photo credit: Sweet One

Every day there are new businesses opening and decades old businesses closing. Many of the businesses that are closing are ones I have never heard of until they have their Going Out Of Business sale. They are blaming the economy for their demise but I believe it goes deeper than that.

Most of these businesses were merely getting by when times were good but are now closing their doors because of lack of business. All businesses, no matter how big or small have one thing they can do to create success and that is build and maintain relationships. Without connecting with your customer there is no way you are going to have long term success.

Two weeks ago my husband was driving me around to garage sales in a residential area near our home. We turned a corner and saw a new restaurant that had opened. This is Big! The closest restaurant to this community is a couple of miles away and is mediocre at best. They serve food that is affordable but the restaurant is located in a casino and no matter how many smoke filters they put in, I feel as though I smoked a couple of cigarettes by the time I leave. Friday nights we drive into town to find good food and that is a 52 mile round trip so having a restaurant that is both close by and has really good food is exciting.

The new restaurant is in a bright new building, is smoke free indoors, has tables outside where you can smoke and their food is very good. Their servers are pleasant and very attentive. What’s missing? Nobody knows they are there. We asked our neighbors when we were at garage sales and not one of the five families we asked knew we had a new restaurant in our area. We’ve eaten there twice and were one of only two filled tables in the place.

They probably won’t even make it to their first anniversary because they have to rely on the community for businesses but they have failed at one huge thing – they haven’t advertised.

They are located almost 3 miles off the highway next to a park in the middle of a quiet residential community. There are no other businesses in the area. My husband asked them about their advertising and they told him they put up a website and that didn’t help. That’s it! They also said they can’t send someone around to put mailers in the mail boxes (it’s illegal). Um, are you kidding?

Why do they believe that just because they built it, people will come? If they don’t have the budget to advertise they might as well just close shop right now and cut their losses.

10 Easy Advertising Solutions

• Banners - Park a truck off the side of the road near both freeway exits with a banner on the side letting the people who are coming back from shopping and work know there is a restaurant. They would only need two banners.
• Twirlers - Pay a couple of people to be sign twirlers near the freeway exits. These are a big attention getter and everyone coming and going from this area has to use the freeway.
• Postcards - Send out postcards. Postcards can be cheap to produce or even free if you go to VistaPrint and have them made. The cost for postage for standard sized postcards is only .28¢. If they don’t have a budget to send them all at once, send 300 a week for about $100 for the postcards and the postage. There are over 2000 houses in the area so it should cost less than $1,000 to mail everyone once.
• Calendars - Print a calendar of events and put it on the tables. I know they have lots of big screens but I don’t know if they have football parties, NASCAR specials, celebrations on holidays (how about a Fourth of July bbq), catering, private parties or nightly food specials.
• Signs - Ask the local convenience stores (there are three) if they could put up a sign in the window. Offer the store owners a free meal and I’ll bet they would be happy to do it. These store owners want local business too so maybe reciprocate by giving a store coupon out to the patrons of the restaurant.
• Local Media - Call the local television stations and local newspaper and ask them if they would do a story on the new restaurant. The morning TV news spotlights local businesses all the time.
• Community - Go to garage sales on the weekend and ask the sellers to hand out a flyer to your restaurant in exchange for a free meal. People love free.
• Freeway - Call the highway department and see how much it costs to have their restaurant added to the blue sign near the freeway exit that shows travelers where they can get food, gas and lodging.
• Door To Door - Print out a one page brochure with the menu and a map and have someone take them house to house. You can’t legally put them in the mailbox but you can put them on the door.
• Delivery - Offer food delivery and get a vehicle with signs to advertise the restaurant while out delivering food. They are only 3 miles from my house but I would be happy to pay for delivery. They would be the only place in the area delivering food other than the chain pizza places that are about 10 miles away.



Advertising your business doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Building a business in an area without traffic and not advertising is a recipe for failure. What other ways would you recommend that a new business use to drive new traffic to their door?

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Post from: Solutionizers

photo credit: °Florian

Many hikers and campers may be living with a false sense of security by relying upon the snake-bite kits they purchased at the camping store. The snake-bite kits generally have a scalpel and a suction device to draw out the venom but doctors believe they may cause more damage than good. An article in the online Wall Street Journal site indicates that the best thing to do in the event of a snake bite is to call 911 and get to a hospital right away. The best advise is to get to a hospital as soon as possible.

The scalpel in the snake bite kits may cause more damage to the skin than the bite so the doctors they interviews say never use them. There are mixed reviews on the use of the suction device as these can cause skin death if used improperly and may not extract the venom even if used correctly.

If you ever find yourself or your friend the victim of a snake bite it is recommended that you keep the bitten limb below the level of the heart, immobilize it and seek treatment as quickly as possible.

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Post from: Solutionizers

Imagine my surprise when I was able to find that with a simple search I found a link to download an information product that sells for over $300 for FREE.

This wasn’t a torrent or illegal file swapping site, it was the direct link to the product download.

Then I started experimenting.   I looked through my emails for information product sales letters and attempted to see if I could find download links for the products.   In less than ten minutes using ten different product emails, I was able to find links to download three more expensive information products.

One of the products I found a link to included sophisticated software and had a $1,195 price tag. Wow!

Did I steal these programs?   No.   How did I find them?   I’m not going to tell but it happened purely by accident while doing research. The real shocker is that one of the download links I found was for a product created by a major player in information marketing who should know how to secure his products.

During another research session I found a website that sells different kinds of forms you can use to make lists with.   I wasn’t finding what I needed so I clicked on the sitemap link.   The download pages were all listed in the sitemap.   There were more than forty different forms I now had easy access to without paying a dime.

How would you feel if you found out the download link for your product was easily found on the internet?

You spent hours or maybe even days or months creating your product and you can’t afford to let it be given away.   I want to help you lock down your products so they don’t end up out there being downloaded for free.

The one common thread that every one of the product links shared was that all of the products I found are being self hosted on the same website as the products sales page.   Customers pay for their transaction and then are redirected to a page that many times is named www.salesname.com/thankyou, www.salesname.com/download or something similar.   This is where the problems begin.   By having a page that every buyer gets redirected to after they pay you is asking for trouble. Inevitably someone who bought your product is going to bookmark your page on a search directory and then the whole world has access to the download link.

Five Steps You Can Take to Protect Your Downloads

1.   Sell your products via Clickbank or E-junkie. These two shopping cart systems for selling downloads and tangible goods are secure and it is highly unlikely your items could be stolen from them. Using vendors such as E-junkie or Clickbank will put a security barrier between your product download and the internet.

After you upload your product to the shopping cart site, your buyers will have to go through the vendor’s system to actually buy your product.   The upside to this is your products are secure and other affiliates can market your products for you creating more sales.   The downside is that it isn’t free and the affiliates are going to get some of the profits.   Consider it the cost of advertising and know that the affiliates who are promoting your product may have a list of people who aren’t on your list.

2.   Email the product to your buyer. You can attach a file up to one megabyte (1 MB) to send to your buyers after their payment is made through a service like AWeber.   The upside to this is that there isn’t a link for them to go to and possibly bookmark.    Another benefit of using AWeber is that you can collect the buyers emails so you can market to them again in the future if they opt in.   The downside to sending your products via email is that some email filters may prevent delivery of the message due to the prevalence of viruses in emails.

3.  Require a password to download the product. You can store the downloads in a folder on your website and use a software program or a script to require a password to access the contents of the folder.

4.   Sell tangible goods and ship them to your buyer. These days you can easily have your product burned onto a CD or DVD or if it is an ebook have it printed and shipped. A service that I have used is Kunaki.   Kunaki can burn your digital products to CD, package and ship them at a very low cost.

5.   Password protect your product. Giving the user a password makes it so the user has to enter their registration key in order to open the file. There are many software programs on the market that can help you secure your files.

Don’t be a victim.  The reality is if you don’t take the steps necessary to protect your product sales you might as well just give them away for free.

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Post from: Solutionizers

photo credit: box of lettuce

New research indicates that foods lose their antioxidant qualities if stored for extended periods. In just six months, researchers found that green tea and olive oil can lose more than 40% of their healthy antioxidants. Many times, consumers are unaware of the amount of time that the products they buy have been stored. While olive oil has a shelf life, green tea doesn’t spoil so you may not even be aware that the tea bags you purchased yesterday may have been in a warehouse for a year.

What can you do? When picking healthy foods only buy as much as you can eat in a short period of time. Avoid shopping at stores where the products don’t move quickly and store products in a cool, dry, dark place until you consume them. Antioxidants are very important for good health so choose and store your foods wisely.

Post from: Solutionizers

photo credit: lauraleedooley

Did you know that trees and help our mood be more positive? Studies show that our backyards and our forests are doing more for our health than we thought. Just by looking at a cheerful landscape reduces stress and lowers our heart rate. Viewing the plantings help us feel and function better.

Planting trees is good for the environment but only if they are planted correctly. Studies show that up to 90% of the trees planted in the last ten years are planted incorrectly. When purchasing a tree check with your local nursery as to the proper tree for your area. Be sure to let them know if you have any existing features on your property. Underground services such as a septic tanks and wells have to be taken into consideration when choosing a tree since many species’ roots may cause damage to these items.

Post from: Solutionizers

photo credit: revjim5000

Studies show that older adults are happier than the Baby Boom generation which is considered those born between 1946 and 1964. Researchers theorize that seniors are from a smaller population group than the Baby Boomers and therefore didn’t have the competition for opportunities. Baby Boomers want to have it all and if they don’t get it they aren’t as happy. It is also generally accepted that we grow happier with age and knowledge. Being more mature and having higher self esteem leads to more happiness.

Other studies show that happy people live longer. Don’t wait until retirement to be happy, be happy now!

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Post from: Solutionizers

photo credit: rubenerd

Who would believe that we drive safer in a circle than we do when going through a signaled intersection. Studies show that most roundabouts are safer than the standard stop and go crossroads. They may take some getting used to but after drivers learn the nuances of traffic courtesy, accidents are reduced.

While roundabouts may be safer for drivers, they pose major headaches for pedestrians. When a roundabout is installed, the stop light is eliminated and traffic never has to stop. Now think about what this means to someone with impaired vision. If traffic never stops, they or their guide dog, will be unable to safely cross the street.
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Post from: Solutionizers

photo credit: chrisdlugosz

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about now hackers can hack our keystrokes through an antenna. Keyboard cables emit electromagnetic charges every time a key is pressed. Researchers found that with an oscilloscope, a wireless antenna and some ingenuity they could pick up exactly what was being typed with 95 percent accuracy over a distance of over 60 feet. They even devised a way to get the information being typed by a laptop.

Another study that researchers performed found that they could even identify the keystrokes off of the power cable that was plugged into the wall. This is just one more way that our privacy is being violated. What will they think of next?

Post from: Solutionizers

photo credit: ~Merete

It is thought that driving may improve the quality and length of a persons life. Researchers studying older adults found that those who stopped driving were up to six times more likely to die over a three year period. By staying behind the wheel in our later years we are keeping our brains working and our cognitive skills sharp.

The downside to this research are the statistics that show crash fatality rates for teenagers 17 years and above are lower than those for drivers over 70. The only group of people who have a higher fatality rates than our seniors are new 16 years old drivers.

If you are worried about a loved ones driving ability enroll them in a safety training course that is offered by many local and national organizations. Staying safe is as important as staying active.

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Post from: Solutionizers

photo credit: doustpauline

New research reveals we may reach our peak mental ability at the tender young age of 22 years old. What’s worse is that by the time we reach the age of 27 we are on a downward spiral as our mental abilities start to fade.

What can you do? Keep both mentally and physically active. By choosing activities that increase and test your knowledge you will help your brain remain as functional as possible.
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Post from: Solutionizers