It will help your marketing strategies a lot if you highlight the benefits of choosing your products and services instead of merely discussing the product specifications. Product specifications may not mean much to customers, unless they know what these stand for (how these specifications affect the quality of the product or service).

Many people say getting to the top of search engine results is difficult since millions of websites exist, which can be using the same keywords. While this is true, this doesn't mean that your website has to stacked under your competitors' websites when presenting search engine results. Strategic advertising and linking, together with useful content, can also get you to the top of the search results.

Cash and Pay-per-click Affiliate Programs

Cash and Pay-per-click Affiliate Programs

Millions are paying to get a ride on the Information Super Highway everyday. Now, it is widely known that the Internet is an accessible resource of many income-generating activities. Whether you belong to a private sales company or you are just interested in internet marketing, PPC affiliate programs can be a powerful venue to make money from the Internet. A partnership with an affiliate merchant is a win-win situation for the merchant and the affiliate: sales are soaring because of exposure and traffic while the affiliate is earning good cash.

To make things much simpler: the affiliate merchant provides a strip of advertisement and pays you when someone clicks on the ad’s link. You can get a commission of $0.10 to $0.30 for every click, but it sometimes it can go higher depending on your merchant affiliate. Sometimes, merchants require a quota ($1.4 for every 1000 clicks). Plus, you can get discounts from your merchant affiliates if you happen to like their products too. You can just kick back and relax while your website is generating cash. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

What is PCC Affiliate Program?

PPC means pay-per-click, wherein you get in partnership with an affiliate company that literally pays you for every click. There are actually two types of PCC affiliate programs – those who pay a commission based on the number of clicks and the other based on the sales. The pay-per-click scheme is much more popular than pay-per-lead because the affiliate gets paid by just clicking the ad, regardless of whether the visitor buys from the affiliate merchant or not. Plus the chances of a visitor purchasing something from the affiliate merchant are not really that high.

In choosing an affiliate program, read the fine print carefully – some pay-per-click programs get the ratio of the number of people who went to your site and the actual people who clicked on the ad. If you have a heavily targeted website, this can hurt your earnings.

How do I start?

Of course, you need to have a website. Depending on your target audience, choose the best affiliate merchant that is most related to your topic. For example, your website is about Carpentry then you can search for affiliate programs that sell tools used in carpentry.

However, if you don’t have a website, that’s not a problem. You can put up a content site about absolutely anything under the sun like ‘Taking Care of Dogs’ or ‘Decorating your own Home.’ But wait, its not over yet. We are faced by a dilemma – on how to increase traffic! You first need to get internet surfers to see your website, then the ad.

How do I increase my traffic?

First, design your website in such a way that it will attract internet users. A user-friendly site is always recommended so that the customers will know which one to click. Take into consideration the look and feel of the advertisement. If it doesn’t look professional, most likely, users will just ignore it. Place the ad on a strategic location – one where users can see it clearly. Visibility of the ad is always important.

Another way is to post a link to your website in forums, web communities, ezine articles or bulletin boards. However, this method requires a lot of effort – that defeats your purpose of getting easy money in the first place! The key is to do something once and forget about it. It’s like putting your business on autopilot. To maintain you pay-per-click business, be sure to track down site activity, so you are updated on how much money you are making.

Can I make more money?

If you think you can go to the next level, you can try a two-tier affiliate program. This gives you the power to recruit affiliates. Other than the money you get from your website’s clicks, you will also get a percentage of what your affiliate generates. Some companies give 30% to a soaring 50% commission on all referral sales.

Remember, you should be able to manage and monitor your affiliate program. If you can recruit more affiliates, then you can get paid more without even moving a finger! Choose affiliates that can most likely attract more internet users and bring more traffic. You just have to know the right people.

PPC Advertising for Maximum Web Promotion

PPC Advertising for Maximum Web Promotion


Engaging in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has its own benefits and drawbacks. But what exactly is PPC advertising and what it can do to your business?

Business nowadays is doing different kinds of austerity measures when it comes to advertising their products and services. This is because of high rates of placing ads on print and on television. But there is a fast growing approach that businessmen can utilize to bring their services closer to the people and that is through Internet Marketing.

One tool that is causing internet marketing popularity is PPC advertising. This is a technique used in search engine marketing that requires one to pay a fee every time someone clicks an ad on your website. Usually this placement is done through a bidding process. If you are a top bidder for your keywords/phrases, you are sure to be on the number one spot on all search engines. Just be sure of the effectiveness of your ad copy to get the most number of clicks you need for your business.

Here are the benefits of PPC advertising are:

1. You need not be a genius in computer and technology to be able to run this ad campaign.
2. Immediate results are seen after a few days.
3. No need to make a website conform to the SEO rules.
4. Nothing to lose even if you do not top the pages of different search engines. You can still always choose PPC advertising.
5. You can make use any search engine available.
6. You can type in any keyword you like.

Cons of PPC advertising includes:

1. Fixed payments every month to the search engine you choose.
2. Pay for each click received by your website. At times, visitors are just competitors or people playing pranks on search engines. This hassle wastes money you put in to this advertising.
3. Inability to pay for the fees next month would mean removal of your website on the paid listings.
4. This advertising can only be used temporarily because it is difficult to handle in the long run.
5. Pay-per-click pricing can be costly for long periods of time, therefore, this should be stopped after an ad campaign.

But how exactly PPC advertising can increase traffic, leads and sales?

PRE-QUALIFIED TRAFFIC. All visitors of your website are already considered as a qualified consumer or buyer of your product. PPC advertising leads your customers to you for a lesser cost.

INSTANT EXPOSURE, IMMEDIATE PROFITS. PPC search engines enable you to get your desired results fast. They will have your website live within just a few hours which means immediate increase in sale.

CONSISTENT TOP LISTINGS. This is to get your website on top of the sponsored search results for free. You just have to choose the keywords related to your site and business and place them within your web pages. After this, you are done.

PPC advertising enables advertisers to control their advertising campaigns. Advertisers have effectively targeted their audience and set their own price per click. PPC advertising networks provide the platform to identify the desired audience by geographic setting, topic and industry. These networks have a list of websites of the publishers where the ads will be placed.

Tools are provided by the networks to check how the pay per click limit is working for a certain advertiser. If its still competitive, would it be even listed among the paid search lists or does it generate sales? Of course, if the advertiser made the highest bid, the better chances the ad will be seen in the search engine. These networks too provide protection for the advertisers against click fraud. This advertising set-up allows advertisers to set a daily budget for his ads, thus, less spending for unnecessary clicks. Advertiser will never go over his budget.

In PPC advertising, what are important are the keywords and phrases. You have to select at least ten "very specific" keywords that would give you the best traffic in the search. Then, write the ad creatively but straightforward. Tell the truth about your product or service and do not lie. Good thing if your product or service will not disappoint those that are relying on your ad's promise - but what if it did otherwise? Important too is the clarity of the ad. Do not use very vague languages. Include important details like the price.

You should also remember to budget your bids. Do not go overbidding because you will only lose your money and do not go so low that your ads will never get the chance to show up. Check your profit against your spending. If you see no progress then most likely you have to drop your ad campaign.

More and more advertisers have been using PPC advertising and it will continue to grow faster than any online advertising techniques. From revenues of $2.6 billion in 2004 to $5.5 billion in 2009, cost per click will dramatically go up as well from $0.29 to $0.36.

PPC advertising is new in online marketing and it is going to continue in the years to come. For advertisers, this means increase revenues with fewer advertising expenses, savings, more sales, good return of investment (ROI) and effective ad campaigns in the days to come.

PPC ADVERTISING: HOW TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS "CLICK"

PPC ADVERTISING: HOW TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS "CLICK"


PPC stands for Pay Per Click - a popular advertising technique on the Internet. Found on websites, advertising networks, and especially on search engines, PPC advertising involves sponsored links that are typically in the form of text ads. These are usually placed close to search results, where an advertiser pays a particular amount to visitors who click on these links or banners and land on the advertiser's web page.

In essence, PPC advertising is all about bidding for the top or leading position on search engine results and listings. Advertisers do this by buying or bidding on keyword phrases that are relevant to their products or services - the higher the bid, the higher the spot on the search results, the more the people will find the ad (and click on it) to go to their websites (this is why some people call it "keyword auctioning"). Advertisers would then pay the bidding price every time a visitor clicks through the website.

PPC advertising is also known under the following names/variations:

· Pay per placement
· Pay per performance
· Pay per ranking
· Pay per position
· Cost per click (CPC)

PPC advertising is usually done with the following standard procedures:

1. Setting up an account and/or deposit funds.

2. Creating a keyword list.

3. Choosing (and setting up) an account with a PPC search engine.

4. Bidding on the ad placement, including the search result words or phrases.

5. Writing out an ad copy.

6. Setting up the 'landing pages' for your ads.

7. Placing the advertisement in the search engine.

There are many benefits to Pay Per Click advertising, making it an effective way of promoting a business 'online'. Some of them are listed below:

· Get launched immediately. PPC advertisements are implemented very quickly - they can go 'online' within an hour after winning the bid and paying for it.

· Obtain specific, pre-qualified, and quality traffic. PPC provides you with a quality or a well-targeted traffic. Visitors are narrowed down into 'qualified' people who are actually looking for specific products and/or services that you offer - those who are more likely to become a 'lead' (a convert) and complete a transaction (either by buying your product or subscribing to the service that you are offering.

· Widen your reach. PPC advertising provides additional traffic to your site, aside from the natural or "organic" search engines.

· Track your investment. PPC advertising makes use of a tracking system that will determine exactly who comes to the website and what they do once they arrive - the length of their stay on the site and the number of pages (including the actual pages) that they view. These are valuable tools in determining statistics such as return on investment (ROI), acquisition cost-per-visitor, and conversion rates (the percentage of visitors who are converted into customers or leads).

Below are some important things to consider when planning on a pay per click campaign:

1. Know your product. Take an inventory of the product and/or services that you have to offer (before anything else).

2. Stay within the budget. Determine your daily or monthly budget; and stay with it. This means keeping your budget in mind, avoiding bidding wars if possible.

3. Bid just right. Know how to bid right - a bid that is too high can exhaust all of your money, while a bid that is too low can make you lose that spot.

4. Watch the bottom line. Measure your profit margin against your spending or expenses. Know when to stop and terminate your PPC program - if you spend more on advertising but have little or no sales at all.

5. Find the right keywords. Decide which keyword phrases to opt and bid for. Do some keyword research, either by actually looking at existing search terms or with the use of online keyword suggestion tools, to know which terms are mostly used when searching for items that are related to your business. Focus on specific keywords, not on general ones.

6. Write effective ads. A good PPC ad is that which can persuade and move a searcher. There are several approaches to this:

· Discount offers
· Testimonials
· Celebrity/famous endorsers
· Money-back guarantees
· Free trials or sample offers
· Freebies
· Reverse psychology
· Major benefits ("Lose weight")
· Direct instructions ("Click here")

7. Maintain a professional-looking site. Your web content should be regularly updated and checked for spelling and grammatical errors. There should be no broken links or images. The website should be simple - designed in such a way that it will be easy for visitors to navigate and load. Include contact details to create a good impression among potential customers.

Done properly, PPC advertising can be an effective marketing tool that will maximize the return on your investment.

Getting started with videoblogging

Getting started with videoblogging


Videoblogging is the next generation of posting ideas and products over the internet. Everybody knows about textblogging. Now they use videos for a better way of expression. This form of communication may entail a lot of resources, but it is all worth it. If pictures say a thousand words, videoblogging exceeds that by far.

A videoblog requires larger disk spaces on websites, a faster server, and a whole new set of programs to support it. Videoblogs can be fed through RSS. This is technology of syndicating your website to other RSS aggregators.

Videoblogging works with people on the internet expressing their selves. Now if you put this on a business prospective, you are up to a lot of benefits. Think of it as a powerful tool in making showing your prospective customers your line of products or your services. It’s just like showing a commercial all for free. And if you videoblog through RSS, then most probably you are getting your target market.

People like to see what they are going to buy. Some would like to see proof and be sure that they are getting their money’s worth before shelving their dimes on it. All of us know the influence of a thirty second commercial. The effect of videoblogging is similar to that. You show your product, people watch it. If they like it, they buy it. If you present it good enough, they’ll buy the product even if they don’t need it.

Now on the web, things are pretty much static, unlike in television in which all are moving. If you post something that is mobile, it would most likely catch attention. Now imaging your product parading in all it’s royalty through videoblog. You’ll get phone call orders in no time.

If your business is just starting up, you can create a videoblog right at your own home. All you need is your web camera, microphone, video software, and lights. For as long as you know how to use your camera, then you can create a videoblog.

Invest in a good web camera. The higher its resolution is the better the output. And you like to present your goods in the optimum way so get the best one possible. Make a short story, or just capture your goods in one go. Just make sure you are getting the best profile for each. Get those creativity juices flowing.

Lights are important in a production. Make sure you illuminate entirely the area you are going to use to create videoblog. The brighter the area, the crispier the images will be. You can also use lighting effects for added appeal to the presentation.

Should you require sounds for your videoblog, you need a microphone. Record you voice as a voice over for promoting the product and its benefit to consumers. Sounds are as important as videos on a videoblog. It is advisable to make your sound effects as enticing as the video.

Your video editing software can be any program. You need this to finalize your work. You can add sounds, delete some bad angles, or insert some still pictures in there too. Some programs are user-friendly and can be used even with zero knowledge on video editing. Even simple video editing programs should do the trick. Select your background carefully too. The light affects the presentation so make sure that the background and the light complements each other.

Videoblogging is a great tool but it also has it downside. It may slow down the computer so other may steer clear of it. Download time may also be time consuming especially if customer is still on a dial- up connection.

But don’t let those stop you. Let videoblogging be an alternative for you, though it is best to still keep the text and pictures present in your presentation to accommodate all possible viewers of your site.

Nowadays, the more creative you are in presenting your product to the market, they more you are likely to succeed. Videoblogging offers an interactive way of selling. You involve the customers. You instill in them the advantage of your goods. And at times, those are enough to make a sale.

PROBLOGGING: MAKING MONEY FROM BLOGS

PROBLOGGING: MAKING MONEY FROM BLOGS


A weblog (or simply blog) is a website that 'publishes' or features articles (which are called 'blog posts', 'posts', or 'entries'), written by an individual or a group that make use of any or a combination of the following:

· Straight texts
· Photographs or images (photoblog)
· Video (videoblog)
· Audio files (audioblog)
· Hyperlinks

Usually presented and arranged in reverse chronological order, blogs are essentially used for the following purposes:

· Online journal or a web diary
· Content managament system
· Online publishing platform

A typical blog has the following components:

· Post date -the date and time of the blog entry

· Category - the category that the blog belongs to

· Title - the title of the blog

· Main body - the main content of the blog

· RSS and trackback - links the blog back from other sites

· Comments - commentaries that are added by readers

· Permalinks - the URL of the full article

· Other optional items - calendar, archives, blogrolls, and add-ons or plug-ins

A blog can also have a footer, usually found at the bottom of the blog, that shows the post date, the author, the category, and the 'stats' (the nubmer of comments or trackbacks).

There are numerous types of blogs. Some of them are the following:

1. Political blog - on news, politics, activism, and other issue based blogs (such as campaigning).

2. Personal blog - also known as online diary that may include an individual's day-to-day experience, complaints, poems, and illicit thoughts, and communications between friends.

3. Topical blog - with focus either on a particular niche (function or position) that is usually technical in nature or a local information.

4. Health blog - on specific health issues. Medical blog is a major category of health blog that features medical news from health care professionals and/or actual patient cases.

5. Literary blog - also known as litblog.

6. Travel blog - with focus on a traveler's stories on a particular journey.

7. Research blog - on academic issues such as research notes.

8. Legal blog - on law (technical areas) and legal affairs; also known as 'blawgs'.

9. Media blog - focus on falsehoods or inconsistencies in mass media; usually exclusive for a newspaper or a television network.

10. Religious blog - on religious topics

11. Educational blog - on educational applications, usually written by students and teachers.

12. Collaborative or collective blog - a specific topic written by a group of people.

13. Directory blog - contains a collection of numerous web sites.

14. Business blog - used by entrepreneurs and corporate employees to promote their businesses or talk about their work.

15. Personification blog - focus on non-human being or objects (such as dogs).

16. Spam blogs - used for promoting affiliated websites; also known as 'splogs'.

Blogging is typically done on a regular (almost daily) basis. The term "blogging" refers to the act of authoring, maintaining, or adding an article to an existing blog, while the term "blogger" refers to a person or a group who keeps a blog.

Today, more than 3 million blogs can be found in the Internet. This figure is continuously growing, as the availability of various blog software, tools, and other applications make it easier for just about anyone to update or maintain the blog (even those with little or no technical background). Because of this trend, bloggers can now be categorized into 4 main types:

· Personal bloggers - people who focus on a diary or on any topic that an individual feels strongly about.

· Business bloggers - people who focus on promoting products and services.

· Organizational bloggers - people who focus on internal or external communication in an organization or a community.

· Professional bloggers - people who are hired or paid to do blogging.

Problogging (professional blogging) refers to blogging for a profit. Probloggers (professional bloggers) are people who make money from blogging (as an individual blog publisher or a hired blogger).

Below are just some of the many money-making opportunities for probloggers:

· Advertising programs
· RSS advertising
· Sponsorship
· Affiliate Programs
· Digital assets
· Blog network writing gigs
· Business blog writing gigs
· Non blogging writing gigs
· Donations
· Flipping blogs
· Merchandising
· Consulting and speaking

The following are a few things that you need to consider if you want to be successful in problogging:

1. Be patient. Problogging requires a lot of time and effort, not to mention a long-term vision.

2. Know your audience. Targeting a specific audience or group is a key to building a readership.

3. Be an 'expert'. Focus on a specific niche topic and strive to be the "go-to" blogger on that topic.

4. Diversify. Experiment with various add and affiliate programs that enable you to make money online (aside from blogging).

5. Do not bore your readers. Focus on the layout. White spaces, line spacings, and bigger fonts make a blog welcoming to read.

Certainly, it is possible to earn money from blogs. One just needs to take risks, the passion, and the right attitude in order to be a successful problogger.

Boost Your Business With Blogging!

Boost Your Business With Blogging!


Business blog is an incredible online marketing tool that saves you thousands of dollars but provides great business opportunities in just one click. Blogs are user-friendly, customized and flexible medium for disseminating useful information for effective positioning of your products in the market.


Companies engaging in business blogging have a definite edge over its competitors. Here are some advantages:
? Word-of-Mouth. In a survey, there are currently 14 million blogs with 80,000 more being added each day and about 30 percent of the 50 million users are blog readers. Imagine how much gain your company will have, if your products are advertised through blogs. With Internet, information spreads so quickly especially if an impressive write-up goes with your product. Soon your blogs will be passed on to hundreds of possible customers.
? Awareness and loyalty. Open communication with your customers creates trust and loyalty among them. Being there to respond to their questions and comments make them all the more willing to try your products and services.
? Feedback. Blogs is good for product research and reviews. It would be easier to improve on your products if you observe your customers’ thinking and behavioral patterns. You can also take immediate action to your customers’ concerns.
? Community halo-effect. Bloggers are reasonable, friendly and helpful. They are more than willing to create blogosphere of comments regarding your product. The only thing you have to do is embrace and take active part in the culture and your product will surely be considered in their next stop to the supermarket.


For better marketing results, actively promote your business blogs by submitting your blogs to blog search sites and directories. Do not forget to paste in with your blogs, your URL. Be sure that your blogs contain exclusive information with value and are always updated to keep readers popping in, read up your blog, move on to the next and click on again for updates.


Blog is like a setup booth in the biggest trade show on earth everyday. Marketing possibilities are just around the corner waiting to strike your sale scales up.


The Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are important too in conjunction with your blogs to get the best benefits. Use effective keyword phrases to generate high ranking status in the search engine traffic. In this way you have better chances of people finding your website leading to your blogs. More traffic means more potential sales.


For this to be successful, you can use RSS for news update feeds which can be read through RSS reader application. This is a very useful tool for business and internet marketers as well.


If you are already convinced with the potentials of business blogs for marketing and targeting sales increase, your company is now ready to start blogging. But first, you have to be in tune with your company’s business objectives and determine if blogging will really help you achieve your goal.

1. Several blogs are dedicated to teaching people the do’s and don’ts of blogging, READ them! Include in your reading materials blogs that are consumer-based too to give you an idea.
2. Setup several test blogs right away.


If your initial try out with blogs worked well, you can now start setting up your blogs.

1. Study blog design. Blog hosting services provide pre-designed templates. But if you opt for paid blog service, you can ask your artist to design and layout your blog site to match the company’s identity and needs.
2. Choose a topic. Its good to have a line-up of topics you want for your blogs but be sure they are in consonance with your business objectives. This would be a test of your flexibility and open-mindedness since results may be going against the set objectives.
3. Remember the following safety measures in blogging:
? legal issues are sometimes involved in blogging; it is safer to include disclaimers and limitations of liabilities;
? corporate communication and legal department are responsible in educating the senior management on how blogs might affect business;
? create blogging policies; set limits on who gets to blog and what information are allowed to be made public;
? avoid outright marketing blog or you will shy away your readers;
? make content updated, relevant and fresh;
? reinforce the company’s core values; and,
? encourage employees to use it.
4. Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing.
5. Begin marketing.
6. Regularly monitor the coming ins and outs of readers and get updates. Then, measure your results.
7. Adjust if needed. You can always play with your designs in the blog site as long as it remains to match the company’s identity.
8. Strive to be consistent with your topic all the time.
9. Try to have unrelated topics with general and broad appeal.
10. Schedule updates regularly. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday would be best to update blogs.


Once you have done all these things, you can now ultimately enjoy the benefits of business blogging.

(837 words)

The Importance of Blog Design

The Importance of Blog Design

Blogs have increased popularity over this past months. Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings. Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on the latest product news and reviews.

Because of this, blogs are also being used as internet marketing media. Before, internet marketing is done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites. Links were also included on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists.

Many people spend time reading blogs. People read their friend's blogs, their favorite author's blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and blogs on product reviews. With the increasing popularity of blogging, it is even feared that people rely on blogs to get the latest news.

While getting news reports from blogs isn't reliable, some people look for product reviews through blogs. In some cases, this is more dependable. While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, blog writers write about their actual experiences on products and services from a company.

Since there are many people who read and start their own blogs, blogs are a good medium to market a product. With the increasing blog traffic means increase in product sales.

Blog traffic can be increased by joining affiliate programs and sites, which will list your blog under a certain search category or name. You can also have your blog advertised in popular websites. This, however, will cost some money and is not advisable if you have just started blogging.

A writer who has just launched his/her blog will want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements on the site. Also, some advertisers pay every time their link is clicked or the page that has their link is viewed.

When you have increased traffic on your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and recommending your blog to friends and colleagues.

This can be done by having informative or amusing content and good blog layout and design. You may develop your blog's content or you can also acquire the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles.

The blog's layout and design also plays a big role. While most of the companies offering free blog hosting offer pre-selected templates, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog's traffic.

Here are a few tips to make your blog stand out from the millions of blogs out there that have standard designs.

* Customize the banner

The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service.

You can personalize this banner by having a graphic with the dimensions of the banner. You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog.

In this case, you can create your own graphic or you can purchase professional looking graphics online for less than $10.

* Personalizing photos

Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own. However, if you don't customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits graphics can add to the page. Adding photo borders can help the photo stand out from the page.

It can also add to the design of your blog. You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be associated with your blog's templates.

* Add a favicon

Don't you think sites with icons on the address bar before the website's URL are cool? Many people do. These favicons add a professional look to the URL. These easy to do using photo or graphic editing softwares.

* Check out blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins from sites

There are sites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins. You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs hosted by the service provider.

* Include RSS feeds

This is a cool way to inform people with newsreaders about your blog headlines. Tutorials on RSS feeds are available on the internet.

* Audio makes your blog more personal

Not only does audio personalizes the blog; it can also keep your visitors coming back. You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or playlists loading with your blog.

* Advertisements

If you have signed-up with Google Ad-Sense, which I am sure you would like to do, make sure that the ads are conveniently placed that these will not hinder your readers' ease in accessing the information on your blog.

Try using these tips and you can definitely increase and retain traffic on your blog.

Blog Software For All Your Blogging Needs

Blog Software For All Your Blogging Needs

Today anyone who has writing ability or is dreaming to be a writer has written a blog in the net. There are blog soft wares that are simple and easy to use and a technically inclined and challenged individuals can easily acquire a blog online.

For some individuals, blogs are their projects of every day living, as they talk about their daily episodes as well as make tribute to friends and family. Furthermore, blogs assume a profound meaning written to compose and assemble political statements, endorse a product, supply information on research, and even offer tutorials. Any subject that are of your interests, you can be sure that someone has written a blog about it.

Blogs are now being written by musicians, politicians, sports figures, novelists, newscasters as well as other known figures. It is this blog fever that has raised controversy. The fact that anyone can compose and regarding any subject matter under the sun, complaints about certain write-ups are an issue. In a lot of blogs, names are being mentioned; do bear in mind that although you are entitled to write anything that interests you in a blog, you have to be very careful and take in a lot of responsibility. Do not make any statements which can become controversial; or else, be very prepared.

Why a Blog?

1. For personal acquaintances, relationships and hobby. A person can write a blog about his daily activities, what’s going on with his life as his way of telling his family and friends the things that goes on in his life. Likewise, one may also write a blog just so he can express what he feels about himself, or about a certain subject matter that is of interest to him.

2. Topical. Some blogs are committed to a precise topic, like computer hardware or politics. These are frequently read like magazines.

3. For marketing. Corporations are too, into blogging; when well written and implemented, this kind of blog can be a powerful instrument for business communications, forming eagerness and anticipation regarding their products and services offered, or used as tool within the company, keeping employees well informed about company issues and news.

Why someone else's software?

A lot of Web designer and creators will laugh at the belief and idea of utilizing the software of someone else. This is can be correct especially when each software greatly differs from the particular requirements that a client may have. Yet on the other hand, when it refers to a Weblog software, there is no reason for apprehension in the use of a package that is pre-written, as most packages were developed through years of study; not just knocked together over a couple of days.

In addition, one may study its feature set. For a developer, it would take a lot of time and effort to write and compose from “nothing at all” every single feature in the Weblog software packages of today. For most people, a blog is there for the main reason that chooses to publish or make known your literature and texts on the Web, so you want to spend your time more on writing than coding.

Hosted Services

If one wishes to start broadcasting on the Web, yet does not have web hosting, one can consider looking into a hosted service, which includes Blogger, TypePad, Live Journal, and more.

These services are operated or handled for an individual, so there is no need to concern one about technical upkeep of one’s Weblog; instead, one can concentrate on his blog's appearance and content. In just minutes, after signing for an account, one can readily start his own blog. Many such services are offered free, such as blogger. TypePad charges a minimal amount for monthly service fee.

Self-Hosted

When one has Web hosting on hand, or is eager to buy hosting, in which one feesl that the advantage will prevail over the problems of keeping up your own blog connection and installation, then you may want to take into account a package that is self-hosted, which includes Movable Type, Textpattern and WordPress.

Other hosting companies did construct the process of installation easier, permitting installation with just a click from a control panel that is browser-based. It is important that you check with a hosting company so you can view if this function is offered. Similar to hosted services, some self hosted packages are made available either for free or for a certain fee which is dependent on the type of package that you choose as well as the basis why you are using it.

How to Increase Sales Through Streaming Audio

How to Increase Sales Through Streaming Audio

Many studies have proven that radio is a good medium for product advertisements. People listen to the radio for entertainment, usually to listen to the latest music or to their favorite radio program. In between the program, advertisements on products and services are being played.

For many years, this has been the trend in advertising. But now that the radio medium is almost behind the audio-visual medium, the TV, and the Internet, other marketing strategies have to be employed to continue the benefits of advertising through audio.

It is then that the benefits of using music on websites were discovered. Before, music on the Internet was just available in downloadable forms as mp3. Even through hosting downloadable music on their servers, companies were able to get much traffic on their sites. And everyone engaged in Internet marketing knows that website traffic plays a big role in boosting product and service sales.

However, there had been a problem with illegal music download in which artists, musicians and record companies have lost millions of revenues.

Then, came the popularity of Internet music streaming. Unlike the former, radio streaming does not allow download of the music files. Thus, the copyrights of the artists and record label owners are protected.

So, how can this be done? There are several ways to stream audio from your site. First, is to stream a radio program from your site or blog. You can find free affiliate programs that allow you to stream their radio content from your site.

What will this mean to you? This means that your site will have new audio content every time it is visited. What's even great is that the content is being updated even without much effort from you.

In this case, what you needed to do is to signup with an Internet radio station and have the link embedded on your blog or website.

Another way is to stream mp3s. To do this, you just need to upload your mp3files on a server and add the files' links to the page. When the link is clicked, the browser opens a media player window and plays a file. However, since the file is in mp3 format, it may also be downloaded. Downloading music files without the authorization of the copyright owner is illegal. Therefore, if you will be using this type of streaming, make sure that you have the appropriate permit to do so.

A third way to add audio to you blog or website is to stream music through organizing playlists. Playlists are m3u files, which if downloaded, will not play music if offline. Using this process, however, can be complex. Here is a short instruction on how to do it.

1. Save your mp3 or wma file on the server. You may skip this step if you know that the file exists on another server and know the link to that file. Make sure that the link has a .mp3 or .wma extension.

2. Open your text editor and type the path to the file. Include the http:// and the file extension. Repeat this step until you have included all the links to the files that you would like to be included in the playlist.

3. Save the playlist with a .m3u extension.

4. Upload the m3u file on the directory where the music files are hosted or to your server.

5. Open your html editor and embed the link to the m3u file. Through this, you can also set if you want to have the playlist to autoplay if someone visits your site of if you want your visitor to control playing the music. You can also set the volume level.

After the code is embedded on the html file, and whenever your site is visited, the songs in the playlist will be buffered, streamed and played one after another. If your playlist has several songs, the user can skip forward or go back a song in the playlist using the media player controls.

Doing this setup works for many website owners. Through this you can customize the type of music being played on your site. You can even play recordings related to your product to boost product awareness.

It requires knowledge of html to be done. But if it will be the best way to increase traffic to your site, why not request assistance from programmers. After all, having audio on a website is a proven way to increase sales.

All You Need To Know About Blog Hosts

All You Need To Know About Blog Hosts


Apart from the chat rooms, instant messengers and electronic mails created for communication and dialogue beyond turf are the emerging innovations that help man build opportunities for interaction. The need for a personalized and human face aspect of building online communities is slowly changing the technological landscape of the Internet.


Blogs / “weblogs” or blogging are the newest gift of Internet technology to people all over the world. These are updated posts, crop up entries or personalized life snippets, of mundane or bizarre in nature. For most, a “blog” is a personal, unedited, and authentic journal meant to be shared in an online community. Blog site is a place where bloggers can publish anything; his thoughts, feelings, photos, special events, experiences, comments on issues and so on. It is more of an online diary with videos, links, documents, newsletters and opinions on just about any topics you are interested.


Blogs are made to welcome the insights and opinions of all and therefore, should not be written to sound intimidating and too formal. This kind of blog is a sure way to put off the readers. In the basics of blogging, conversational tone would be more appropriate to reach the desired audience.


Blogging is all about individuals reaching out to other individuals. Having a blog has its own set of advantages:

? Freedom of Expression. If you want people to hear you out and give their own opinion, this is the best way to create a line of communication;
? Networking is at its best. Having a blog is a good platform for exchanging genuine ideas from consumers to you as marketer of a certain product. Sound opinion and point of view is better than just showing the price quote;
? Excellent advertising platform. Blogging is a new way to advertise products, a refreshing change from the traditional advertising outlets and it is cost-effective.
? Gauging public opinion on products and services. The key is nice and catchy titles with new ideas presented in your content. This is an assurance of quick and repeated responses from your readers. Blogs is an excellent spot for the exchange of ideas between the seller and the consumer. Good for measuring public opinion regarding services and products, even political and business matters alike.
? Useful tool for internal communication. This will help your company to build a knowledge-based community of employees. Also good for harnessing employee relations and identifying human resource issues in advance.
? Other benefits like search engine optimization (SEO) will help your blogs to be seen often by as many people as you wish. This is very good exposure for your products and services.


Many blog hosting services are available on the Internet. But the basic question is which one of the services will be the best to start off your business blog program? Business people are usually clueless to recent technological innovations which would help them maximize their marketing potentials. For these beginners, it is best to study first the services offered by blog hosts. An ineffective business blogging program may damage marketing opportunities instead of enriching them.


A company may decide to do the following depending on its capacity and needs: 1) Host their own blog service, 2) Pay someone else to host the service, or 3) Setup a “blog aggregator page” and ask the employees to select their blog hosting services individually. There are paid and free services available for individuals.


For business blogs, they are required to have the latest blogging features; if not, this will prevent them from maximizing their marketing, public relations and SEO potentials.


Keep in mind that blogs should have the following basic essentials:


COMMENTS. Welcoming comments provide opportunity for dialogue. In business blogs, they are a good customer feedback mechanism. This helps develop better customer relations based from loyalty and trust. Blogging is an innovative way to converse with your customers.
TRACKBACK. This helps in maximizing company and product exposure. Through this service, consumers can get back to you for more posts and updates without the difficulty of locating you. If your blog is popular in a specific online community chances are links going back to your blog site are everywhere online, other blog sites or even websites.
CATEGORIES AND TAGS. These both help in classifying blog searches for ease of navigation and on site search. Categories act as libraries because it classifies posts by subject matter such as business, distance learning, e-commerce, online auctions, etc. Tags, help in the classification, especially in the blog search engine Technorati. Possible customers and new clients locate blogs about certain topics of interest by just clicking the tags.
RSS FEED. Really Simple Syndication is the feed from your blog that is sent out over the internet, and collected through the various newsreaders and aggregators.


If your company is to establish a business blogging program, considerable options should be made available by the hosting companies shortlisted for the services. Free blog hosting services are popular but they are much appropriate for individual online journals. Paid blog hosting services offer unlimited packages best for your company’s needs. You may want to suggest checking out some blogs that use the host first, read and examine their layout and design. Another important thing to consider is a reliable technical support the host has.


After, choosing the blog host, a team should be ready to plan the design and structure of the blog: The team should:
? create a style that meets the needs of the audience;
? establish an open, credible tone;
? schedule weekly updating of blog - ideally, a few times a week;
? include weblinks of other website and blogs;
? blog post should be in the “first person;”
? focus on the business blog objective; and,
? maintain an honest, engaging conversational quality.


Remember, whatever the look, style and content found on your blog is a reflection of you and your company.

(990 words)

5 Reasons Why Blogging is the New Internet Marketing Tool

5 Reasons Why Blogging is the New Internet Marketing Tool

Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s. It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page. What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential. Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

1.Blogging is simple. The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging. No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse. It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product. If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

2. Blogging is authentic. In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims. However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

3. Blogging is free. Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free. Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up. Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.

4. Blogging builds credibility. As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs. As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market. Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts. Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is. But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base. Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:

-By using your e-mail. Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market. In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site. Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site. If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

-By using subscription. An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite. Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address. Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-By understanding your readers. Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences. Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared. In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

-By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc. Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.

-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

Basic Blogging

Blogging 101

If writing is an art, then, blogging is one way of using words to come up with an art. This is because people who are into blogging are the ones who are artistic on their own sense, carefully choosing words that would best describe their feelings, sentiments, wishes, desires, and everything.

Basically, blogs were first introduced as weblogs that refer to a “server’s log file.” It was created when web logging hit the virtual market. Since its inception in the mid-1990s, web logging gradually saturated the virtual community making the Internet a viable source of greater information.

However, with web logging, you still need a web site and domain names, but with blogging, you do not need anything just an account with blog providers. In most cases, these kinds of blogs are free of charge.

With the onset of blogging in the industry, personal journaling had been a common ground for people who wish to be known all over the world. However, not literally famous as this is not a case on being popular or well-known personality.

Generally, blogs are created for personal use. Like a journal, people can write their daily adventures, sentiments, and whatever ideas they want to express online.

Nevertheless, with the advent of the online businesses, blogs had gradually taken the limelight in providing businesses a chance to boost their productivity online. This is where the business blogs have taken the limelight.

Business blogs are, basically, created to advertise the services or products of a certain web site or online business in order to increase online sales.

Moreover, business blogs are also one way of promoting the company so that the other readers will know that a certain company exists online. With blogs, entrepreneurs are able to establish a name in the virtual market through articles that can be very useful in the reader’s life.

From there, you can make money out of blogs by simply syndicating it to your business’ web site. This can be done through the RSS technology.

So, if you are thinking to create a blog, whether for business or for pleasure, you need to know some tips that could help you get through and make your blog one of the interesting blogs online.

Here’s how:

1. Consider your audience

Even if your blog is generally personal, still, it would be better to consider the minds of your readers. You have to think of something that would interest them.

After all, most of the reasons of people who write blogs are not at all confined to their own personal motives. Most of them would love to be “heard” (or read) and would love to be known, in some way or another, even for just a minute. Hence, it is very important to come with a write up that everybody can understand, not necessarily that these people can relate to it but they can understand it.

2. Pictures speaks a thousand words

To make your blogging worth the browsing effort of your readers, it would be extremely nice if you will put some pictures in it. It does not necessarily mean you have to place a picture of yourself. Any photographs will do as long as it does not pose danger or insult to anyone who will be reading your blog.

3. Make constructive and beneficial blogs

Even if you are free to write anything you wan to say to the world, still, it would be better to create some write-ups that would be beneficial to your readers.

After all, its information technology that you have there so better be inclined to provide information rather than sheer quirky entertainment.

4. Avoid making multifaceted and complicated blogs

In order to have an interesting blogs, try not to use some highly technical and highfalutin words. After all, it is not a science discourse or a debate that you are making, so better stick to simple facts and short blogs.

Bear in mind that most people who use the Internet usually do more scanning than scrutinizing each site word for word. Therefore, it would be better to come with blogs that will not bore your readers just because you have these lengthy articles.

5. Make it interactive

As much as possible and if your capacity will allow it, make your blog interactive. Yu can do this by placing some video or audio clips in your blog.

You can even place an area for comments or for some feedbacks. In this way, you can get some impressions or reactions of other people. Who knows, you might even gain some friends just by making them feel at home in your blog site.

Indeed, blogs are not created just for the mere fun of it. It also has its own purpose in the world of the Internet.
Therefore, for people who wish to harness their craft, as far as writing is concerned, blogs are the best way to do it.

As they say, blogging is the contemporary term of creative and commercial writing.

Memperkokoh fondasi personal

Memperkokoh Fondasi Personal
Dalam sebuah tanya jawab di televisi, ada penelpon yang meresahkan kondisi masyarakat di mana kejahatan telah mengubah citra bangsa yang dikenal peramah; epidemi KKN yang tidak dapat diberangus oleh kekuasaan; professionalitas dan etos kerja produktif hanya sebuah human talk, bukan human commitment. “Padahal, kata si penelpon, kurang apa lagi kita, warisan budaya leluhur telah banyak mengajarkan pemahaman berbasis agama maupun pengetahuan, di samping juga negeri ini subur dan kaya sumber daya”. Intinya, penelpon tadi menanyakan dimanakah letak Pancasila dalam kehidupan bangsa ini.
“Benar, kata sang nara sumber menanggapi pertanyaan tersebut, tetapi memang masih ada kelemahan mendasar di tingkat gaya hidup masyarakat di mana sumber-sumber nilai masih dipahami secara parsial. Manajemen hanya dipahami ketika di dalam kantor, leadership hanya di politik, Tuhan hanya disanjung ketika di tempat ibadah, dan Pancasila saat upacara. Inilah split personality, kepribadian yang tanpa format, kocar-kacir. Oleh karena itu perlu dicanangkan kampanye budaya gaya hidup sinergis dan integrative melalui program pemberdayaan”. Sayangnya, nara sumber tadi tidak diberi waktu untuk menjelaskan apa itu gaya hidup sinergis atau integrative dan bagaimana memulainya.

Tujuan Hidup
Pada umumnya kelemahan mendasar dari gaya hidup di sejumlah negara berkembang dan terbelakang adalah individu atau pribadi yang tidak memiliki tatanan personal yang kokoh dan lebih banyak menggunakan senjata blaming others atau kambing hitam, menuding pihak lain sebagai penyebab kekacauan, cenderung menunggu kebijakan atau undang-undang dari penguasa, sehingga perubahan di tingkat individu ke arah yang lebih baik sulit tercipta. Padahal jika saja individu mau menyadari bahwa akan selalu ada hal-hal yang dapat dilakukan untuk mengatasi suatu kondisi terburuk sekalipun, maka menuding pihak lain sebagai penyebab kekacauan mungkin dapat dihindarkan.
Ralp Marston dalam artikel yang berjudul Choose Your Response (Greatday 2001), menulis, “selalu tersisa pekerjaan yang bisa anda lakukan sebagai bagian dari solusi dalam keadaan apapun”. Intinya ia mau mengatakan bahwa pasti ada sesuatu yang bisa anda lakukan untuk memperbaiki hidup anda sendiri. Kampanye nasional budaya gaya hidup sinergis dan integrative mungkin hanya merupakan kewenangan penguasa dan mungkin membutuhkan dana besar yang saat ini sangat sulit diperoleh. Oleh karena itu, mungkin saja penantian terhadap kampanye tersebut, kebijakan atau perpu hanya merupakan pekerjaan yang sia-sia. Dengan kondisi demikian maka anda sebaiknya tidak menunggu apapun atau siapa pun untuk memperbaiki hidup anda. Mulailah dari dalam diri sendiri dan lakukan sekarang juga. Bentuklah tatanan pribadi anda dengan baik sehingga andamenjadi pribadi yang tahan uji dan mampu keluar dari berbagai krisis yang menimpa.
Pertanyaannya adalah apa yang dapat dijadikan dasar untuk memperkokoh tatanan pribadi atau pondasi personal dan darimana harus memulainya? Jawabnya adalah dengan memiliki rumusan tentang tujuan hidup yang dipahami sebagai gaya hidup, komitmen atau karakter pribadi.
Definisi
Dalam prakteknya, tujuan hidup diletakkan dalam satu keranjang sampah dengan khayalan, mimpi dan akivitas. Oleh karena itu anda perlu memahami definisi yang membedakannya secara jelas. Dalam Reader’s Digest Oxford Dictionary dijelaskan bahwa goal (tujuan) adalah obyek personal yang menjadi sasaran utama suatu usaha atau cita-cita. Goal is destination, kawasan dimana kaki anda mendarat. Sementara dream (khayalan atau lamunan) adalah suatu gambar atau peristiwa yang melintas di alam fantasi pikiran anda – bukan sasaran [ Hillary Jones and Frank Gilbert, dalam Choosing Better Life, Oxford 1999]. Sementara aktivitas merupakan media dari goal atau destination. contoh: keberangkatan anda ke bandara untuk mereservasi tiket dengan memilih pesawat tertentu adalah aktivitas dan kota dimana anda akan berhenti itulah yang menjadi tujuan.
Mengacu pada definisi di atas segera anda dapat menyimpulkan bahwa nilai hidup seluhur apapun ketika masih dipahami sebagai dream, maka tentu saja ia tidak bisa bekerja mengubah konstruksi realitas. Begitu juga aktivitas. Sangat mustahil membawa rumusan Paretto tentang kerja cerdas di mana 20 % effort mestinya menghasilkan 80 % required result ke dalam budaya kerja anda, selama anda memahami aktivitas sebagai tujuan.
Alasan Mendasar
Ada tiga alasan mendasar, mengapa rumusan tentang tujuan hidup perlu anda miliki yaitu: kontrol diri, umpan daya tarik, dan sinergi kekuatan. Dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, terkadang muncul secara tiba-tiba baik dari dalam atau ajakan dari luar, sesuatu yang mestinya tidak memiliki hubungan apapun dengan apa yang benar-benar anda inginkan tetapi menyita banyak energi, waktu dan pikiran. Itulah distraksi – sesuatu yang menggoda anda meninggalkan perhatian pada tujuan. Oleh karena itu diperlukan kontrol diri.
Jika anda menyaksikan dunia ini bekerja, mengapa orang kaya malah gampang mendapat kekayaan, orang pintar gampang mendapat kedudukan, dst. Bukan nasib dalam pengertian gift tetapi daya tarik dalam makna achievement. Bahkan mengapa orang yang sudah jahat merasa kesulitan untuk berbuat baik meskipun hanya dengan senyuman yang gratis? Tujuan yang telah anda rumuskan untuk membidik satu objek akan menarik anda secara ‘tersembunyi’ ke arah yang anda maksudkan. Dengan satu syarat: setelah anda memiliki persiapan sempurna untuk menerimanya!
Semua orang menggantungkan harapan kepada dunia yang bisa dikatakan sama: hidup terhormat, memiliki kemakmuran, meninggalkan warisan yang cukup, dan mati masuk surga. Sama sekali tidak salah dengan harapan itu, sebab semua manusia sudah diberi potensi dasar untuk mencapainya. Anda memiliki imajinasi, pikiran, tindakan, dan perangkat lain. Tetapi persoalannya, bagaimana menyatukan perangkat tersebut menjadi satu kekuatan utuh untuk mencapai sasaran? Tujuan yang telah anda rumuskan akan menjadi media efektif bagi anda untuk menyatukan seluruh kekuatan yang anda miliki.
Merumuskan
Dari sekian banyak referensi tekhnis tentang cara merumuskan tujuan hidup, anda dapat mengacu pada formula berikut:
1. Konseptualisasi
Mulailah dengan menyusun rumusan secara tertulis tentang apa yang benar-benar anda inginkan. Rumusan tersebut selain tertulis di atas kertas putih, kertas pikiran, juga dinyatakan ke dalam bentuk kalimat positif. Lukislah tujuan anda dengan imajinasi untuk memberi otak kanan anda bekerja secara adil.
2. Keterkaitan Rasional
Rumusan tersebut harus memiliki keterkaitan rasional dengan kemampuan dan keberadaan anda saat ini. Sebab jika tidak, akan muncul masa frustrasi yang melelahkan. Keterkaitan rasional adalah sesuatu yang attainable (paling mungkin diraih) berdasarkan kemampuan, keahlian dan kekuatan anda.
3. Spesifik
Tujuan harus dirumuskan menjadi bentuk representasi padanan fisik yang khusus dan jelas. Tidaklah cukup hanya dengan menulis bahwa anda ingin kaya atau terhormat karena hal itu tidak memenuhi unsur kejelasan dan spesifik. Dengan kata lain, spesifik yang dimaksudkan disini adalah bahwa rumusan tujuan hidup anda harus memiliki tolok ukur (ada suatu standard yang ingin dicapai)dan measurable (dapat diukur sejauh mana perkembangan anda dalam mendekatakn diri pada tujuan).
4. Bermakna
Tujuan hidup harus berupa sesuatu yang relevan dengan kondisi diri anda. Artinya sesuatu tersebut harus berupa objek yang berguna bagi anda. Jika anda sedang menganggur, maka tujuan hidup yang paling bijak adalah mendapatkan atau menciptakan pekerjaan.
5. Batas Waktu
Tulislah batas waktu yang jelas, kapan tujuan hidup anda bisa dicapai dengan pentahapannya. Klasifikasikan tujuan hidup anda menjadi tiga: jangka pendek – menengah – jangka panjang.
Dengan memahami rumusan tekhnis di atas, bisa saja dielaborasi sesuai kepentingan, cobalah mengaplikasikannya ke dalam wilayah – wilayah sentral. Umumnya manusia memiliki sejumlah wilayah sentral tertentu: karir, keluarga, kesehatan fisik, format lingkungan yang anda pilih, pengembangan SDM, kematangan spiritual dan moral, status social dan budaya.
Realisasi
Untuk dapat merealisasikan tujuan hidup anda maka diperlukan beberapa langkah sebagai berikut:
1. Pentahapan
Jangan tergoda untuk menjalankan seluruh keinginan sekali dalam satu projek hanya karena nafsu ingin cepat yang hakekatnya malah memperlambat. Pikiran anda hanya akan bekerja untuk satu objek tunggal yang spesifik. Yakinilah, jika anda bisa menyelesaikan persoalan dari bagian yang paling kecil berarti anda mampu menyelesaikan banyak hal yang besar. Persoalannya terkadang langkah pentahapan berdasarkan kemampuan yang sering anda lupakan. Kesuksesan dengan kata lain adalah proses realisasi ide-ide perbaikan secara terus-menerus berdasarkan pentahapan.
2. Visualisasi
Visualisasi adalah membendakan sesuatu yang masih gaib melalui penglihatan mental. Lihatlah model rumah yang anda inginkan di kepala anda secara lengkap dengan taman atau letak kamar mandinya. Peganglah erat-erat, semua kreasi diciptakan melalui dua tahap, yaitu tahapan mental dan terakhir tahapan fisik. Visualisasikan sesuatu yang anda inginkan sampai benar-benar mengalami kristalisasi mental atau feel of becoming or having – merasakan seakan-akan anda sudah menjadi atau memiliki sesuatu yang anda inginkan. Berilah imajinasi anda bekerja untuk membantu bukan melawan anda.
3. inspirasi
Inspirasi adalah percikan ide-ide kreatif yang waktu dan tempatnya jarang anda kenali, kecuali anda sudah melatih-diri dengan pembiasaan. Inspirasi adalah akibat-hasil dari proses pengembangan diri. Inspirasi merupakan penemuan momentum of “Aha”. Inspirasi dapat anda munculkan dengan ‘conditioning’. Caranya? Temukan momen khusus yang menjadi kebiasaan untuk membuka dialog-diri, misalnya tengah malam atau di kamar mandi, atau lain. Agendakan untuk bertemu kenalan tanpa konsekuensi atau interest apapun selain silaturrohim. Pelajari sebanyak mungkin prestasi yang dihasilkan.
4. Target
Buatlah target pencapaian dari apa yang benar-benar anda inginkan. Memenuhi target bisa dilakukan dengan dua cara, yaitu, pertama deadline matematis di mana anda menjadikan target sebagai tujuan mikro dengan waktunya yang detail. Kedua dengan cara kristalisasi mental di mana anda SEKARANG ini seakan-akan sudah merasakan vibrasi fisiknya dari apa yang anda inginkan. Jangan sekali-kali mengundang kehadiran virus "NANTI" karena ia seringkali menawarkan bujukan yang berarti tidak pernah terjadi. Dengan berpikir NANTI, anda telah kehilangan daya tarik ke arah “Menjadi” atau “Memiliki” saat ini.
5. Keyakinan
Keyakinan menentukan karakter hidup terutama ketika anda menghadapi tantangan. Karakter sukses diciptakan dari keyakinan sukses dan begitu sebaliknya. Di tengah anda menjalani proses realisasi, mudah sekali virus muncul dan hanya bisa dilawan dengan keyakinan anda. Virus itu adalah rasa ragu-ragu, pesimisme, rasa tidak berdaya melawan tantangan, rasa malas, rasa putus asa, dan pasrah terhadap kemauan realitas. Oleh karena itu, ciptakan keyakinan sukses dengan mendatangkan sejumlah alasan yang bisa diterima oleh keyakinan anda.
6. Kesadaran Proses
Kalau anda menyaksikan bahwa ada seseorang yang hanya berjualan air putih bisa hidup mandiri tetapi kemudian anda dapatkan pemegang gelar akademik tidak mandiri, maka pembedanya tidak lain adalah kesadaran proses. Penjual itu telah menempuh proses yang memungkinkan terbentuknya sistem hidup mulai dari mana ia mengambil air lalu kepada siapa ia menjualnya, dst. Sistem bergerak stabil. Keahlian, ketrampilan, atau ijazah akademik tidak bisa mengganti peranan proses oleh karena itu siapa pun anda, maka anda harus tetap menempuh tangga proses yang sudah menjadi undang-undang hukum alam.
7. Interaksi
Anda tidak mungkin sukses meraih tujuan tujuan itu seorang diri. Ibarat baterai, sebesar apapun kandungan watt-nya maka selamanya tidak akan menciptakan cahaya selama tidak diinteraksikan dengan perangkat lain yang menjadi pasangannya. Sama juga dengan tujuan anda. Seni bagaimana tujuan anda diinteraksikan kepada pihak lain yang menjadi pesangannya harus anda miliki. Mengapa seni itu diperlukan? Terkadang anda mencipatakan interaksi tujuan bukan dengan pasangannya sehingga melahirkan dua kemungkinan yaitu interaksi tersebut tidak bekerja atau malah merusak tatanan.
Uraian singkat di atas setidaknya bisa memberi gambaran bahwa ibarat mendirikan bangunan gedung, maka fondasilah yang pertama kali harus dipikirkan. Tak ubahnya juga dengan hidup anda. Jika anda sudah memahami bahwa setiap hari berpikir untuk mengubah tatanan konstruksi bagian atas, bahkan bisa jadi berniat untuk mengubah bangunan menjadi gedung bertingkat, sudahkah anda memikirkan tentang pondasi personal anda?. Semoga berguna.(jp)

Makna Belajar

Makna Belajar Bagi Orang Dewasa
"Untuk apa sekolah tinggi, toh akhirnya sama saja, bingung ke mana mencari pekerjaan yang cocok. Ijazah akademik tidak memberi jaminan identitas yang segagah gelarnya. Bahkan sudah tidak lagi bisa dihitung dengan jari jumlah kawan sesama sopir taksi yang bergelar sarjana. Bukankah hidup itu yang paling pokok adalah memiliki sumber penghasilan yang cukup untuk menutup pengeluaran dan sisanya ditabung buat warisan, benarkan Pak?". Begitulah perkataan yang pernah diucapkan oleh seorang sopir taksi dalam suatu pembicaraan santai. Logika dan pertanyaan pembenar sopir taksi itu bisa dijawab benar dan tidak benar.

Kenyataan membuktikan semakin banyak jumlah kaum akademik yang tidak mendapatkan pekerjaan sesuai dengan disiplin ilmu atau gelarnya. Artinya ia menjalani pekerjaan yang semestinya tidak harus dilakukan setelah ia menyandang gelar akademik kebanggaannya. Ambillah contoh jika seorang sarjana pendidikan harus menjadi pedagang es keliling atau seorang sarjana hukum 'mencari' makan dengan menjadi pedagang beras kaki lima. Atau sarjana ekonomi menjadi seorang sopir taksi.
Tidak terdapat bentuk pelanggaran undang-undang apapun jika SPd menjadi penjual es keliling, jika SH menjadi penjual beras kaki lima, atau SE menjadi sopir taksi. Mengapa? Banyak alasan yang mendukungnya, antara lain: 1) mencari pekerjaan sama sulitnya dengan menahan godaan untuk mendapatkan tiket surga; 2) hukumnya halal secara juridis; 3) kebutuhan harian sesaat (short term survival) yang tidak bisa ditunda; 4) pandangan lingkungan yang miring jika sarjana nongkrong di rumah. Dan masih banyak lagi alasan lainnya.
Menjalani pekerjaan yang tidak sesuai dengan disiplin akademik memang sudah menjadi bentuk pemakluman bersama. Persoalan akan muncul ketika pekerjaan tersebut hanya bisa memenuhi sebagian kecil dari motivasi bekerja, misalnya uang saja atau hanya bebas dari asumsi lingkungan yang tidak-tidak. Di sisi lain, menjadi pengalaman kesyukuran hidup ketika ketidakcocokan tersebut membawa anda ke dalam keadaan yang sesungguhnya menjadi kemujuran tak disengaja. Sudah menerima gaji tinggi, simbol status sosial membanggakan, kemudian seluruh potensi mendapat tempat pemberdayaan secara optimal, meskipun pekerjaan itu tidak sesuai dengan latar belakang akademik anda.
Permasalahan timbul ketika individu yang melakoni pekerjaan yang tidak sesuai latar belakang akademiknya dengan motif keterpaksaan semata dalam upaya menghindar tekanan eksternal. Keterpaksaan inilah letak kesalahan yang sebenarnya, bukan bidang atau job title tertentu. Mengapa? Ketika motivasinya hanya terpaksa maka hidup tidak lagi berupa pilihan-pilihan untuk belajar berkembang melainkan kepastian dan kepasrahan. Padahal kepastian dan kepasrahan itu tidak memberinya banyak arti baik material dan non-material. Akan sangat berbeda jika pilihan diarahkan untuk belajar, berubah, dan berkembang.
Definisi Belajar
Salah satu iklan produk terkenal yang anda lihat kira-kira berbunyi, "Menjadi tua itu pasti, menjadi dewasa itu pilihan". Anda pasti sudah memahami maksud tersiratnya. Tanpa harus anda ciptakan, masa tua akan tiba, tetapi untuk menjadi dewasa anda harus menciptakannya. Bagimana anda menciptakannya? Tidak lain hanyalah belajar dengan basis kehidupan menjadi dewasa. Artinya kehidupan ini harus dijadikan materi untuk belajar dari titik keterbatasan tertentu menuju titik kemampuan berikutnya.
Belajar bagi orang dewasa adalah mencari untuk menemukan sesuatu tentang hidup tidak sebagaimana anak-anak yang hanya menerima dan terkadang masih jauh dari isu-isu kehidupan riilnya. Sejumlah definisi atau konsep yang dikemukakan para ahli tentang definisi belajar bagi orang dewasa bisa anda jadikan rujukan, antara lain:
1. Reg Revans (Penggagas Action Learning)
Belajar bagi orang dewasa, menurut Reg Revans (1998) adalah proses menanyakan sesuatu bermula dari pengalaman ketidaktahuan tentang apa yang akan dilakukan karena jawaban yang ditemukan saat itu tidak lagi valid untuk mengatasi situasi yang sedang terjadi. Dengan kata lain, "Learning is experiencing by exploration and discovery".
2. Bob Sadino
Dalam banyak wawancara yang dikutip oleh sejumlah media cetak, Bob Sadino, seorang pakar di bidang agrobisnis, seringkali melontarkan kata-kata pendek tetapi membutuhkan penjelasan yang tidak cukup dibeberkan dalam satu sessi seminar. Kata-kata itu tidak lain adalah: Cukup lakukan saja! Pernyataan tersebut mengandung makna yang dalam dimana belajar merupakan bentuk transformasi visi ke suatu tindakan lalu berakhir dengan achievement.
3. Charles Handy
Dalam bukunya Inside Organization (1999), Charles Handy mengemukakan bahwa siklus belajar orang dewasa diawali dengan mempertanyakan sesuatu dengan kuriositas tinggi; menemukan jawaban-jawaban teoritis; melakukan testing di lapangan; dan terakhir refleksi – sebuah pemahaman mengenai sesuatu yang bekerja dan yang mandul di dalam diri. Thomas Edison, seorang penemu, adalah contoh paling reliable sepanjang zaman. Dikisahkan bahwa secara pendidikan formal akademik, Edison tergolong siswa yang tidak hebat tetapi ia lebih banyak menggunakan waktunya untuk mengunjungi perpustakaan publik karena Edison menemukan sesuatu yang lebih bekerja terhadap hidupnya yang ia tidak dapatkan di bangku sekolah.
Dengan proses belajar di perpustakaan tersebut Edison menemukan pelajaran tentang relaksasi mental. Meski tidak seorang guru pun yang memahamkannya, tetapi naluri Edison tahu bahwa relaksasi mental lah yang membantunya menciptakan temuan-temuan yang tercatat lebih dari 1000 hak paten hingga ia wafat tahun 1931.
4. Alvin Toffler
Penulis buku terkenal ini mendifinisikan belajar sebagai proses mempersiapkan cara atau strategi menghadapi situasi baru. Perangkatnya meliputi pemahaman, aplikasi dari metodologi baru, keahlian, sikap dan nilai.
Dari definis-definisi diatas dapatlah diambil kesimpulan bahwa belajar bagi orang dewasa ternyata memiliki berbagai dimensi. Oleh karena itu menjadikan pendidikan (education) sebagai representasi tunggal dari proses belajar tidak jarang meninggalkan warisan mindset yang kurang menguntungkan terutama bagi pihak atau individu yang berkemampuan rata-rata atau minus. Lembaga sekolah, selain menciptakan birokrasi formal yang memberikan stigma bahwa sekolah adalah escalator tunggal yang mahal harganya, juga menunjukkan ketertinggalannya dengan kemajuan yang dicapai oleh dunia luar. Akibatnya timbul gap antara pendidikan dengan tuntutan atau kebutuhan yang ada di masyarakat. Hal inilah yang akhirnya menjadi dasar mengapa pengangguran tidak bisa dihindari lagi. Pendidikan belum sepenuhnya menjadi media yang mampu menterjemahkan makna belajar. Hal ini karena makna belajar yang sesungguhnya adalah melakukan sesuatu, kemudian membebaskan diri dari situasi atau tekanan yang diakibatkan ketidaktahuan. Cara terbaik untuk mempelajari sesuatu adalah dengan melakukannya, seperti yang ditulis oleh Rex dan Carolyin Sikes: "We learn about a city from being there, not from a map or guide book. We learned to walk and talk without reading instructions or following recipes. Learning is doing something, then getting rid of the unwanted parasitic movements".
Aplikasi Belajar
Merujuk pada sekian pandangan tentang belajar bagi orang dewasa, maka yang perlu anda lakukan adalah menjadikannya sebagai konsep hidup personal yang implementatif berdasarkan situasi dan kondisi yang anda hadapi. Konsep tersebut harus diformulasikan ke dalam pemahaman khusus yang anda rasakan bekerja mengubah hidup dan situasi, seperti yang dialami Edison. Guru anda adalah situasi konkrit yang anda alami dengan materinya berupa tantangan. Inilah makna esensial dari petuah yang sering anda dengar bahwa mencari ilmu itu hukumnya wajib. Ilmu yang tidak memiliki relevansi dengan situasi hidup anda oleh karena itu menjadi tidak wajib. Bagaimana anda mendapatkannya? Ikutilah formulasi berikut:
1. Sadari keadaan anda saat ini
Terimalah keadaan atau situasi hidup apapun saat ini dengan penuh kesadaran karena kesadaran itu akan menjadi syarat mutlak untuk menaklukkan segala tantangan yang menghadang. Jika anda menerimanya dengan kepasrahan atau penolakan maka selamanya keadaan atau situasi yang tidak menyenangkan tidak bakal meninggalkan anda. Bahkan lambat laun menciptakan lilitan yang lebih tinggi dari kapasitas anda. Tanpa kesadaran untuk berubah, maka perubahan situasi atau kondisi eksternal hanya memberi anda perubahan dalam waktu singkat dan sisanya anda kembali lagi ke format lama. Bahkan ketika anda naik jabatan mendadak, jabatan tersebut hanya anda rasakan kenikmatannya sebentar lalu anda lupa rasanya.
2. Pahami proses
Salah satu pertanda inti dari orang dewasa adalah pemahamannya terhadap bagaimana dunia konkritnya bekerja. Dengan memahami bagaimana sesuatu bekerja menurut hukum alamnya, maka akan membuat anda menjadi bijak menjalani hidup. Tidak lagi berpikir dengan mood atau menerjang kaidah-kaidah hidup yang benar. Di samping itu, pemahaman tersebut akan menyalurkan energi positif ketika proses sedang anda jalani. Di sinilah yang membedakan apakah anda merasakan tantangan sebagai proses untuk dinikmati atau proses yang anda rasakan dengan kepedihan.
3. Kemana anda akan melangkah
Setiap pekerjaan yang anda lakukan, setiap bidang yang anda geluti, setiap profesi yang anda sandang sebenarnya sudah diciptakan tangga kastanya di dalam. Termasuk seperti yang di alami kawan sopir taksi di atas. Ia boleh menjadi sopir , pedagang beras kaki lima, penjual es keliling selamanya meskipun tetap terbuka lebar peluang untuk menjadi manajer atau direktur bahkan pemegang saham di suatu perusahaan. Tangga kasta itulah yang menjadi simbol status anda. Dengan aplikasi prinsip belajar, maka hidup adalah realisasi gagasan, bukan lagi intimidasi orang atau keadaan. Tetaplah berjuang untuk hidup dengan imajinasi anda bukan hidup di dalam sejarah masa lalu atau jebakan realitas sementara.
Dengan memahami makna belajar diharapkan anda dapat menjalani hidup anda dengan penuh sukacita dan tidak didasarkan atas unsur keterpaksaan dan kepasrahan. Terlepas apapun profesi yang anda geluti, baik yang sesuai dengan latar belakang akademik maupun tidak, kesuksesan anda akan sangat tergantung pada bagaimana anda memahami hal tersebut sebagai suatu proses belajar. Semoga berguna.(jp)