Thursday, August 30, 2012

Fast and Easy Tips for Building a Profitable Ardyss MLM Blog

In today's world, blogs are a major contributor in business promotion on the Internet. Blogs are generally easier to create and maintain than traditional websites, and tend to rank favorably in the search engines. They are a great platform for sharing industry news, product information, helpful hints and testimonials. If used strategically and wisely, a blog can help promote the visibility of your Ardyss business, build a dedicated fan base, and drive business to your Ardyss store.
The most important consideration when creating a blog is having the ability to offer unique and useful information. In this way, you will be able to capture the interest of your site visitors and keep them coming back for more. Resist the temptation to fill your blog with recycled content copied from company literature or the company website. Information that is already widely circulated on the web will not capture the attention of the visitors to your blog, and they will quickly lose interest. Instead, compose your blog posts in your own words, infusing your personal experiences, opinions, and personality into your writings. By doing this, you will stand out from the crowd and establish yourself as a credible and knowledgeable distributor.
A common pitfall when blogging for business is using a writing style that comes off like a sales pitch. This will be a big turn-off to your site visitors. They are visiting your site for information, not to be sold to. A better strategy is to offer information, advice, and tips about the products you want to promote. After they have received the information they were seeking, they will be more apt to give you their business.
Since blogs have the built-in capacity to manage photos, audio recordings, and video presentations, it would be wise to take full advantage of these options. Multimedia is very attractive to web visitors and is an excellent way to keep them engaged while educating them about your products. Pages of strictly text can be intimidating and downright boring. A picture truly says a thousand words, and little effort is required to include product images within your blog posts. Free software is available to create videos and multimedia presentations that can be easily uploaded to video sharing sites like YouTube and embedded in your blog. Visitors to your blog can be converted to potential clients with a little creativity and imagination.
Once you have created a blog with unique content, presented your product information in a friendly, conversational style, and infused it with images, audio and video, you will need to drive business to your Ardyss store. Simply put, you will need to let them know how to directly purchase your products or how to contact you for more information. You can do this by providing link to your web store and/or your contact information at the end of every post.
Blogging is one of the easiest ways to connect with Ardyss prospects and fans on the Internet. With careful planning and these commonsense tips, you have the potential to generate a following that could help you expand your business and your sales team.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Viewpoints of a Model's Success

Is your personal success as a model based on just having nice pictures of yourself to show others? Or is that success based solely on how much money you're making? Well, how about other people in your career and life? How they may view your success can affect you, too. These are some suggestions of how to relate (or empathize) to some of the people that have different roles in your success.
#1. The Modeling Agency's Viewpoint of your success as a model:
Think like an agent. Are clients going to book you? If you are signed with almost any agency, the bottom line will be how much money you are bringing into their business (or may potentially bring in). Remember this as your first and most important business lesson in your career as a model. Modeling agencies are your pipeline to how you are marketed(promoted) as a model, and they make their money (income) from "percentages" from 1.) the model's commission and 2.) from the client's fee.
The more money that you make as a model in their agency is another dollar in their pocket. So, there's more involved in the bottom line of how your agent looks at your "potential" as a model. Will clients hire you? They are looking at how much "income" potential you can bring to their business. They must run their business efficiently, and you must do the same in the planning of your career, too. The agency's role in your representation is that of a glorified "employment agency" that is a go-between for the client and model. The modeling agency works to provide resources to market all of their models, so it's in their best interest to keep the right variety of models that are in demand.
The ultimate decision is made by the client to which model they want to use, but your agent and booker are your representative and they can sometimes have a strong hand in that process. Do not disrespect them! They know their power and should not be underestimated. Learn all that you can about the way your agency wants to promote you and follow their instructions on things that they need for you to do. This can increase your opportunities for success!
#2. Your Parent's view of your success as a model:
Parents worry about all of the horror stories that they have heard about over the years. Whether their child is under or over the age of 18...parents are entitled to worry about their children. PERIOD. Some horror stories are really worse than others. Will their child be lured into drugs or pornography? What about nudity? How far will their child travel away from them and who will be responsible for them if they are in a dangerous situation? Will photographers take advantage of their child or manipulate their photos and use them on the Internet without their knowledge? How will their child's self-esteem hold up against the "industry sharks"? Will their child be required to grow up too fast in order to survive in this industry? What about their education? Why do we have to pay money for our child to pursue a career as a model? (That makes parents skeptical, too!) So many potential questions from a parent's perspective.
A parent's view of their child's potential success can leave them with a lot of questions! Most parents are initially so proud that someone thinks that their child should model that they can view that alone as a "proud" success for you. So, don't be too hard on yourself or your parents if questions arise that need more communication and opens up an opportunity for discussion. Discuss scenarios together and show them that you, too, are trying to do your homework about this industry and want to make safe, mature (professional) decisions. The more that you learn goes a long way with your parents as you break them into your status as being a responsible person and model.
#3. Your "significant other's" view of your success:
Oh, my! Every model that I spoke to had similar stories about this topic. A close partner's viewpoint (boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife) can really be like an emotional roller coaster on your mind if you're in a somewhat serious or longer-term relationship. It really can place a lot of strain on relationships and I've seen more than a few models just not ready to risk losing someone "that means so much to them" and NOT take the risk of losing them. They said good-bye to their modeling careers.
It's confusing to both people in a relationship to have unknown fears, so just accept that this can weigh strongly on your decisions that you make during the span of your modeling career. Many models choose to not be in relationships because of the lifestyle that can come along with being a model. It may be a double-standard for you to feel that you have the "Looks" of a model and your partner likes having a "model" as a partner, but only to find out that insecurities, jealousies, and rejections can ruin what you think is a "great" relationship or cut short a promising modeling career.
Regardless of all the potential rejection and criticism that models face over the span of their career from industry professionals and the public, they can sometimes be torn more by their partner's opinion of them. What choice do you think that you'll make if your partner is feeling insecure or pressuring you? These are potential issues that can set you up for either success or failure, and not just as a model. Consider your short-term goals and how you can incorporate that path into the "Big Picture" of your future.
#4. Friends' opinion of your success as a model:
This one is complicated, too. Let's start with the word "Jealousy". You want your friends to be happy for you, but you may start to notice that they are treating you differently. Why? You will probably be correct to assume that jealousy is getting the best of most of them, but just also do a double-take on yourself that you may be acting a little different than they are used to you being.
Modeling is entirely a different dimension of reality (versus typical jobs), and you may not necessarily be your "old self" during your career all the time. Depending on the division of models that you fall into, this may really be a good thing "professionally", but try to be aware of where you need to keep "model-mode" ON and when it can be toned down a few notches. People are friends with each other because they can mutually have something special to offer, but relationships can change if you stop "getting" or "giving" what this relationship needs. Some people are just naturally the center of attention, and if you are a model, that can work for you, but can throw off the balance of some other relationships depending on their personality.
As for petty jealousies from acquaintances (or superficial friends) that are hurtful to your feelings, try to thicken up your emotions to deflect them away from sabotaging your self-esteem and you'll be in "good practice" for your actual modeling career that faces criticism from the industry and public all the time. The BEST friends are the ones who are there to listen to you vent, keep what you say in confidence, offer their opinion when they see you may need it, and are only a phone call (or Text, or Email) away when you need them for a laugh or a cry!
#5. The public's view of your success as a model:
There are a lot of models in print, on the runway, doing promotions, etc., but what are their names? Is that how the public view a model's success? Sometimes. The public really doesn't know the extent of who or why some models are more famous than others. They just "hear" or "read" who is the next hot thing (flavor of the month) by reading magazines or watching entertainment news shows. Public relations is an art of it's own when models and celebrities are involved. You may have a successful status as a model in your hometown if the newspaper writes about your local, national, or international ventures as a model (even if you know you are still a "small fish" in the sea of the modeling industry, but still, it's a nice perk)!
Being a model places you out there for comments by some brutally opinionated people who either think that their entitled to verbally abuse you or question why you are even a model. Ignorance is not a constructive foundation for you to listen to or even respond to. If there is a shred of truth to the opinion that you are hearing, politely acknowledge and mentally file it away, and work on it next time. You can't impress everyone, nor should that be your goal. That's not permission to be rude, but rather respond professionally when considering the source of criticism. I'm going to include the people who hire you into this category because they tend to look for what the public want to see representing their product. Your personality does put the "icing on the cake" when perhaps they are juggling who they want to hire, so how you present yourself publicly to them does matter. Show confidence as often as you can even if you're faking it!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Pay Off Your Student Loans ASAP

There are many new college grads out in the workforce that are dealing with 5-and sometimes 6-figure student loan debt, and with the recession and unemployment rate still in full swing it's not a good time to be dealing with a ton of student loan debt.
Back in 2009 a typical student carried an average of $24,000 in student loan debt by the time they graduated. Consider that a small investment in comparison to what that investment will yield a student for the life of his career.
In any case, in this current economy it's not guaranteed that you're going to get that high paying job straight out of college, so there are some steps that every recent graduate should make that's carrying some student loan debt out there in the work force.
Put your repayments on cruise control. Everybody knows that your credit score can get in trouble by not making your payments on time, so it's a good idea to set up some sort of automatic payment schedule straight out of your bank account to pay for your student loans. Setting up automatic payments-through most banks-should be relatively easy, so it's worth taking those steps so you don't miss any payments.
10 year time horizon. Giving yourself a goal of paying off your student loan in 10 years will save you a significant amount of money in interest.
For example if you have $30k in student loans and you pay it off at 6.8% in 10 years your payments are going to be around $345 and the interest that you're going to end up paying is going to be a little over $11k in interest. If you run in some trouble and stretch out those payments for 20 years the interest you're going to end up paying on that loan is $24,960.95, and if you stretch those payments out to 30 years the interest you end up paying is going to be a whopping $40,405.93!
Organize your loans. If you went to multiple schools, obviously you're going to be juggling several loans. It's going to be imperative that you organize those debts or find some sort of system that organizes those debts for you. The government offers a great way to track your federal student loans, if you Google the National Student Loan Data System you will be able to find them.
Knock off the high interest rate loans first. Taking care of the high interest rate loans first is "Debt 101", if you take care of your highest interest rate debt first you will save yourself a significant amount of money in the long run.
Look into IBR. Everybody falls on hard times and if you're having a difficult time paying back your student loans you might want to look into the federal Income-Based Repayment program. The title of the program basically speaks for itself; the repayment plan is based on your income and makes the monthly payment a little more affordable.
Keep an eye on student loan news. The government is currently trying to cut back on as many things as possible, and sometimes education is the first thing to suffer from these cutbacks. It's a good idea to keep your eye out for any new developments that may affect your student loan or financial situation.
Correspond with the Federal Student Aid Ombudsman. There may be a good chance that you're going to run in some sort of problem with your Federal Student Aid, so it's a good idea to keep in contact with the Federal Student Aid Ombudsman to make ensure everything is running smoothly. When things don't run so smoothly it's also a good idea to make sure that you know where to go when you have a dispute with your lender.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Women Are Ditching the Gym and Making Their Way To Fitness Boot Camps

Gym rats are old news. Hitting the gym several times a week can get boring, and hiring a personal fitness trainer can be quite expensive. Furthermore, doing the same workouts at the gym time and time again might even result in the possibility that you aren't being challenged enough or even worse, you hit a plateau in your training goals.
So what are women doing to combat this boring, same old routine? They are taking advantage of fitness boot camps. If you are thinking about ditching the gym and finding a new way to get in shape and keep it that way, here is what you can expect by choosing a fitness boot camp.
1. More Than an Exercise Class: A good fitness camp will offer more than just a hard and awesome workout. You should be able to get the nutritional information you need and the motivational support you are looking for to accomplish any fitness goal. By getting an all around holistic fitness approach, you can succeed whether you are trying to lose weight, stay in shape, or simply get healthier. Many classes provide support through email, newsletters, and support groups as well as incentives such as contests and friendly competitions.
2. Flexibility: Many camps have ongoing enrollment so you can start very soon when you are ready. Also, many have multiple times in the early morning of 5:30 AM, after dropping kids off from school, and after work. This should help you to find a session that works for you and your schedule. You should also be able to attend as many or as few of these sessions each month without penalty or feeling like you're being left behind.
3. Guaranteed to Work: You want to seek out a boot camp that is headed by a well qualified instructor who will provide you with a guarantee that if you work the program the way you are shown how to, you will see results. The instructors that truly believe in the power of their program will be more than willing to stand behind it. This doesn't mean that you won't have to put the work in, but it does mean that you can count on the support, education, and butt kicking that you need. Few offerings will do a guarantee like this.
4. Fun Exciting Way to Get Fit: An effective offering will afford you the opportunity have the most results-oriented and exciting experience while providing you with a sense of adventure and fun during each and every session. The activities should be challenging and interesting at the same time, without making you so sore that you don't want to show up for the next session. There is a lot to learn and accomplish from taking part in a fitness boot camp and it can actually change your entire life. In fact, you might even get a little addicted to it!