Visual effects for Windows…
Posted by: venkivoice on: May 16, 2009
Loginox: easy way to change your Mac’s login image
Posted by: venkivoice on: May 16, 2009
Changing a desktop image on a Mac is no big thing. You can open System Preferences from the Apple menu or the Applications directory, or you can go straight to the desktop prefpane by right-clicking on your desktop. Changing the picture you see when you log in should be just as easy, but it’s not. If you want to learn the Terminal commands to do it, then more power to you. For the average user, there’s Loginox.
Loginox is an app with a simple drag-and-drop interface for swapping out your login image. That’s literally all it does, but that’s definitely enough. The only way it could work better is if the developers rewrote it as a prefpane, or if Apple decided to incorporate it into the existing desktop/screensaver settings.
via[Downloadsquad]
How to test Google Adsense Ads
Posted by: venkivoice on: May 14, 2009
We have been designing a new sister site and in the process had to test Adsense ads to fit the layout of the new theme. According to Google, we are not allowed to display Adsense on pages that are under construction. So how are we to test how the ad unit will look ? Finally we found a solution…
How to test / preview Google Adsense Ads
- Get the Adsense code for the ad you wish to test ( You should know how to do this ).
- Add the following code after the second line of the adsense code
- You new code should look like this
- The ads will be displayed as a test and will not be counted towards the normal page displays or eCPM.
google_adtest = “on”;
google_ad_client = “pub-5235289995869683″;
//blogpostmiddle
google_ad_slot = “1352390560″;
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
// –>
Hope this helps some of you. Feel free to leave your comments below.
Fund Raising – Walk-A-Thons
Posted by: venkivoice on: March 4, 2008
- In: b+ve | collected
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If you’re thinking of putting on a fund raising activity that’s a little different, one where people will really have a good time, why not try putting on a walk-a-thon? They’re certainly different and if you’ve got some healthy individuals in your organization, you can really rake in a few bucks with some generous sponsors. If you don’t know where to begin when putting on a walk-a-thon, the following tips should give you a good idea of where to start and what’s involved.
For those thinking of a fund raising walk-a-thon because you don’t need to get food for people, you’d better think again. Most walk-a-thons are all day events and people do need to eat. So plan on getting some hot dogs and other things of that nature. Even popcorn will do fine. Just as long as people don’t starve.
As for the walk-a-thon itself, the first thing you need to do is decide on where it’s going to be held. This is usually easy and cost free. Any local park will do as long as it has some kind of path of field people can walk around. This is why walk-a-thons are very good to run. They are relatively cheap.
The next thing you need to do is print up what they call boosters. These are simply sheets of paper where people sign their names and put their pledge amounts. You can have them make a pledge per mile walked for the person they are sponsoring or they can simply pledge a fixed amount no matter how much the person walks. You will find that the majority of people these days simply pledge fixed amounts because they don’t want to end up with a bill for hundreds of dollars in the case of somebody who is an Olympic runner. So don’t expect too many dollars per mile pledges.
The next thing you have to do is find people who are going to do the walking. This can be very difficult in organizations where the majority of the members are elderly. Unfortunately, in these times, most of the people doing charity work are up in years. So asking these people to walk many miles may be asking a lot. However, these people have relatives and most likely younger ones at that. There is no reason you can’t ask some of them to participate. There is no rule that says that the walkers have to actually be part of the organization itself.
And then of course there is the matter of snacks. If walkers get hungry or thirsty, especially thirsty, it would not be a good idea to run this event without at least bottles of water. The last thing you want is for your walkers to get dehydrated, especially if you’re running the event on a hot summer day. Food is optional, but water is an absolutely necessity. So make sure you have plenty of it.
Fund raising is a lot of hard work indeed. But if you follow the above tips, there is no reason that your walk-a-thon can’t be a huge success.
SOURCE:-
TOP 10 WAYS TO PUBLICIZE YOUR COACHING EVENT
Posted by: venkivoice on: March 3, 2008
- In: cricket | news
- 2 Comments
You’re putting a lot of energy into planning a great Coaching Event. To make your effort really pay off, you also need to invest time in publicizing your event. By getting the word out in a variety of ways, many more people will get a chance to participate and benefit from what you have to offer. Follow these Top 10 tips to greatly increase your chances of getting a great turnout and generating opportunities well beyond your event!
1. Contact your local weekly newspapers
- Write a press release describing your event. Use the ‘local press release’ template provided by the NJPCA Marketing/PR team (posted on the NJPCA website, or contact Verena Aibel at verena@optonline.net). Make your press release as eye-catching and newsy as possible by having a great headline and lead paragraph, emphasizing the benefits for your audience, and giving clear logistics information. Don’t forget to include your contact information.
- Find copies of newspapers for your area at your local town or county library. Look for a section or ‘masthead’ (usually in the first few pages or on the editorial page) that lists the editors of various departments and/or explains how to submit news items. Some editors prefer fax, some still want you to mail press releases, and some now allow you to submit items online. Follow the instructions given, call the editor, and/or see if they have a website that tells you the best way to submit your material. If your newspaper also has a ‘calendar’ section, find out how those items need to be submitted … sometimes those are handled by a different editor or through a different process.
- Send your press release four weeks prior to your event, or even sooner. Since weeklies only publish once a week, you may miss a cycle, depending on when they receive your material, and you want to allow enough time for people to schedule it in their calendars.
- You may want to precede your press release with a phone call to let the editor know you’ll be sending it, and/or follow up after you’ve sent it to ensure they received it, ask if they have any questions, invite them to the event, etc.
- If your topic targets a specific audience (say, a business audience), find the editor for that area and send them the release, rather than sending it to the editor-in-chief. The department editor may take more of an interest, and sometimes, this can trigger interest on their part to write additional articles, or to at least keep you in mind if they’re writing an article that pertains to coaching or your topic.
- If they publish your material, write or email a brief thank you note. Offer to serve as a resource for them should they be writing relevant articles in the future. Use this opportunity to begin building a relationship with your local media contacts.
2. Leverage advertising from your venue
Ask the coordinator at your location (bookstore, library, etc.) about advertising opportunities for your event. Some bookstores issue their own press releases to local newspapers. Some libraries (and bookstores) have newsletters or monthly flyers listing events. Some locations may allow you to place a poster or sign in their location, or may allow you to place a plastic display with flyers on their counters. Explore and take advantage of all the options.
3. Post flyers
Create a flyer using the Coaching Event flyer template provided by the NJPCA Marketing/PR team (posted on the NJPCA website, or contact Verena Aibel at verena@optonline.net for a copy). Post it in libraries, churches and synagogues, supermarkets, coffee houses, your local gym … anywhere you see other flyers posted. Ask your friends to post your flyer in their offices or break rooms.
4. Send an email invitation to your network
Your personal network is a key audience for your event. They already know you, so they are more likely to come, and they’re more likely to tell people in their network if they know someone who would be interested in your topic. You may draft your own invitation, or use the template/sample provided by the NJPCA Marketing/PR team (posted on the NJPCA website, or contact Verena Aibel at verena@optonline.net for a copy). Attach your flyer or include the text in the body of your email message. Don’t forget to include friends, family, and neighbors in addition to your professional contacts.
5. Look for cross-promotional opportunities with other professional associations
Do you belong to other professional associations? Take some flyers to your next meeting and distribute them to attendees in addition to announcing it and telling people one-on-one during the networking portion. If the group publishes an email newsletter or emails announcements, write up a brief announcement and ask the editor to include it in their next group email.
6. Snail-mail flyer to key contacts with a personal note
Everyone gets so much email these days, it’s easy for a message to get buried or become part of the inbox ‘clutter.’ People don’t receive as much ‘snail mail’ anymore, though, and some people actually like it now – it’s different! So, identify some key people in your network that you’d like to extend a personal invitation to, and mail them a copy of the flyer with a handwritten note. Send a friendly reminder a few days before or call them to say ‘Hope to see you there!’
7. Tell EVERYONE you know
As you go about your day, don’t forget to tell people such as your hairdresser, massage therapist, PTO president, chiropractor, etc. These professionals talk to dozens of people every day and are a great referral source for your event. A casual comment by their next customer could be a mental trigger to recommend your seminar. That’s how word of mouth works! They may even invite you to leave flyers in their establishment. Set a goal to tell 3 new people every day between now and your event.
8. Advertise your event on your website, in your newsletter, etc.
Think about what you already have up-and-running that could carry publicity for your event. Newsletters and websites are perfect vehicles.
9. Advertise your event in your email signature
How many email messages do you send every day? What if every email message you sent carried a promotional message for your event? It can be as simple as a line in your email signature directing them to a website or to contact you, or a brief paragraph at the end of your message with more details. Use your email more strategically, and word of your event will reach even more people!
10. Target your audience
Think specifically about the kinds of people you want to attract to your event. Who are your ideal clients? Perhaps it’s corporate managers, women, small business owners, or creative types. Design your event around topics of interest to your audience, then put yourself in their shoes and brainstorm as many ways as you can think of to reach that specific market segment through the associations they belong to, niche publications they read, your personal network, places they might frequent, etc.
Written by Maria Sariego (maria@workandsoul.com; www.workandsoul.com) and Michele Carbone (carbonem758@earthlink.net).
How to Organize a Charity Walk or Run
Posted by: venkivoice on: March 3, 2008
- In: collected | news
- 4 Comments
A charity walk or run raises money for a good cause by capitalizing on people’s desire to help as well as get in shape. And there are any number of good causes that need cash infusions–from cystic fibrosis, AIDS or breast cancer research to school districts that face music and sports cutbacks without additional revenues. Whatever the cause, read 381 Plan a Fund-Raising Event, then get on your mark, get set and go!
Step 1:
Sit down with key people to get things going. See the related eHow titled “How to Plan an Organizational Meeting.”
Step 2:
Identify the charity you want to support. For greater exposure, plan your event during a designated charity’s day or month. Set a date–rain or shine. Choose a starting time, and determine the length of the race and the route.
Step 3:
Decide how many participants your team (and the course) can successfully handle. An event with several thousand runners or walkers is a whole different beast than one with several hundred. The more participants, the more spectators come to watch.
Step 4:
Set a registration fee. For a short race like a 5K, charging runners and walkers a fee is preferable to having participants line up sponsors who pay by the mile.
Step 5:
Hold your initial planning meeting. Establish procedures and discuss policies for registration, media relations and publicity, volunteers, safety, traffic management, first aid and other services such as massage and foot care, food, rest rooms, accommodations, cleanup and entertainment.
Step 6:
Approach potential sponsors to help finance, publicize or even organize the event. Contact an athletic or sporting-goods store, a running club, a podiatrist, and local sports hero. Solicit corporate donations for water, energy bars, other snacks and sports drinks to be handed out along the route and at the end of the race. Sponsors will always want to promote their product with giveaways such as T-shirts, caps and water bottles.
Step 7:
Contact law enforcement agencies about local ordinances, road closures, traffic barricades, crowd control and security issues.
Step 8:
Get the word out to as many volunteers, runners and walkers as possible. See the related article “How to Publicize an Event” and contact a local TV station to see if it will get involved; maybe a news anchor is an avid runner.
Step 9:
Organize training sessions prior to the event for participants to get in shape. How many and how far in advance they should begin are determined by the length and intensity of the event. Assume some participants are total couch potatoes and schedule training sessions and plan instructional materials accordingly.Marathons and two- and three-day walks require at least six months of training. A 5- or 10K requires more casual preparation–or none at all.
Source:- http://www.ehow.com/how_135566_organize-charity-walk.html
How to set up your Aim?
Posted by: venkivoice on: January 15, 2008
Setting up an aim is not that much difficult but have to follow.
Set a goal that could be achieved by you. Some people set their goal as I want to be president. Every one know their capacity and what they can achieve.
Once you have set your goal work for it daily spend at least 30min to1 hour for your future goal. Bigger goals could be achieved through achieving of smaller goals.
Everything is possible in this world if you know your capabilities.
What’s Important for Life?
Posted by: venkivoice on: January 8, 2008
Quality of Life:-
15 things that make up quality of life
In one study, 195 British spinal cord injured men participated in a research project that was carried out over several years. All of them were age 16 or older when injured, and by the time the research was done, they had all been injured at least 20 years. These men completed several psychological tests and surveys that measured depression, stress, well-being, and life satisfaction. For one of these tests they were asked to look at a list of 15 categories that contribute to quality of life in nondisabled people.
That list includes:
- health and personal safety
- material comforts
- relationships with family
- relationship with spouse or partner
- having and raising children
- having close friends
- helping and encouraging others
- work
- learning
- understanding oneself
- expressing oneself in a creative manner
- socializing with others
- reading, listening to music, watching sports events, and other entertainment
- participating in active recreation
- participating in activities relating to local and national government
Leadership Article – LEADERSHIP – What Makes a Good Leader
Posted by: venkivoice on: January 8, 2008
- In: collected | news
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It goes without saying that good leadership is crucial to any successful business. But, what makes a good leader and how can someone develop himself or herself into a good leader if they are not one to begin with? The answer is that there are many factors that contribute to good leadership. And, whether someone is naturally a good leader or not, anyone can become a good leader.
GET TALKING
One of those factors of good leadership is communication. Communication is one of the most key elements of leadership. Good communication skills need to be learned to effectively become a good leader or manager. When communication occurs, as a leader, you will be able to accurately convey your ideas and thoughts to those that work for you. In fact, simply being able to convey these things in the first place, much less accurately, puts you in the right direction for leadership. If employees have no idea what is on your mind, your leadership is going to falter. Employees are not typically mind readers.
If there is a problem a certain employee is experiencing, good communication can filter the problem out. You, as a leader, can dissect the problem and offer solutions in various ways.
Ideas that are given to employees work both ways, as well. Employees can give helpful feedback and generate new ideas to you that help the company as well, when good communication is present.
GET THINGS MOVING
Motivation is another variable that plays into good leadership. Employees tend to stagnate when motivation decreases…and it will decrease, without proper motivation. Many leaders try to motivate the old-fashioned way…through fear. (Do what I say or something bad will happen) This is not advisable, since it tends to only deliver short-term results and cause even less competent work in the long run, due to resentment resulting from the fear tactics.
Instead, try adding challenges for employees. A fresh challenge always adds excitement and spawns creativity. Challenge your employees with tasks that may be slightly out of their range and let them at it! This increases motivation.
If they run into a snag, guide them towards a solution but don’t offer the actual solution outright. Coach them into discovering the solution themselves. Once they have, their self-esteem will rise, thereby raising their motivation level.
TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE
Teamwork is always something to consider when striving to become a good leader. This means not only teaching your employees to work together but to become part of the team yourself.
Use others’ potential. Many times, employees’ potential is wasted. A good leader recognizes that his or her employees are more than just employees, they are people too. These people have lives outside of work where they have to make decisions on a daily basis, from how to deal with house payments, to car bills, to raising children, to uncountable tasks in everyday lives. Yet, at work, their decision making skills are not trusted enough to choose what type of toner needs to be ordered for a set of printers.
The point here is that employees need to be trusted to do more. A good leader doesn’t manage every single detail. Use others’ potential to your benefit. You will find that you have become a better leader for it.
BACK TO SCHOOL
As always, increasing your education is definitely a good thing when trying to improve leadership, but the school that really needs to be brought at attention here is the kind of school that you don’t get a degree for.
Take the time to learn as much about your position of being a leader as possible. Do some reading at the nearest bookstore. Talk to other leaders and see how they do things; trade notes. The more you continually evaluate yourself and your practices and search for as much information on leadership as possible, the more you will be able to keep up with changing times and the better leader you will be for it.
Setting and Achieving Goals
Posted by: venkivoice on: January 8, 2008
- In: news
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How many times have we heard it? “You have to set goals for yourself.” “If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know you’ve arrived? We all know we’re supposed to set goals. And in fact many of us do – or think we do. Some intend to, but somehow never manage to get around to it. Even those who do don’t always execute on them. Why is that? Well, I don’t claim to speak for everyone, but I know from my own past that sometimes we either don’t know how or we just lack the discipline. After all, what’s a reasonable goal, anyway? Is, “I want to sell 30 units,” a goal? To me, that sounds like a wish, not a goal. And “if there’s no one watching over me making sure I do what I’m supposed to, well, who’s going to know? I’ll make my numbers – somehow.” Really? I think not. How, then, can we both set meaningful goals and ensure that we do what we need to in order to achieve them?
The first step is to write your goals down (yes, write – my unscientific observation over time is that 95% of all goals that aren’t written aren’t achieved. And that includes mine!) – and place them where you can see them every day. The second step is to make them SMART – Specific, Measureable, Ambitious, Reachable, and Time-Bound. “My goal is to get initial discussions going with 6 of my 25 key prospects by the end of the week,” is a SMART goal. If other reps are able to get 3 or 4 such discussions in the same time period, then 6 (a specific number) is ambitious, but one the sales person feels is reachable in this time frame. And which can be measured at the end of that time.
It also helps if you’ve publicly announced your goals. I don’t mean standing on a hill with a megaphone. I’m talking about telling someone you know and trust – someone who will call you to task without offending you if you start to slack off on your commitment. This applies not only to our business lives, but to our personal ones as well.
For the managers among you, in setting goals for your team you should also be sure that they’re SMART. If the goals you set aren’t specific (“go out and sell as much as you can”, “let’s improve over last year”), don’t be surprised when your results lag expectations; you haven’t set a number for them to strive for. Furthermore, you can’t measure (nor reward) performance with such a vague mandate. In setting targets, pick numbers that are ambitious, but reachable; you certainly want to stretch your staff, but if you’re setting your targets unrealistically high – such that even your top performer can’t reach them – you’re going to have on your hand a lot of (justifiably) disgruntled sales people who missed their accelerators and the money that goes with them. On the other hand, set your targets too low and you fail to challenge them – plus you’ll be paying accelerated commissions for unexceptional performance. In both cases, your numbers won’t roll up to what you forecast, and your profitability will suffer.
And you don’t have to limit the goals you set to annual performance. Consider setting shorter-term activity-based goals for members of your team – and providing rewards for achieving them. For example, one of my salespeople detested prospecting (OK, they all did, but this one neglected to do any!). But she recognized that with a weak lead-generation program at the company, she needed to generate her own activity if she were to have a shot at making any serious money. So we sat down and agreed on a goal of scheduling ten initial meetings in a two week period resulting from prospecting calls. While this was below my expectation for other members of the team, for her the number was a stretch, yet one she thought she could reach. Sure enough, she scheduled twelve appointments in the subsequent two weeks, earning her reward – permission to take the following Friday off without being docked a vacation day.
ACTION ITEM Have you set goals for yourself? Have you committed them to writing? Told anyone else? If not, get cracking! Set at least one long- and one short- term goal – either for business or pleasure. Write it down and place it somewhere where it’ll be staring you in the face every day. Then tell someone – a spouse, a friend, a colleague – and make that person promise to check up on you periodically. Do this, and then relish the sense of accomplishment you’ll have upon having achieved it.
