Many of you found old jack-in-the-box an annoying toy and confined it to the toy box…..

Well, it reminds me of pop-ups on the internet. Eventhough you know that when you get on the internet there is a good chance a pop-up will present itself, you always act surprised and somewhat violated.

But as irritating as they are, pop-ups work. Most businesses are able to utilize pop ups for growing their list. This way they can market to you for years to come. Others actually make sales off of pop up offers.

Now, these days if you don’t want to deal with pop ups, you have the pop up blockers and stoppers. This pretty much remedies the situation if you don’t like multiple offers etc.

However, many people still don’t have any type of pop up blockers because they haven’t gotten around to purchasing it or because they actually want to view the pop up offers.

*Aggravating Pop Ups Mop Up!

With jack-in-the-box, jack always popped up. With pop ups, you can have multiple offers. Depending on the pop up software, you can have them pop up on entrance or on exit and even have them set on a time delay.

Plus, you can have them load on the front or behind the page. And even position them to the exact spot on the page where you desire.

**Remember when I said that pop up blockers and stoppers can pretty much be stopped these days?

Not so fast!!

Check out this article online at http://www.govisitors.com/jb/article4.html

After you get there you’ll notice a pop up that flies onto the page.

Even if you have a pop up blocker set up on your computer, it shoudn’t stop it. You see, this pop up is built into the html page. This way when it loads, it does not open in a separate window. It is a part of the page and can not be stopped.

Maybe it’s sneaky, but it works….

The word on the street is that Pop Ups will soon be done away with. Believe me, this will not hurt my feelings in the least! They tend to annoy me also. However, until then, you can continue to reap the benefits of utilizing pop ups for your business!

About The Author

Turn website visitors into paying customers! Free Epackage at http://www.govisitors.com/epackage.html. Take Advantage of Pure Internet Marketing Genius at GoVisitors.com’s Article Library http://www.govisitors.com/articles.html

jasonblackston@govisitors.com

You can talk with Jesus as you walk down the street, for He has promised to be at your right hand. He is your ever-constant companion. Whether you are washing dishes or hosing down the car, you can breathe out your heart’s desire to Jesus. Your prayer may be inaudible to any human ear, yet your words will not die away into silence, nor can they be lost. Nothing can drown out your prayer. It will rise above the honking of horns, the whir of factory machines, or the loudest thunder. Regardless of the noise factor around, when you are talking to God, you can be sure your prayer will be heard.

More than that, your earnest request for grace and strength will be answered. Ask God to do what you can’t do for yourself. Tell Jesus everything. His eye searches the inmost recesses of your soul: He reads your thoughts like an open book. Why not, then, lay the secrets of your heart before Him?

When you have asked for things that are necessary for the good of your soul, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. Jesus died so that you could have the precious things of heaven as your own, and at last find a home with the heavenly angels in the kingdom of God. Why not, then, accept His gifts with your whole heart? You can be sure that, if you find your voice and a time to pray, God will find time and a voice to answer.

According to Spinelli, “Until now, small Southern California business owners have had two choices. They have had to out-source the development of their web sites to a professional or sign up with a hosting company offering ‘free’ on-line templates. If they have an unlimited source of funds and the need for a dynamic, interactive site, outsourcing is definitely their best bet.”

“Entrepreneurs who are working with limited funds, however, have a need to look at less costly alternatives,” she says.

“Until now the only real alternatives to costly outsourcing have been on-line templates,” she says, “but most on-line templates have three major drawbacks. To use them one has to sign up for a year’s hosting at three to four times the ordinary cost, most templates offer limited functionality, and most cannot be optimized for search engines without a knowledge of HTML.”

The Web Site Tutor offers an interesting alternative. “We believe we are the first company in Southern California to offer on-site tutorials and on-going marketing assistance which can save undercapitalized business ventures not only a great deal of money but provide them with a far greater degree of control and flexibility,” she says.

According to Spinelli, web design is child’s play. “We can teach anyone who is reasonably computer literate how to design a functional web site in four hours or less and at a fraction of the cost of outsourcing,” she says.

Building a functional site, however, is only the beginning of the process. According to Spinelli, “A well designed site has to be optimized as it is built and that is probably the most important part of our training program.”

“All too often, small business owners hire someone to design a web site, get their sites marginally optimized and then registered with search engines. And the process ends there because they have been led to believe that this is all that needs to be done to build a successful on-line business.

“Successful sites are driven by on-going promotional campaigns that go beyond these essentials,” she said.

“We keep our clients abreast of the latest promotional strategies that will drive traffic to their sites both in the near and long term,” she continues.

Before business owners spend a penny on a web site, Spinelli recommends they review 10 key questions designed to help budding entrepreneurs decide whether a web site is a wise investment. See Key Questions.

The Web Site Tutor’s tutorial program carries a no risk guarantee. After the company’s initial tutorial session and 30 days thereafter, if a business owner decides to abandon the in-house development process, they will take over the site and credit the cost of training to its completion.

At the present time The Web Site Tutor’s tutorial services are restricted to Southern California. They start with a four-hour training session and are followed by 30 days of on-going technical and marketing support.

Copyright 2002 Ron Scott, The Web Site Tutor, www.websitetutoring.com. This article may be reproduced in any form whatsoever as long as it is attributed to the author.

When you do choose to build, the first thing you have to decide on before you shop for supplies is size. Believe it or not, some companies offer a kit where you can build your own sauna right in your apartment or condo bathroom! Of course, your landlord may not approve an apartment-build sauna, so it is more likely you would buy supplies or a kit for a separate area from your home.

If you own your home and build your own sauna, you will likely construct what is called a sauna cottage. If you buy a kit with all the materials, the only other things besides tools that you will need is a reputable book. Believe it or not, most kits don’t come with one!

You will have to buy all the wood and other materials yourself to build sauna rooms successfully. You will need enough wood for the cabin itself and for the benches, as many as you desire to have. You will also have to buy either a heater or collect rocks that are smooth and big enough to conduct their own heat and use those. Either way, the most important purchase is the wood- because you can’t use just any wood.

The wood you use to build your own sauna will determine your overall success. You must use a wood that won’t warp with moisture, such as knotty cedar or spruce, or moisture-resistant pine. Your benches should be made with a wood such as spruce or abachi. But of course the most important thing on your list it to make sure you get a book that explains how to build your own sauna so that you can put it all together.

Once you have the raw materials, then you need to get all the little things out of the way in order to build sauna baths effectively. For instance, you can’t just have a dark room- you need light. Deciding on cosmetic things such as light fixtures, doorway decorations and the like don’t seem all that important, but they are. You must make a blueprint of some sort and decide these things in advance- refer to your sauna-building book for details. Once you have decided all the little things and have your materials in hand, you will find out just how enjoyable and rewarding building your own sauna from scratch can be - not to mention the joy of bathing in it once it’s completed.

Most people who build links don’t keep careful records of who they trade with, and don’t monitor the trades closely. This ends up meaning they link to a bunch of bums who have quietly dropped their links back. This happens so often, I can almost say it’s guaranteed to happen, especially if you compete in any keyword category considered to be competitive (i.e. for money). Link trading is still a great source of quality backlinks, despite what naysayers may tell you, but make sure you take a good look at the sites you lin to and always see if the page is cached in Google. This will save you a world of headaches later on. Automating this process is the best solution.

Other methods of acquiring fresh backlinks are to submit to the ever growing article directories and websites on the internet that allow for and encourage the submission of free-for-reprint articles. There are several growing submission services which will automate this process, so if you are well-versed in a subject, you can greatly increase the readership of your website by article submissions.

You can always purchase links from established web directories and related websites. Plan your budget for a good mix of both types of links, and spread your spend across as many websites on distinct IP address ranges as you can. $1,000 spent very well on link development can make a huge difference in your link popularity and the success of your wesbite. When you look to purchase links, think quality and not quantity. Think of purchasing links primarily for the traffic it can bring to your website. That way, any search engine ranking improvements are secondary, and you earn back your link purchase money by the visitors who convert on your website.

Don’t overlook Press Releases as a great source of direct traffic and potential backlinks. If you do something truly newsworthy, and publish it widely enough, you can expect a great number of visitors in a short amount of time. Who determines what is newsworthy? I’ll leave it up to you to decide. But suffice it to say, if you can come up with a clever promotional idea, your link building job will get easier and easier. People link to you fastest of all when they’re genuinely interested in your website, so try to make your site worthy of all the links you get! Once people find your website and love it, word of mouth will be all of the advertising you’ll ever need.

Go with the Flow:

The secret to living is giving. One way to judge a person is by what they say. A better way is by what they do. The best way is by what they give. Charles Spurgeon said, “Feel for others - in your wallet.” An Indian proverb says, “Good people, like clouds, receive only to give away.” Whatever good happens in your life is not so you can keep it all to yourself. Part of it is intended to be given to others. I agree with E.V. Hill when he says, “Whatever God can get through you, He will get to you.”

The book of Acts says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Giving is always the thermometer of our love for others. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.” If you have, give. If you lack, give.

Selfishness always ends in self-destruction. John Ruskin said, “When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.” Henry Drummond said, “There is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving.” The test of generosity is not necessarily how much you give but how much you have left. Henry Thoreau said, “If you give money, spend yourself with it.” What you give, lives.

- John Mason, from his latest book, Dare to Be. GREAT FOR GRADUATES! (to check out this book further, please go to www.freshword.com/Dare_to_Be)

John Mason is a national best-selling author, nationally recognized speaker and book coach.

He has authored fourteen books including An Enemy Called Average, You’re Born An Original - Don’t Die A Copy, Let Go of Whatever Makes You Stop, and Know Your Limits-Then Ignore Them which have sold over 1.4 million copies and have been translated into twenty-five languages throughout the world.

“I have posted a special message for you to see on my website http://www.freshword.com In it I talk about right associations and the effect they can have on whether you succeed in life or not. Your best friends should bring out the best in you! If you are an author, or want to be, I have many resources specifically designed for you. Also, make sure to sign up for my Nugget of the Week - I would love to inspire you.” - John Mason

Don’t Let Prospects Play “20 Questions”

People will call and they start giving you a bunch of interview questions. They start grilling you and before you know it, it’s kind of like you’re playing computer Jeopardy instead of focusing on IT sales. They’re asking you all of these questions, throwing you all of these curve balls, and they’re picking your brain.

Sooner or later you really have to be able to draw that line and say “Hey look, you know we’ve been talking an hour or so. I have six pages of notes on my legal pad describing all of the problems you’ve been telling me about. I think the next logical step would be XYZ or Let’s talk about what we’re going to do next.”

When you and your prospect reach the point that you’re done with the IT sales presentation, move on to the next step. The next step would be to have you, your systems engineer, or technician come back and spend a couple of hours to take a site survey.

A Site Survey is a Great Next Step

The site survey will inventory all of their problems and help you sort through them. In this way, the two of you can reach a decision on what is going to come first, what’s going to come second, third, and fourth.

As part of this survey, you’ll give your client a report. You’ll document everything so they know where they are with security, software licensing, data protection, etc.

The Bottom Line about IT Sales

So, once the IT sales call is coming to a close, you ask them if they would be interested in the site survey and explain to them what it is and how it will help them. This would be your first attempt at a close. Otherwise, you can sit around for hours and hours just to find out that the customer wasn’t that serious in the first place.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101 Blog. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

Joshua Feinberg of Computer Consulting 101 helps computer consultants get more steady, high-paying clients. Sign-up now for free access Joshua’s field-tested, proven Computer Consulting 101 strategies at ComputerConsulting101.blogspot.com

The same can be true for your website. If you are in a rut, and your website isn’t bringing in the results you thought it should, maybe a little ‘furniture moving’ is what you need.

Recently I moved a few things around on my home page. Instead of hitting the customers with an immediate web design and hosting blurb, I put something that caught the user’s
eye. My newsletter. Now the first thing that a potential client sees on our home page is an offer for FREE tips and specials. Immediately the customer is ‘given’ something, instead of the same old here’s why we are the best. Since moving the newsletter link to the top, we’ve had a surge of subscribers, more than we’ve had in the last 6 months.

Moving things around may be good for more than just you. Google watches home pages for stagnant, unchanging information. If your page is not updated regularly, Google (and others) actually figures that into it’s vast algorithm that it uses to rank your site among the others. Moving things around can keep your page fresh, and importantly, keep you in the listings.

Be careful, though, that you don’t move too much stuff. If you have a login link, moving it may confuse those customers of yours that are used to clicking in the upper right corner to log in. Move that, or change it’s color, and some users may simply think you’ve discontinued that service, or have completely abandoned them. Move with caution.

Have fun with your website. Keep it fun, keep it interesting, and keep it moving!

Will Hanke is owner of Lighthouse Technologies, http://www.techlh.com a web design, programming and hosting company. He is also author of several software applications in use by companies across the US.

A staffer must produce and on a daily basis because of frequent, even daily, deadlines. As a result the staffer learns several things: how to organize time, how to write under pressure, how to write quickly, how to plan the writing (if not on paper, then mentally), and how to meet deadlines. Perhaps this results in the loss of creativity and inspiration, but it usually produces better mechanics of writingbetter sentence structure, syntax, vocabulary, punctuation, and spelling.

The freelancer, on the other hand, enjoys the freedom of choosing the time to write, the topic or theme to write about, and the refinement of language and expression. The negative side of that is that the writer must be an editor and proofreader and must possess the discipline to sit at the desk and write which, of course, sounds so simple, but which is, in effect, the most difficult responsibility of the freelancer.

Thus, it becomes the writer’s obligation to choose the kind of writer to be. No doubt, freelance writing appeals to most, but it is not always the wisest choice. One’s character, personality, and dedication come into play. If one is individualistic, able to work alone, and inspired, then the freelance route is probably the path to follow. If one is uncertain, needs association, and direction, then a staff position is probably a better choice.

Choosing correctly will result in the greatest satisfaction and happiness.

Charles O. Goulet has a BA in English literature. He has published several books that are available at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and many other book stores.

Brimming with confidence, you’ve just signed the check purchasing the rights to adapt John Doe’s fabulous, but little known novel, Lawrence of Monrovia, to screenplay form. Suddenly, panic sets in. “What was I thinking? How the devil am I going to convert this 400-page novel to a 110-page screenplay?”

The answer is: “The same way you transport six elephants in a Hyundai… three in the front seat and three in the back!”

Old and very bad jokes aside, how does one pour ten gallons of story into a one-gallon jug?

In this article, we’ll take a look at this challenge and a few others that a writer may encounter when adapting a novel to screenplay form.

CHALLENGE NUMBER ONE - LENGTH
Screenplays rarely run longer than 120 pages. Figuring one page of a screenplay equals one minute of film, a 120-page screenplay translates into a two-hour motion picture. Much longer than that and exhibitors lose a showing, which translates to fewer six-cent boxes of popcorn sold for $5.99 at the refreshment stand. It took the author of your source material 400 pages to tell the story. How can you possibly tell the same story in 110 pages, the ideal length for a screenplay by today’s industry standards?

And the answer to this question is no joke. “You can’t! Don’t even try!”

Instead, look to capture the essence and spirit of the story. Determine the through-line and major sub-plot of the story and viciously cut everything else.

By “through-line” I mean, WHO (protagonist) wants WHAT (goal), and WHO (antagonist) or WHAT (some other force) opposes him or her? It helps to pose the through-line as a question.

“Will Dorothy find her way back to Kansas despite the evil Wicked Witch of the West’s efforts to stop her?”

The same needs to be done for the major sub-plot.

“Will Dorothy’s allies achieve their goals despite the danger they face as a result of their alliance?”

One workable technique is to read the book, set it aside for a few weeks, and then see what you still remember of the story’s through-line. After all, your goal is to excerpt the most memorable parts of the novel, and what you remember best certainly meets that criterion.

In most cases, everything off the through-line or not essential to the major sub-plot has to go. Develop your outline, treatment or “beat sheet” accordingly.

CHALLENGE NUMBER TWO - VOICE
Many novels are written in the first person. The temptation to adapt such, using tons of voiceovers, should be resisted. While limited voiceovers can be effective when properly done, remember that audiences pay the price of admission to watch a MOTION (things moving about) PICTURE (stuff you can SEE). If they wanted to HEAR a story they’d visit their Uncle Elmer who drones on for hour upon hour about the adventures of slogging through the snow, uphill, both ways, to get to and from school when he was a kid, or perhaps they’d buy a book on tape.

The old screenwriting adage, “Show, don’t tell!” applies more than ever when writing an adaptation.

CHALLENGE NUMBER THREE - “LONG-THINKING”
Some tribes of American Indians had a word to describe those of their brethren who sat around thinking deep thoughts. Literally the word translated to, “THE DISEASE OF LONG-THINKING”. Quite often, lead characters in novels suffer from this disease.

“Mike knew in his heart that Judith was no good. Yet she caused such a stirring in his loins, he could think of nothing else. He feared someday he would give in to this temptation named Judith, and his surrender would surely bring about the end of his marriage!”

If adapted directly, how on Earth would a director film the above? All we would SEE is Mike sitting there, “long-thinking”. That is not very exciting to say the least. And as mentioned previously, voiceovers are rarely the best solution.

When essential plot information is presented only in a character’s thought or in the character’s internal world, one solution is to give this character a sounding board, another character, to which his thoughts can be voiced aloud. Either adapt an existing character from the novel or create a new one. Of course as always, you should avoid overly obvious exposition by cloaking such dialogue in conflict, or through some other technique. Even better, figure out a way to express the character’s dilemma or internal world through action in the external world.

CHALLENGE NUMBER FOUR - WHAT STORY?
Mark Twain is quoted as saying about Oakland, California, “There’s no there, there”. Similarly, some novels, even successful ones, are very shy on story and rely for the most part on style and character to create an effect. Some prose writers are so good at what they do, that their artful command of the language alone is enough to maintain reader interest. Such is never the case in screenwriting.

Successfully adapting a “no-story-there” novel to screenplay form is a daunting task. One approach is to move away from direct adaptation toward, “story based upon”. Use the brilliant background and characters created by the original author as a platform from which to launch a screen story. In fact, if for any reason a screenplay doesn’t lend itself to screenplay form, consider moving toward a “based upon” approach, rather than attempting a direct adaptation.

Congratulations! You’re now an expert on adapting novels to screenplay form! Well maybe not an expert, but hopefully you have a better understanding of how to approach the subject than you did ten minutes ago. And if the subject still seems too daunting, you can always get professional help as outlined on our web page http://www.coverscript.com/adaptation.html

Copyright © 2004 Lynne Pembroke and Jim Kalergis, Coverscript.com

About the Author

Lynne Pembroke is a writer, poet and screenwriter. Over 18 years of experience in screenwriting and screenplay analysis, helping individual writers and a variety of areas within the industry. Services include screenplay, TV script and treatment analysis, ghostwriting, rewriting and adaptation of novel to screenplay. Jim Kalergis is a working screenwriter experienced in the art of adaptation. Visit http://www.coverscript.com for details.