By the hammer of Thor there’s a lot of blogging myths out there; myths that keep you from generating more online leads and building lasting relationships with clients.

The problem with these myths is that if they’re not challenged they turn into conventional wisdom. If you’ve been looking to drive more traffic to your Web site and improve communications with customers, you owe it to yourself to give a business blog a try.

Below are some of the hurdles–exaggerated or imagined–I’ve heard business owners use to avoid starting a blog, and real-world experience to debunk these myths.

1) My customers don’t read blogs. I hear this all too often by business owners who don’t completely understand what a blog is. Now, perhaps your customers don’t subscribe to any blogs, or they don’t return daily to a favorite blog. However, if they use Google or Yahoo for search, chances are they stumbled upon a search result from a blog. Since blogs often rank high at the search engines, if your customers use the Internet, you can capture their attention with a blog.

2) Blogging is for teenagers to share the minutiae of their lives and what they think of the remaining American Idol contestants. While teens certainly took to blogging quicker than businesses, these days companies of all sizes and shapes have realized the benefits of a business blog. You wouldn’t dismiss the telephone as a communication device just because your teenager spends hours each night on it, would you?

3) Blogging is just a fad/This too will pass. Didn’t you say the same thing about the Internet back in 1997? Of course no one can predict the future and much of the hype about blogs is just that. However, it’s important to realize that blogs are a powerful, easy-to-use communication tool, and communicating with customers and prospects will never go out of style.

Besides, blogs are an effective marketing tool today, so don’t worry if in five years you’ve moved on to your next communication medium. If you’ve cultivated an active audience, they’ll follow you to other distribution channels.

4) Blogging takes up too much time. I run a growing business, sit on the board of MEBSR (Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility), participate in a business-owners group, do a lot of writing and speaking, and carry my share in raising our two daughters. Trust me, I know from being busy.

However, in the past two-and-a-half years of blogging, I’ve discovered that it’s probably the most effective use of my marketing time. Blogging helps establish your expertise, generates loads of search engine leads, and delivers your message through three distribution channels each time you write. (Read more on the three faces of blogs.)

As business owners we have limited time in the day to market our services; blogging provides great return on that investment.

5) Blogging is fraught with dangers, like people leaving negative comments. These days, consumers can vent their frustration with your product or service anywhere on the Web, whether it’s a post at their own blog, a review at Epinions.com, or a scathing YouTube video. If I had my choice, I’d rather have that conversation happen where I have home court advantage. How you handle negative feedback can establish your authenticity, and help you win over new converts.

And, if you happen to find yourself with a PR nightmare, you don’t have to worry about letting the media tell your side of the story. By using your own blog you have unfettered access to anyone with a connection to the Internet.

People are looking for transparency and authenticity from companies these days, and your blog is the perfect tool to match these needs.

6) My customers don’t read blogs. Whoa. Feelings of deja vu. Didn’t we respond to this earlier? Oh, you mean that you don’t get leads from the Internet? That they only use the Yellow Pages or go on advice from a friend? Well, then your audience is shrinking. The average consumer is much more likely to use the Web to search for a product or service, or at least visit your Web site to learn more about your company.

If you haven’t gone after this audience before, you’re missing an opportunity of getting in front of a younger audience…your customers and clients of tomorrow.

And trust me, they read blogs.

The truth about blogging is that it’s proven an effective marketing tool for a wide range of businesses. You can start a blog on your own through a service like TypePad or by installing a blogging platform like WordPress on your own server. Alternatively, you can hire a Web design firm to design, develop and promote your blog and get you up to speed quickly.

Whatever path is right for you, don’t let these myths keep you from giving business blogging a chance.

About the Author: Rich Brooks is president of flyte new media, a Web design and Internet marketing company. Download his free article, The 11 Biggest Mistakes Small Business Bloggers Make.

Happy Memorial Day To Those Of You In The USA

What Will Some Of The People Be Doing

Casey Parker

“I’ll be studying, working on my project,” she said, referring to a college project on business communications she’s been working on. “And I’ll probably go to the Playboy Mansion on Saturday night.”

Tera Patrick and Evan Seinfeld

Patrick and her husband will be spending the weekend in New York, and their plans include:

• Spending time at a private beach club (Evan said that Patrick plans to lie around and raise the beach’s property value).
• Visiting Times Square with their friends and family.
• Shopping for Hello, Kitty-themed merchandise.
• Catching a performance of the musical Spamalot.
• Visiting the ESPN Zone.
• Watching a Yankees game.
• Eating a lobster dinner on Memorial Day.

Lynn LeMay

Most of LeMay’s friends and family have plans out of town for the weekend, so she got tickets to the big “Star Wars” convention in town.

“I’m going to be squeezing storm-troopers and pinching Princess Leias,” she said. “And I’m bringing a storm-trooper home with me.”

Adella O’Neal, Director of Public Relations for Digital Playground

O’Neal and her husband plan to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship match between Chuck Liddel and Quinton Jackson. After that, they’ll head to a barbecue to swim, play volleyball and drink mojitos.

Vicky Vette

Vette plans to recover from her recent knee surgery by relaxing the whole weekend naked by her pool and working on a dark, full-body tan.

Nikki Benz

The adult star got a jump on her Memorial Day weekend today by becoming the first adult star to appear on NakedNews.com.

Sophia Santi

Santi will be spending the weekend relaxing in Florida.

Robby D.

The Digital Playground director is shooting a new movie with Charmane Star and Madison Young.

Shay Jordan

Jordan plans to spend as much time as humanly possible lying in the sun and relaxing.

Tommy Gunn

Besides a lot of relaxing, Gunn hopes to find a barbecue sometime over the weekend.

Hillary Scott

Scott is flying into Los Angeles to shoot a movie Sunday, but on Saturday, she plans to sit around her home all day watching TV with her dog.

Puma Swede

Swede is in Miami, Fla., dancing. She’s returning to Los Angeles on Sunday, but until then, she plans to have as much fun as possible.

“I’m always partying,” she said. “I’ve been [to Miami] so many times, so I know so many people who always want to take the porn star out.”

Swede also plans to dance, eat and lie out by the pool.

The messy loss of accreditation by domain-registrar company RegisterFly — which has resulted in thousands of customer complaints, vicious racial slurs and at least two lawsuits — is a cautionary tale in the Internet domain name arena.

In March, ICANN, the organization charged with ensuring the stability and security of the domain name system, withdrew RegisterFly’s accreditation, citing “unusually high numbers of complaints from customers.”

“Terminating accreditation is the strongest measure ICANN is able to take against RegisterFly under its powers,” said Dr. Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN. “ICANN has been frustrated and distressed by recent management confusion inside RegisterFly. I completely understand the greater frustration and enormous difficulty that this has created for registrants.”

RegisterFly, which had been approved by ICANN to sell Internet domain names to the public, had more than 900,000 customers (including the government of Thailand, the Easter Seals charity and singer Michael Jackson), who had registered approximately 2 million domain names with the company.

Trouble Begins
The trouble started for the New Jersey-based registrar when the co-owners, Kevin Medina and John Naruszewicz, began a personal feud that led to a lawsuit, in which Medina accused his partner of becoming “unstable and hostile” after their personal relationship ended. The lawsuit also claimed that Medina misappropriated corporate funds for personal use.

More legal problems surfaced when U.S. District Court Judge William Osteen unsealed a class action lawsuit filed by attorney E. Clarke Dummit against RegisterFly and ICANN on March 16, alleging that the registrar company systematically defrauded its customers who attempted to register or renew Internet domain names.

“A significant number of registrants reported that their domain names had expired against their wishes,” said an ICANN report. “Many were also not able to move control of their domains to a different company.”

The customers complained that RegisterFly was failing to renew expiring domain names, which are typically registered for one or two years. Failure to renew after the specified registration time resulted in the domain names being released to the wider Internet community. The volume of complaints overwhelmed RegisterFly’s customer service staff, and that resulted in even more complaints.

“I don’t think RegisterFly is a unique instance,” said Paul Twomey. “There are undoubtedly tens of registrars who are marginal players because of where they sit on the cost curve, and it is undoubtedly one of the things that I worry a little about. Any company that’s sitting on that edge will have all sorts of financial arrangements in place for how to survive day to day.”

The possibility that the RegisterFly imbroglio is only the tip of the iceberg is certainly not news to ICANN. Since its creation in 1998 and the subsequent opening of the domain-name market in March 1999, there have been several registrar failures, and ICANN has removed accreditation from a number of registrars during its brief history. Customer complaints about registrars are common, and ICANN typically receives between 600 and 800 complaints per month concerning domain names. But none of them were as ugly as those made against RegisterFly.

ICANN had tried to rectify the RegisterFly situation for months, holding two face-to-face meetings with the registrar company’s executives in June and December 2006. There also were a number of phone calls, in which ICANN explained where RegisterFly was failing and how to rectify their problems. When the feud between RegisterFly’s owners degenerated into a lawsuit, ICANN stepped in, asserting its rights under the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, to terminate the company’s accreditation. But when two ICANN employees went to RegisterFly’s offices to inspect and copy the company’s registration data, they were refused entry.

This immediately resulted in ICANN issuing a notice of termination of the RegisterFly accreditation agreement, and filing a lawsuit against the registrar on March 30.

“As the concern about the safety of our information as well as our domain names increases greatly, ICANN intends to file suit seeking escrow of the current registration data,” said Justin Kulhawick, who runs the RegisterFlies.com site that is critical of RegisterFly. “[ICANN] also intends to file an ex parte application, seeking a temporary restraining order which will require RegisterFly to turn over to ICANN all of the data that ICANN has requested.

“While this all sounds good, the question is, ‘What’s going to happen with our names?’ Customers right now all over the world are sitting on the edge of their seats with only one thing on their minds: ‘Where, when and how am I going to secure my intellectual property?’ During these announcements and threats of lawsuits, RegisterFly customers continue to suffer great losses of business, while their domain names are parked and tasted, or lost altogether,” Kulhawick said, speaking of the testing period companies sometimes use when purchasing domain names.

Waiting for a Lawsuit
“It’s good that ICANN is finally stepping up to the plate, but the fact is they waited a year too long. Had they been more aggressive with the first thousand or so complaints, this debacle probably would be wrapped up about now. Instead, we’re waiting on a lawsuit, and the formalities involved,” he said.

Kulhawick is using his site to gather a list of affected domain names, and urging their owners to join a class action lawsuit filed against RegisterFly by Anne Martinez, owner of GoCertify.com.

In the meantime, many customers are getting vicious while waiting for the RegisterFly appeal process against ICANN’s accreditation termination to play out.

“I’ve tried to transfer out of RegisterFly, but cannot get the auth codes,” one domain name owner complains on the GoFuckYourself.com message board. “I cannot get them on the phone. They don’t answer support tickets, and I cannot transfer out.”

Another poster complains, “It’s terrible. They are taking people’s money right now, even offering another special, and not providing services. They are knowingly doing this, and it’s called stealing.”

Many of the complaints are not so tame, resulting in posts that made racial remarks against Medina on the ICANN blog site. ICANN was forced to shut down its blog thread.

“We are closing this post to comments, as it has descended into aimless abuse, and at times, overt racism,” said Kieren McCarthy, general manager of public participation for ICANN. “ICANN is a not-for-profit company that helps with the technical side of the Internet, and this blog will only deal with matters that help improve the technical job that ICANN does. This is not the place for idle chit-chat, and most certainly not the place for racist comments.”

In an attempt to put out the many fires in this fiasco, ICANN has published an FAQ guide to aid RegisterFly customers on its blog site. Domain name owners are advised to transfer out of RegisterFly and select a new registrar. The only problem is that customers need to get their auth codes from RegisterFly, and according to posted complaints, the registrar is not responding.

“We’ve heard from numerous RegisterFly customers that RegisterFly’s support tickets go unanswered, and that it is impossible or next to impossible to get them on the telephone,” the ICANN blog states.

ICANN provides specific instructions on obtaining this information from RegisterFly in its blog, urging customers to use their control panels. Still, ICANN admits that if this fails, customers will need to contact RegisterFly.

The result of this mess probably will cause ICANN to change its accreditation criteria for domain registrars. ICANN Vice President Paul Levins said that the rules governing domain registrars may be outdated, since they were written at a time when few companies offered this service. In 1999, there was but a single registrar, Network Solutions, and it charged $50 per year for a domain name. Now ICANN estimates there are more than 850 registrars, and the cost of a domain name has fallen to the point where customers can get them for free as part of a bundled service, although the wholesale cost for most domains now is $6.

In the past, when registrars went out of business, their databases were purchased by another registrar, which added them to its existing system. Domain name owners were informed of the change by email. To ensure healthy competition, ICANN devised the Shared Registration System (SRS), which allows registrants to move ownership of their domains to a different registrar, if they are unhappy with the service of their current registrar. Much of this system has become automated, often requiring only a few clicks of a mouse, but the sheer size of the market — nearly 80 million generic top-level domain (gTLD) names today — may lead to significant changes.

One of them could require potential registrar operators to prove a basic level of skill. Another change could require ICANN approval of any changes in ownership of a registrar company.

An aspect certain to attract scrutiny is the recent trend toward anonymous domain registration.

“They [RegisterFly] didn’t receive an accreditation through the ICANN accredited process,” said Kurt Pritz, an ICANN board member. “In fact, there is an application for accreditation that was never granted, but in fact, obtained an accreditation by acquiring another entity.”

RegisterFly managed this trick by acting as a reseller of registrations for other accredited registrars. In 2004, ICANN entered into a Registrar Accreditation Agreement with a company called Top Class Names, Inc., and within a couple of months, that name was changed to RegisterFly.com. ICANN now is looking into ways to stop this “back door accreditation.”

ICANN, in its board meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, last March, discussed the possibility of highlighting those registrars with good track records, steering customer traffic toward those companies and away from the marginal players.

But Paul Twomey claims any new rules will not come at the expense of competition in the registration system, and that it will continue to give customers a wide range of choices.

In the meantime, the RegisterFly story will play out in the courts, serving as a powerful warning of the trouble that may lie in the future of the domain name business.

Bobblehead Sends Wash. Workers Fleeing
“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that the bomb squad was called in when we sent a `Schrammie,’”

TUMWATER, Wash. - Talk about a blunder. A bomb technician discovered that a suspicious package that forced more than 300 workers to evacuate a state building contained a bobblehead doll awarded to public

Goodwill Employee Gets To Keep $5,000 Found In Pajamas

“She will get to keep the money”

A Goodwill Industries worker who turned in more than $5,000 she found in donated pajama pants will get to keep the money because the owner could not be found

Swarm of Bees Turns Back British Plane

“Some witnesses claimed there were around 20,000 bees”

A thick cloud of bees was sucked into the engine of a passenger plane en route to Portugal, forcing the airline to abandon the trip and grounding passengers for 11 hours, a company executive said Saturday

Rosie Leaves ‘The View’ Early

“Rosie contributed to one of our most exciting and successful years at `The View,”‘ show creator Barbara Walters said. “I am most appreciative. Our close and affectionate relationship will not change.”

NEW YORK Rosie O’Donnell has fought her last fight at ‘The View,’ ABC said Friday she won’t be back on the show following her angry confrontation with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Wednesday.

As the dating and live cam sector of the industry heats up, due to more people coming online looking for that special one-on-one experience, the businesses occupying the space find themselves facing increased competition, technological advances and consumer expectations that demand constant innovation.

WebcamCash.com is the perfect example of an established player in the live cam arena that believes its glory days are yet to come. In business since February 2000, WebcamCash offers two consumer portals: the original Spread4U.com and the more recent CamClub.com. The company recently has stepped up its game by rolling out a new toolkit for models and cam girls that it says will give them more hands-on control of their sessions and increased visibility and traffic, while simultaneously enhancing the number and quality of WebcamCash performers.

The opportunity, says Barry Fruitman, CEO of WebcamCash, is a win-win for all involved. “The webcam toolkit is a free plug-in for any model with a solo-girl site who wants to offer free webcam shows for her members, and, most importantly, pay-per-view webcam shows for her members and my members.

“We provide the Flash-based plug-in technology for them to add a webcam chat room to their website, and at the same time they appear on our websites and receive exposure to our members for the purpose of selling webcam shows, but we are also OK with them promoting membership to their own sites. So we are providing them with traffic and exposure in addition to all the technology they need to offer pay-per-view and free webcam shows to their members and our members.”

The revenue breaks down thusly. Cam girls using the toolkit receive 65 percent for any shows that their own members buy on their own website. If a WebcamCash member purchases a show with that model, the model receives 40 percent of the sale, consistent with a regular model commission. In addition, there is a link to CamClub.com on the model’s site. If they send a surfer to a WebcamCash site and they buy time with another model, the model that sent the sale gets a 25 percent affiliate commission.

In other words, the 65 percent is a combination of the model and affiliate commissions. Toolkit cam girls also will be featured models given special placement on the top of the page on all WebcamCash sites when they are logged on.

Fruitman said the toolkit represents a new branch of the live cam business. “The reason I’m doing it is to bring in a new class of models that I don’t currently have: high-end, professional, American models that are simply of a higher caliber than your average cam girl.” He adds that a few competitors out there offer similar toolkits, but that his does “a better job of integrating the private upsell options into the program.”

Looking to the future, Fruitman believes it will be emerging technologies and trends that are catching up with the live cam business model, and not the other way around, and that the evolution of his business model proves the point.

“When we started off, webcams were all about the content plug-ins, and that’s how we grew our business,” Fruitman said. “You could choose to co-brand the plug-in or not, but it was always an upsell in a members area, so of course you needed to have a paysite in order to benefit from it. Today, most of our affiliates are not paysites but the same guys who send their traffic to the other paysites, because cam sites can now stand alone as websites. If you look at Cam Club, it is a full-fledged, stand-alone social networking site, and we don’t even allow people to use it as a plug-in. If they want a plug-in for the members area, they have to use Spread4U.

“I believe the evolution of this segment of the industry is social networking,” he continues. “Dating sites and web cams are forms of social networking, and the two are going to continue to merge together until there is not much difference between meeting a real girl down the street from you and meeting a cam girl on the other side of the country or the world. It’s just going to be another form of human interaction.

“But while the hot topic right now is local dating, and a lot of people are looking for someone online so they can meet them in real life, I’m not convinced it is the future. I think that as bandwidth improves, as more people get on the Internet, as online social networking increases and people get more comfortable with the experience, that online interaction is really the future. It just makes perfect sense,” Fruitman said.

Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day Weekend. This week the Netpond Board has all kinds of exciting things going on and we are going to bring you a exciting selection of the threads currently at the Netpond Board that we hope you will check out.

New Netpond advertiser: CraziesCash
Yes we have a brand new advertiser. CraziesCash.
Click Here To Check Out The Thread

What Webmasters Really Want From Sponsors
Here is a very interesting thread started by SleazyBear you should check out.
Click Here To Check Out The Thread

12clickscash.com $60.00 Mondays and Wednesdays for Summer!
More Great Money Making Opportunities
Click Here To Check Out The Thread

Free Traffic and Posters Still Needed , See Inside
Great Opportunity to get Free Traffic
Click Here To Check Out This Thread

What Browsers Should You Be Using
Another Great Interesting Thread
Click Here To Check Out This Thread

The Real Way Things Go
Another Great Thread By SleazyBear
Click Here To Check Out This Thread

New Opportunity For Bloggers to Earn $$$
Another Great Interesting Thread
Click Here To Check Out This Thread

Dear RegisterFly Victim
Everyone Should Read This One
Click Here To Check Out This Thread

We hope you will check out those threads and take part in the threads. Do you have questions about something why not start your own thread in the correct sub forum at the Netpond Board

The humdrum existence of going to the office day after day doing the usual 8 to 5 shift is a trying task for those who have lived all their lives doing so. This is why the convenience of doing work at home under amazingly flexible working hours is a dazzling prospect to them. Doing work at home that is as fulfilling as having a career working for a computer on the 19th floor of a skyscraper is already a possibility in these modern times. This is because the jungle-like network that is the Internet has given birth to a business that has given some people practically new lives doing nothing but so.

This particular business allows people to work at home under flexible working hours. There is no boss to scream around putting pressure on everyone about the deadline at hand. There is no clutter of messy paperwork that needs to be completed the soonest possible time. Conveniences such as these are experienced by those who are into affiliate marketing, the newest way to earn money without having to go through all sorts of routine found in regular employment.

Those who have been in the business long enough can attest to the fact that it is a lucrative business indeed, one that can actually give people things that they could not possibly possess or experience under ordinary circumstances.

The business called affiliate marketing involves an affiliate’s promotion of a merchant’s website. Here the website owned by the affiliate is made to advertise and market the website of the merchant through the affiliate program that they run. Whenever someone clicks on the merchant’s website promoted by the one owned by the affiliate, the affiliate is given a commission. This is in recognition of his effort in helping the merchant make a sale.

The system involved in affiliate marketing seems easy, but it also takes a lot of diligence and perseverance for one to be able to penetrate it thoroughly. Those who want to get into this type of business should possess the necessary skills to be able tread through the industry with confidence and self-assurance. Still, other factors are needed by one to be able to really break in. Knowledge about the business at hand is very important as it dictates the actions that are to be done by people who are into it.

The leading figure in affiliate marketing is the super affiliate. He or she is basically an e-mail marketer who collects large databases of e-mail addresses through newsletters. Super affiliates are also those who know the business even better than affiliate managers as a result of their knowledge about the affiliate marketing industry inside out. Those who want to be super affiliates should know that becoming a super affiliate is not easy, because it takes a lot to be able to master the marketing craft.

Becoming a super affiliate means having one’s own website and auto responder. These tools will help a lot in one’s facilitation of the business. Building one’s own list is another. Creating a loyal customer base and taking care of it is one secret that successful super affiliates have. Making good customer relations is also important if one wants to be a super affiliate to reckon with.

Continuing to market to the people on one’s list is another must if one wants to succeed as a super affiliate. Sending out quality content in lieu of ads is an advantage as products are marketed better whenever enough information is given about them.

Building traffic to one’s own site is also one of the most essential points in the affiliate marketing business. Making one’s affiliate links his own business will allow him to build a strong relationship with his customers, enabling him to market to them over and over again.

The most important thing one should remember if he wants to become a super affiliate is to treat affiliate marketing as a business first and foremost. If he is capable of doing this, then he will never have to go back to the humdrum existence of working the 8-5 shift. A career as a super affiliate in the business, which will change his life forever, could possibly take that unexciting job’s place.

About The Author
Clarence Binayu is the founder and Webmaster for http://www.virtual-guides.com. Here you can find FREE information on many subjects including business, automobile, travel, vacation, affiliate marketing, advertising, internet, sports, entertainment, technology, communication, fashion, home improvement, culture, education, society, science, politics, fitness and health. http://www.virtual-guides.com provides you with helpful guidance, tips and news update, from basic to the latest skills, knowledge and information, about these subjects.

You are sitting at your desk, reading your email and open the latest missive from your boss. Once again the bonehead has come up with a new direction for your company. You clear your throat and ask the person next to you “Have you seen what the idiot has sent us now?.” In the cafeteria you sit with your co-workers grossing about how stupid this company is. But this doesn’t just happen today. Everyday you find yourself at odds with the management. And while you have always been a “good soldier” and done exactly what was asked of you, you can’t help but let your feelings be known.

Or perhaps you are the more silent type. Sighing, rolling your eyes, and simply showing through your body language that you are greatly put upon.

You might think that if you are really good at your job, and you do everything that has been asked of you that you will remain, in the eyes of your employer, a valuable member of the team.

However, in these times of cutbacks, more and more employers are considering the “grump factor.” Simply put, the grump factor is a measure of how difficult it is to deal with an employee. How grumpy you are.

Recently a Fortune 500 company had to make a 20% cut in their workforce. The management chose the people that were going to be laid off. Every single employee was a hard worker, in fact some off them were the best at what they did. Each employee tried to figure out why THEY were chosen? What was the reason that the more incompetent employees were left standing while they were let go? Was it that they earned more money? Was it a personal vendetta against them? Was it sexism or ageism? Each employee failed to look at where the blame lay. Which was at their own feet. In a discussion with the management they stated that they used the “grump factor.” Employees that had a bad attitude were considered expendable.

Obviously when it comes time to downsize many factors are considered. But more and more employers want to work with people who are easy to deal with.(use mr rogers here) Employees who love what they do, and show others that they love it. I am not talking about a saccharin sweet phony attitude, I mean a sincere joy.

When Barbara Walters is asked by young people “What do I have to do to get ahead?”

She tells them “Don’t complain, don’t whine. Just make yourself so good that they cannot let you go. And don’t be afraid to get the coffee if they ask you to get the coffee.”

Not sure if you’re being perceived as a grump, take this simple test.

Do you find yourself very easily identifying problems with your company and/or co workers?

Do you share that information with others? (including family, friends , co-workers)

Do you discount possible solutions as unworkable?

Is your criticism a validation of your over all perspective?

Do you often hear others with similar complaints?

Do you lend a willing ear to their complaints?

Do you sigh, roll your eyes or otherwise display your negative feelings using body language or tone of voice?

Are your creating less because of your displeasure?

Are you late to work or meetings?

Do you resent helping others finish their work?

Are you waiting for a change to happen?

Has anyone pointed out your negative behavior?

Do you have “good reasons” to be unhappy at work?

This is a family. You spend more time here than you do at home. Low maintenance easy

1. I like to have people who are low maintenance easy to get along with each other

2. All residents have gone through med school

3. all have high test scores

4. all have good letters from their hospitals

How to overcome being a grump

Begin with a simple act of gratitude. No matter what your religious or secular background you need to find a daily way to express your gratitude for what you have. Start a “gratitude journal”

About The Author
Laurie Brown is an international speaker, trainer and consultant who works to help people improve their sales, service and presentation skills. She is the author of The Teleprompter Manual, for Executives, Politicians, Broadcasters and Speakers. Laurie can be contacted through www.thedifference.net, or 1-877.999.3433, or at lauriebrown@thedifference.net

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee State Senate this week voted unanimously to pass the so-called “Girls Gone Wild bill” — despite the fact that Tennessee Attorney General Robert E. Cooper had issued an opinion stating that portions of the legislation are “constitutionally suspect.”

According to the text of the bill as published on the website for the Tennessee state legislature, the bill “creates a new offense of advertising or promoting the sale, production, distribution, exhibition or display” of obscene materials in the state.

If passed in the state House of Representatives, the Senate Bill 14 (SB14) would also make it unlawful “for the owner or an employee of a television station or cable television company that broadcasts in this state to knowingly accept or solicit for advertising material that is obscene, harmful to minors, or in violation of the above-described federal law, or for such a company or station to actually and knowingly promote or advertise such content.”

In an opinion letter dated May 14, Cooper stated that while some sections of the bill closely track federal law regarding obscene materials and those aspects of the legislation are likely to withstand legal challenge, other sections of the proposed law are more dubious constitutionally.

“Given the extensive federal regulation of the content of programming on television, it is possible that a court could determine that [the bill] is preempted to the extent it applies to public or private television broadcasts,” Cooper wrote in his opinion.

“Moreover, Section 4 of the proposed amendment to [Tennessee state code] is constitutionally suspect under the 1st Amendment because it lacks a ‘safe-harbor’ provision to allow the broadcasting of indecent material during hours when minors are unlikely to be viewing television, does not directly advance the governmental interest in restricting a minor’s access to material harmful to minors, and is more extensive than is necessary to serve that interest.”

The bill’s sponsor, Democratic State Sen. Doug Jackson, told the Associated Press that he was encouraged by Cooper’s evaluation of the bill, and said that the legislation is designed to apply only to material that a jury determines to be obscene.

“If a jury says the product is obscene, what we’re saying is the cable companies can be held responsible,” Jackson said. “Why should they be allowed to make money off a product that they know or should have known is obscene?”

The portion of the bill that Cooper termed “constitutionally suspect,” states in part that it is an offense for “the owner or employee of a public or private television station or the owner or employee of a cable television company… that broadcasts for public viewing or paid subscription viewing in this state to solicit, accept or cause to be solicited or accepted, advertising for any material that is harmful to minors.”

According to Jeffrey Douglas, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, the fact that the bill provides no “safe harbor” provision that allows for the broadcast of material that is deemed inappropriate for minors but fine for adults will likely prove the bill’s undoing in court, should it be signed into law.

In addition to the lack of a safe harbor provision, Douglas said it is not clear whether states have the legal authority to regulate cable TV content, at all. Even the Federal Communications Commission does not have clear authority to regulate cable television the way it does broadcast TV, Douglas observed.

“The ability of a state to regulate cable content is highly questionable,” Douglas said. “One can imagine how insane it would be if every state could regulate cable content — every cable company would have to have different programming for every state.”

The bill has little chance of passing in the Tennessee House of Representatives during the current legislative session, according to AP reports, as a companion bill was tabled by a House subcommittee in April, after it received no support from members of either party.

Despite the reservations of legal experts, including his own state’s Attorney General, Jackson said he believes the bill will pass in the state House next year, during the second session of the 105th General Assembly.

E-Tech Marketing President/CEO Jamie (Crazies) Wentz has announced the launch of the CraziesCash affiliate program featuring its flagship site, AllOver30.com.

AllOver30.com, which focuses on attractive mature women over 30 years old, is hitting the ground running with a plethora of features that will attract adult consumers. Along with 95 percent exclusive content, hand-written model bios, hardcore and solo content, and a strict “no ugly women allowed” policy, AllOver30.com boasts a staggering update schedule, Updated 5 days a week!! At least 15 new full photo series and 5 new movie clips with one full-length movie per week.

While the site’s features are impressive, Crazies claims that the key to All Over 30’s long-term business plan is the focus on the consumer, hand-in-hand with exceptional customer service. “I think customer service is a really important factor in pleasing as well as retaining the customer in the long term,” Wentz said. Between the extensive site features and attention to the customer, AllOver30 and CraziesCash have stirred the perfect formula for exceptional member retention and long-term revenue.

Crazies’ commitment to great service extends into the affiliate sector with Crazies Cash. Among Crazies Cash’s features are a 50/50 recurring rev share payout for life, free hosted galleries with TGP templates, a powerful affiliate stats system powered by NATS, and consistent affiliate support. It’s no wonder that Crazies already has interested affiliates ready to roll.

Crazies and his business associate, Doug, are no strangers to the adult world, both starting in the industry in 1996. From 1998-2004 - a veritable lifetime in the adult industry - Crazies worked as Vice President of Operations at ATKINGDOM, one of the oldest and largest families of pay sites on the web. While working at ATKINGDOM, Crazies incorporated E-Tech Marketing, running a series of successful affiliate sites. After leaving ATKINGDOM, Crazies focused exclusively on maintaining his free site success and building a long-term business plan for his now-launched affiliate program at CraziesCash.com.

Doug has been online since 1996, working with some of the biggest names in the adult industry before he formed a business partnership with Crazies a few years ago. Doug will work as the Crazies Cash program manager, overseeing all current and future affiliate features, as well as providing affiliate support.

When asked what the allure of older women might be-both from the consumer and the affiliate standpoint-Crazies replied, “First, from a consumer standpoint, I think older ladies have the appeal of being experienced in life and sex. They have more confidence and are more articulate than their younger counterparts. Also, consumers are more likely to stay with a site that provides great service, consistent quality, and listens to members’ requests and preferences. The same applies to the affiliate and let’s be blunt: older consumers have money and credit cards.”

Click Here To Check Them Out Now

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