A Handheld Pos Scanner Buying Guide

Each day, billions of products are scanned at retail store checkouts. These retail establishments include grocery stores, department stores, clothing stores, jewelry stores, dollar stores, and much more. If you own one of these establishments, there is a good chance that thousands, if not millions, of items could be scanned at your establishment each day. If you aren’t already using a handheld POS scanner to get the job done, you will want to closely examine them, as there are a number of benefits to outfitting each of your cash registers with handheld scanners.

One of the many benefits to outfitting all of your cash registers with handheld POS scanners is that they will help to increase productivity. POS handheld scanners are often used in addition to flat, countertop scanners. What is unique about POS scanners is that many are wireless or attached to a long cord, cords that an often be used to reach around even large counters. Handheld POS scanners, when in used in conjunction with flat, countertop scanners, are often used to scan large items; items that cannot be placed on a checkout counter. Without the use of a handheld POS scanner, a cashier would likely need to exit the cashier station, write down the barcode information of the product in question, return the cashier station, and manually key in the information. This can take up a considerable amount of time; therefore, in that aspect, handheld POS scanners can help to increase productivity.

Another one of the many benefit to outfitting your cash registers with handheld POS scanners is the matters in which they can be purchased. Handheld POS scanners can be purchased individually or as a component of a complete POS cash register system. Individually purchased scanners are often later purchased as add-ons or as replacements for broken, non-repairable handheld POS scanners. Complete POS cash registers systems are often purchased by new retailers or by those looking to replace their own cash register systems. Handheld POS scanners are not the only component of a complete POS cash register system. Often times, a flat, countertop scanner is also included in a complete POS cash register package.

Another benefit to outfitting your cash registers with handheld POS scanners is that they are cost effective. As it was previously mentioned, handheld POS scanners can be purchased individually or as part of a complete POS cash register system. If you are only in need of a replacement handheld POS or if you would like to add one on to your existing POS cash register, do not need to repurchase a whole new system, you can just buy the part that you need. The only thing that you need to do, when buying an individual handheld POS scanner is ensure that it is compatible with your current POS cash register.

When ordering a handheld POS scanner online, you should be provided with a detailed POS product description, as well as a picture. You will want to thoroughly read through all of the information that you are given. If a handheld POS scanner is considered universal, it should be stated so in the description. Should a handheld POS scanner only be compatible with a number of POS cash registers, those register makes and models should be outlined. As long as you thoroughly read through all product descriptions, you should be able to find and purchase a handheld POS replacement scanner. Should you not find what you were looking for, you will want to contact the POS supplier’s customer service department, as you don’t want to take any chances.

By taking the time to ensure that the individual handheld POS scanner you want is compatible with your current POS cash register, you are helping to ensure that you get a return on your investment. To ensure that you get a return on your investment, whether you end up purchasing an individual POS handheld scanner or a complete POS cash register system, you will want to make sure that you do business with a reputable POS supplier, like VisionPOS.com. With a large selection of POS handheld scanners, as well as services, such as a maintence program and a POS software updating program, you are sure to see a large return on your POS product investments.

About the Author

I found a great deal on our point of sale system. Vision POS had everything we needed to open shop. If you are looking for point of sale systems for your business I suggest you shop online and save!

The Ultimate Beer Drinking Game

Planning a party can be fun, especially if you are going to have a lot of your close friends come, so make sure that you have some fun beer games planned. The problem with parties is that sometimes they get to be too big, and you don’t really know that many people there. If you want to avoid the uncomfortable stage, where everyone is wondering what to say and do, you need to have a plan. If you plan a couple of beer drinking games to get people loosened up, you can definitely get people talking with each other (or at least get a little competition going).
If you have a deck of cards and at least four friends, you can play this game, which is called bullshit. The object of the game is to get rid of all of your cards as fast as you can, and sometimes you are going to have to tell a couple of lies to do that. If you aren’t a good bluffer, you are definitely going to have to learn quickly (or prepare yourself to drink a lot)! Here are the rules.

1. One person shuffles and deals out all of the cards in a standard deck, so that each player gets the same number of cards (depending on the number of players, you may need two or more decks of cards).

2. Each player looks at his or her cards. When your neighbors have had a couple of drinks each, you may be able to sneak peeks at their cards to help you out in the game.

3. Going around in a circle, each person will set down (with the cards face side down) the number of aces that he or she has. If the player doesn’t have any, he can do one of two things: bluff or put nothing down. If he passes, and doesn’t put down any cards, play goes on to the next player. If the player puts down some card, you can either believe them, or call their bluff.

4. When a player calls a bluff, the cards are turned over. If the person who set them down was lying, he has to drink. If the person who called the bluff was wrong about it being a lie, then they have to drink. The amount that you drink should be set in advance. Don’t make them drink too much, because this can be a really long game.

5. In addition to drinking beer, the person who drank has to pick up all of the cards in the pile and add them to their hand. The game continues with players putting down their kings, queens, jacks, and so on.

6. The winner is the first person to get rid of all of their cards. After each person finishes their cards, the remaining players have to drink the set amount of beer.
Remember that if you are going to be providing alcoholic drinks of any kind for your guests, or if you are drinking with your friends in a bar, to make sure that you stay as safe as possible. Don‘t risk your life or others‘ lives. Have a designated driver; take a taxi; or if you can, invite them to stay over so they don’t have to worry about getting home. Drinking games can be fun, and give your party a bit of a boost, but they should be played responsibly.

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Important Search Engine Optimization tools – Webmasters choice

Most of us invested a lot on SEO tools to optimize best and wanted to get the right tool for SEO to works. Here are few SEO tools to help with your search engine optimization efforts.
Link Popularity:

You can use this tool to check link popularity on Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines. You can check your websites or your competitors’ website link popularity by entering URL.
As per Google, you can also check the popularity of the top three positioned sites for your chosen key phrase. This tool is useful for discovering actually how far off your sites are ranking top.
Your success is judged by your popularity. It’s an awesome tool to know how much your SEO is paying you.
Search Engine Rankings:

This tool can be used to check your search engine positions on the major search engines and directories.
Search Engine Rankings will retrieve positions from your domain. It offers online reports of web site rankings in 9 top search engines and web directories, including Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN, AOL, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Yahoo! Directory, Open Directory (Dmoz), and LookSmart. All results are taken from the US indexes.
Anchor Text Checker:

It is considered the fact nowadays that search engines uses backlinks anchor text for ranking. The site should be ranked high for keywords in the backlinks anchor text.
Discover what words people are using to link to your website. Knowing this is very useful as it will enable you to know what key phrases you should use during your reciprocal link campaigns.
PageRank Search:

The PageRank Search tool allows you to search Google using any keyword(s) you wish. It will then return, in order of Google relevance, the sites associated with those keywords.
Each result may display a graphical bar with the PageRank of that particular site. The results of which can be viewed in order of PageRank.
PageRank Distribution:

An essential foundation for the positive effects of a link exchange is that both involved pages propagate a similar amount of PageRank to each other. If one of the involved pages has a significantly higher PageRank or fewer outbound links, it is likely that all of its site’s pages lose PageRank, because of the most influencing factor i.e. size of a site.
This tool can be used to see how PageRank is spread over the top and leading search engines queries against the Google search index. It will allow you to compare the PageRank of achieving top rankings for these queries against each other.
Keyword Suggestions:

Keyword is soul of the SEO. Targeting the right keywords is a very important part of any search engine optimization campaign. Many get confused while deciding the right keyword for their website.
There are many tools available which can suggest you appropriate keywords for your website. Google have recently started its AdWords which suggest suitable keywords.
The keyword suggestions tool accumulate information from the Overture and Google databases to help you get the right balance between choosing very popular keywords and choosing words with less competition.
Backlink Tracker/ Finder:

This tool can be used to find potential link exchange partners. This is an important tool to track your links. Many website provide you free back link track but you need to sign up to get the right data. Back links are essential for link building.
This tool helps you to know the number of backlinks and your page’s rank over a period of time. To monitor backlinks you have to add your website URL. Link Tracker tool can help you to know the number of backlink links to your site.
Google Sitemap Generator:

This tool allows you to submit an XML map of the site containing information such as change frequency, priority, date created and more. Google uses these XML sitemaps to better understand and thus better spider your site.
This is very useful tool for generating XML sitemaps. Generating sitemap is very simple just to entering your URL address into the sitemap generation tool, which you can place into your root directory for Google to index your web site.
The similar way this tool can generate Text Sitemap to make a plaintext (.txt) file which lists the URLs in your site one after another. Yahoo requires this type of sitemap; filename has been called ‘urllist.txt’. This should enable Yahoo to spider your site faster and more thoroughly.
The same tool can generate html sitemap, which listed all the pages in your site in a simple manner to enable search. Sitemaps are very important to help users and search engines find their way around your site.
Dynamic URL rewriter:

Dynamic URLs are generated from specific queries to a site’s database. The most search engines do not index dynamic URLs.
This tool can be used to turn dynamic URLs into search engine friendly static URLs. Static URLs typically rank better in the search engines than long complex dynamic URLs with lots of compound parameters, they are easier to index in the first place and they’re also friendlier looking to the end user.
Site Report Card:

Site Report Card provides free website analysis, optimization and promotion reports. When your website is all set to take off you should judge the report card of your site.
This tools offer valuable information to help improve your web pages and increase your search engine ranking depending on Broken Links, Misspelled Words, HTML Validation, Load Time Analysis, Meta Tag Optimization, Image Optimization, Search Engine Inclusion, Site Popularity, Keyword Analysis.
Conclusion:

Search Engine Optimization tools are offered for those who want them on top. The idea of this article is to combine various SEO tools, internet tools and webmaster tools in one place and help webmasters to build a successful website. These are about few important SEO tools have discussed, apart from these tools there are many has been left out for self SEO.
I hope you have understood the article and if you like this article then join our article forum at www.cohesionindia.com/articleforum.htm and enjoy more articles.

Write to Dipankar Chakraborty at sjdipankar@cohesionindia.com.

About the AuthorDipankar Chakraborty is a Web Development Manager in a US based MNC. He is involved in various article forums and also works on project base SEO program. (If you like the article and if it is helps you then write to him by filling up the feedback form).

Sell Yourself, Not Your Products or Services

Sell yourself, not your products or services. The point we need to make is that your products and services will change over time as your business adapts to the realities of the marketplace.

If you spend your time promoting Product A and then you discontinue the sale of Product A, you will suddenly find yourself starting over from scratch with nothing to show for all of your previous work!

For as long as you remain on this planet, you will always be. No matter the course of your product or service line, selling yourself first and then your products will give you the leverage to remain flexible in your business journeys.

If your primary products are affiliate programs, you should be able to see this quite well.

How many times have you been involved with an affiliate program that either changed their rules for operation to your disadvantage or simply went out of business? How many times have you seen your hard work go down the drain by no fault of your own?

Selling yourself may seem a challenge, but it really is not that difficult.

In the matter of selling yourself, your goal is to create name recognition in the market place. You need for name recognition for your website, your own name or both.

There are five methods that work very well for promoting your online business. Those five methods are:

1. Submitting your website to Search Engines 2. Developing your own Ezine 3. Ezine Advertising 4. Using Free-Reprint Articles 5. Direct Email

You might note that four of these five methods incorporate email in one fashion or another. That is not by mistake. Of course, direct email is the weakest of the four methods employing email. The reason for this weakness is the fear of spam by the recipient of the email. I generally avoid direct email for this very reason. Better safe than sorry I say.

What I am outlining here is a blueprint that all online business persons should strive to accomplish.

First, we must build our website. Our website should serve as a direct sales letter to the buying public. While the website should exist for anyone looking to do business online, it is not the end all for your online business presence. Once the website is ready for the public, it should be submitted to the search engines. Keep in mind, search engines are interested in the words on your site… pictures don’t mean a thing to the search engines.

We should then develop an ezine to accompany our website. We should invite all site visitors to subscribe to our ezine as this enables us to create an ongoing conversation with our potential customers. Do not let the ezine become more than a tool to keep contact with your customers. I publish my ezine only once a month so that I may have more time for growing my businesses.

Many folks agree that ezine advertising is one of, if not the most effective way to build your business. You should never simply put an advertisement out there in the market without testing the effectiveness of that ad first. You should also always be sure of the target audience of the ezines you are looking to are the same as your target market if that is possible.

The truth is that you can burn through thousands of dollars in ezine advertising without ever turning a single sale. To be sure of the effectiveness of your ads before spending money for the advertisement, you might want to consider using a ad tracking service to determine the worth of your ads before plunking down the money for your advertising.

An interesting and effective technique for tapping into the value of ezine advertising without blowing the bank is to use Free-Reprint Articles to open the door to ezines.

The truth is that most publishers do not have the time or energy to create all of their own content. As a result, most of them turn to article lists and sites to find the content they feel would be attractive to their readers. Free-Reprint Rights is the key here. Most online publishers are running on a very tight budget and cannot afford to buy the content they publish.

Tapping into the Free-Reprint market is easy. The trick to getting your articles published is being able to teach your readers something of value and being able to do so in an easygoing article style that folks will read and enjoy.

Providing your are successful in teaching the readers something of value in an interesting manner, then you will find your articles getting published regularly, even in the larger ezines.

Through the use of articles to promote your business, you will be selling yourself first and then your business. The resource box that follows every article is like a small classified ad that tells who you are, what you do, and where to be able to reach you or your business. The resource box is best kept to under 6 lines of 65 characters in length.

Your resource box is your advertisement in the ezine. Ironically, readers will read an article and visit the website of an author well before they read an advertisement posted in the same ezine.

As your articles get reprinted again and again, you will begin to see for yourself the promise of Free-Reprint Articles coming to life for you and your business. Your site traffic and sales will continue to grow as you continue to build your all-important name recognition in the market place.

AUTHOR : HARIPRASAD CHOWTA His websites : http://www.bekhammysyte.com http://www.bekhammysyte.com/quickinfo

Monitoring Search Engine Positions

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It’s the long-term changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes – many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking – your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch “the market” closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn’t become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition – a crucial factor you must always be vigilant about. Your competitor’s position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor’s position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase your position in search results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be effective. Right now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that these top ten may change from month to month.

This means that your must not only monitor your search engine positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the Internet users. Check out http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html for a current list of website favorites.

Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations – this is a neon red warning sign! It could mean a number of different things.

It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate that search engines spiders – those sneaky programs that seek out your site and rank their positions – have found some type of problem with your website. If you have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly confused and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its formula, and suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant. If that search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search engines.

Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.

Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.

Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture – your long-term marketing campaign.

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About the Author

Vern Black is the owner of Pinnacle Publishing, an internet marketing information firm. Pinnacle Publishing’s hard working staff’s ultimate goal is to work tirelessly to locate legitimate income opportunities that will allow you to escape the rat race and long commutes and open the doors to the life that you have always wanted for you and your family.

To begin your journey to financial freedom, go to http://easypinnaclepublishing.com

Yes, I am the artist. No, really, it’s true…

I run my own business as a commercial artist and illustrator. In addition to event work and my web site, www.slushgem.com I also set up at art shows. I put up a large display of framed pieces behind a table and sell prints to the public. People often ask me if I’m the artist who did the work. This question always struck me as very odd. But I thought to myself perhaps it’s understandable. Just because I happen to know that artists do this all the time, doesn’t mean most people do. And maybe they didn’t see that the name on the tag I wear matches the big sign behind me that says “The Art of Paula Tabor.”

So, I made a little sign to clip on tag that says, “Yes, I am the artist.” I thought this would be a slightly more positive sales technique than a blank look and a “Well, duh!” But they still ask all the time. One day, I was wearing the tag, the sign, a canvas in front of me, brushes in my hand and a guys asks me if I was the one who made all that art! That time I did say “Duh!”

I began to wonder why it would seem so very unlikely that I’m an artist. When I asked around, some of my fellow artists thought its because I’m female. The public must assume that I’m the artist’s wife or girlfriend. I suppose it’s possible that that might be part of it, but I don’t think that’s the whole reason.

So, if it’s not some vast sexist conspiracy, perhaps it’s because I seem so…well, normal. I’m not some surly French guy with a beret, two days stubble and an existential crisis. I wonder if they can’t believe that this tax paying, professionally dressed person with an honors degree and a middle seven hundreds credit rating could possibly be an artist.

Why do so many people have such weird ideas about artists? Partly, I blame artists. Some in the creative community feel they have to shock the public, not only out of their complacency, but just to get their own existence acknowledged. America seems to have such a love/ignore relationship with its artists that, quite frankly, I can’t blame them. I’m sure Dali had a grand old time ‘putting the woof in barking mad,” but he was right when he said he wasn’t crazy. You simply don’t achieve that kind of superb master craftsmanship by blithering in a corner.

Some artists are very unconventional. Some are tortured and some are creatively frustrated–not just financially, like me. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things, it’s just the stereotype that annoys me. It reinforces the concept that creativity is not attainable by the everyday person. Is suffering necessary for greatness? I have no idea. I just decided long ago that if anonymous anguish was necessary to achieve greatness, I would unabashedly rather be mediocre and happy.

Yes, history is filled with juicy, dramatic stories of suffering, unappreciated masters. But dull historical truth contains LOTS of artists who were productive, successful, admired and lived to a ripe old age. Obscure artists? Try Da Vinci and Michelangelo. Too archaic? Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish are a bit more recent. There are many, many more.

So why don’t I play the part? I could, I’ve actually done quite a bit of performing. I could simply “act” like what people might expect an artist to be. But if I could be happy being something I’m not, I’d be an accountant. I’d have money, a large home and lavish things like…health insurance. Yet, I work my ass off in this crazy, risky, frustrating profession because I am an artist and because I love it. The fact that I’m also very organized, fairly punctual and rather good at my own bookkeeping helps my business a whole lot more than quirky flakiness.

I don’t think it’s just my conventional appearance that people find so unlikely. I suspect that some simply cannot believe that a creator of art could possibly be the flesh and blood creature before them. No, the Great Master must be off in his studio, while this lowly lackey takes in the cash. Newsflash people: most artists do their own marketing. Not because they like it or because they’re necessarily even good at it. It just has to be done. If you can’t afford to have someone do it for you, you do it yourself. It may not always come naturally, but we can be taught.

There’s a reason they call it “art work.” It takes work. I mean a LOT of work! People tell me all the time that I’m talented. I suppose I might be, but I’m much prouder of my skills than my talent. All the talent in the world won’t help you a bit if you don’t practice. Maybe I was “given” talent, but the skills I worked hard for. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate compliments, but they just don’t pay the rent.

On the other side of my “Yes, I am the artist” sign, it says “That’s very nice, now BUY SOMETHING!” It’s not that I’m greedy. There are many reasons to choose a career in the arts, but a deep abiding attachment to material gain is not usually among them. Having someone fork out hard earned cash for your work is the ultimate professional validation. I absolutely LOVE it! It also makes my business accounting a lot easier when there’s actual cash flow.

I suppose that must be another misconception about artists; that we all have rich patrons with nothing better to do than support us. Not in this century! What is the saying? Oh yes; “The real National Endowment for the Arts in America is unemployment compensation.” I don‘t know who said it, but they were right on the (lack of) money. Oh, well. I guess I’ll just have to do more art work.

About the Author

Paula Tabor is a freelance commercial artist and illustrator in the Tampa Bay area. Samples of her commercial work and event art on www.slushgem.com Her award winning illustrations and portraits can be viewed at www.slushgem.com/fine.htm

Do Your Budget Problems Seem Insurmountable?

Fortune 500 companies have the solution and it could help your business in 2007

What’s the secret for budget management that is used by many top fortune 500 companies? Does it apply to government and law enforcement?

Most governmental agencies are looking for more effective ways to stretch their department budget dollars. They want to work smart, not harder and need a way to identify what is really costing them time, money and labor hours. They recognize that a simple way to implement management strategies is exceptionally important and want their staff to not only understand their overall mission, but also carry out that mission in their everyday activities.

What the public wants to see with all governmental agencies is simply a return on their investment.

How do you proceed from the budget problems to the solution? What do you do if hiring more staff is not the answer?

One solution, called Six Sigma, is what has saved the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana more than $7 million over the past few years. Six Sigma technology is used by the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Navy, Air Force, Marines and the Army. The top corporations using Six Sigma have, in the last ten years, reduced internal costs and increased profits by more than $100 billion.

Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology that identifies and eliminates defects, re-works, and redundancies in any process in your organization. It has been described, accurately so, as the most powerful management system ever devised. Six Sigma is applicable to any organization, any business, and will results in substantial internal savings.

Six Sigma was developed by the Motorola Company in the mid-1980’s in an effort to identify and reduce defects. General Electric, under Jack Welch, adopted the methodology, and both companies dramatically improved their processes, resulting in large-scale cost savings, and enhanced profitability.

Here’s an example of how Six Sigma works in a local police department. Assume the department handles 100,000 calls for service each year. Research estimates that between 50-70% of calls for service where officers are actually dispatched have little or no relationship to the police mission. As a consequence, the department requests additional staffing and resources every year at budget time. They need a far more effective policing strategy and by truly partnering with the community and asking for their help on these activities (for example, “Before you call 9-1-1, do this…..”), the change significantly impacts the police budget.

In terms of fiscal and personnel resources, let’s say that 50% of those calls are calls that don’t support your mission. That’s 50,000 calls for service. It’s unreasonable to eliminate all 50,000 of these, but if, over time, the department reduces these calls by half, or 25,000 calls for service, we’ve made progress.

Let’s calculate the impact of the Six Sigma change. Assume each call takes an hour. Now, the police department has freed up 25,000 personnel hours to deploy as they see fit on true mission-oriented activities, such as crime problems.

In terms of financial resources, the average salary and benefit package for a police officer is about $50.00 per hour. At 25,000 personnel hours times $50, the deparment has just saved itself $1,250,000.00 Imagine someone handing your department that kind of money and having the freedom to apply it to achieve far more substantial results. This example is one of literally dozens that if applied, would result in the department being able to reinvest 25-35% or more of its existing budget. Imagine the outcomes after applying the methodology to every department in a city or county.

Six Sigma has proven to be an extremely effective strategy for thousands of businesses and more companies are adopting it every year. It is here to stay.

About the Author

William E. Cooper, M.B.A., M.P.A. is a retired police chief and skillful in applying Six Sigma principles to various work settings. He has included these principles in his book, Leading Beyond Tradition (See www.LeadingBeyondTradition.com) For more information or to schedule a Six Sigma consultation, please email him directly at bipd1@comcast.net

Increasing Your Search Engine Ranking

The methods employed to increase your search engine rankings may seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided dealing with this issue. I am here to tell you – the time has come to face your website! A high search engine ranking for your website is so essential that if you have the slightest desire to actually succeed in your business, there is no way you can continue to avoid this issue.

At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on the Internet find websites through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages for high search engine rankings is to attract targeted customers to your site who will be more than likely to make a purchase. The higher your page comes up in search engine results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your website. That’s what search engine optimization is about.

You can immerse yourself in all the technical information available online to figure out how to optimize your web pages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a few simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments, and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. The first item you should examine is the title bar on your homepage.

The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page. Look at the words that appear there when you access your home page. To increase search engine rankings, the words on your homepage’s title bar should include the most important keywords or phrases, one of which would include your company name.

Then click on all your links and examine the title bars on the pages you access. Each title bar on every single page of your site should contain the most important keywords and phrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid very long strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or less. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the title bars, and make sure that identical words are not next to each other.

The next item to put under your microscope is your website content. Search engines generally list sites that contain quality content rather than scintillating graphics. The text on your site must contain the most important keywords – the words that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your site.

Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100 carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However, the search engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.

To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your cursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are able to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case, ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format in order to increase your search engine rankings.

Next we come to what is called meta tags. I know this sounds like something out of science fiction, but it is really just simple code. Many people believe that meta tags are the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a limited effect. Still, it’s worth adding them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags in their ranking formula.

To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you must access the code. To do this, click the “view” button on the browser menu bar, and select “source.” This will pull up a window revealing the underlying code that created the page. If there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top of the window. For example, a meta tag would read: meta name=”keywords” content=. If you do not find code that reads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. This may not do much for your search engine rankings, but any little boost helps.

Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is a factor that is extremely important in terms of search engine rankings. Almost all search engines use link popularity to rank your website. Link popularity is based on the quality of the sites you have linked to from your links page.

If you type in “free link popularity check” in a popular search engine, the search engine will then show you what sites are linked to your site. In the case that there aren’t many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked up have low search engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity campaign. Essentially, this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that they exchange links with your site. Of course, this requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only boosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs more quality traffic to your website.

Search engine rankings are extremely important for a successful Internet marketing campaign. Before you go out and hire a search engine optimization company, try taking some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can’t boost your rankings yourself. Don’t ever ignore this all-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, the higher your search engine ranking, the more quality customers will be directed your way.

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About the Author

Vern Black is the owner of Pinnacle Publishing, an internet marketing information firm. Pinnacle Publishing’s hard working staff’s ultimate goal is to work tirelessly to locate legitimate income opportunities that will allow you to escape the rat race and long commutes and open the doors to the life that you have always wanted for you and your family.

To begin your journey to financial freedom, go to http://easypinnaclepublishing.com

The Patio Is Your Outdoor Room

With the growing interest in developing and designing patios into more than what they used to be, the variety of furniture for patios have also evolved and grown into a whole industry by itself. The growth of the patio furniture industry is further encouraged by the fact that many more americans spend time lazing around on their specifically designed patios. Wicker patio furniture is among the most beautiful and comfortable outdoor furniture available. It is a type of furniture that is in its own category.

Today, we can all enjoy the tranquility of water even if our “yards” are limited to a patio or balcony. Alfresco living is the new way to enjoy relaxing and entertaining. Many people enjoy being outdoors during his or her breaks from their work, and there are already very many offices and other facilities already equipped with their very own outdoor patio heaters.

There are aluminum or wood patio covers to protect against rain or sun. You may even want to find one made of the same wood as your furniture, if you have teak patio furniture or cedar patio furniture. They can be had to burn wood or propane, or you can go all out and have a pro install a gas line for you.

Wood is preferred by people who want a natural look gelling with landscaping or the interior of the house. If willing to experiment and build a patio cover, hammer out questions as to why you need a patio cover, for what purpose, whether it would be painted or made with wood, prefabricated aluminum or PVC, and if permission is required from state or city authorities.

For patio furniture do not sacrifice quality for a cheaper price tag. Teak has a lot of oil in it that acts as a natural preservative, so it does very well outdoors. Also, make sure that you take home the best-fitted, top quality enclosure you can. For example, a top quality enclosure would be able to withstand weather changes better than those of lower quality.

When it comes to plants in your patio, try to think of each plant, statue, plaque or other accent as having its own personality, and place them together in groups that allow them to relate to each other in pleasing and complementary ways; place two low flowering plants on either side of a larger fern, or place a small statue between a palm and a vine – the possibilities are endless and are only limited by your creativity and imagination. Even potted plants will not wilt from the hot sun. However, with patio tile and some strategically placed large potted plants I can not only smarten up the rear of the house, but I would also be able to have a beautiful low maintenance garden that would always look nice despite myself.

Do you have space enough for a pool? To help narrow down your choices in pool and patio furniture, consider the style of your pool and the patio that surrounds it. Although you might initially purchase a patio gazebo for the patio, because of the mobility and flexibility, you could easily take it down and move it to the pool area or beach for a party, to the middle of the backyard for a great place to eat, and so on. A good reason to choose an offset patio umbrella is that it can be used to shade anything, from a corner of your pool to the kids’ sandbox.

About the Author

Louise Wasa always writes about valuable news & reviews. A related resource is Patio Furniture. Further information can be found at Your Home.

Big Ralph: Chapter 6: Civil Rights Movement/Discrimination

PART III THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

CHAPTER 6

COLLEGE EXPERIENCES: BLACKS CHALLENGE DISCRIMINATION

Young impatient, restless, energetic and eager troops assemble, old troops sit, weary but still misinformed, they carry messages of mercenary charm to young and old.

By the time Ralph and Catherine had gotten settled at Lane College the south was a land of protest.They had graduated in the Howard High School class of 1956. They met soon after they both arrived on campus. There was a transition from the 1950’s to the 1960’s. This transition reflected the mounting growth of the civil rights movement. Lane College is located in Jackson, Tennessee. Jackson Tennessee is about 250 miles west of Chattanooga and Jackson is about 50 miles east of Memphis, Tennessee. Lane College is a Christiam Methodist Episcopal college. In the Methodist Church the Christian Methodist Episcopal denomination is known as C.M.E. This was a fun year for Ralph and Catherine. Catherine recalls that this was one of the happiest periods in her life. She got involved in various campus organizations and enjoyed college and the challenge of academics to the utmost. The social atmosphere at Lane was cordial. For example in Chattanooga at Howard School Catherine recalled that there were many cliques. Therefore if your parents were not of a certain social status or if they did not have a so-called professional job you were not allowed or welcomed in certain social circles. Ralph did not love Lane College like Catherine. He was busy playing basketball, but he loved his travel experiences with the team. As an athlete Ralph had a super appettite, but like so many other young men in college the cafeteria food was not up too par. This was a constant source of displeasure for Ralph and Catherine remembers this very clearly. Ruby Iverson was a close friend whose father was a C.M.E. minister in New York. Catherine had been raised up in a C.M.E. Chruch. Phillips Temple C.M.E. Church was located on Grove Street when Catherine lived in College Hill Courts. This remained her home church for many years until she changed her membership to her husband’s church Orchard Knob Baptist. At Lane Catherine achieved academically and spiritually. Her strong religious belilefs became a strong element that kept her family intact and gave her the strenght to support her husband at all times. She enjoyed the fact that while at Lane she could walk to church every sunday. She enjoyed teaching sunday school and relished that she did not have to ride the bus to church like she had to do in Chattanooga. Ralph and Catherine were dating so they readily had mutual friends. Dorthy Anderson was Catherine’s room mate. Dorthy married a young man from Chattanooga named Melvin Brooks. They remained close friends over the years and visited Ralph and Catherine when they lived in Little Rock. The years 1954 and 1955 caused a significant impact on civil rights. The year 1954 the world witnessed the U.S. Supreme Court outlawing segregated schools. The following year (December 1, 1955) the Montgomery bus boycott also launched what some social thinkers called the beginning of the civil rights movement. Five years later the battle for desegregated schools was still raging because white America attempted to defy the law of the land. Also, by 1960 the challenge to segregation extended to all fronts. The battle over desegregating the schools was waged by the NAACP. This struggle took place in the courts. Chattanooga was typical of most southern cities as the city fathers attempted to defy the constitution, and the Supreme Court by manipulaing the law. Four years after the Supreme Court ruling Chattanooga segregationist were saying, along with the Board of Education, that the community is not ready for integration. Mixing of Blacks and whites in the same school was thought to be a clear road to violence. It is for sure that the term mixing was a clear way that white people sought to keep the race question in perspective. Most white people expressed a displeasure with the mixing of the races. This displeasure resulted from their fear that they would lose their racial purity. Therefore, the ultimate mixing of Blacks and whites meant the mating of males and females. On the other hand the Black integrationist was favorable toward the mixing of the races. Thus, the integrationist felt that his children would learn more seated next to white children in the classroom. For the most part the Black integrationist was favorable toward interracial copulation because, too many Blacks, mulatto children were more attractive. So in 1958 the Board’s program was: “1. To elucidate, or to make clear, to the citizens all aspects of the problem. 2. To assess, or evaluate, public opinon in an effort to determine when an integration program would be acceptable. 3. To develop a plan for integration.” 1 By 1960 Black parents, led by NAACP president James Mapp, were threatening to file suit in federal court over the Board’s failure to desegregate the schools in Chattanooga. Meanwhile Black parents and Black children were threatened with lynchings, bombings and being run out of town. Because of over crowded school conditions, Black parents attempted to enroll four Black pupils at Glenwood School. “The school population in 1960 was 15,740 white pupils and 10,369 Negroes, Negroes made up 39.7%. ” 2 By April three Black parents sued to order the city of Chattanooga to desegregate the school system. The suit was filed on behalf of all children and parents in Chattanooga affected by segregated schools. R. H. Craig, a local attorney, filed the suit. The NAACP’s legal team of Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley of New York were also involved along with Avon Williams and Z. Alexander Looby of Nashville. “The suit sought the following relief: 1. A decree enjoining the city “from operating a compulsory biracial school system in Chattanooga.” 2. A decree enjoining the city from “continuing to maintain a dual scheme or pattern of school zone lines based upon race and color.” 3. A decree enjoining the city from “Assigning pupils to the schools . . . on the basis of the race and color of the pupils.” 4. A decree enjoining the city “from assigning teachers, principals and other school personnel to the schools based on race and color. 5. A decree enjoining the city from “approving budgets, making available funds approving employment and construction contracts and approving policies, curricula and programs that are designed to perpetuate or maintain or support a school system operating on a racially segregated basis. ” 3 Also, involved in the language of the lawsuit was an alternate plank. This plan sought to re-organize the entire school system. The measures of this plan noted the following: “1. The city operates a primary system of schools for whites. 2. The city operates a secondary school system for colored or Negro children. 3. There are also two distinct school zone lines based on race and color. These lines overlap where Negro and white children reside in the same residential area. 4. It was also charged that the system is predicated on the theory that Negroes are inherently inferior to white persons and consequently, may not attend the same public schools attended by white children who are superior. 5. There was also the theory that Black teachers and administrators were also inferior to whites and may not teach white children.” 4 No doubt that ever since Blacks were first brought to America as slaves the European has had a superior attitude. So, for white parents to take this position as late as 1960 is not surprising. But ironically Black integrationist also would soon take this position to justify desegregation. Thus, inferior Black schools produced inferior Black students. Therefore Black children suffered discrimination when not allowed to remove their inferiority by attending white schools. So as the Black integrationist philosophy took root the battle over school desegregation continued. The Board of Education had been preparing for a lawsuit since the court decree handed down in 1954. By now most of the school zones in Chattanooga had Black and white children. Thus the argument of strictly segregated housing patterns as a cause for all white schools was not a valid argument. The following is a history of the actions of the school Board on the Supreme Court ruling: “1. 22 July 1955 Board issues statement declaring that in time it would comply with the decision. 2. The Board proposed an advisory committee. 3. 9 September 1955 the original School Board statement was opposed. 4. 12 October 1955 Board stated that court had placed situation in our hands as long as we act in good faith. 5. 9 November 1955 the Advisory Committee was appointed, 23 white persons and 12 Negroes. The first meeting attended by 150 person’s mostly segregationists, was broken up before any business could be conducted. The segregationist totally disrupted the meeting by releasing tear gas and shouting down the speakers. 6. 31 March 1956 Board issued statement saying integration could not be accomplished for at least five more years.” 5

DO POOR BLACK INDEPENDENT CHRISTIAN WRITER’S HAVE A RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH AND EQUAL ACESS TO THE PUBLISHING MARKETING PLACE?

ARE WE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST BASED ON RELIGION ARE RACE?

Let it be written that many Black writers have come speaking of many things that are seen in radicalism and controversy. However many in the world support their right to the market place and constitutional guarantees regarding the 1st Amendment. Meanwhile those that come as REAL CHRISTIANS like the writer’s of Psyche Z Publishing/FreedomJournal are Censored by a vast assortment of people some as unbelievers and many as so-called Christians. These people also come from the left and the right. However we stand neither left nor right as Jesus Christ encompasses all.

Peace be unto you, Our prayers are for the few righteous and will forever be for the enemies of God Carl A. Patton a willing servant of God March 19, 2007 in the days and times of our Lord Jesus Christ.

PLEASE SEE OUR NEW WEB PAGES AT: www.psychezpublishing.com (Look for on-going improvements and additions to our Pages. Especially look for a Page that will note our on-going and recent Censorship incidents).

My dearly beloved Brethren,

Peace be unto you. Noah came crying and pleading that the world and its people were consumed with sin. However none sought repentance and looked upon Noah a man of righteousness as crazy.

We bear witness just as Noah came the FreedomJournal also comes crying, writing and teaching that the world is on a constant downward spiral as the multitudes embrace sin and death. Meanwhile Christ Jesus and the Father are forsaken and denied. Repentance is something the ungodly believe can be bought with a money price. Sadly the water will not be able to extinguish the coming Fire. www.psychezpublishing.com

About the Author

WHEN YOU KNOW GOD POVERTY (RICH) IS WEALTH

We are thankful today as we bear witness that the Truth of God is greater than all the money in the world. Let it be written that we do not come to glorify poverty and the lack of resources. However we come with a message of Truth that is a cooling drink to the thirsty who have the right to the Spring of life.