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At the off, it is vital that participants learn how the two choices operate. Frequently, if you know about the games, your likelihood of bringing home extra winnings will improve. You can further increase your chances by considering any additional hints and tips you find out. Even so, the information you ought to know can vary hugely.

You could be playing before long – all you need is knowledge about the principles and the system of the games. Placing bets on sports via the net is more complicated, as you will be required to get to know the betting systems and also the conventions of your chosen league.

Be sure you review our very good source for online NBA wagering infos

The online variations of casinos and betting shops may not have been available long-term, even so they’re spreading rapidly and bouncing up across the Web. They’re loads of fun and simple to take part in and honestly – who would refuse the opportunity of some more money? The largest choice confronting those new to online betting is that of either playing the casino games or putting bets on sporting matches.

Insights that may help can include historical data on the game, the teams involved and their MVPs. You might decide to simply guess who will win or win — but these useful pieces of inside knowledge could give you an extra insight and well improve the possibility of your really choosing the optimal possilibity.

Both of these betting choices involve aspects of luck and luck. Games like slots1 and slots1, for example, are determined almost entirely at random. Whilst with blackjack2 or poker2, the participant’s experience can influence the final outcome.

If you’re wagering on team sports, such as hockey8, info about the strengths and weaknesses of the teams in addition to previous scores could improve the likelihood of you betting correctly and bringing home more money. It’s not guaranteed however! Now and then the underdogs can squeak through to victory and rock expectations. Bear in mind though, there still exists that element of chance.

The front page is where all of the best information should be.
Now this is not to say that your subpages as useless and that
there shouldn’t be valuable information on them. I am just
saying that the main page should contain timbits of all the
valuable information located throughout your site. Usually your
front page is the main attraction and includes features and
elements that your subpages won’t have. It is almost like a “wow
page” full of rich content.

Here are some tips on how to impress your visitors as soon as
they get to your site:

Tip Number 1: Offer something to the visitor as soon as they get
to your site: -This is important to really grab a visitors
attention. Some things you may want to put at the top or near
the top of your site are free offers like “free ebook” or “free
domain” ect…

Tip Number 2: Give them content that is updated daily: -Make
sure you have content on your front page that is updated daily.
This will not only give them something to look forward to every
day but it will show that your site is updated often and gives
them a reason to keep coming back. Tip Number 3: Showcase new
and featured product: -Showcasing products on the front page
will immediately get visitors interested on what you are
offering. It will help show them what your site is about as well
as it will make them want to browse more of your e-store.

Tip Number 4: Add highlights from other parts of your website:
Add little bits of info from your subpages to give them a view
of what your site contains. For example if your site has an
article section post a few new articles each day.

Tip Number 5: Offer sales and discounts on your front page:
Offering discounts and coupons will definitely get people
interested in what you are selling. Saving money and getting a
good deal is always a good reason to look around and purchase
something off of your site. Make sure the sales can be seen
clearly and do have an expiration date that you stick to.

Tip Number 6: Add content that is only specific for your front
page: -Another great thing to do is offer content that can only
be found on your front page. This will give your visitors even
more content to choose from without having to view it on every
page. Some things you may just have on the front page are tips,
news headlines or article samples.

Tip Number 7: Don’t post full stories or articles on the front
page but timbits of them so they click through your site:
-Whenever you are posting articles or stories on the front page
make sure to post only a sample of the article. Include a “click
here for more” link so that they can view the whole article.
This will interest them more will have them going to new parts
of your website. It will also help keep your front page from
being cluttered.

Alternatively they’ll flick all the way through and then go back to bits they’ve noticed and that have interested them. They’re just as likely to flick through from back to front as they are from front to back.

What all this teaches us is that despite seeming logical, writing for brochures and leaflets in the form of a story that starts at the beginning, goes through the middle and finishes at the end, is not necessarily the best way forward.

Obviously you can’t make every page stand alone with a message on it that says “in case you’re flicking through backwards or only want to read this page, here’s a summary of our corporate profile again.” But there are some tricks you can use to get this random reading pattern to work a bit more effectively for you, rather than against you.

A lot depends on the type and style of brochure or leaflet you want to write, of course. In my experience, generally speaking the more specific the purpose of a brochure or leaflet the more likely readers are to read it properly and thoroughly.

If a leaflet contains assembly instructions, or a brochure contains technical specifications of equipment, there’s a good chance that readers will start at least near the beginning and then work through towards the end. Once again, that’s because readers will only get their full value from the leaflet or brochure – the “what’s in it for them” – by reading it properly. Where you get the worst random grasshopper reading, however, is with the less specific documents like “welcome” leaflets or “corporate” brochures. So let’s look at how we can minimize the problems with those.

Despite all of the above, often it is still worthwhile to organize your content in a reasonably logical order. Many people do absorb brochures in the usual order, and even if they don’t they still expect to find the introduction at the beginning, the substantiations in the middle and the conclusion at the end. This approach is useful for the moderately subject-specific document, like a leaflet about a new service or a brochure about a new line of garden furniture.

The trick here is to put the main points in as crossheadings (some people call them sub-headings) in bold type, so that someone scanning the document will get the gist of your message even if they don’t have time to read the body text.

You should also ensure that the crossheadings make sense in their own right and that understanding them is not wholly dependent on their being read in any particular order. Body text should support and expand on each crossheading and lead the reader towards the next one, but without creating a “cliffhanger” (in case the reader is going in the wrong order).

For the more general subject matter – the most likely to be skimmed, scanned, flicked through, read upside down or otherwise not absorbed properly at all – here’s some advice from US writer John Butman from “Writing Words That Sell” which he and I co-authored some years back. This is what John calls “chunking:”

“Chunking means that the story you are writing is not, in fact, a story at all. It doesn’t have a sequential flow. It’s a string of tiny stories, each with its own message. Each chunk is relatively separate and each page or page-spread is also reasonably separate. This approach means that you need to be careful about antecedents – you can’t refer to something mentioned on page one, because the reader may have started reading on page twelve.”

I find that John’s “chunking” approach works particularly well when there is a lot of visual material, with the “chunks” of text acting almost like expanded captions to illustrations. With “chunking” you may also use crossheadings, but their importance in telling the story by themselves is not as critical. Crossheadings here, then, can be more cryptic or abstract provided that they are relevant.

And a quick word about style, particularly if you are writing a “corporate” brochure or leaflet: this medium, equalled only (perhaps) by the “corporate” website is the most prone to suffer from the curse of “corporate speak.” Sadly it would be very easy for me to illustrate what I mean just by including excerpts here from corporate brochures I could find in the offices of both small and large companies based in the city where I live. The curse of “corporate speak” lurks everywhere regardless of the environment, rather like cold viruses or headlice.

Catalogues

Many people fail to realize that catalogues should be written. Often their objective in creating a catalogue is to cram in as many products as they can with descriptive copy kept to a few mis-spelled words in tiny type squashed into a corner. These people are the on-paper equivalent of the “stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” species you encounter in retailing.

However in a retail environment customers can usually pick up the products, have a good look at them, read the on-pack copy and find out all they need to know, so the fact that they’re in a no-frills environment doesn’t matter too much. When a product is pictured in the small, two-dimensional environment of the printed page it’s not only no-frills but also very lonely, unless the product has the support of some well-chosen words to inform readers and encourage them to buy it.

Considering that for many businesses and other organizations their catalogue is their only shop window – or at least represents, potentially, a very significant revenue stream – you would think that everyone’s attention and skill would be focused on its written content as much as its other elements. But no. All too often catalogues look as though their copy has been written by a well-meaning high school pupil who can look forward to a glorious future as a street sweeper.

Yes, of course some products that get sold via a catalogue do not need a lot of description and the only words you need to include are choice of colours/sizes/quantities etc.

But what about the “how to order” messages?

I don’t know about you, but if I’m thinking of buying something from a catalogue there’s nothing that puts me off faster than having to spend a lot of time figuring out how to fill out the form, who to make the cheque out to and where to mail it, etc. The same applies if I have to hunt around for website details.

It’s not difficult to get the process right. Simply work out the steps you want customers to take, write them down simply, rough out the order form itself, and then try it out on your mother, your brother, your neighbour, the milkman, or anyone else – provided they are not involved with your organization. That’s a cheap and fast way of discovering any flaws in the system, especially small goofs that can get overlooked so easily if you’re too familiar with them.

And here’s another one. How many times have you looked at a catalogue only to find that crucial information you should keep (like contact details for ordering, delivery information etc) is placed either on the order form itself or on the back of the page the order form is on? The result is when you mail off your completed order form you’re obliged to mail that important information away with it. Stupid, huh.

There is no mystery about creating good catalogues – only common sense. It’s perfectly okay in my view to keep your writing crisp and concise because it helps to use the space more efficiently. But whatever you do, never lose sight of the fact that the way a catalogue is written and designed says a lot more about your organization than you think. If it is cluttered, unclear and illogical, customers will think your company is too. If it is busy but accessible, clear and easy to understand and logically planned, well – need I say more?

Retailers spend fortunes on the design, layout and flow of their instore displays. Supermarkets can increase or decrease their turnover by thousands, simply by moving the fresh produce from the back wall to the side wall or by putting the bakery beyond the delicatessen or by increasing the aisle width by a few centimetres. Think of your catalogue as a paper-based store or supermarket, and you’ll find it easier to give it the consideration and respect it deserves.

Instruction leaflets and manuals

A few years ago I bought a new computer, printer, keyboard and monitor all at the same time. I heaved all the boxes into my office at home and unpacked each piece enthusiastically. There was metal and plastic and cabling and cardboard and polystyrene and bubble wrap all over the floor. My two dogs picked their way through it, sniffing suspiciously as if all these items were chickens lying dead and headless after a fox attack.

I sat cross-legged in the middle, leafing anxiously through the instruction booklets, desperately trying to find the English language pages. When I did, I couldn’t understand a word, largely because the instructions a) had been compiled by technical people who assumed substantial prior knowledge even though it was a “home” computer and b) whoever had written the UK version must have been taught English by Donald Duck.

And do you think the manufacturer might have supplied a simple instruction sheet telling me how to bolt it all together? No. Every piece had its own awful instructions but as far as the manufacturer was concerned, each item was on its own.

So I phoned my dear computer guru Jason and booked him to come over the next day and sort it out, despite him telling me it was easy and I could do it myself.

“Just read the instructions,” he said.

“I can’t understand the ****ing instructions,” I shouted back down the phone. “You come and do it, I’ll watch what you do, then I’ll write it down and send the text to the manufacturers with an invoice for my time. At least that way poor so-and-sos who buy this kit in the future will find out how to get it working without having a nervous breakdown.”

There’s one very strong point that emerges from this true story. When people read, listen to or watch a set of instructions, they often do it in fairly stressful circumstances, in uncomfortable surroundings, in poor light, etc. Accessibility, simplicity, visibility, and clarity are vital.

People who buy products that require instructions, need to know how to use the product as easily as possible. And because many people are technodorks like me, instructions need to be understood by the lowest common denominator.

Logically then, you might think, the best person to write instructions for technodorks like me is someone who knows every last detail about the product, how it was made, how it works, what it does, and what its inside leg measurement is. In other words, an expert. This could not be further from the truth.

Instructions should never be written by experts, because they know too much. What this means is that they are very prone to making the mistake of assuming the reader knows a little bit about the subject matter already. To an expert, the fact that before you begin assembling the bookcase you need to align sections A, B and C with each other may be so blindingly obvious it’s not even worth mentioning. To someone like me it’s not just worth mentioning, it’s absolutely essential if I’m not to spend the next three hours wondering why on earth I can’t find any bolt holes that line up.

Wherever practical, instructions should be written by someone who knows as much as, but no more than, the audience. For any form of instructions to be followed by non-technical users, the writer should assume zero prior knowledge and the best way to ensure s/he does that, is if s/he doesn’t have any prior knowledge her/himself. Provided that the writer has a logical mind and the ability to write clearly and simply, s/he can’t fail to work out and then write good, usable instructions – because if s/he understands them so will everyone else.

Equally, instructions should not be written by the sales people, the marketing executives, the guys in the lab, the production staff, or anyone else – even you – if there’s a risk they might have become familiar with the subject matter. Familiarity can breed if not contempt, at least wrongful assumptions about the audience’s existing knowledge. For any product to be used by ordinary folks in the street, try to get the instructions written by someone from a totally unrelated department or even from outside your organization. Failing that, get them tested by one or more typical users who have no prior knowledge of the product, and edit them carefully on the strength of the feedback you get.

There is nothing that will blacken the name of your product and your company faster than a customer like me not being able to put your product together easily.

Although customers like me will get over it after taking a cold shower and asking the brainy next-door neighbour to interpret the instructions, we’ll probably remember all those bad things next time we’re shopping for the sort of products you sell. And we’ll buy your competitor’s.

Canadian-born Suzan St Maur is an international business writer and author based in the United Kingdom. In addition to her consultancy work for clients in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia, she contributes articles to more than 150 business websites and publications worldwide, and has written twelve published books on business writing, marketing, publishing and humor. Check out all her current books here.

To subscribe to her free biweekly business writing tips eZine, TIPZ from SUZE, click here.

(c) Suzan St Maur 2003 – 2005

We drove from Vancouver, Canada down through Chuckanut Drive, Widbey Island and down to Portland – over to a place called Seaside, Oregon – stayed at a great motel called Ebb Tide right on the beach there – woke up and strolled the beach – awesome 500 feet deep beaches, with virtually nobody on them

Stopped in at the Sea Lion Caves, and the Devil’s Churn – great spot to watch waves catapaulting in the air as they hit huge rocks – the Oregon Coast goes from deep deep beaches to headlands with huge waves crashing, to sand dunes with grass and miles of sand inland – its 400 miles of gorgeous scenery every mile!

Went for oysters at Winchester Bay – they have a triangle in the river mouth where they “make” oysters, and then they are taken to the place where we went, where they come in on a conveyor belt, and the lady shucks them and hands them to you – it couldn’t get any fresher! I liked it so much I went back later on in the trip as well.

My impression of California was 6 lane expressways, so I was surprised to drive a stretch of road that was the windiest, lonliest, craziest that I’ve ever driven – my girlfriend came THIS CLOSE to throwing up! I went for a stretch of over 30 minutes where my hands didn’t stop moving, turning, turning, back the other way, up around a curve, back the other way, etc. Came out on the way to Fort Bragg, Mendocino Coast as it got dark – very happy to stop driving!

The next day we drove into an area called the Anderson Valley – and at a Mexican food place, saw that there was a three winery tasting store next door. We had driven by wineries, but I had never heard of them, so assumed they were small potatoes, and we’re headed for Sonoma/Napa anyways. The lady at the tasting store says “You’re into wines and you’ve just driven through the Anderson Valley? Go back 20 miles and go here, here and here!” On top of the three wineries we sampled at her store, we went back to GoldenEye – which is Duckhorn’s Pinot Noir label (who knew?) and went to Roederer – which makes Cristal Champagne – and also a white wine maker called Navarro – sort of a US Blue Mountain, where they only sell to restaurants, but have won all sorts of awards – ended up with a Chardonnay and a Gewurtztraminer from there – the lady had told us about camping down the road, so we stayed there in awesome 90 degree heat in the midst of the trees. The winding road I mentioned earlier is the one that takes you through all the Redwoods, btw, and we camped in the area where the biggest one of them all is. I have a pic of a stump, that is way higher than my girlfriend, standing up!

Carried on down to Santa Rosa, the beginning of the Sonoma Valley – actually we passed all sorts of Russian River wineries on the freeway, but wanted to get to Sonoma. Went to St. Francis – bought some Pinot Noir, also Kenwood – bought a bottle of Cab – and what sells in Canada for 50-60 bucks is about 15-20 bucks in US – great prices! Also visited Benziger,but didn’t get to do their famous tour – not enough time! Went to B. R. Cohn – got a great pic in front of all the Doobie Brothers gold albums – he manages them too.

Last minute dash up the Napa Valley to try and find Caymus, very disappointed when we couldn’t, and it was 5 o’clock – most wineries are closed by then – on a whim I drove past Freemark Abbey – open till 6!

Got some great glasses, a gun metal grey wine opener and a bit of a steal – they had found 300 cases of a 1988 Sycamore – which is sold there for $115, probably $400 in Canada – they were blowing it out for $20 a bottle – and since we could bring back 2 each – we now have 4 1988 Freemark Abbey Sycamore bottles in our cellar! Fantastic! Now I just have to wait for the occasions to drink them at – but they are soooooo ready to be drunk NOW!!!!! – I was joking that they should best be drunk in the parking lot!

Camped at a place called Berryessa Lake, down another wierd undisturbed road where nobody else was, and at the camp ground, there was us, and another tent – that’s it! We had a lovely night, sipping great wine by the fire at the edge of the lake, with nobody else around! Nutty! This is California???? Home of 25 million people?? LOL The next day it was 101 degrees when we drove through Chico – roasting!

Stopped in to Medford, Oregon, and a fellow said, go into town and taste the beer – found this Very local pub under the freeway, Siskiyou Brew Pub, and sampled their local beer – plus Dead Man Ale – Rogue Beer – got 2 great skull and crossbones beer glasses from there!

Made it back to Seaside, top of the Oregon Coast, and stayed in an oceanfront room – for a dollar more! – looking out on dunes, ocean, pits dug for watching fireworks, and we drank great wines ( had to get rid of everything but the Freemark Abbey bottles!) and watched people light fires, and set off fireworks – beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

The last day it started raining as we raced home – the only thing we missed doing was we never got to go dune buggy riding in the Oregon dunes – they don’t let you go alone any more – which was the funnest thing last time – but they do groups tours in different sized vehicles, or ATVs, but there was waaaaay too long of a wait – next time!

Andrew Larder Articles, Search Articles, News Articles, Health Articles

When you think of a cell phone you may start to think of how much of connivance they are for everyone. This would be true for the most part but there are some people out there that may think that it is more of a nascence than connivance to them. If you think about it the cell phone could be a life saver at times as well as a way for you to keep in touch with the people that care about that are out and about on the highways and airways all the time.

There are many people that have to travel all the time and they carry a cell phone so that they are able to keep in touch with their family all the time. That is one way that could help them still feel like they are part of the family when they are away all the time. For the ones that travel all the time and they are in an area that is going to receive some bad weather they will be able to let their family members know where they are and that they are alright. You know when you are out in another state your family members are going to be keeping an eye on the TV so they can keep track of the weather in the area that you are going to be in.

Another good thing about some of the cell phones that are out there now days is that you are able to take some pictures and share them with your friends and family members. This is a great feature of the cell phones that will help you be able to send and receive some pictures that interest you and that will also get the interest of you spouse. If could be a picture of yourself or of an interesting area that you are in at the time. You are even going to be able to receive a couple of pictures of your family members that you miss when you are out on the road all the time. This is going to be especially helpful when you may have some small children that could be taking their first step or even crawling for the first time.

In conclusion, cell phones are something that will stay with us for a long time. Make full use of it and have fun!

Cell phones are a part of your daily life. Know more about your phones and their capabilities by visiting this website:
http://www.1-cellular-phones.info

There are many types of health care plans available. Each type breaks down into two basic groups: group or individual. Group plans are the least expensive option. They are provided through an employer. Individual plans are offered through private companies and can cost much more than group plans because there are no group discounts to the provider. Within each group there are a few different type of health care plans.

Fee for service plans are the most common and traditional forms of health care coverage. With a fee service the covered individual gets many choices of doctors and hospitals. The insurance provider pays for a portion of your costs while you pay a fee. You pay both a monthly fee for coverage and fees based on the care you receive. Many times there is a deductible that must be met before the insurance provider pays anything. Most plans also have a maximum amount you will pay out of pocket. Once this figure is reached your costs are covered 100%.

Health maintenance organizations or HMO’s are another type of health care plan. HMO’s charge a monthly fee. You are required to use certain doctors who are signed up with the HMO. You pay a fee for any costs you incur called a co-payment. The total costs of any medical care is negotiated between the doctor and the HMO so the costs are lower.

Preferred provider organizations or PPO’s are a combination of the fee based plan and an HMO. There are limits on the doctors and hospitals you can choose, you make a co-payment for each service and you may have a deductible. You can, however, use a doctor that is not part of the PPO. You will still get coverage but you may end up paying a larger fee.

There are other forms of health care plans. The government offer two plans: Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is a plan for people over age 65 or disabled. The coverage provided by Medicare often changes and can be confusing. There are different types of Medicaid. There is a free type and a fee based type. Medicaid is another government offered plan. It is based on income. With Medicaid all of your expenses are covered. New changes have made it so some care requires a very small fee. There are also variations in Medicaid. To find out information a person should contact their local government human services agency.

Health care plans can be very confusing. Talking with your provider will help ensure you completely understand how your plan works and what coverage is provided.

Stephen Kreutzer is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides healthcare information on CyberTopics!

I had been the best salesperson on the crew, and Bud was number two. He and I vied for the management job, and the fact that I got it meant that he had to report to me.

This irked him.

So, when I recruited, trained, and launched the careers of new salespeople, Bud found a way to poke holes in their boats, to slow them down, to discourage them from challenging his sales supremacy.

In essence, my new people never made a credible challenge to his informal leadership.

He lorded over them, mostly nonverbally, with cold stares and by invading their work areas. I firmly believed he was trying to make himself look good by keeping them down.

And, I sensed his notion was if he could destabilize my leadership, by making it appear that I wasn’t doing a good job of staffing, training, and motivating, he’d step into my job, sooner or later.

This was intolerable, and in the privacy of my office, I set forth my observations, with a challenge that he had to pick up his sales and stop torpedoing my crew.

He denied everything, calling me paranoid, and effectively, he left in a huff.

Later that evening, my boss called for our sales numbers, and after hearing how paltry they sounded, I explained what had happened, and why. Boldly, I asserted with Bud out of the way, our overall sales level would rise.

His cold reply: “Well, I just hope you’re right.”

One way or another, I made it right, and our sales surpassed all previous highs. As far as I’m concerned, Bud, who had been the top producer, was keeping sales down, and for expectations to rise, for new and better producers to come forth and assert themselves, he needed to be out of the picture.

Look at your crew. Who is the leader?

Ask two questions:

(1) Can I afford to lose him?

(2) Can I afford to keep him?

Consider this homespun saying: You never want to tie a rabbit to a cow to see how fast the rabbit can run.

Look again at your salespeople: Who are the rabbits, and who are the cows?

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

Don’t go into denial, hoping that everything will turn out all right; it won’t, unless you take action, quickly.

More government programs will be available to you the sooner you act.

You see, when a borrower stops making their mortgage payments and subsequently loses their home to foreclosure, the government loses too.

The Federal Government, both directly and indirectly, has a financial interest in virtually every residential mortgage issued nationwide.

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), a Federal Agency, insurers the millions of VA and FHA home mortgages. These mortgages have the highest default rate of any type of mortgage.

When one of these mortgages goes bad, the servicing bank forecloses on the mortgage and sells the property at auction. If the property sells for less than the balance owed on the mortgage, the FHLBB has to make up the difference to the bank.

This situation will soon become commonplace as the real estate market sinks under the weight of its own excesses.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) that supply money to the banks to make mortgage loans, guarantee or insure the bulk of the non-FHA mortgages.

These GSE’s are contractually obligated to step in and make up missed mortgage payments to the banks if the borrowers do not make the payments.

They must also cover 20% of any loss sustained by a bank that forecloses one of their mortgages when the sale of the property does not fully pay off the mortgage balance.

Since these agencies have so much to lose when a homeowner defaults, it is possible for the knowledgeable homeowner to get help from them to avoid foreclosure.

It is demonstrably cheaper for the agency to help the homeowner with a grant to cover mortgage arrears rather than having to reimburse the bank’s loss on a short sale. These grants do not have to be repaid in many cases.

Other agencies will make loans to the embattled homeowner which do not have to be repaid until the house is sold or refinanced.

At the very least, most agencies have workout programs that temporarily suspend or lower payments that allow the delinquent borrower to catch up. We have even heard of situations where the government agency will bully banks into accepting payments from borrowers after they told the borrower they would not accept them.

However, there are a few problems homeowners may face when seeking help from the Government with their foreclosure problems.

One problem is that each agency has its own rules for qualifying for each option. A major requirement is the amount of delinquency, but there are other guidelines as well. Among them are whether the borrower is employed, how much cash, if any he has and the nature and duration of whatever caused the problem in the first place.

Finally, the borrower has to be aware the programs exist, as you now are; then you have to be able to find the right person in the right department to help you.

After all, these are Government Agencies!

Although you can certainly contact the various agencies mentioned in this article directly, they are all on the web; you might want to seek out professional representation to make sure your situation is presented in the best light to the right person at the right agency.

In any event, act now. The longer you wait to seek help, the fewer chances you will have to save your home!

Copyright 2005 Bill Young. Bill is a former bank mortgage officer and is now a personal financial consultant. He helps people save their homes from foreclosure. He can be Reached at 877-291-36 42 or you can visit his website: http://SaveMyHomeLLC.com

How so you ask? Well simple everyone will be gone, no one can bother you and as long as you have a back-up generator and have planned ahead you should be good to go. Remember you will need many cans of fuel or put a siphon hose into your cars gasoline tank? Sometimes the power maybe turned off for 4-6 weeks and the water may also be turned off as well.

But this could be the perfect time to be all-alone and write you see? Hurricane writing and such adversity can indeed bring out the raw human emotion that you may need to move the ball forward and in doing so you may be able to produce award winning stuff indeed. Hurricane Writing can make you the great writer you have always wanted to be.

So many of the great writers in literature have come from adversity of a tough childhood, physical disability or addition to a substance; but you can write in that same mind set during a Hurricane without those long-term heavy psychological issues. Consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

First & foremost, don’t ask too much of your call center. This is not meant as don’t expect your answering service to do their job, but instead, keep their responsibilities short & sweet. As with any individual, the more tasks they are required to do, the more room arises for error. The main point here is “Shortness Equals Success”. What do I mean by that? First, keep your answer phrase short (i.e. how the operators pick up your line). Second, keep the information they gather from the caller at a minimum. Third, make sure your contact information is not a labyrinth of pager numbers, e-mail addresses, home phone numbers, and cell phone numbers (i.e. call Jim at home, if he is not there, e-mail him, if he does not respond page him and call his cell phone, etc.). Try to make sure your employees keep their cell phones with them at all times as this seems the best way to keep steady contact with the call center.

Second, place regular test calls to your call center. Consider your answering service your employee. As with any employee, if left un-supervised, they will start to evolve into a less than model representative of your business. Make sure every 10 or so days you place a test call to your answering service to see how they are managing your calls. Don’t always call at the same time of day, instead try to stagger the times when you call as sometimes the afternoon staff is more efficient then the evening staff or vice versa. If you experience any problems, notify your call center liaison immediately and place another test call shortly thereafter to ensure the problem was rectified.

Third, make sure you have a healthy relationship with your call center. Treat them as you would treat your own employee. Be friendly and courteous and you will be treated the same. Imagine your own business and your own clients. Are there clients that are never satisfied no matter what you do? Would you rather lose their business than spend 10% of your day managing their complaints? Rather then the “the more I yell, the more efficient they will be” premise, try to base your relationship on “the nicer I am, the nicer they will be” premise.

Fourth, perfection is not immediate. Based on the conjecture that your answering service is your employee, they are probably not going to “get it right” the first time you forward your phones. As with any employee, they need time to grow and learn about your business and their duties relative to your needs as a business owner. Have patience, be helpful, keep it simple, and they should flourish.

Todd Cardin is the eastern regional sales manager for Specialty Answering Service (www.specialtyansweringservice.net). For more information on Specialty Answering Service, please e-mail us at info@specialtyansweringservice.net or log on to www.specialtyansweringservice.net. This article may be reproduced as long as it remains wholly intact.