Research from The Harvard Business Review proves that face-to-face meetings can make or break business. But since a lot of businesses have to keep within a budget, meeting clients or associates face-to-face, especially if they are overseas, can be a huge financial drain. But there is one company who would like to help.

British Airways (who have – in my own humble opinion – the single best airline service I’ve ever flown on) is running a contest where 100 small-to-medium size U.S. businesses (who prove they are deserving) will be awarded a year of free Business Class travel and valuable business services and products to help increase their face-to-face meetings and hopefully – grow their business.

"Business Opportunity Grant" recipients will be awarded 10 British Airways roundtrip transatlantic Club World business class tickets to be used at their business’ discretion in 2010. British Airway partners Regus, Courtyard by Marriott, Canon will provide five Businessworld Gold Cards offering access to its business lounges worldwide, $1,000 toward accommodations, and a PIXMA MX860 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer, specifically designed for small businesses. British Airways World Cargo will also offer each winning company five free global shipments of up to 1100lbs, including fuel and security fees, shipped from any British Air World Cargo U.S. gateway.

Pretty sweet huh? Well – there are only a few more days to enter – so please visit the website and apply!

With about half of all Americans on social networks, the glass is either half-empty or half-full. 50% the country has embraced these new tools, using them in their work and lives with increasing confidence and skill.

And the other 50%? They include entrepreneurs, corporate professionals, and key players in mission-driven organizations, who haven’t been ready to adopt these platforms into their marketing activities. Some don’t see the value. Others can’t see when they’d fit it in to their routine. And still others don’t know how to use them in a way that serves their message, mission, and vision.

To help success-minded professionals in that "other" 50%, social marketing firm Epiphanies, Inc. is offering a free audio program, “The 6-Step Social Media Kick Start: How to Get More Leads, Clients, and Results (and Have a BLAST Doing It).” It’s an hour-long digital recording (MP3), available for immediate download at their website.

Lani, along with her business partner Allen Voivod, reveal the #1 Rule, #1 Truth, and #1 Success Strategy for using social media. They also share their own shortcuts for saving hours a day while remaining active on multiple social media sites, and how the six steps became the model for their six-week Social Media Kick Start Virtual Boot Camp, which they’re running for the second time beginning October 5th, 2009.

“The previous Boot Camp attendees included both entrepreneurs at the start-up stage and experienced business owners, plus representatives of non-profit organizations and academic institutions,” notes Allen Voivod. "We’re thrilled to have designed a program that’s proven useful across so many different situations, and look forward to seeing another diverse group of professionals in the Boot Camp starting next month."

Lani & Allen Voivod, the Content Lovers of Epiphanies, Inc., help entrepreneurs, global brands, and mission-driven organizations learn and use social marketing and success strategies to boost visibility, community, competitive edge, and profits through workshops, speaking, and consulting. Get their free 6-Step Social Media Kick Start audio program, designed to help savvy professionals get a convenient, no-nonsense overview of how to put social media tools and platforms to work for their own goals, vision, and careers.

Supplying product for these blogs and websites is an alternative to the traditional method of paying for advertising based on a cost per click or a cost per impression. The sites that will be hosting these contests/giveaways will simply display a banner provided to them by rockworldeast.com. Based on the traffic received through these banner links, these websites and blogs will be provided with various prizes including t-shirts and merchandise found on the RockWorldEast website.

Holding Contests and Giveaways is an excellent partnership strategy for both blog owners and RockWorldEast. This method is a reader friendly way to draw new traffic to an already existing website or blog in addition to being a targeted promotion for RockWorldEast. For rockworldeast.com, traffic and sales go up, for the sponsored blog/website readership, marketability and value of the blog/website increase.

The ROCKWORLDEAST Sponsorship program is an ongoing program. Any website can join this program upon approval. It’s as simple as posting a banner link which can be provided to you by emailing the rockworldeast.com marketing team using the contact information below.

This is not only an opportunity to gain free products to give to users of your website and readers of your blog, but an opportunity to build a strategic relationship with a major website in the music merchandise retail and wholesale industry.

For more information contact Melissa Buhagiar at melissa@rockworldeast.com
Website: http://www.rockworldeast.com
Blog: http://www.rockworldeast.blogspot.com

Sometimes, I feel so used by my owner Christine. She uses me the same way most people use big ugly desktops! Every day it’s “email this” and “blog that” – she even uses me for physics homework! Imagine! Me? A delicious pink laptop – being used for physics!

As soon as she got me she was ready to upgrade me! Wasn’t I good enough for her? My “memory” was apparently not fast enough for her – and my hard drive space wasn’t nearly big enough for her. It was a nightmare being taken apart like that! Christine didn’t even have the decency to do it herself either – she let her HUSBAND do it for her! The shame! She still tries to run software on me that I just can’t keep up with. All those graphics and websites she makes with that Adobe Creative Suite she installed! All those Sims she creates! Don’t even get me started on the streaming video and music! Ugh! It’s enough to make any computer scream!

I guess I just got tired of it all. At least … my poor screen did. Now after two years of this ABUSE I can’t hold myself together! My screen fades out to white and Christine tries to bend me to get my picture back! It’s terrible! Now she’s talking about replacing me! I heard her saying just the other day to someone that she’s “never had any trouble with HP laptops” – can you believe it? She also said that the only reason she bought me was because HP didn’t have “pink computers” yet!

I guess now she wants a pretty pink flowery HP computer. I mean, they have coupons and all where she can save $30 off orders of $150 or more at the HP Home Store (valid through 10/31 or while supplies last. Restrictions and exclusions apply). Some of those computers are under $500! How can I ever compare with that? I know I cost more than I was worth … but … I’m so beautiful! What’s a laptop to do? Le sigh!

You can pre-order your very own copy of The Lost Symbol off of Amazon.com and they will deliver it to you on the very day it comes out - September 15th (which also happens to be MY BIRTHDAY!). The book is also available for pre-order on the Kindle!

Oh and while you have the Kindle on your mind - why not check out what I had to say about it on my other blog - geared towards Military members and their families!

I really enjoyed “The Da Vinci Code” as well as “Angels and Demons” … I look forward to this new book!

1. It’s Fast - surfing the web is now quicker than ever, thanks to performance enhancements that reduce how long it takes you to do a task. For example? A more intuitive address bar.
2. It’s Easy - you don’t have to open up a new window to find information like driving directions—now you can get that info easily using one of our Accelerators. [No more stupid "IE needs to open a new window" windows?! Huzzah!]
3. It’s Safe - no matter what you’re doing, you’ll stay safer using the SmartScreen filter. You’re instantly better protected against malicious software that can compromise your privacy and identity.
4. Easily Keep Up with Sites - whether it’s news, stock quotes, or even auction items, now you can stay on top of sites that update frequently using Web Slices.
5. Backward Compatibility - view sites with ease, even if they were designed for an older browser, with one click on the Compatibility View button.
6. Crash Recovery - came across a site that caused a tab to crash? No worries, your browser session is stable, thanks to new tab isolation and crash recovery features.
7. Surf in Private - InPrivate Browsing gives you the option to prevent browsing history, cookies, usernames and passwords from being retained by the browser.
8. Customization - customize your browser by choosing from an ever growing collection of handy and easy-to-use Internet Explorer 8 add-ons from the Internet Explorer Add-ons Gallery.

Still not convinced? Well - go visit the Microsoft website and see for yourself!

Today, both the merchants and the affiliates can see clearly that affiliate marketing can work for both of them.  The merchant sees affiliate marketing today as the chance to advertise their products at a lower cost.  The affiliates, on the other hand, sees affiliate marketing as an easy way of earning profits online by doing what they like most, and that is by creating websites.

So the question now is what type of affiliate marketing will work best for you?  Are all affiliate marketing programs the same?  Are the benefits the same?  Or are there affiliate marketing programs that work better than the others?

There are actually different types or classes of affiliate marketing, and the number of types will depend on how one will classify them.  The most basic affiliate marketing programs, however, falls under two categories: pay-per-click (PPC), and pay-per-performance (PPP).

Pay Per Click (PPC) -
PPC is the most popular type of affiliate marketing for affiliates with small websites, and probably the easiest way for them to earn money.  In this affiliate marketing type, the merchant pays his affiliate whenever a visitor is referred to his site, that is whenever someone clicks through the merchant’s banner or text ads.  The affiliate gets paid a certain amount even if the visitor he referred does not purchase anything from the merchant’s site.  However, typical fees for PPC affiliate programs are small, usually not exceeding a dollar for every click.

Pay Per Performance (PPP) -
PPP affiliate marketing is the most popular among merchant and is also the most lucrative type for the affiliates.  In this type of affiliate program, the merchant only pays the affiliate whenever his referral translates into an action—that is whenever the visitor he has referred actually buys something from the merchant’s site or when the visitor becomes a lead.  This means a lot of savings for the merchant.  On the other hand, it becomes the most lucrative type for the dedicated affiliate, for commissions in PPP affiliate marketing usually comes in the range of 15% to 20% of the actual product sales.

Pay-per-performance affiliate marketing can be further classified into two popular types: pay-per-sales (PPS) and pay-per-lead (PPL).

Pay Per Sale (PPS) -
In a pay-per-sale type of affiliate marketing, the merchants pay the affiliate a certain fee whenever the visitor he has referred to the merchant’s site actually buys something from the merchant’s site.  Affiliates are often paid on commission basis, although other merchants would opt to pay a fixed fee.  But no matter what the basis of the fee is, it is generally higher than the fee paid to affiliates in a pay-per-click affiliate program.

Pay Per Lead (PPL) -
The pay-per-lead type of affiliate marketing is a slight variation of the PPS type and is often used by insurance and finance companies and other companies who rely on leads for their company to grow.  In this type of affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid whenever the visitor he referred to the merchant’s site fills up an application form or any similar form related to the business of the company.  Compensation for this type of affiliate marketing is based on a fixed fee whose rates approximate that of the fixed fee in the PPS type.

Aside from these three specific types of affiliate marketing, a lot of other affiliate marketing types exist.  If the classification is based on the depth of the affiliate network.

Single-Tier, Two-Tier, and Multi-Tier Affiliate Marketing -
These types of affiliate marketing are based on the different levels or tiers in the affiliate network by which payments are made.  In a single-tier affiliate marketing program, the affiliates are only paid based on the direct sales or traffic he has referred to the merchant.

Residual Income Affiliate Marketing -
In residual income affiliate marketing, the affiliate gets paid not only once for every customer he has referred to the merchant’s site.  Rather, the affiliate is also paid whenever the customer he has referred returns to the site and purchase another product.  Compensation for such type of affiliate marketing is based on either sales percentage commission or fixed fee basis.

The different affiliate marketing types would virtually work differently for merchants and affiliates alike, and each would generally have their own list of benefits.  In the end it comes down to which affiliate type will work with your business plan along with how much time you would like to put in to the actual “marketing” part of affiliate marketing.

Early in the book we learn why we should even give a darn about twitter. And than we get a clear and concise explanation of what twitter is. And that is not an easy task. Best of all, the Twitter Revolution is true to form and says exactly what twitter is, “it turned into SO much more than that.” What is really cool about this chapter as with a lot of the book, Deb and Warren take advantage of their own followers to aid in defining what twitter is. So instead of just getting a book full of the ideas and thinking of the writers alone, we get the input of some of the thought leaders who are actually using what the book is talking about.

Related Books:

Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time
Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day
Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business

The Sims 3 has only been out for a couple months now (it seems) and already they’ve released information about the first Expansion pack called “World Adventures.”

Take your Sims on the adventure of their lives with The Sims 3 World Adventures. Guide your Sims to acclaimed fortune—or potential doom. Take your Sims to exotic destinations to hunt for hidden treasures. Uncover new skills, experience new personality traits and garner rewards, if your Sims succeed. Explore ancient tombs in the pyramids of Egypt, master martial arts in the Far East, and discover rich culture and famous landmarks of France. Adventure is on the horizon — what will your Sims discover?

I dunno … I’ve still got a sorta “Love / Hate” relationship with Sims 3 … On one side - I love the game because it’s easier to create “Legacy” families since you can only control one family at a time. The rest of the town are NPC’s (non-playable characters) who follow their own storylines (automatically) and even age on their own. I love the cemetery and the ghosts within (you can talk, hang out or even play football with the ghosts!) - you can even tour the local graveyard’s mausoleum! I love the careers (Evilness!) and I love the gardening and collecting. On the flip side - I hate that you can only control one family (what happens if I want Harry Potter Sim to marry Ginny Weasley Sim?) and you can’t add anything to the town. So, I can’t create a nice club for my Buffy-Sims to visit!

But - I can’t complain too much since I literally found my copy of The Sims 3 at a thrift store for $4.00 - I’m so not even kidding! So, what about you? Addicted to Sims 3 yet? Are you still playing Sims 2? Will you be buying “World Adventures” or waiting for the next expansion pack? (When will they add MAGIC!?)

In any case … World Adventures hits stores on November 17, 2009 and is available for pre-order now.

Phishing (pronounced as “fishing”) is defined as the act of sending an email to a recipient falsely claiming to have an established, legitimate business. The intent of the phisher is to scam the recipient into surrendering their private information, and ultimately steal your identity.

It is not at easy as you think to spot an email phishing for information. At first glance, the email may look like it is from a legitimate company. The “From” field of the e-mail may have the .com address of the company mentioned in the e-mail. The clickable link even appears to take you to the company’s website, when in fact, it is a fake website built to replicate the legitimate site.

Many of these people are professional criminals. They have spent a lot of time in creating emails that look authentic. Users need to review all emails requesting personal information carefully. When reviewing your email remember that the “From Field” can be easily changed by the sender. While it may look like it is coming from a .com you do business with, looks can be deceiving. Also keep in mind that the phisher will go all out in trying to make their email look as legitimate as possible. They will even copy logos or images from the official site to use in their emails. Finally, they like to include a clickable link that the recipient can follow to conveniently update their information.
A great way to check the legitimacy of the link is to point at the link with your mouse. Then, look in the bottom left hand screen of your computer. The actual website address to which you are being directed will show up for you to view. It is a very quick and easy way to check if you are being directed to a legitimate site.

Finally, follow the golden rule. Never, ever, click the links within the text of the e-mail, and always delete the e-mail immediately. Once you have deleted the e-mail, empty the trash box in your e-mail accounts as well. If you are truly concerned that you are missing an important notice regarding one of your accounts, then type the full URL address of the website into your browser. At least then you can be confident that you are, in fact, being directed to the true and legitimate website.