Betsey’s Blog

I am truly amazed that people can do this. I can barely do a cartwheel anymore. I think I need to go to the gym….

Become well known for one thing – you’ve got to stand for something or you stand for nothing. Find your niche. This is NOT the time to play it safe. Doing just enough to blend in to the crowd will get you just that, you’ll blend in and when someone needs your advice or expertise they will not be able to find you.

Creating a personal elevator pitch with your “who” and “do what” statement followed by your “why” statement will keep you on track and focused on your goals. Without clearly understanding your personal brand, it will be difficult to stand out and be found when someone is looking for you.

Your “who” and “do what” statement is a very simple thought about yourself. Keep it simple and easy to understand. It answers the question “who are you and what do you do?” concisely and in a fashion that is memorable.

For example, which says more and has more impact:

“My name is Betsey and I am a business consultant”.

Or

“I’m Betsey. I help business owners and sales professionals grow their clientele.”

Simple, yet powerful. You answer the question of whom you help and what you help them get or do. Depending on what type of professional you are, your “who” and “do what” statement should include the following elements:

* As a business owner this statement should express who your target market is and what problems you solve for that market
* As an employee this statement should express what problems and obstacles you tackle for your managers and bosses.
* As a salesperson this statement should express who your target customers are and what problems you solve for them. It should also express what goals you are helping your boss achieve through your sales expertise

Here is another example. “Telecom Senior Executive who took a startup to $120MM annual sales with $28MM EBITDA in less than three years.” This directly speaks to a potential client or employer and says who you are and what you can do for them backed up by a history of success.

Now tell me, why do you do it anyway? Why do you get up every day to help them get what they want? My favorite interview question is “What gets you out of bed every morning?” An alarm clock is the wrong answer! I’m not looking for a specific answer but rather to discover the passion driving someone’s life. Your “why” not only drives the choices you make, but it also affects how others connect emotionally to what you do for them. The why is reflected in everything you do. It completes your personal brand.

Michael Port, Entrepreneur Magazine has this why statement: “Because I want to help people think bigger about who they are and what they offer the world.” He goes on to say “I can go one step further and turn my why statement into a tag line to spread my personal brand and increase my sales potential: ‘The guy to call when you are tired of thinking small.’ This expresses the most fundamental, deepest part of my character.” Michael Port, Entrepreneur Magazine – January 2010

Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start, inspired by John Doerr, says

“The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning—to create a product or service that makes the world a better place.

“Does the product or service you are pursuing change lives for the better? Change the world we live in for the better? Offer something incredible previously out of reach of the average person?”

If what you are doing provides one of these benefits or similar benefits and fits your personal “why” you are on the road to success. Your brand is beginning to take shape. Your personal brand is built on a solid foundation.With your “who”, “do what”, and “why” statements in hand and in your heart go forth and “make meaning”

And no I’m not talking about Facebook!

Friends can be difficult. They can go from nice to angry overnight. So if this ever happens to you, follow these tips:

You need to tell your friend about the problem. Do not speak to them for a while, and when they ask what is wrong, adress why you haven’t been speaking to them. Tell them IN PERSON. When you are texting or e-mailing, they do not understand the tone of your voice. If you are being serious, they may not realize that over text. They might take that as a joke.

Make sure to stay serious. Make sure that they know you mean buisness.

Don’t put them down. Start with a compliment. Such as: “Suzie, your a very sweet friend, but….”

And then make sure to adress the situiation. You dont want them to feel like you do not enjoy them.

This may seem harsh, but threaten them. Clingy friends obviously want to be your friend. So you could say, “Suzie, if this attachment does not stop, I think we need to stop being friends.” That will show the friend that you are serious.

Make sure that the friend realizes that your friendship still has potential if they change.

Let the friend realize that you still have other friends. You still want to associate with them, but that you also have another social life outside of your friendship. For example, “Suzie, I love associating with you and spending time with you, but I still have other friends. I want to hang out with Jenny, Annie, and other people. You should have fun with them as well.”

Let them know that you still want to be their friend. When this discussion occurs, they friend might think that the friendship is over, and that you have no interest in being their friend.

After seeing this video, this is very scary. I know how many of my friends are click happy on facebook!

Always on the cutting edge, Google is once again venturing into a new section of tech – virtual real estate, to be exact. Google has obtained a patent to secure advertising space within its Maps Street View feature, opening a whole new world of internet advertising.

In the online reality game Second Life, users are able to buy ad space and even entire buildings, for use within their virtual world. Essentially, Google will bring this feature into the real world (i.e. Street View). If you utilize the Street View feature now, you see the ads, billboards, along with other ad spaces from years ago. Google will use these existing ad spaces on Google Maps and sell banner advertisements to overlay them. Web users using Street View might find these ads instead. Challenging additional features that come with Maps application, it only seems natural for Google to go in this direction.

Google’s AdSense program has revolutionized internet marketing, and become a revenue-generating powerhouse. Now, Google should be able to take it one step further to monetize among their most successful applications. This move may have much greater implications for future years, and is most likely a sign that Google will start monetizing many of other popular applications in a similar way.

The tech giant already has powerful analytics tools to measure internet user consumption. This post is invaluable, especially to online advertisers. Using the introduction of this new advertising venture, any business will get in on the action, and use this technology to their advantage. Google will likely make these opportunities as good for the advertisers as possible, by location-based searches to target users more effectively, and offering pay-per-click ads, so even the smallest business can get their ad available.

Web’s Fred Lardinois brings up a fascinating point, saying “It makes sense for the owner of a local cafe to advertise through this system, in this patent, Google also describes a marketing auction. Does that mean that the rival coffee shop could also bid for ad space on the virtual image of a competitor’s store in Street View? Chances are this isn’t quite what Google has in your mind, though it could definitely be described as a possibility.” Looking at it in this way, competition will be fierce, especially among top companies that have large advertising budgets. It’s very feasible that Pepsi could buy a billboard occupied by Coca Cola, or vice versa.

Going forward, Google will have to carefully execute and prepare this feature. If banner advertisements hinder the user experience, it could potentially turn online users off from using the Maps application. Web marketing already faces some opposition, therefore it will be interesting to see if Google can transform the way we view online advertising – and just how popular and effective this kind of advertising can be.

What is Conversion rate optimization ? What makes it much wider in scope then SEO and social media optimization?

Social media marketing optimization and Search Engine Optimization helps any online business to get instant and target traffic. After getting instant traffic alternative is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) which can be the practice of converting visitors into customers.

Conversion of real-time visitor to customer is an essential task to do it require plenty of analytic skills , user behavior monitoring , successful landing page optimization etc. conversion is one thing like monitoring real time visitor action on your own website by analytic professionals. Real-time visitor perform any action like making an inquiry, filling web form, subscribing e-newsletter, download white-paper etc. whenever you personally involve in your website monitoring then you will see that more than 70% of your visitors will hit the rear button immediately on coming to your website, and only about 30 of each and every 1000 visitors will actually convert in to a customer. CRO (conversion rate optimization) can help you turn more visitors into customers.

Conversion Rate Optimization is one of the most important. After all, why spend some time and money with Search Engine Optimization and Social media marketing Optimization just to find that first thing your visitor does on coming to your website is press the BACK button.

The easiest method to understand your visitors desires is as simple as looking at your website statistics supplied by your Hosting company, or by other website performance monitoring tools such as Google Analytics, aw stats, Omniture, HBX (WebSideStory), WebTrends, CoreMetrics, ClickTracks, IndexTools, Unica NetInsight. These statistics tools can offer a wealth of information to find out why and where visitors are leaving your website.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Bounce Rates for any website is defined as visitors who press the rear button immediately on arriving at your website. You may be surprised to find that Bounce Rates of 50% are quite typical for small websites. Which means that half of your visitors either doesn’t like, or maybe more importantly, DO NOT SEE what you’re offering in your site. One of the best ways to help your real-time visitors is to find the information you’d like them to find is by removing things like unnecessary advertising, images and links.

Conversion Rate Optimization helps visitors to find what they are looking for. Visitors scan your web page from top-left to top-right and then right down to bottom-left, all being done within a fraction of a second. This is called the Golden Triangle. That is enough time to decide whether this site offers the information they are searching for. Help your visitors find what they’re looking for by putting your posts here and making it as clear that you can.

Static Optimisation is good since it improves the usability of one’s website with the use of clear navigation in your Landing Pages (targeted pages in places you want your visitors to go) and the reduction of distracting links, images and text. Much like Home Staging, Conversion rate optimization should clear the clutter from your website and leave your visitors looking at the message you want them to see.

Dynamic Optimization is all about improving the stickiness of your website, i.e. getting website visitors to want to return again. Visitors have to have a reason to bookmark a website or add it to their favorites, and just by the fact that your website has been found, just isn’t enough. Visitors wish to interact, share information, and they also want content on demand. There are many ways to help keep your visitors returning for example offering a Forum, Newsletter and live Nourishes to name a few.

All of these simple techniques add functionality aimed at your web, bringing it alive and giving these potential customers a much more enjoyable Internet experience.



When you flip through the magazine or newspaper, it’s easy to come across headlines speaking beautiful things about red wine. If you care to take a peep at the specifics of the articles then you will discover that the wine just not tastes good but in addition adds to great health benefits. One of two glasses of red wine consumption is good for health and it proved scientifically that red wine keeps diseases at bay helping you recover from acute heart ailments too.

Since ages, wine is a source of entertainment and main attraction associated with a celebration. It has been the symbol of happiness and glee and its particular every sip has is savored. Nevertheless, today red wine is not a mere symbol of happiness but there are lots of hidden benefits to it and surely, it contributes to health appeal in all sense.

Dark wine and it many benefits

The wine brings with it many benefits. Red wine is especially good with females and helps them prevent menopause. Besides, the wine is good for fighting breast cancer along with other acute diseases. Many feel that the wine can be salubrious for the heart thin French even after consuming high fats and cholesterol- inflicted foods stay healthy as a result of red wine that prevents fat accumulation.

Such a wine can also prevent gum diseases, food poisoning, some types of cancers, retards dementia and prevents neuro-degenerative diseases. The antioxidant properties in the wine help in protecting the body from free radicals. Hence, we can say that burgandy or merlot wine is very good for health if consumed moderately.

If you are wondering whether it is as easy to buy wine as it taste good, then you definitely should know that buying wine is a less complicated task with the advent of computers. With some clicks, you can buy wine and never have to take the physical pain of travelling to the stores.

Buy wine and make it an easy deal

When you buy wine online, you need to abide by a few rules to make the purchase a less complicated task. First, you need to prove your age online which means that your age is above twenty- one years old and you are eligible for the purchase. Besides, you have to make verification through the price comparison web site to find out whether the price of the wine is right. Besides when you buy wine, check the ratings. Wine with good ratings doesn’t imply it is good but the price must be pleasing too. When ratings and prices match, you can buy wine for your satisfaction.

Hence, buy wine only once you have checked through the authenticity of wine and its source of purchase.

The AFC East is going to be quite the battle this season, and despite the fact that New England no longer sits atop as the legit favorite, they’ll be in the hunt along with the Jets and Dolphins. After all, the Pats have won the division crown six of the past seven years and the one season they did not Tom Brady was lost inside the season opener and they still tied the Dolphins atop the division.

Sept. 12 Cincinnati at New England (1:00 PM)
Sept. 19 New England at N.Y. Jets (4:15 PM)
Sept. 26 Buffalo at New England (1:00 PM)
Oct. 4 New England at Miami (8:30 PM)
Oct. 17 Baltimore at New England (1:00 PM)
Oct. 24 New England at San Diego (4:15 PM)
Oct. 31 Minnesota at New England (4:15 PM)
Nov. 7 New England at Cleveland (1:00 PM)
Nov. 14 New England at Pittsburgh (8:20 PM)
Nov. 21 Indianapolis at New England (4:15 PM)
Nov. 25 New England at Detroit (12:30 PM)
Dec. 6 N.Y. Jets at New England (8:30 PM)
Dec. 12 New England at Chicago (1:00 PM)
Dec. 19 Green Bay at New England (8:20 PM)
Dec. 26 New England at Buffalo (1:00 PM)
Jan. 2 Miami at New England (1:00 PM)

That Pats’ NFL schedule ranks the sixth-hardest in the NFL for strength of schedule having an opponents’ cumulative record of 136-120 (.531). In comparison, the Pats’ division compatriots, the Jets, Dolphins and Bills, all have the 16th-toughest schedule.

Over the course of the season they’ll face a playoff team eight times, but six of the games will take place in Gillette Stadium. The only real two playoff teams they’ll face on the highway are the Jets and Chargers. New England can play five games against opponents that won 10 or more games in 2009 and will face every team from the AFC playoffs in 2009 as well as two from the NFC (Green Bay and Minnesota).

Their usual rivalry complement the Colts is on the books again. Somehow oahu is the eighth straight meeting between your two powers, the longest current streak between non-divisional opponents. The Colts have won five of the past six, and each of the past four such as the playoffs have been Decided by four points or fewer. This will be the first time the game is in Foxboro since 2006.

Everything doesn’t start easy for New England with divisional road games at the Jets and Dolphins – the Pats lost at both a year ago — coming before that early Week 5 bye. The Patriots don’t face another AFC East team until Week 13. That sure appears like a 2-2 start, even though New England reaches see the Jets without the suspended Santonio Holmes.

Then look at that six-game stretch following the bye, because there are five potential Super Bowl teams in there with the Ravens, Chargers, Vikings, Steelers and Colts. The sole break comes at home against Cleveland. A 4-2 record there would be very nice and 3-3 at worst is doable.

The Pats experience Thanksgiving for the first time since 2002 and may handle the Lions, who haven’t won on Turkey Day since 2003. At least the Pats then get plenty of time off before a likely huge Monday nighter against the Jets that could well determine the division. In reality, the Pats are likely to be playing in a few major winter weather in four of their final five games. It’s tough to see the Dolphins having a good deal of shot in Foxboro in January.

This appears like a 10-6 record to me for the second year in a row, so I would take the ‘over’ 9.5 for my NFL season win total football picks I’d also still take the Pats to win the AFC East but it doesn’t look much like a Super Bowl team. Remember, this team won just one true road game last year (at Buffalo, the conquer the Bucs was in London).

Cheese. It is a wonderfully versatile food. We use it to top pizzas, to sprinkle on our spaghetti, to spread on crackers. And without cheese, a grilled cheese sandwich would be nothing but buttered toast.

Cheese is produced in many parts of the world, two of the very well known countries being France and Italy. There are many varieties of cheese, but they are all produced in a similar fashion. Milk and cream contain two parts, the solid milk fats, and also the whey. Cheese is produced by inducing the fats to come together, forming curds. This is done by either adding acid or various bacteria to the milk or cream, causing it to curdle. The curds are then processed diversely to form different cheeses. The kind of cheese made depends on the sort of milk used, the percentage of fats within the milk, and the process accustomed to make the cheese. Most cheeses result from cow’s milk, but cheeses are also made from goat’s milk, sheep’s milk, and real mozzerella cheese is made of water buffalo milk. Cheese is generally categorized by it’s texture, hard, semi-firm, semi-soft, or fresh.

Hard cheeses are often aged for 12 months or maybe more. They usually have a sharp salty taste, and therefore are excellent for grating over pasta or salads. Parmesan, Asiago, and Romano are examples of hard cheeses.

Semi-hard cheeses may or may not be aged. In general, the longer the cheese ages, the sharper the flavour will be. A taleggio, which only ages for around 6 weeks will have a milder flavor when compared to a cheddar that has aged for months. Semi-firm cheeses are great melting cheeses, or good you can eat on their own.

Semi-soft cheeses like Camembert are great cheeses for spreading on crackers or crusty bread.

Fresh cheeses vary from a mild cream cheese, to some rich creamy marscapone. These cheeses could be eaten spread on crackers, but you are also commonly used for cooking desserts. Marscapone is an essential ingredient in tiramisu.

While discussing cheese, we can’t forget to cover blue cheese, which is a cheese, with blue-green veins of mold, which provides the cheese a sharp flavor and aroma. Blue cheeses include gorgonzola, roquefort, and stilton.

If you are planning to be serving cheese included in a cheese course, hard, semi-firm, and semi-soft cheeses shoud be allowed to stand at room temperature for an hour before serving. Fresh cheeses, ought to be served chilled. Choose three or four types of cheese, either cheeses sticking with the same characteristics and flavors, or contrasting cheeses. If you’d prefer, you can serve the cheese with crackers or crusty bread. A variety people serve their cheeses having a variety of fruits, apples, pears, figs, and seedless grapes will be good choices, as well as shelled walnuts.

Whether you like using cheese for cooking, or eating on it’s own, cheese delivers it’s own goodness and flavor.