He&#39s A Stalker If.........................

He's A Stalker If.........................

 by: Monica M. Burns

Ladies have you come home from a long hard day at work only to find your estranged or current partner hiding in your bushes, parked in his car further down the street with binoculars watching your house, hiding behind the neighbors tree or just blatantly sitting in your house waiting on you! If you answered yes to any of these questions.....................honey he is a stalker.

There is nothing cute or loving about a spouse (estranged or current), watching your every move. It is stupid and dangerous. Some women mistake this type of behavior as him “really loving her.” He doesn’t love you. He wants to control you and everything that you do. Most times the results of stalking are tragic and it’s not a game. If you have broken off a relationship and he just absolutely refuses to accept it and always wants to “talk about it,” he is very unstable and will more than likely become a stalker.

According to The National Center for Victims of Crime, 1 in 12 women will be stalked in their lifetimes, 87% of stalkers are men, and 81% of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner are also physically assaulted by that partner.

Some signs to look for in a stalker are: Following you and showing up wherever you are, Repeatedly calling you including hang-ups, Damaging your home, car, or other property, Using technology such as hidden cameras or global positioning systems to track wherever you go, Threaten to hurt you, your family, friends, or pets and they will also go so far as to find information about you by utilizing public records, online search services, and private investigators. Source: The National Center for Victims of Crime.

Never accept forceful and controlling behavior from your partner. If he jokingly tells you that “he’s never letting you leave him” he really means it and it’s no joke to him. You’ll see that once you leave him and the stalking begins. What are you going to say and think then, “He said he was never letting me leave him, but I didn’t think he was serious.” When you have finally realized the seriousness of the situation, sometimes it’s too late.

So if you are presently experiencing any of the above and need assistance, contact The National Center for Victims of Crime at 1-800-FYI-CALL and always alert friends and family.

Visit my websites at http://monicaburns.tripod.com, www.monicamburns.vstore.ca and www.flashbuilder.net/users/monicaburns.

Monica M. Burns

© 2005 Monica M. Burns. All Rights Reserved.

About The Author Monica M. Burns is a writer, expert author, and editor of Monica M. Burns, Inc., websites, small web based businesses providing informational self-help products for women. She has authored several eBooklets and other reading information materials and is a featured Expert Author on many websites. She has also contributed to several poetic anthologies. monicaburnsinc@yahoo.com

Are You Content With Your Conversion Rate? The #1 Reason Why Your Web Content Isn&#39t Bringing Sales

Are You Content With Your Conversion Rate? The #1 Reason Why Your Web Content Isn't Bringing Sales

 by: Dina Giolitto

The sole most important reason why you aren't converting sales is this: your credibility isn't cutting it. Why is that? Because your articles are not providing hands-on tricks, tactics, secrets and strategies that your customers are dying to get their meaty paws on.

These words I mention... they're not just words that marketers throw around to impress you. These marketers are trying to communicate something that most people don't catch because they're simply too distracted to get the message.

The message is this: Successful marketers make specific plans, and carry them through.

You cannot market "randomly," throwing out an offer when you feel like it, and expect to make substantial profit. If you do, I assure you that you'll only succeed in running yourself ragged.

The good news is, if you've been doing the marketing freestyle boogie and not making sales off it, you can make a plan to change for the better and start as soon as tomorrow. Remember, if you've been doing it wrong all this time, that doesn't mean it was all for nothing. Your name IS out there after all! But it does take planning, preparation, timing and follow-through to properly execute a marketing campaign that makes you money.

When you write articles, develop content and send out free information to your subscribers, that information must be something that they can put to practical and immediate use.

Your talent as a wordsmith is a huge plus in this industry, but it will only get you so far. You must include substance in your content if you want people to stare at your emails and go, "WOW, that person REALLY has it together. Maybe I should keep following along with what they have to say."

Two things you MUST explain when writing content that will reach your key customer:

1. WHICH resources you used to create your marketing materials.

I'll give you mine now.

http://nvu.com - a free web page editor

http://formmail.com - a low-cost form creator tool

http://ezinearticles.com - the best place to submit articles on the web

2. HOW you go about creating your materials.

Here's an example of how I would go about explaining how to put together an e-book.

1. Write five short articles.

2. Save the articles to a Word document.

3. Add a Cover Page, disclaimer, page numbers, copyright line, contact email.

4. Write an introduction letter to your customer.

5. Save as a .pdf file.

6. Upload to your web server and add the link to an email that you mail to your subscribers.

These are just two small samples that illustrate what you need to tell your readers if you want them to view you as an authoritative source. You MUST tell them HOW. Anyone who fails to instruct their audience is guaranteed to lose favor within five information mailings.

It's bad enough that the web is so distracting. Make it your number one priority to catch your customer's attention and then tell him something he can put to constructive use immediately. Do this right, and you just gained yourself one loyal customer for life.

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Are YOU Content With Your Content? Get Top Secret Marketing Tips from the Web's Biggest Gurus and Expert Authors on The First Annual Web Content Awareness Day on FEBRUARY 9, 2006.

Go to http://wordfeeder.com/wcad/landingpage.html for details.

About The Author Dina Giolitto is a copywriting consultant and ghostwriter with 10 years of experience writing corporate print materials and web content. Trust her with your next e-book, article series or web project, and make a lasting impression on your audience of information-hungry prospects. Visit http://www.wordfeeder.com for more details.

Ghost Mothers

Ghost Mothers

 by: Linda Joy Myers

So many women talk about their relationships with their mothers—no matter how old they are. For some, their mother, from whom they have supposedly separated long ago, still occupies a central place in the psyche. She’s too close, she’s too much. She has advice, is nosy, and interferes. The daughter wants time away, she wants boundaries, and fights for her separation from her mother.

For others, the mother still occupies the psyche, but with a wrenching kind of longing—a mother that is biological and even sometimes present, but also a mother who is so self-involved as to be emotionally absent, or literally out of the picture. This kind of mother takes up space and energy as a nagging, missing piece, a ghost. Her image hovers, her memory, or perhaps a dream of how it could have been, should have been, but never is.

Which kind of mother do you have?

My mother was a dream. I realize now, 10 years after her death, that I was always trying to get the dream to come true—to have her be warm and huggy, to have her want to know me, to visit me in my house, to know my children. To know me. It never happened. It left a yearning that I played out with men, it left a hole that I tried to fill in many ways.

When I was little, she left me when I was four years old, and once a year appeared in the landscape of my life—I lived with her mother—only to disappear too soon and in a flurry of anger at her own mother, without seeming to notice how hard it was for me.

So many people—men and women—struggle with this kind of emptiness, the burn of anger in the pit of the stomach, the unanswered questions that can’t be asked—why are you like this?

Mothers who are neglectful, selfish, and abandoning do not set out to do these things, they are a result of her own problems, her own pain, and maybe even mental illness. It is hard for us as her child to see this fully, or to forgive it.

How to help to heal the Ghost Mother wound:

1. Learn about your mother’s life—how she became the way she is—though talking with relatives, if she won’t talk to you directly, or by sitting down and hashing through history shown in photos and family albums.

2. Find adoptive mothers who will nurture you, and friends who understand your story. Learn to mother yourself—though therapy, through having children of your own. They will teach you.

3. Write your story. Tell your story. Having witnesses to your story is a part of healing. Seeing compassion in the eyes of others shows you that you are worthy of it, and deserve it.

4. Learn to forgive. Work on it. Work on being yourself and having a life you like and enjoy.

5. Learn to surround yourself with who you like, people who love and like you, and beauty that makes you feel part of the web of life.

About The Author Linda Joy Myers, Ph. D., prize winning author of Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story, is a Marriage and Family therapist and teaches memoir-as-healing workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationally. Linda’s work has been praised by reviewers, healers, and radio and television interviewers. You can visit her web site at: www.lindajoymyers.com.

10 Top Tips For Writing A Super Responsive Ezine

10 Top Tips For Writing A Super Responsive Ezine

 by: Martin Avis

One of the most often asked questions that I see is 'how can I write an ezine that people will want to read.' Anyone can tell you that there is 'money in the list' but how do you create a list of readers who are happy to send money in your direction? After all, if they don't want to read your newsletter, (I tend to use the words newsletter and ezine interchangeably) your 'list' is pretty worthless!

Over 650 issues of my ezine, Kickstart Today - http://www.kickstartdaily.com - have taught me a few things about what people really want from a newsletter.

Here are the ten top tips that I've learned the hard way:

1. Keep it short and sweet. Your ezine itself can be quite long, provided that each article is kept fast-paced and punchy. In my experience, any section that runs more than 500 words is probably too long. And 1500 words overall is enough. Many successful newsletters are around 500 words total.

2. Be as personal as you like. If people want serious business writing they can go to the news-stand. It seems to me that people love the personal aspect that ezines offer. Hence, the more I introduce elements from my own life and family into my newsletter, the bigger my positive (virtual) mailbag is.

3. Never sell. I write my newsletter three times a week and on average, about a third of my issues don't try to sell anything. As often as possible, I provide links to things that my readers can have for free. In the other two-thirds of issues, I almost never sell either - I make recommendations. My readers know that I will never recommend something that I haven't used myself - and have found to be excellent. So, in effect, my selling is a personal recommendation from one friend to another.

4. And on that note, only 'sell' (or recommend) one item in any issue. I have proved time and again with my own lists that whenever I mention two or more products for my readers to buy, overall sales goes right down. I know of several super-successful people who do manage to make multiple recommendations successfully, but it has never worked for me.

5. Never write to your list. You may have thousands of people on your list, but as soon as you start to write to 'the list' the tone of your words becomes impersonal. Always write to one person, who you imagine is sitting in front of you. If you learn to write as you would speak to that one person in front of you, your newsletter will almost automatically be a thousand times more readable than most others out there.

6. Be brave. So many ezine writers fall into the trap of avoiding controversy. The result is that their newsletters fast become boring. The truth is that people love to read a good rant. If you allow yourself to let yourself go once in a while - even if it is completely off topic, I guarantee that your list will become more responsive - and consequently more loyal.

7. Be responsive yourself. If one of your readers writes to you, make sure you write back - personally. People do business with people and they really like to know that you are a real person behind the keyboard.

8. Using other people's articles. This is a sticky one. Use other people's stuff too often and your own personality will not shine through. And if your readers see the same articles appearing elsewhere, they start to think that they might as well read them elsewhere. Personally, I don't run other people's stuff in my newsletter at all - but that is my choice, and as a fairly prolific writer, something that I can deal with. I would say that if you must use other people's articles, keep them to a fairly low percentage of each issue's total content.

9. Be prepared for the long haul. Successful newsletters are rarely born overnight. They take a long time to build their readership and even longer to regularly turn a good profit. Like any business you have to work at them - sometimes when you least want to. Get it right though, and they are worth it on so many levels.

10. Finally, find your own USP. Every product (and your ezine is a product that people have to 'buy in to' even if they don't pay for it) needs to have certain attributes that set it apart from all the others out there. Your USP (unique selling point) is the thing that people will talk about when they recommend you to their friends - so make it easy for them to notice and compelling enough for them to want to pass on the good news!

Of course, the fact that this article is available for ezine publishers to use does raise a conundrum. If my advice to avoid using other people's articles in your newsletters is valid, will anyone use this article? Or any other that is made freely available in article directories?

My suggested solution is two-fold:

a. Believe everything I say, and follow all of my rules except when applying them to articles that I have written. Clearly, those will be of far more interest to your readers than anything else. ;-)

b. Seriously, rather than blindly publishing other people's articles in your ezine, it is usually a better bet to put those articles onto your website and link to that page from your ezine. That way your readers can accept the 'gift' of an interesting article to read if they are interested, or ignore it if they so choose.

Also, you can put AdSense, or other ads onto the article page to monetize the article to those people who have shown a marked interest in the subject matter by clicking the link.

Ezine writing and publishing is a learned skill. The first few editions you produce will probably be rather rough around the edges, but keep practicing and listen to what your readers email to you. In a short time you will find your own voice and a style that will help you build a large and loyal following.

And then, the advice that the money is in the list will come true for you.

About The Author Martin Avis publishes the acclaimed 3x-weekly email newsletter Kickstart Today - an eclectic mix of business advice, personal development, Internet marketing and unrestrained opinion. Subscription is free from http://www.kickstartdaily.com.

The Values of the "Conditioned Response Principle" in Dog Training

The Values of the "Conditioned Response Principle" in Dog Training

 by: Armen T. Ghazarians

One of the key principles of dog training is the principle of “conditioned response.” The idea is that you can set up your dog’s environment in such a way that it learns to abandon its destructive behavior through its own mistakes rather than by your instruction. Below are two common examples of problem dog behaviors and how the princple of "conditioned response" can be used to resolve them.

1. My dog is digging up my yard. How can I stop this destructive behavior? First, you must purchase some chicken wire from your local hardware store and some styptic powder from you local pet store. Before you begin, you must observe your dog’s favorite digging spots and pinpoint them in your mind. Then, you must remove your dog from the yard, and you must not allow it to watch you as you set up its environment. Cut about a 4 by 4 foot section of chicken wire and plant it under the dirt in all the locations where you dog likes to dig. Once you’re finished, release your dog and wait for the conditioned response. More than likely, your dog will go back to the locations where it dug before and proceed to dig as usual. Except now, it’s going to learn a novel lesson. Namely, that digging is going to cause it serious discomfort and pain. Once your dog associates the condition (digging) with the negative response (pain) it will automatically stop its destructive digging habit. There is, however, one drawback to this technique. If you have an aggressive digger, then you should monitor your dog for any cuts or bruises. That’s where the styptic powder comes in. If you notice a cut in your dog’s paws, gently pour the styptic powder on the cut and allow it to cauterize the bleeding. Within a matter of days, you can conditon your dog to abandon its destructive digging habit by using the principle of "conditioned response."

2. My dog chews my furniture, my shoes, and my valuable belongings. What can I do to end this destructive behavior? Go to your local pet store, and purchase a spray bottle of bitter apple. Remove your dog from your house and do not allow it to see you set up its environment. Spray your valuables (i.e. furniture, shoes, and socks) with bitter apple and place them in locations that your dog can easily access. Then allow it to come in and let the trap do the rest. As usual, your dog will go back to its old habit and start to chew its favorite shoe or furniture. But now, it’s going to get a bitter surprise. Your dog will associate the condition (chewing) with the negative response (bad taste) and it will stop its destructive chewing habit. It's important to remember, however, that all dogs need to chew, so you must repeat this process a second time. Now, you must place your dog’s favorite chew toys next to the items that were sprayed with bitter apple. This time, your dog will be reconditioned to chew its own toys rather than your valuable possessions. Thus, by conditioning your dog, you can positively reinforce a good habit (chewing designated toys) over an undesirable one (chewing your valuable possessions).

As you can see, by applying the principle of “conditioned response” you can teach your dog exactly what you want without ever getting frustrated with the training process.

About The Author Armen T. Ghazarians offers advice and articles for those interested in training their dogs like the professionals. His blog http://www.newdogtrainingsecrets.com offers information regarding many aspects of professional dog training for anyone who is not a professional dog trainer.

Golf Balance Exercises To Create A Rock-Solid Golf Swing

Golf Balance Exercises To Create A Rock-Solid Golf Swing

 by: Mike Pedersen

Golf balance exercises should be a must for every amateur golfer. One of the biggest issues with most amateurs is balance, stability and body control in their golf swing.

So often I see a golfer swinging outside their physical capabilities and losing their balance, resulting in a severe mishit that will end up being a double or triple bogey.

There is a physical requirement to maintaining your golf balance throughout your swing. The golf swing position commonly referred to as golf posture is a very unnatural position for the body to be in at address, let alone throughout the swing.

Having a forward tilt over the balls of your feet require a high level of both strength and flexibility in your hamstrings. Just get in your golf posture and reach back behind your upper leg to see how tight your hamstrings are.

If your hamstrings are tight and/or weak, you will have no chance at maintaining your golf posture and ultimately balance throughout your golf swing.

How about your quadriceps?

The play a critical role in keeping your golf swing stable. Rotating your upper body around a somewhat fixed lower body takes a tremendous amount of leg (quad) strength. Also your quads help maintain your knee flex that you had at address. If your quads are weak, your legs will straighten, causing you to come out of our swing.

As you can see, your golf balance requires muscular strength and flexibility. Without it, you’ll be falling all over your swing forever!

One great golf balance exercise (drill) is swinging and actually hitting balls on one leg. Give it a try! You’ll soon find out how difficult it is. But stick with it, and you’ll become a pro at it. If you can hit straight balls on one leg, using both legs will be a cinch.

In all of my advanced golf performance training programs, I have the golfer do a majority of their strength exercises on one leg. It is brutal! It takes so much focus and concentration, you’ll be sweating before you even grab the weight.

I have literally dozens of golf balance exercises in my dvds, books and websites that will dramatically improve your balance, stability and overall control. It’s amazing how many emails I get from golfers who thought these golf balance exercises were easy until they did a full set of just one exercise.

They thought differently after that!

This could be your missing link to a great game! Focus on those golf balance exercises!

About The Author Mike Pedersen is one of the top golf performance experts in the country; Golf Magazine's expert at GolfOnline.com, author and founder of several cutting-edge online golf performance sites. Take a look at his just released golf training manual and dvds at http://www.performbettergolf.com

Effective Postcard can Drag you to Success

Effective Postcard can Drag you to Success

 by: Maricon Williams

Postcard promotion is one of the rising trends to discover the edge of every business and consequently live the limelight of success.

You probably wanna ask how simple postcards can make your business endeavor spicy and full of zest. Well, you may not be aware of it but postcards nowadays are among the most proficient and easy to use marketing tools. Aside from the fact that they catch instant attention because they are impossible to ignore, postcards also save money. They cost less than other marketing tools however, they can generate immediate sales. This is the reason why we should never forget the call to action in order to result to sales.

Postcards are perfect for both small and huge mailings. You can use postcards for your whole mailing list or to only a few or specific products and services. Postcards printing and mailing come in a wide variety of options. With regards to printing, there are different designs and sizes available. They are now allowing personalization or customization to give their customers a chance to create their own design and to enliven their very concepts in their choice of postcards. In fact, they are also preparing it in a quick yet efficient manner. In mailing, printing companies are assuring a fast turnaround to keep the confidence of customers.

To give you a hint on how to make postcards customizations, here are some valuable tips and tricks:

1. Plan ahead of time. The key to a successful marketing endeavor is a good planning strategy. Thus, prior to your postcard design, be sure that you have conceptualized and planned on every detail even the minutest of the details.

2. A bang on the design. Your design must have impact to catch everyone’s attention. To boot, you can use Publisher New Publication Wizards to have a stunning design that will surely capture the interest of its readers.

3. Edit to the bone. Postcards can only accommodate few words. Therefore, you must remove unnecessary words for easy reading and for the words to fit the space intended for the texts. Focus on large graphics or pictures instead of texts to catch reader’s attention in a spur of the moment.

4. Be consistent with your primary goal. The message, color, typeface and graphics must reflect the primary goal of your business. All these stuffs must go hand in hand in order to achieve the common end.

5. Be wise in choosing your print and mailing options. There are a lot of printing options. You can use two-color printing if you want a budget-friendly design. You can also opt for full color postcard printing, if you want a more colorful and vibrant postcards. Further, to explore more colors, you can use six-color printing and other printing options available for your printing needs. Mailing is also flexible nowadays. Your postcards can now be delivered at your choice depending on its quantity and printing technique used.

About The Author Maricon Williams Please visit Postcard Printing Company site at http://www.rushpostcardprinting.com/post-card-printing-and-mailing.html for comments and inquiries regarding this article.

Breaking Goals Down To The Basics

Breaking Goals Down To The Basics

 by: Jeffrey Rolo

One of the primary reasons why people fail to execute their goals is they set forth unrealistic or overly complex goals. Most of us have the tendency to look at the finish line without paying much consideration to the distance between the end point and us. Here are a couple examples to illustrate this point:

• My goal is to lose 80 pounds by next year.

• My goal is to lose 8 pounds a month each month until I reach the grand goal of 80 pounds.

Or how about this one?

• My goal is to save up enough money to take a cross-country vacation next summer.

• My goal is to save $30.00 each week so that 50 weeks from now I will have accumulated $1,500.00 for the vacation expenses. I will do this by using grocery coupons, downgrading my cable plan and dining out one time less per week.

The majority of us lay out our goals in the general manner exhibited by the first statement in each of the two examples above, but unfortunately they are so aimless and expansive that unless you are particularly motivated and disciplined chances are good you will give up long before you reach the goal.

On the other hand, if you break down your expansive goals into an assortment of smaller goals that are easily achieved, you will find yourself far more focused and motivated. Each time you reach a milestone (the conclusion of a smaller goal), you will experience the jubilation of success and be one step closer to your end goal.

Breaking large goals up into manageable pieces also plays a bit of a trick on the mind. What would be your natural answer to the following question?

• Is it easier to lose 80 pounds in 10 months, or 2 pounds each week?

The thought of losing 80 pounds is horrifying… that's a lot of weight. Two pounds is much more manageable. Right? But if you break the numbers down, you'll find that two pounds a week for 10 months will result in the loss of 80 pounds, which is exactly the same as your expansive end goal.

By breaking up your large goals, you allow your mind to focus on the easily achievable midpoints such as two pounds a week. At the end of each week if you see that you didn't reach your goal of two pounds, you'll know something needs to be tweaked if you are to succeed with your end goal. On the other hand no matter how frustrated you become with your diet, if you see that you are losing just two pounds every week you'll know that you are well on your way and as such you will remain far more motivated throughout the process.

No realistic goal is too great as long as you break it down to easily achievable and detailed interim goals.

Copyright 2005 Goals-and-Motivation.com

About The Author Jeffrey Rolo is an experienced human resources manager, business owner and also the owner of Goals-and-Motivation.com, a website offering a free 20+ page guide on goal setting. Visit http://www.goals-and-motivation.com to view the guide as well as other articles about goals and management.