Won Me

How content and satisfied are American employees? Not very!

According to Corinne Maier, a psychotherapist and author of “Bonjour Laziness,” corporate cubicle inhabitants are anything but tranquil and joyous. These natives are truly restless.

This French writer quotes a Gallup study of employed American professionals showing that:

1. Some 17% claim to be “actively disengaged” in their jobs, close possibly to acts of sabatoge, some rather subtle.

2. And 54% claim to be “not engaged” in their jobs.

3. The remaining 29% are “crazy about” their jobs.

These are the attitude findings of “professional” employees. How much worse
would these findings be if employees of ALL kinds had been interviewed by Gallup?

And what leads to such overwhelmingly negative attitudes with only 29% job satisfaction, anyway?

Maier explains:

1. “Reverse Verbal Signals” and “The Idiocy Of Lies.”
Example: a company remarks that it “values jobs” but then has massive
layoffs.

2. Add managerial jargon, gibberish, power struggles, excess emphasis on diplomas and degrees, and employers demanding a lot from employees–but promising and delivering next to nothing in return.

3. Also add blathering about the “corporate culture,” an “oxymoron which is the crystalization of the stupidity of a group of people at a given moment,” says Maier.

4. And she says don’t forget employers talking about “ethics, a detergent word used time and time again to cleanse the conscience without scrubbing.”

Well, what’s an employer to do?

1. Remove malcontented employees better suited to be self-employed.

2. Refer dissatisfied employees to network marketing (MLM) self-employment opportunities. Some of the biggest “misfits” in the employee ranks become the best entrepreneurs.

3. Conduct in-house meetings to teach remaining employees the threat that

outsourcing of jobs to China, India and other countries poses to employers and to employees–motivating them to improve their attitudes, stop whining, and work as a team.

4. Define and remove organizational and procedural stumbling blocks
to a job satisfaction. These can require some attitude adjustments in the
upper management ranks in some cases.

5. Making sure the business has a Three Year Business Plan–and making sure everyone in the company know where the Plan is taking the company and them–and what their role and responsibility for company success.

Remember: cubicle farm folk are restless and negative. 71% are not happy with their jobs. The status quo just doesn’t cut it. The unsettling effects of globalism and offshore outsourcing are permanent. So, act today. Do it now!

John is co-owner/co-operator of Alquist Enterprises, a firm which promotes self-employment by the operation of two network marketing distributorships, professional speaking, business meeting facilitation, and Internet strategy and website development.

John had 24 years of experience as a senior marketing executive
in national and international financial services firms before starting his own business.

He started his professional career as a newspaper feature writer.

This series of articles reveals 14 points about web hosting fine print–things you should know and be aware of when looking for a web host.

Part 1 of the guide gives you 3 practical points, complete with explanations, under which you can evaluate your potential web host.

Be patient in finding your web host: there are thousands of web hosting companies and gazillion offers, so you better take the time to evaluate them and find the one most suitable for your needs.

Please do let us know if your opinion differs, or you have additional things to say. We want this guide to be the most comprehensive, ever-expanding tool in determining your new web hosting partner.

To leave comments, please go to the Best Web Hosting Provider web site.

Let’s get started!

Preparation

First, get clear what you need and want, and write everything down.

Here are the main things to consider:

* Price: put down your maximum price. Don’t expect great service for a dollar a month.

* Scripting: what scripting technology needs to be supported?

* Database: what database your web site requires?

* Disk space.

* Bandwidth: the amount of data transfer.

Second, is there any web host that you like/prefer? If there is, then go with them. If you have any doubts, though, keep reading.

Now, find 3-4 hosts that meet your basic criteria that you just wrote down. Write down the names of the web hosts in the first column.

We’re now going to look at each one of them and see how well they compare.

Price Freeze Guarantee

Ever heard of these? With a price freeze guarantee your price won’t go up if the web hosts pricing changes.

Well, the catch is that your price won’t go down either…

You should know that for the last several years the prices of webhosting services have gone down steadily giving an additional incentive for the web hosts to advertise this guarantee.

What you should find out from the web host is this: if the web host lowers or increases the prices on your package, will they lower/increase your price as well? Does it still hold if you pre-paid for the whole year? Email them and ask. And note the time it takes for them to respond.

In Business Since?

How long have they been in business?

This a very simple piece of information to find out about a web host. You’ll notice that web hosting companies that have been in business for long will have the date prominently displayed on their website. Whereas, a new company can even hide this information.

Why is this important? Because you don’t want your web host to go out of business. Generally, one can assume that the longer the web hosting company is in the business, the lower the chance of them quitting.

Now, any web host can go belly up anytime but if they’ve been in the web hosting business for 3 years or more, you can assume they are making some money, because, one may assume again, most hosts are small businesses and don’t have a lot of capital to keep running unprofitably for a long period of time.

Get Web Host Feedback

What are others saying?

Check the web hosting message boards. There’s plenty of information and feedback on most hosts.

And if you can’t find your host mentioned anywhere, simply ask! Registration is usually free and so many people read the web hosting boards that you should get an answer quickly.

Once you find feedback on your hosts, check the date the feedback was left–old feedback is…well, old.

Also, see the severity of the complaints. Not all sins are equal. And always find more than one post about a particular web host before you make any decisions.

Alright, now search for the feedback on your web hosts. Make sure to find at least 4 posts about each of them. For each positive feedback put + in your evaluation sheet after the web host’s name and for each negative put a -.

In the Part 2 & 3 we will cover these topics:

Web Host Location

Web Host Support System

Adult Sites and Proxies

Spam Blacklisting

Web Host Uptime

Refund Guarantee

Set-up Fee Scam

Help Moving Your Site

Resource Allocation

Shared vs. Reseller

Crowded Servers

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

Jim has put this article into action at the Best Web Hosting Provider site. Here each web host is evaluated under the ever-evolving criteria that were discussed in this article.

Whenever a web designer gets a web design project, he or she will require to take a step back and go through the research process in order to complete the job. The research process is a tedious process, it determines how well, and successful will the result of your web design. Ideas for web design will share with you how to go through that research process smoothly and obtain results.

One fine day, you received a call from some client and he requests you to design a website for his company. Over the phone, he briefly tells you what his company is about and asks about the prices, you then fixed an appointment with him for discussion. You will probably get excited about it and starts to get more details of the company by checking them on Google, and thinks about some prelim ideas for the website. At this stage, your research process has already started.

RETREIVING THE DETAILS:

After meeting up with the client, you get a lot of details that will assist you in your design process.
This details applies even when you are designing a personal website.

1. Nature of the Company

2. Client Preferences (Example websites?)

3. Target Audiences (kids? Young adults? Everyone in the world?)

4. Platform (Flash? Html? Php? Asp? )

By organizing these details, you get a bigger picture of:

1. What are you going to design?

2. What style of design are you approaching?

3. Whom you should design for?

4. How will your design work?

5. How will your design please both the audiences and the client in order to be successful?

DETERMINING THE STYLE:

With the information you have on hand, its time to determine the style. For a start, you should base on the client’s description of his company, his nature of the company to give a rough gauge on the design style. Examples below:

Example 1:

Web Hosting business >> High tech web design, sleek and professional design

Example 2:

Dolls and Toys business >> Kiddy, Girly, Colorful, Fun design

COLOR THEMES:

Having a good and suitable color theme on your web design will give users a pleasing experience while surfing through the web site you designed. One of the important techniques is to get a color chart from your local art store or use some color chooser tools to aid in your color selection. Your color theme will affect the mood and feel you want to create.
Colors also have their own meanings. For example, white is clean, blue is cool and corporate, having a white and blue color theme gives you a clean and corporate web design. Orange and yellow are warm and friendly colors, Grey is cool, combining a Orange-Grey theme will give you a friendly and fun mood. Dark colors are also popular among many, because they easily matched other bright colors. A common match is using a black background and light colored text as a combination.

There are thousands and one meaning to choose your color theme. Whether your color theme turns out successful depends heavily on the first step “Determining the style” of your website.

PHOTOS & GRAPHICS:

After getting the colors done, its time to think about the graphics and images. As a graphic says a thousand words, it is good to think about how you want to approach this portion. Here are some recommendations you can try:

1. Stock photos - Some are free, some requires you to pay a certain amount before providing you with high resolutions image. If your client has the money and there are suitable photos he would like to use, this is the way to go. Searching in Google for “stock photos” will give you plenty of results on this.

2. Take your own photos - When budget is involve, usually the project will require you to take a relevant photos and use them as supporting images on the website. Having a mid-range camera should do the trick as images for website are all on low resolution. Seldom there is a chance for you to use an image more than 640 x 480 pixels.

3. Creating Graphics Images - A web design will always need custom-made graphics images. For example, icons for a Shoe section, button for submitting information. You will need some skills in creating the graphics of your needs, or you will feel stuck while designing. Consider looking for tutorials on creating certain effects, like rounded corners, Mac alike buttons, pattern backgrounds and more. Learn about vector graphics tool like Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Fireworks. They can help you to create graphics, mockups and layout fast and efficiently. This will greatly aid in your next web design project.

INSPIRATION AND REFERENCES:

If you already have some inspiration on how to design the layout, great, but if you do not, consider looking at related websites for some references on how they are being done. A search in Google also reveals some websites of the same genre. You can also check out ready-made templatesas well. I am not teaching you to copy exactly, but as a new learner, you should take reference and see how they are being designed.

Why bother looking at them?

Reference sites will give you ideas on usability, color theme, ideas on relevant images, navigation, features and many more guides to work on your web design project. Always consider them as useful references to help you whenever you need inspiration and ideas for your web design. It is all about looking more, reading more and getting your eyes and brain more exposed to the web design styles. www.sitecritic.net has alot of website reviews by different web designers all over the world and is worth taking a look.

Final Say

I hope this article has been helpful to give you some ideas for your next web design project. In this web design industry, it is a never ending journey of learning. By reading more and seeing how others create, you will be more aware the next time you design your client’s or your own web site.

Bernard Peh is a great passioner of web technologies and one of the co-founders of Sitecritic.net Web Design Ideas. He works with experienced web designers and developers for more than 5 years, developing and designing commercial and non-commercial websites. During his free time, he does website reviews, freelance SEO and PHP work.

In the entertainment industry, there is a wide market for
magicians. Many companies, events coordinators and organizers
rely on magic to break the ice, heighten socialization
opportunities and give enjoyment to their audience and clients.

If you are really serious about pursuing a career in the magic
and illusion industry, you have to undergo three steps to become
a better magician or entertainer.

1. Hone the proper attitude. In any industry, being street wise
can get you somewhere in your career but having the right
attitude can get you anywhere. Complacent, arrogant and ignorant
magicians have no chance of surviving the magical world.

2. Development of one’s performing persona. This is what an
aspiring magician should work on. But most often having a strong
personality can help one to get to the top. Usually, magicians
are judged by how they deliver tricks with ample consideration
on their stage presence.

3. Development of a show or act. There are three things you
ought to do in developing your performance.

First, master your first set of techniques. But do not leave it
to that. You must constantly reinvent yourself.

Second, cross examine the routines you mastered. Are they
consistent with the persona you have created for yourself? You
should match your routines (e.g. mental effects) with your
serious magician persona.

Third, list or round up all the routines you have practiced and
mastered. This will be your skeleton structure for your act/s.
Now, think of ways to connect your routines to form a cohesive
performance.

Magicians can be hired online as sites provide opportunities for
them. Every state has their own groups of magician for different
events. Customers often click on a website when looking for
groups of magicians in their state. There are people who might
be handling the magicians and contact them for you. They are
categorized as low-end and high-end event coordinators. They are
the ones who choose the set of magicians.

The low-end bookers for these magicians may not know exactly
what you need unlike if you seek the expertise of high-end
bookers. They will know exactly the kind of magicians you need.

So, would-be magicians can find jobs from companies offering
such services to people. Aside from the common events that
necessitate the entertainment provided by magicians, they also
can do close-up shows that allow them to bring the magic right
in front of smaller groups of audiences.

A magician should remember the investment he has to put in the
profession like the time and effort for intensive practice,
money and magical instruments. And most of all, a magician
should possess an innovative mind to succeed in this field.