Writing Ezine articles is a great way of obtaining free publicity for your website. Writing Ezine articles is, however, time consuming so it is important to make the most of every word you produce and every minute of the time you spend researching the subject. Writing articles in clusters is an efficient way of doing this.
Writing several articles at once might seem pretty much impossible to do if you are just starting to write Ezine articles and find producing them one at a time hard enough. However, writing articles in clusters is not difficult and, once you understand how it's done, you will enjoy the benefits. A group of articles written as a cluster can easily be turned into a series but for now we are looking at the how to produce a group of unique articles written at the same time around a central topic.
Some of the main benefits are as follows:
1. Writing articles in groups saves time when you are researching your subject;
2. It gives you space to fully develop a theme;
3. It gives you more unique content for your blog or website;
4. It gives you extra articles to submit to ezines or to sell.
When you write an article for publication in ezines, you have to keep the word count within certain guidelines (about 500-800 words is usually most acceptable). If your article is too long, ezines might not be prepared to give up the space required to reproduce it. If the article is too short, there is a danger Ezine publishers won't take it seriously. Cluster writing is definitely not about turning out a number of truncated Ezine articles instead of one full length one. Neither is it about stretching or padding your material (you'll only ever get a poor fit if you try that). It is about making full use of ideas and not wasting time or words.
If you are writing about a topic you know well, you will find yourself constantly having to edit your articles to keep the word count down. Instead of throwing away the excess material, paste it immediately into another document with a new title. I would suggest keeping the titles similar - eg "Puppy Training, Why To Do It" and "Puppy Training, When To Start", you can swiftly move on to "Puppy Training, The Best Methods" etc. Don't let the document get too big, anytime your word processor reaches page 2, it's time to think about breaking it into two.
As you write, be alert to any tendency to wander off topic. You might be writing about how it is one thing to have a cute puppy jump on your bed but quite a different experience when that pup has become a 10 stone hound with muddy paws. Suddenly you remember something about doggy vitamins. Instead of popping the idea into one of your puppy training articles as an aside, put it into another new document which you can later use as part of a new cluster about dog nutrition. With one quick "cut and paste" you have kept one article focussed on the main topic and saved an idea, which might otherwise have been wasted, for a new project.
If you are writing an article on an unfamiliar topic, you might think you won't have the problem of needing to cut down your article and will have trouble finding enough to say. However, if you undertake proper research about the subject matter (as you should if you want your article to be taken seriously), you are bound to come across material which relates to the article you have planned but does not quite fit it. Make notes of all this related material. If you get ideas for further articles as you are researching, make a note of these ideas. Research for article writing takes time, so make the most of it. Even if you can only manage two articles on an unfamiliar subject, it is two for the price of one.
Let's look at how to use just one passing idea as the basis for a group of articles. Take the thought "my first home business venture reminds me of Apollo 13". To make this idea into an article, we have to say what is behind the initial thought. Otherwise, the reader will be left thinking "What, it nearly got lost in space?" or "You were trying to land on the moon?". With no explanation or clarification, the idea is meaningless to anyone but you.
The thoughts behind the idea could be about a series of numerical coincidences in regard to events, about surviving near-disasters, about how duct tape solved a huge problem and about the power of prayer. With all these four things encapsulated in the idea, you have the basis of a four paragraph article. It does not require much of an imagination stretch to see that you could have the basis for four separate articles clustered around a central idea.
Never let an idea or a word go to waste. For the time and effort cluster writing saves, it is worth trying to use the technique even in the early days of your Ezine article writing career. Once you try itFind Article, you will realise it's even better than "buy one get one free".
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
For more articles about writing go to Writing Tips or visit Elaine Currie at her Work At Home Directory
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Ezine Articles - The Benefits Of Publishing
Writing articles and submitting them for publication in ezines is an excellent way to get free publicity for your website. Webmasters who underestimate the power of the viral spread of ezine articles are making a huge mistake.
Writing articles and having them published in ezines (electronic magazines) and on websites is one of the most effective free promotional resource available on the Internet.
When you submit your articles (ie offer them for publishing), a "resource box" is attached to each article. The resource box is simply a couple of sentences containing a brief bit of biographical information about the author or a reference to the author's field of expertise or interest. Most importantly, the resource box contains a link to the author's website.
You need to get the widest possible circulation for your article. To do this, you could submit the article to owners of websites with similar content to the subject of your article. This, however, is a time consuming process and the same results can be achieved faster if you submit your articles to article directories. If there are certain high ranking websites where you particularly want to place your article, you can email the webmasters of those sites direct. However, excellent results can be obtained simply by submitting your articles to directories. When you submit your articles, each one will automatically be available for anyone to republish provided that they do not change the article in any way and that they include your resource box with the link to your website.
Simply having your article posted on article directory websites means that each directory is providing a one-way link back to your website and this will enhance your website's status with the search engines. Free one-way links are sought after by all webmasters, but the benefits of article publishing do not stop there.
Once your article is published on the article directory websites, it will be discovered by owners of websites and ezines who visit the article directories looking for content to use in their web pages or to send to the people who subscribe to their ezines. When these website owners publish your article (complete with resource box) you get the benefit of further one-way links back to your website. When other webmasters read the ezines and like your article, they will use it on their websites and this gives you more one-way links back to your site. When these websites are visited by other webmasters, they can pick up your article and publish it on their websites or in their newsletters where it will be seen by further webmasters… This should give you a pretty clear idea of the viral nature of advertising by article writing. Just sending your article to a few directories can result in it being published in hundreds of different locations, thereby giving you more one-way links, but the benefits do not stop even there.
We have looked at the benefits of article writing as a way of obtaining valuable one-way links. There are also direct benefits to be obtained from every published article in terms of human appreciation. All those webmasters who are republishing your articles are doing so because they believe the article will interest, amuse or maybe even educate their subscribers or site visitors. When people read your article and find it interesting, amusing or informative, they will quite likely click the link to your website.
Sometimes article readers who visit your website will do so out of pure curiosity, others might be looking for something specific and, with luckArticle Submission, you will be offering that very item and will make a sale. Maybe the curious visitor will sign up for your newsletter to see what else they can learn from you or maybe they will bookmark your website for future visits and make a purchase at a later time. Any of these outcomes are satisfactory - the visitors have cost you nothing apart from the time spent in writing and submitting the article and a good article will continue to spread and work for you for years to come.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
You will find ideas about how to earn money working from home and useful home business resources at Elaine Currie's Work At Home Directory For more articles about online writing visit Writing Tips
Writing articles and having them published in ezines (electronic magazines) and on websites is one of the most effective free promotional resource available on the Internet.
When you submit your articles (ie offer them for publishing), a "resource box" is attached to each article. The resource box is simply a couple of sentences containing a brief bit of biographical information about the author or a reference to the author's field of expertise or interest. Most importantly, the resource box contains a link to the author's website.
You need to get the widest possible circulation for your article. To do this, you could submit the article to owners of websites with similar content to the subject of your article. This, however, is a time consuming process and the same results can be achieved faster if you submit your articles to article directories. If there are certain high ranking websites where you particularly want to place your article, you can email the webmasters of those sites direct. However, excellent results can be obtained simply by submitting your articles to directories. When you submit your articles, each one will automatically be available for anyone to republish provided that they do not change the article in any way and that they include your resource box with the link to your website.
Simply having your article posted on article directory websites means that each directory is providing a one-way link back to your website and this will enhance your website's status with the search engines. Free one-way links are sought after by all webmasters, but the benefits of article publishing do not stop there.
Once your article is published on the article directory websites, it will be discovered by owners of websites and ezines who visit the article directories looking for content to use in their web pages or to send to the people who subscribe to their ezines. When these website owners publish your article (complete with resource box) you get the benefit of further one-way links back to your website. When other webmasters read the ezines and like your article, they will use it on their websites and this gives you more one-way links back to your site. When these websites are visited by other webmasters, they can pick up your article and publish it on their websites or in their newsletters where it will be seen by further webmasters… This should give you a pretty clear idea of the viral nature of advertising by article writing. Just sending your article to a few directories can result in it being published in hundreds of different locations, thereby giving you more one-way links, but the benefits do not stop even there.
We have looked at the benefits of article writing as a way of obtaining valuable one-way links. There are also direct benefits to be obtained from every published article in terms of human appreciation. All those webmasters who are republishing your articles are doing so because they believe the article will interest, amuse or maybe even educate their subscribers or site visitors. When people read your article and find it interesting, amusing or informative, they will quite likely click the link to your website.
Sometimes article readers who visit your website will do so out of pure curiosity, others might be looking for something specific and, with luckArticle Submission, you will be offering that very item and will make a sale. Maybe the curious visitor will sign up for your newsletter to see what else they can learn from you or maybe they will bookmark your website for future visits and make a purchase at a later time. Any of these outcomes are satisfactory - the visitors have cost you nothing apart from the time spent in writing and submitting the article and a good article will continue to spread and work for you for years to come.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
You will find ideas about how to earn money working from home and useful home business resources at Elaine Currie's Work At Home Directory For more articles about online writing visit Writing Tips
Monday, May 7, 2007
How to Make Money Online With Short Articles - Sharing Your Articles
One of the most effective means of promoting your website is through writing and sharing short articles. This article shows how to make money online with articles...like this one!
Letting others use your articles, as long as they include your byline, is a very effective way to increase website traffic. Most articles which are posted online will include a byline which not only tells visitors you wrote it and might say how they can contact you, but will normally include a link to the website you are trying to promote.
So how does this work?Let's say I sell do-it-yourself legal forms...which I do.
I then write a short but helpful article explaining how important it is to have a last will and testament...which I did. I include a link in my byline that leads people to my do-it-yourself website.
Now, I take that article and submit it to several article directories, making sure that I include it in relevant subject areas, i.e. law, legal matters, government, or even last will and testament if I'm lucky.
On the internet, there are two major groups of people seeking information or help.
Group A is seeking information on preparing a last will and testament. Their search leads them to an article directory site where I have posted my article. Browsing through the list of articles, my title catches their eye, they look at my article, and they notice my link, click on it and find out that they can prepare a will themselves using an inexpensive package available there, thereby saving a lot of time, effort, and the potentially large fee that an attorney might charge.
Obviously, not everyone seeking that information will read my article or find it relevant to what they are seeking. Even among those who think that I have just provided them with the exact info they needed and that I am the best writer in the world, only some will actually click on my link. As is the way with Internet business, only a few who wind up at my website will actually buy anything...but there will be more than there would have been without the article.
Group B, on the other hand, provides information. However, instead of researching and writing it all themselves, they go to article directories and find articles that fit their website, blog, or ezine. They then present those articles to their readership. If they have selected my article, there will be a lot more people who will see it than if it simply sits on the article directory site collecting virtual dust.
Wait! It gets better!
1. Remember that remark earlier about posting it to as many article directories as possible? The more websites you can get to carry it, the better chance you have to eventually initiate the chain of events outlined above, hopefully resulting in a sale. So, you can enhance your own chances of success with any one article by placing it on as many article directory sites as possible.
2. If you can write several related articles, you can repeat the process as many times as you can come up with articles. This begins to create an exponential return from the fact that as some people read your articles, they realize that you have written other articles as well. Group A may choose to read more what you have written, improving your chance of being seen as an expert in their eyes, leading possibly to a sale. Group B may choose to keep an eye out and catch your next article because they like your work and know that it will fit in with the thrust of their website, blog, or ezine.
Still more!
3. Some of the website owners from Group B who found your article where you posted it on an article directory website, also run their own article directory websites and take the articles they find and post it on THEIR sites...sometimes for use by even OTHER website directory owners!Don't stop!4. Once the article is written, it can be posted by you in forums and on message boards. Although you might not be able to include your byline, many of these sites allow you to create a signature which can include a link to your website.
TIPS:
-Stick to one point. Don't try to solve the mysteries of the universe. If writing about the last will and testament, don't get off into dissertations about law, trusts, living wills, quill pens vs. ballpoints, etc.
-Keep it concise. Obviously, the subject and your style of writing will dictate the length to some extent, but most of these articles should be between about 400 words and 1200 words in length. If the topic is complex or just has to run long, break it up into Part I, Part II, and so on.
-Use your keywords. If the topic is the last will and testament, you will want to use that phrase about 3% of the time. It is a good idea to make sure it makes it into the title and first sentence as well, and, if the article directory allows, make sure it's in the description and keywords (some directories allow you to pick keywords relevant to your article).
-Check your spelling and grammar. Nobody's perfect, and most sites, and readers, will not be looking for perfection anyway. However, not many people will bother with an article replete with spelling and grammar errors.
-Research your facts. If you are presenting opinion, feel free to soar above the clouds. In fact, controversy may work in your favor in that event. On the other hand, if your article is fact-based, or if you give statistics, or quote others, make sure you've got it right before you publish it.
-Get some help. Posting your articles one-by-one on a hundred different websites can be time consuming, not to mention incredibly boring. There are services available which, for a fee, will send your article to several different article directories and ezine publishers. There is also software available which can do this, although setting up the accounts initially can still be very time consuming (and boring). HoweverFree Reprint Articles, this can be worth it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donovan Baldwin is a Texas writer. He is a University of West Florida alumnus, a member of Mensa, and is retired from the U. S. Army. Learn more about the importance of your last will and testament at http://legal-forms-supermarket.com/about/last_will_and_testament.html .
Letting others use your articles, as long as they include your byline, is a very effective way to increase website traffic. Most articles which are posted online will include a byline which not only tells visitors you wrote it and might say how they can contact you, but will normally include a link to the website you are trying to promote.
So how does this work?Let's say I sell do-it-yourself legal forms...which I do.
I then write a short but helpful article explaining how important it is to have a last will and testament...which I did. I include a link in my byline that leads people to my do-it-yourself website.
Now, I take that article and submit it to several article directories, making sure that I include it in relevant subject areas, i.e. law, legal matters, government, or even last will and testament if I'm lucky.
On the internet, there are two major groups of people seeking information or help.
Group A is seeking information on preparing a last will and testament. Their search leads them to an article directory site where I have posted my article. Browsing through the list of articles, my title catches their eye, they look at my article, and they notice my link, click on it and find out that they can prepare a will themselves using an inexpensive package available there, thereby saving a lot of time, effort, and the potentially large fee that an attorney might charge.
Obviously, not everyone seeking that information will read my article or find it relevant to what they are seeking. Even among those who think that I have just provided them with the exact info they needed and that I am the best writer in the world, only some will actually click on my link. As is the way with Internet business, only a few who wind up at my website will actually buy anything...but there will be more than there would have been without the article.
Group B, on the other hand, provides information. However, instead of researching and writing it all themselves, they go to article directories and find articles that fit their website, blog, or ezine. They then present those articles to their readership. If they have selected my article, there will be a lot more people who will see it than if it simply sits on the article directory site collecting virtual dust.
Wait! It gets better!
1. Remember that remark earlier about posting it to as many article directories as possible? The more websites you can get to carry it, the better chance you have to eventually initiate the chain of events outlined above, hopefully resulting in a sale. So, you can enhance your own chances of success with any one article by placing it on as many article directory sites as possible.
2. If you can write several related articles, you can repeat the process as many times as you can come up with articles. This begins to create an exponential return from the fact that as some people read your articles, they realize that you have written other articles as well. Group A may choose to read more what you have written, improving your chance of being seen as an expert in their eyes, leading possibly to a sale. Group B may choose to keep an eye out and catch your next article because they like your work and know that it will fit in with the thrust of their website, blog, or ezine.
Still more!
3. Some of the website owners from Group B who found your article where you posted it on an article directory website, also run their own article directory websites and take the articles they find and post it on THEIR sites...sometimes for use by even OTHER website directory owners!Don't stop!4. Once the article is written, it can be posted by you in forums and on message boards. Although you might not be able to include your byline, many of these sites allow you to create a signature which can include a link to your website.
TIPS:
-Stick to one point. Don't try to solve the mysteries of the universe. If writing about the last will and testament, don't get off into dissertations about law, trusts, living wills, quill pens vs. ballpoints, etc.
-Keep it concise. Obviously, the subject and your style of writing will dictate the length to some extent, but most of these articles should be between about 400 words and 1200 words in length. If the topic is complex or just has to run long, break it up into Part I, Part II, and so on.
-Use your keywords. If the topic is the last will and testament, you will want to use that phrase about 3% of the time. It is a good idea to make sure it makes it into the title and first sentence as well, and, if the article directory allows, make sure it's in the description and keywords (some directories allow you to pick keywords relevant to your article).
-Check your spelling and grammar. Nobody's perfect, and most sites, and readers, will not be looking for perfection anyway. However, not many people will bother with an article replete with spelling and grammar errors.
-Research your facts. If you are presenting opinion, feel free to soar above the clouds. In fact, controversy may work in your favor in that event. On the other hand, if your article is fact-based, or if you give statistics, or quote others, make sure you've got it right before you publish it.
-Get some help. Posting your articles one-by-one on a hundred different websites can be time consuming, not to mention incredibly boring. There are services available which, for a fee, will send your article to several different article directories and ezine publishers. There is also software available which can do this, although setting up the accounts initially can still be very time consuming (and boring). HoweverFree Reprint Articles, this can be worth it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donovan Baldwin is a Texas writer. He is a University of West Florida alumnus, a member of Mensa, and is retired from the U. S. Army. Learn more about the importance of your last will and testament at http://legal-forms-supermarket.com/about/last_will_and_testament.html .
Team Building part 1 - Another Brick in the Wall!
The first in a series of articles giving a slightly different viewpoint on effective team building, condensed from an original seminar presented by the author, John Roberts. John is a Freelance Training Consultant and director of JayrConsulting Ltd. Part 1 deals with selecting and building the initial team. The ideas expressed are personal opinions built up from many years of experience in the Electronics/Aerospace industry, the Armed Forces, the Telecoms industry and the Training industry. There is no suggestion of this being a 100% solution applicable to or workable in all situations, but it is aimed at getting people to think outside of the norm and question the ‘normal' way of doing things.
1. Analogy - The bricks in the wall
Most people have been on some form of ‘team building' course. They vary according to contemporary fashion from things like ‘learning how to work together, to build bridges out of sheets of paper', to the more active residential courses, where people build rafts out of rope and washing up liquid bottles, to ‘cross a crocodile filled' ravine! They all have two things in common: -
(a)They tend to be very expensive in terms of cost per delegate to the participants.
(b)They are actually not very effective in building effective teams when people return to their real life situation.
Teams are about individual PEOPLE and the INDIVIDUAL skills that they bring to the team and how these should be selected and put together to form an effective and lasting entity. All that is needed can be covered in a 1-day seminar/discussion with a group of delegates with no more props than a white board and marker pen. If it is delivered in such a way that the delegates can be coerced to look at themselves and their teams HONESTLY, it can provide effective change in team culture, creating belief and ‘buy in' from delegates and without imposing high expenses on clients.
The analogy that I use to explain the basic ideas is that of building a wall, and I use two types of wall to explain the contemporary team building model and the alternative one. The contemporary model is likened to a ‘standard' brick wall and the alternative model is likened to a ‘dry stone' wall, of the type found in northern fields!
2. The contemporary model and it's shortcomings!
Visualise a contemporary brick wall: Bricks all the same size, weight and shape. In order to stand up the bricks have to be ‘glued' together with mortar. Bricks must be aligned exactly in rows vertically and horizontally or the wall will fall down. The mortar has to be replaced periodically, or the wall falls down. If a brick is not exactly the same size as all the others it has to be padded out with extra mortar, or - the wall falls down! The bricklayer has to keep tending the wall - replacing mortar etc. - or the wall falls down! Life of wall is fairly limited due to wearing out of materials, so eventually - the wall falls down! Bricklayer is competent enough, as long as the bricks match and he has an ongoing supply of mortar and the time to effect repairs.
Key: - Bricks = Individuals and their skills
Mortar = support from Team Leader and Human resources ( competencies, assessments etc )
Bricklayer = Team leader
Problems often start at the recruitment stage. The recruiter ( Team leader or manager ) tends to put together an all-encompassing job description, instead of isolating specific individual EXPERT skills that are required for the project and are very unlikely to all be expert skills for one person. You only have to look at the average recruitment advert to see the types of skill lists that people ask for from one delegate!
Human resources then compile a list of required competencies based on this information that ALL delegates have to fit into - and we are well on the way to selecting our almost identical bricks.
What tends to happen now is that you have a team of good ‘all rounders' but few people with exciting expert skills in any one thing. So what you get is a team that is competent but not outstanding and this has become the normal model that people tend to have become used to. This type of team conforms to all of the standard corporate ‘norms' and is much easier to deal with for a ‘team leader' that is also possibly not a truly expert and exciting ‘leader'.
Remember - ‘if you do what you have always done - you get what you have always got!'
Over the years I have experienced too many of these types of teams ( and team leaders ) and I know it can be done much better!
The problem is then compounded by the fashion for ‘competencies' and ‘Annual assessments'. Managers and team leaders are told to assess their team members annually and to concentrate on improving their ‘weaknesses'! WHY?
Firstly - any team leader that waits a year to point out a problem to one of their team should not be doing the job! Communication and feedback between the leader and all team members should be continuous and open at all times.
Next - why concentrate on improving their weaknesses - all you are going to do is end up with a collection of ‘cloned' bricks again! What you should be doing is emphasising the team members' positives and constantly improving their strengths - the very skills you hired them for in the first place. If you have someone who is a brilliant programmer, then you want to help them be an even better programmer for the sake of the project and the team - someone else in the team probably has good report writing skills or whatever.
Different people are good at different things - use it, don't suppress it!
3. The alternative model - not new but it works!
Visualise a ‘dry stone wall' of the type often used for field boundaries. Stones are all different shapes and sizes - they are selected from what is available, in the right order so that they overlap and fit with each other perfectly to provide a solid fit.
This means that no stone is the ‘wrong' size as long as you find others to fit around it. It doesn't matter if all the stones are perfectly aligned as long as they all mesh together to give the wall stability.
There is no mortar used in the wall, it's all down to the skill of the bricklayer selecting the correct stones in the first place so that the individual stones all support each other in the complete wall. The wall doesn't fall down for centuries!
The wall doesn't look as uniform and pretty as the brick wall on the surface but actually performs its' task far better. The bricklayer has to have a real skill in selecting the right shaped stones to make sure they all fit together well in the first place, but once he has done that, maintenance is minimal!
Key: - Stones = Individuals and their skills
Mortar = support from Team Leader and Human resources ( competencies, assessments etc )
Bricklayer = Team leader
The first thing that is needed before you can recruit and build a team for you project is an expert ‘brick layer' or REAL Team LEADER! ( Not a manager/coordinator or facilitator). This doesn't mean someone who happens to have been in the company the longest and is thought due for promotion. It doesn't mean someone who can write good reports and do all the administration properly - it means someone who can LEAD PEOPLE! This is someone who can control, cajole, coerce and do anything necessary to get people to perform at their own best whenever it is required, at the same time gaining respect from those around them that they have to deal with. They don't bully, shout or ‘use their position' to get things done, people respond to them naturally and TRUST them. It's NOT a promotion, it's another type of skill and you should look for this type of person in all levels of the organisation.
You can teach anyone to play the piano, but not everyone can be a top concert pianist - it is just a skill that some people have and not others. Leadership is exactly the same - you can send someone on a ‘Team Leaders' course and they will be able to go through the motions of team leading, but what you should look for is a ‘natural' - someone who has the ability to really LEAD people.
If no one of your present employees stands out as having this ability - look outside for someone. It is not worth compromising on this all important position - remember you need someone to put that wall together effectively to get the best results!
The team leader should then be tasked with putting together the team - selecting the strengths that are needed from individual people and making sure that their weaknesses are covered by other people in the team, so that you are putting together the ‘stone wall' with all the members supporting each other. As the team is growing, all of the team members should take part in the recruitment and interviewing process - after all they will have a feel for how someone will fit in with the rest of them. Giving everybody some responsibility for how the team is put together gives them all a stake in its success.
From the start there should be honest and open communication between all of the team members and the team leader. There should be no need for ‘Annual assessments'. The Team leader should be aware at all times how their team members are performing in various areas, and in an honest and open environment the team members themselves should be aware of any shortcomings and work towards solving them. A good team actually need very little maintenance input from the Team Leader and should very quickly become self-supporting, just like the stone wall.
Summary
So, if you are considering building a new team, try approaching it in a different light. Think of the people, the skills you want individuals to have - not the skills they don't have, the overall skills that you want the whole team to have and how they all fit together to give you a solid foundation. Choose a proper ‘Team LEADER' to maintain it and put contemporary ideas of ‘assessments' and ‘competencies' behind you!
( Don't tell your HR manager this, unless they are lying down in a darkened room ! )
Team Building part 2 - Honesty is the Key! Will focus on the running of the team once it is built and will be published shortly
Acknowledgements
Adapted from an original article by John Roberts, freelance training consultant, Director of JayrConsulting Ltd. www.jayrconsulting.co.uk This article may be freely reproduced / modified and used in any wayScience Articles, providing this acknowledgement is left in its entirety.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Roberts is a freelance Training Consultant and Director of JayrConsulting Ltd.
http://www.jayrconsulting.co.uk
1. Analogy - The bricks in the wall
Most people have been on some form of ‘team building' course. They vary according to contemporary fashion from things like ‘learning how to work together, to build bridges out of sheets of paper', to the more active residential courses, where people build rafts out of rope and washing up liquid bottles, to ‘cross a crocodile filled' ravine! They all have two things in common: -
(a)They tend to be very expensive in terms of cost per delegate to the participants.
(b)They are actually not very effective in building effective teams when people return to their real life situation.
Teams are about individual PEOPLE and the INDIVIDUAL skills that they bring to the team and how these should be selected and put together to form an effective and lasting entity. All that is needed can be covered in a 1-day seminar/discussion with a group of delegates with no more props than a white board and marker pen. If it is delivered in such a way that the delegates can be coerced to look at themselves and their teams HONESTLY, it can provide effective change in team culture, creating belief and ‘buy in' from delegates and without imposing high expenses on clients.
The analogy that I use to explain the basic ideas is that of building a wall, and I use two types of wall to explain the contemporary team building model and the alternative one. The contemporary model is likened to a ‘standard' brick wall and the alternative model is likened to a ‘dry stone' wall, of the type found in northern fields!
2. The contemporary model and it's shortcomings!
Visualise a contemporary brick wall: Bricks all the same size, weight and shape. In order to stand up the bricks have to be ‘glued' together with mortar. Bricks must be aligned exactly in rows vertically and horizontally or the wall will fall down. The mortar has to be replaced periodically, or the wall falls down. If a brick is not exactly the same size as all the others it has to be padded out with extra mortar, or - the wall falls down! The bricklayer has to keep tending the wall - replacing mortar etc. - or the wall falls down! Life of wall is fairly limited due to wearing out of materials, so eventually - the wall falls down! Bricklayer is competent enough, as long as the bricks match and he has an ongoing supply of mortar and the time to effect repairs.
Key: - Bricks = Individuals and their skills
Mortar = support from Team Leader and Human resources ( competencies, assessments etc )
Bricklayer = Team leader
Problems often start at the recruitment stage. The recruiter ( Team leader or manager ) tends to put together an all-encompassing job description, instead of isolating specific individual EXPERT skills that are required for the project and are very unlikely to all be expert skills for one person. You only have to look at the average recruitment advert to see the types of skill lists that people ask for from one delegate!
Human resources then compile a list of required competencies based on this information that ALL delegates have to fit into - and we are well on the way to selecting our almost identical bricks.
What tends to happen now is that you have a team of good ‘all rounders' but few people with exciting expert skills in any one thing. So what you get is a team that is competent but not outstanding and this has become the normal model that people tend to have become used to. This type of team conforms to all of the standard corporate ‘norms' and is much easier to deal with for a ‘team leader' that is also possibly not a truly expert and exciting ‘leader'.
Remember - ‘if you do what you have always done - you get what you have always got!'
Over the years I have experienced too many of these types of teams ( and team leaders ) and I know it can be done much better!
The problem is then compounded by the fashion for ‘competencies' and ‘Annual assessments'. Managers and team leaders are told to assess their team members annually and to concentrate on improving their ‘weaknesses'! WHY?
Firstly - any team leader that waits a year to point out a problem to one of their team should not be doing the job! Communication and feedback between the leader and all team members should be continuous and open at all times.
Next - why concentrate on improving their weaknesses - all you are going to do is end up with a collection of ‘cloned' bricks again! What you should be doing is emphasising the team members' positives and constantly improving their strengths - the very skills you hired them for in the first place. If you have someone who is a brilliant programmer, then you want to help them be an even better programmer for the sake of the project and the team - someone else in the team probably has good report writing skills or whatever.
Different people are good at different things - use it, don't suppress it!
3. The alternative model - not new but it works!
Visualise a ‘dry stone wall' of the type often used for field boundaries. Stones are all different shapes and sizes - they are selected from what is available, in the right order so that they overlap and fit with each other perfectly to provide a solid fit.
This means that no stone is the ‘wrong' size as long as you find others to fit around it. It doesn't matter if all the stones are perfectly aligned as long as they all mesh together to give the wall stability.
There is no mortar used in the wall, it's all down to the skill of the bricklayer selecting the correct stones in the first place so that the individual stones all support each other in the complete wall. The wall doesn't fall down for centuries!
The wall doesn't look as uniform and pretty as the brick wall on the surface but actually performs its' task far better. The bricklayer has to have a real skill in selecting the right shaped stones to make sure they all fit together well in the first place, but once he has done that, maintenance is minimal!
Key: - Stones = Individuals and their skills
Mortar = support from Team Leader and Human resources ( competencies, assessments etc )
Bricklayer = Team leader
The first thing that is needed before you can recruit and build a team for you project is an expert ‘brick layer' or REAL Team LEADER! ( Not a manager/coordinator or facilitator). This doesn't mean someone who happens to have been in the company the longest and is thought due for promotion. It doesn't mean someone who can write good reports and do all the administration properly - it means someone who can LEAD PEOPLE! This is someone who can control, cajole, coerce and do anything necessary to get people to perform at their own best whenever it is required, at the same time gaining respect from those around them that they have to deal with. They don't bully, shout or ‘use their position' to get things done, people respond to them naturally and TRUST them. It's NOT a promotion, it's another type of skill and you should look for this type of person in all levels of the organisation.
You can teach anyone to play the piano, but not everyone can be a top concert pianist - it is just a skill that some people have and not others. Leadership is exactly the same - you can send someone on a ‘Team Leaders' course and they will be able to go through the motions of team leading, but what you should look for is a ‘natural' - someone who has the ability to really LEAD people.
If no one of your present employees stands out as having this ability - look outside for someone. It is not worth compromising on this all important position - remember you need someone to put that wall together effectively to get the best results!
The team leader should then be tasked with putting together the team - selecting the strengths that are needed from individual people and making sure that their weaknesses are covered by other people in the team, so that you are putting together the ‘stone wall' with all the members supporting each other. As the team is growing, all of the team members should take part in the recruitment and interviewing process - after all they will have a feel for how someone will fit in with the rest of them. Giving everybody some responsibility for how the team is put together gives them all a stake in its success.
From the start there should be honest and open communication between all of the team members and the team leader. There should be no need for ‘Annual assessments'. The Team leader should be aware at all times how their team members are performing in various areas, and in an honest and open environment the team members themselves should be aware of any shortcomings and work towards solving them. A good team actually need very little maintenance input from the Team Leader and should very quickly become self-supporting, just like the stone wall.
Summary
So, if you are considering building a new team, try approaching it in a different light. Think of the people, the skills you want individuals to have - not the skills they don't have, the overall skills that you want the whole team to have and how they all fit together to give you a solid foundation. Choose a proper ‘Team LEADER' to maintain it and put contemporary ideas of ‘assessments' and ‘competencies' behind you!
( Don't tell your HR manager this, unless they are lying down in a darkened room ! )
Team Building part 2 - Honesty is the Key! Will focus on the running of the team once it is built and will be published shortly
Acknowledgements
Adapted from an original article by John Roberts, freelance training consultant, Director of JayrConsulting Ltd. www.jayrconsulting.co.uk This article may be freely reproduced / modified and used in any wayScience Articles, providing this acknowledgement is left in its entirety.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Roberts is a freelance Training Consultant and Director of JayrConsulting Ltd.
http://www.jayrconsulting.co.uk
7 Ways To Make Money With Articles
Are you leaving money on the table when it comes to profiting from your articles? Read this article to learn how to milk your articles for the most money.
If you write and submit articles on the Internet, you need to make sure you are getting the most money out of each article. Here are the 7 different ways to make money with articles:
1. Promote Your Website
Add your author bio at the end of each article with a short ad for your products or services and a link to your website. People who like your article and click on your link will be more ready to buy from you than a cold prospect.
2. Promote Affiliate Products
You can promote affiliate products in your author bio, and make commissions on all the sales you refer. Just register a domain name (so your link at the end of the article looks professional), and redirect it to your affiliate link.
3. Content Sites With Adsense
Use your articles to build content websites packed with useful information. Content websites are likely to get lots of free traffic from search engines. Place the Google Adsense advertisements on your pages, and get paid for each click.
4. Blogs
Start publishing a blog. Search engines love blogs because they are regularly updated with fresh content. Blogs tend to get a lot of traffic from search engines. Break-up your articles into smaller chunks and turn them into blog entries.
5. Mailing List
Collect your website visitors names and e-mail addresses – ask them to sign up for your newsletter. Regularly e-mail your articles to your newsletter subscribers, along with promotions for your website.
6. Information Products
When you accumulate enough articles, compile them into an e-book. Turn your articles into book chapters. Change a few things here and there, and you will have a new information product to sell.
7. Viral E-Books
Instead of selling the e-book that you made from your articles, you can also use a viral marketing approach. Add promotional copy to your e-book along with links to your website and affiliate links, and give it away. It will spread around the Internet like a virusFree Reprint Articles, advertising your products and services and putting more money in your pocket.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melanie Mendelson will show you how to write money-making articles in 30 minutes – even if you can't write! Learn more about her 30 Minute Article Writing System at http://www.WriteArticles-GetWebsiteTraffic.com
If you write and submit articles on the Internet, you need to make sure you are getting the most money out of each article. Here are the 7 different ways to make money with articles:
1. Promote Your Website
Add your author bio at the end of each article with a short ad for your products or services and a link to your website. People who like your article and click on your link will be more ready to buy from you than a cold prospect.
2. Promote Affiliate Products
You can promote affiliate products in your author bio, and make commissions on all the sales you refer. Just register a domain name (so your link at the end of the article looks professional), and redirect it to your affiliate link.
3. Content Sites With Adsense
Use your articles to build content websites packed with useful information. Content websites are likely to get lots of free traffic from search engines. Place the Google Adsense advertisements on your pages, and get paid for each click.
4. Blogs
Start publishing a blog. Search engines love blogs because they are regularly updated with fresh content. Blogs tend to get a lot of traffic from search engines. Break-up your articles into smaller chunks and turn them into blog entries.
5. Mailing List
Collect your website visitors names and e-mail addresses – ask them to sign up for your newsletter. Regularly e-mail your articles to your newsletter subscribers, along with promotions for your website.
6. Information Products
When you accumulate enough articles, compile them into an e-book. Turn your articles into book chapters. Change a few things here and there, and you will have a new information product to sell.
7. Viral E-Books
Instead of selling the e-book that you made from your articles, you can also use a viral marketing approach. Add promotional copy to your e-book along with links to your website and affiliate links, and give it away. It will spread around the Internet like a virusFree Reprint Articles, advertising your products and services and putting more money in your pocket.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melanie Mendelson will show you how to write money-making articles in 30 minutes – even if you can't write! Learn more about her 30 Minute Article Writing System at http://www.WriteArticles-GetWebsiteTraffic.com
Saturday, May 5, 2007
What I Like About My Wholesale Consumer Electronics Supplier Direct From China
Some people are just so afraid to deal with wholesale consumer electronics supplier from China online. I have to admit that I was doubtful as well the first time I came across my supplier. Issues like product reliability, quality, customer service, the credibility of the supplier and the overall value that one would get for his money have to be considered and looked at carefully.
If you looked everywhere around the house or elsewhere, you’d be surprised to see a lot of things, in fact, almost everything says at the back that they are “made in China”. They are everywhere: TV’s, audio equipments, furniture and even our fine line of fashion accessories. Even some of the branded electronics that we have around like your iPod are “assembled in China”. Boy! China really is busy these days being that it’s now the world’s largest factory. They make everything!As a consumer, I always want the best. I’m talking about not only the best in quality for any product that I purchase but also the best in customer service and price deals.
When I first came across my wholesale consumer electronics supplier direct from China about a year ago, I was surprised with the huge collection of electronics products they’ve got in store. I was particularly shopping around online for MP3/MP4 players, hoping to get a shot at online entrepreneurship. Some items were eye-catching and the features outlined where impressive enough to scare the heck out of the competition. The one item that really caught my fancy was the MP4 Player 1GB 1.5 inch 65k true colour LCD screen, FM Radio. It looked sleek and fashionable and like nothing I’ve ever seen. My eyes were so accustomed to iPods and other branded designs. But this one really has got something. My firs reaction was “I got to have it!” However, something nagged at the back of my mind. Issues like product reliability, quality, customer service, the credibility of this supplier and the overall value that I’d get for my money popped out instantly. So, I resisted my shopper’s impulse for a while. I sent emails to the supplier and checked out what they had to say. I went over the customer comments and testimonies and satisfied myself after reading the happy notes from customers all over the world. It did not take long for me to wait for what the supplier’s representatives had to say. They went back with a cordial reply that made me feel I’m in good hands and not dealing with just another fly-by-night scammers. We kept contact while I did some thorough research on their company. To my surprise, my supplier topped the Google, Yahoo and MSN search results in all three sets of keywords that I used to look them up on the Internet. And they still do even today, almost a year had passed since the first time I searched them online. Anyhow, at that point, I was somehow assured that all is well. I went ahead and ordered a few samples of the MP4 player that I fancied. Another thing, my supplier lets me purchase any item at wholesale price with no minimum order quantity. I did not have to worry about purchasing more than I wanted to test out. Ordering through my supplier’s online purchasing system was a breeze. You wouldn’t get lost in some long forms with unnecessary fields to fill out. Payments were secure and safe through PayPal (but what I actually did was wire transfer). Their instructions were clear that even a four-year old could follow them with no problems at all. Online tracking was available and undeniably reliable. They would even keep in touch constantly to check and let you know that things are going just swimmingly. So, I waited…nervously. Between anxious paces around the house and other things, within a week, my order arrived! Boy, was I delighted and relieved to see my package. They were in prime condition. The items looked just as I saw them online. My first online purchase direct from China went without a glitch.
How are my MP4 players now? They are still working fine. I am actually quite surprised about how Chinese electronics are superior in some ways compared to other branded items. Not a lot of MP4 players around have a built-in radio tuner. Mine’s got everything. You can watch video clips, listen to your favorite tunes that you stored or music from the airwaves and you can even browse jpeg files. Even the customers who bought them (I ordered a few) were satisfied and delighted with the product’s performance and value.
OverallScience Articles, my wholesale consumer electronics supplier direct from china gave me a totally new online transaction experience. Not only are they reliable. They offer the best products with superior quality and the best price deals online. I’d say they are unbeatable.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
To check out huge collections of consumer electronics direct from China available at wholesale visit Charlemagne Solanor’s blog Wholesale Electronics at www.bestwholesaleelectronics.blogspot.com
If you looked everywhere around the house or elsewhere, you’d be surprised to see a lot of things, in fact, almost everything says at the back that they are “made in China”. They are everywhere: TV’s, audio equipments, furniture and even our fine line of fashion accessories. Even some of the branded electronics that we have around like your iPod are “assembled in China”. Boy! China really is busy these days being that it’s now the world’s largest factory. They make everything!As a consumer, I always want the best. I’m talking about not only the best in quality for any product that I purchase but also the best in customer service and price deals.
When I first came across my wholesale consumer electronics supplier direct from China about a year ago, I was surprised with the huge collection of electronics products they’ve got in store. I was particularly shopping around online for MP3/MP4 players, hoping to get a shot at online entrepreneurship. Some items were eye-catching and the features outlined where impressive enough to scare the heck out of the competition. The one item that really caught my fancy was the MP4 Player 1GB 1.5 inch 65k true colour LCD screen, FM Radio. It looked sleek and fashionable and like nothing I’ve ever seen. My eyes were so accustomed to iPods and other branded designs. But this one really has got something. My firs reaction was “I got to have it!” However, something nagged at the back of my mind. Issues like product reliability, quality, customer service, the credibility of this supplier and the overall value that I’d get for my money popped out instantly. So, I resisted my shopper’s impulse for a while. I sent emails to the supplier and checked out what they had to say. I went over the customer comments and testimonies and satisfied myself after reading the happy notes from customers all over the world. It did not take long for me to wait for what the supplier’s representatives had to say. They went back with a cordial reply that made me feel I’m in good hands and not dealing with just another fly-by-night scammers. We kept contact while I did some thorough research on their company. To my surprise, my supplier topped the Google, Yahoo and MSN search results in all three sets of keywords that I used to look them up on the Internet. And they still do even today, almost a year had passed since the first time I searched them online. Anyhow, at that point, I was somehow assured that all is well. I went ahead and ordered a few samples of the MP4 player that I fancied. Another thing, my supplier lets me purchase any item at wholesale price with no minimum order quantity. I did not have to worry about purchasing more than I wanted to test out. Ordering through my supplier’s online purchasing system was a breeze. You wouldn’t get lost in some long forms with unnecessary fields to fill out. Payments were secure and safe through PayPal (but what I actually did was wire transfer). Their instructions were clear that even a four-year old could follow them with no problems at all. Online tracking was available and undeniably reliable. They would even keep in touch constantly to check and let you know that things are going just swimmingly. So, I waited…nervously. Between anxious paces around the house and other things, within a week, my order arrived! Boy, was I delighted and relieved to see my package. They were in prime condition. The items looked just as I saw them online. My first online purchase direct from China went without a glitch.
How are my MP4 players now? They are still working fine. I am actually quite surprised about how Chinese electronics are superior in some ways compared to other branded items. Not a lot of MP4 players around have a built-in radio tuner. Mine’s got everything. You can watch video clips, listen to your favorite tunes that you stored or music from the airwaves and you can even browse jpeg files. Even the customers who bought them (I ordered a few) were satisfied and delighted with the product’s performance and value.
OverallScience Articles, my wholesale consumer electronics supplier direct from china gave me a totally new online transaction experience. Not only are they reliable. They offer the best products with superior quality and the best price deals online. I’d say they are unbeatable.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
To check out huge collections of consumer electronics direct from China available at wholesale visit Charlemagne Solanor’s blog Wholesale Electronics at www.bestwholesaleelectronics.blogspot.com
RoHS Compliant PCB Assembly – Ultra Electronics CEMS
The advent of the RoHS legislation which is due to come into effect from 1st July 2006 has caused a lot of electronics manufacturing companies and electronic component suppliers to review their product and service offerings.
The advent of the RoHS legislation which is due to come into effect from 1st July 2006 has caused a lot of electronics manufacturing companies and electronic component suppliers to review their product and service offerings. One such company is Ultra Electronics CEMS, the Dorset based electronic manufacturing services provider. Ultra CEMS manufactures products on behalf of their clients and has customers who are currently exempt from the current legislation as well as clients who are directly affected by the RoHS legislation. John Dean, Sales Manager at Ultra CEMS states, “We are working with all of our clients at present to aid the transition to RoHS compliant components and products. We are advising even those companies who are currently exempt from the new legislation to review their component engineering strategy now as we believe these companies will be affected sooner rather than later as component manufacturers gradually transition their whole product range to RoHS compliant product in order to reduce their costs.It is our belief that certain packages will shortly only be available in a RoHS compliant form so it would be better to manage the change now rather have if enforced later. Even if component manufacturers continue to support non-RoHS compliant parts for the DefenceHealth Fitness Articles, Aerospace sectors etc it is highly likely that the unit prices of these components will increase to reflect the lower volumes required. This is clearly something that will need to be considered in product costing/design reviews. We are already producing a number of RoHS compliant PCB assemblies for clients and in some instances have been carrying out lead free PCB assembly since July 2004.” In PCB Assemblies it is not uncommon to have in excess of 100 different components per product to review. If we assume each client has a portfolio of over 10 uniquely different products then we can be talking about in excess of 1000 part numbers which have to be reviewed. This can be a daunting task and should therefore be undertaken sooner rather than later. The process involves offering component engineering support to clients and literally going through all of their parts lists making recommendations and finding direct RoHS compliant alternatives as well as advising on topics such as backward compatibility.If you are not already considering the RoHS legislation and how it will affect your business then its time to start now before the new legislation comes into effect.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Dean,Customer Support Manager,Ultra Contract Electronics Manufacturing Services.Web-Site: www.ultra-cems.comE-mail: Jdean@ultra.co.uk
The advent of the RoHS legislation which is due to come into effect from 1st July 2006 has caused a lot of electronics manufacturing companies and electronic component suppliers to review their product and service offerings. One such company is Ultra Electronics CEMS, the Dorset based electronic manufacturing services provider. Ultra CEMS manufactures products on behalf of their clients and has customers who are currently exempt from the current legislation as well as clients who are directly affected by the RoHS legislation. John Dean, Sales Manager at Ultra CEMS states, “We are working with all of our clients at present to aid the transition to RoHS compliant components and products. We are advising even those companies who are currently exempt from the new legislation to review their component engineering strategy now as we believe these companies will be affected sooner rather than later as component manufacturers gradually transition their whole product range to RoHS compliant product in order to reduce their costs.It is our belief that certain packages will shortly only be available in a RoHS compliant form so it would be better to manage the change now rather have if enforced later. Even if component manufacturers continue to support non-RoHS compliant parts for the DefenceHealth Fitness Articles, Aerospace sectors etc it is highly likely that the unit prices of these components will increase to reflect the lower volumes required. This is clearly something that will need to be considered in product costing/design reviews. We are already producing a number of RoHS compliant PCB assemblies for clients and in some instances have been carrying out lead free PCB assembly since July 2004.” In PCB Assemblies it is not uncommon to have in excess of 100 different components per product to review. If we assume each client has a portfolio of over 10 uniquely different products then we can be talking about in excess of 1000 part numbers which have to be reviewed. This can be a daunting task and should therefore be undertaken sooner rather than later. The process involves offering component engineering support to clients and literally going through all of their parts lists making recommendations and finding direct RoHS compliant alternatives as well as advising on topics such as backward compatibility.If you are not already considering the RoHS legislation and how it will affect your business then its time to start now before the new legislation comes into effect.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Dean,Customer Support Manager,Ultra Contract Electronics Manufacturing Services.Web-Site: www.ultra-cems.comE-mail: Jdean@ultra.co.uk
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