The Management Consulting Group

If you’re like me you look to the lessons that history teaches us. The problem with history is that depending on what side of history you’re on will affect your point of view. An example of this would be the conquering of the west in the United States of America. Your point of view will be drastically different if you’re a descendent of an American Indian as opposed to a descendant of he settlers.

To that end I have compiled a list of 5 books that I feel worthy of passing on to you!
This list is presented in random order; so please don’t read anything into the order
that I have listed them.

1. A Natural History of the Senses, By Diane Ackerman

This book is a mix of a great national geographic article and the history channel.
Read this and you’ll know why and how the nose works. You’ll understand the
intricacies of evolution and have a greater appreciation for your own natural
abilities. A distinct must read.

2. Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do; the absurdity of consensual crimes in our free
country, By Peter McWilliams

This 692 page book will leave you hungry for more pages to read. Mr. McWilliams
passed away in 2000; fortunately for us he left his wisdom with us. The book isn’t
as daunting as a 700-page book would seem to be; especially since every other
page is adorned with a quote from a famous figure. At the heart of the book is a
message that we are all adults and we know better than our government (remember
the prohibition). This book follows the history of consensual crimes (victimless
crimes or vices) in the US. He presents clear arguments for the elimination of the
crimes; read it really is worth it even if you just by it for the quotes.

3. Open Veins of Latin America, By Eduardo Galeano

This book changed the way I view the world. Any time a book makes you feel
passion and emotion you know you are reading a classic. This book traces the
development of Latin America side by side with the US. Warning reading this book
will raise your blood pressure! Not for the faint of heart.

4. A People’s History of the United States; 1492 - Present, By Howard Zinn

A People’s History does that rare thing that I really never received will I was in
school. It gives history from the point of view of the losers. In his first chapter Mr.
Zinn explores the discovery of America from the point of view of the Arawak
Indians. Andrew Jackson is seen through the eyes of the Cherokees, WWI is seen
through the eyes of the socialist, WWII through the eyes of the pacifists and so on. I
never really contemplated the other side. It’s worth a read; especially important in
these days to understand the other side.

5. Profiles in Courage, By John F. Kennedy

I am currently reading this book for the first time and even though I have gotten
through just the first 50 pages; I whole-heartedly recommend this book. Kennedy
profiles courageous politicians starting with President John Quincy Adams. It’s
incredible to read the problems Adams faced; his political problems of 225 years
ago are as fresh and pertinent today as they were in his day. What I take away from
the first 50 pages of this book is that it is our duty to keep our politicians honest.
Accountability for our politicians is something that we sadly lack the zeal for in this
information age.

H.I.S.S. Home Inventory Service Specialists is headed up by Richard Berroa; a
producer whose background is in live T.V. production and documentaries. At HBO,
NBC and PBS; Rich was responsible for gathering all the information for the shoot
(the who, what, when, where) and putting them to insure a successful production
(the How). That skill set is now put to work for your own H.I.S.S. catalog; which is a
mini production itself. The same commitment, attention to details and meticulous
organization will now work for you. We are a company set up to serve an under
served need; the fact is that all insurance companies tell their clients to make an
inventory but they do not provide this service to their customers. WHY? Maybe it is
because it’s simply is not in their (the insurance company’s) best interest.
Empowering you the customer is our priority. We are insured; currently we service
the entire east coast but we are willing to travel beyond on a per case basis. CEO:
http://www.myhiss.com

Sezer Yurtseven was the second housemate to be evicted from the Big Brother house and won two dubious honours in the process. Firstly, he was evicted by the largest public vote margin of all time – a massive 91.6%, making him the show’s most detested housemate in Big Brother’s seven series run.

He also became the earliest male housemate to be evicted from the house, having been shown the door by the end of week two.

Sezer was a shoe-in to leave as far as the bookmakers were concerned as soon as it was revealed he was one of three housemates up for eviction. He was available at 3/10 which plummeted to 1/33 by Friday evening.

However, first thing Monday morning, Sezer was available at comparatively gigantic odds of 12/1 to be the second person evicted as whinging Nikki was the firm favourite to leave next at even money.

The situation changed dramatically by the time it came to nominations as not only was Nikki receiving favourable edits from the production team, showing the likes of Grace talking about her behind her back, but in a dramatic twist both Sezer and Imogen were banned from nominations after being caught discussing them.

Both Sezer and Grace were not portrayed well in the highlights show, with Grace bitching at every opportunity and Sezer bragging about how he could survive the chop against almost anyone in the house, especially the surgically enhanced Lea.

Just before the nominations were announced to the public, Grace was odds-on favourite to leave at 1/2 and both Nikki and Sezer at 7/2.

Despite behaving like a proper little madam since she arrived in the house, Nikki didn’t receive a single nomination while Grace received two which wasn’t enough to put her up for the public vote.

Richard received the most at four nominations, with both Lea and Sezer receiving three apiece. The trio would be put up for the public vote and Sezer got his wish of going head-to-head with Lea.

The bookmakers didn’t believe in Sezer’s invincibility as much as the Turkish Cypriot stockbroker did and immediately priced him up as 3/10 favourite. Sezer’s cause was not helped by one leading tabloid newspaper which only published his eviction number and urged readers to vote him out.

The press and Big Brother themselves love a pantomime villain and Sezer duly delivered and not even Victor from Big Brother 5 was detested as much for “ruining” Shell’s mock wedding if you judge by the overall voting percentage.

There is no other stone that has the mystery of the opal. With its fiery colors and magnificent spectrum of color it draws you in and you are helpless to look away.

Every opal is different. There are no two stones the same. And every stone reflects the light differently depending on its depth and personal characteristics. This stone eludes a mystical aura without even trying.

Opals are extremely popular for jewelry and it’s not hard to figure out why with that beautiful array of color. Soft and feminine yet fierce and bold.

Opal has the honors of being October’s birthstone. Back to ancient times it has been associated with magical qualities. It was believed to bring both good and bad luck. Some cultures used opals in white magic and believed they brought good fortune. Other cultures considered them a third eye that would allow you to tell the future.

Opals are a semi precious stone but a black opal can cost as much as a diamond. The amount of fire in the opal and where it comes from will determine the price. Pale opals can be purchased quite cheaply but the more fiery or red the more expensive the opal becomes.

Opal jewelry comes in a variety of style and is set in both gold and sterling silver. Sometimes you’ll see triplet or stacked opals, other times they are set solitaire. They also come in a variety of different cuts.

There are several types of opals:

The fire opal is probably the most popular. It is translucent with fiery orange and red flecks. The colors are vivid and intoxicating. This opal is sometimes called the Mexican opal or the Cherry opal.

The white opal is an opaque milky white with light flashes of rainbow colors.

The boulder opal is a natural solid opal with a fine layer of opal deposited on an iron base.

The water or jelly opal is colorless and transparent and has no color play.

The crystal opal is also transparent, but displays a rainbow of color. It is so transparent you can see through it on a light surface.

The Mosaic opal is just what it says. Small irregular pieces of opal tightly fit together. It’s a great way to use chips and is very affordable.

The opal doublet is made of sliced layers of natural opal that is too thin to be used in a single set. It is bonded and set on black glass or ironstone which enhances its color. The doublet opal is much cheaper because you are buying less true opal.

Synthetic opals are created in a lab and although they basically have the same properties as a natural opal by law the jeweler must tell you if it is a synthetic stone.

Contrary to what you hear opals are no more difficult to take care of then other stones. You should not knock or bang them and you should keep them out of direct sunlight or heat.

One thing you need to know is that opals cannot be cleaned in commercial jewelry cleaner or any other harsh chemical solution. Rather use a soft brush and water with a dab of vinegar, then rinse thoroughly.

Water will not hurt your opal unless it is a doublet or triplet then you should not immerse in water. Solid stones are fine. See that’s not so difficult.

So the next time an opal draws you in and wants to go home with you why not add this beautiful mysterious stone to your jewelry collection. Only then will you experience the mystery of the opal.

Sher from Estate Jewelry International have been serving customers for over 20 years, providing affordable estate jewelry, and a wealth of information on jewelry, fashion, designers, and beauty with on staff industry professionals. Please visit us at Estate Jewelry International.

SP*M is the scourge of the Internet. Everyone hates SP*M. Even
SPA*MERS hate SP*M!

For the average email user it’s an annoyance. But for the
Internet marketer it represents a serious threat. If you’re
sending ezines, autoresponder messages or solo ads as a means of
building your business, then there’s every chance that between
10% and 50% of your recipients never get your email.

It’s the SP*M blockers you see.

More and more email users have installed SP*M blockers to
prevent all the thrash from ever reaching their inbox. Likewise,
an ever-increasing number of ISPs use similar technology to
protect their users.

This represents a serious challenge to the legitimite marketer
who’s sending legitimite emails to legitimite opt-in recipients.

It’s gotten to the point where I can’t even spell the word SP*M
in this article for fear it never reaches you. I should also
avoid words like FR*E or M*NEY or OPP*RTUNITY or even something
apparently harmless like CLICK BEL*W!!

In fact, there’s so many things that will clock up points on the
SP*M blocker’s index, that it’s getting near impossible for us
to write anything in our emails. (If you’re interested, you can
see an extensive list of the kind of stuff that will earn you
SP*MMER points at http://spamassassin.org ests.html).

So what can you do to get around this problem?

Simple. You’ve got to determine whether the emails you send out
are going to pass the SP*M blockers criteria or not.

Here’s how to do it without spending a penny…

1. Download and install Eudora email software from
http://eudora.com (it’s FR*E!).

2. Download and install Spamnix from http://www.spamnix.com (the
FR*E version is fine).

3. Set up one of your existing email accounts in Eudora or
create a new one especially for the purposes of testing your
mails.

4. Every time you have an email ready to send to your opt-in
subscribers, send a test copy to your email account in Eudora
first. Spamnix will examine the mail and, if it looks like SP*M,
it will filter it into a special folder it creates to handle
this kind of thing. Spamnix will also tag a report on to the
bottom of the message that shows you exactly what’s wrong with
your email to earn it such a poor reputation.

Now, all you have to do is tweak your message according to the
Spamnix report and try again. Keep doing this until Spamnix no
longer considers you a dirty rotten SP*MMER.

Because Spamnix uses the same criteria as just about every other
SP*M blocking software, you can now be quite certain that your
email will reach its intended recipients.

So, don’t let those SP*MMERS drive you out of business. Take
action today to ensure that their dodgy business practices are
not costing you dearly.

And with that I’ve got to sign off… I’ve just received a H*T
offer on how to make L*ADS of M*NEY selling VI*GRA to people
with M*RTGAGES who W*RK from H*ME to pay off their CR*DIT C*RD
B*LLS!

Or something.

Menopause refers to a stage in woman’s life characterized by a permanent cessation of her menstrual activities. It implies that a woman stops having her monthly menstrual periods for the rest of her life, after she achieves the menopause. A normal healthy woman reaches the menopause between the ages of 40-50. Menopause marks the end of a woman’s fertility and reproductive years. During the menopause, production of the estrogen hormone reduces drastically in a woman and her ovaries stop producing eggs.

It can take 5 years for a woman to achieve the final menopause stage. If a woman has not experienced any menstrual periods for a year, the condition is known as menopause. When a woman is in her puberty stage or childbearing years, her ovaries release an egg every month. This release is known as ovulation. Ovaries also produce the hormone estrogen. This hormone instructs the uterus to build up a lining. This lining allows the implant and growth of the fertilized egg.

As the women nears her menopause years, the production of estrogen decreases. As a result, she will experience irregular menstrual cycles. The irregularities include skipped periods, light or heavy menstrual flow. A woman could also experience random bleeding as well.

Symptoms of Menopause
Menopause is a natural and biological process. It is not a disease. It is just a transition period of a woman’s life. 75% of women experience some or all of the troublesome symptoms during the menopause. There are no common symptoms as every woman’s body would react in a unique way towards the menopause. Here are some of the common symptoms that women show during the phase of menopause.

Hot flashes are landmark signs of menopause. As the level of estrogen drops in a woman, her blood vessels expand rapidly. This causes her skin temperature to rise. This can further cause hot flashes or a sudden spread of warmth to her shoulders, head and neck, starting from her chest. This sudden gush of warmth causes a woman to sweat, and when the sweat evaporates from her skin, she feels chilled, and slightly faint. Women also experience raid heart beating and a feeling of anxiety. The face of a woman looks flushed. She might experience red blotches on her neck, arms and chest area.

These hot flashes usually last up to 30 seconds and in some cases up to several minutes. There is no common frequency or duration of hot flashes as they vary from a woman to woman. Women often experience hot flashes during the initial years after their menopause.

Hot flashes affect the life of a woman directly. If they happen during night, they can disrupt the sleep. They cause night sweats. A woman can often wake up and have trouble getting back to sleep again. This results in lack of restful and refreshing sleep, which can have a knock on effect in the morning.

Irregular periods
As a woman approaches her menopause stage, she experiences irregularity in the menstrual periods. Periods become either long or short. Menstrual bleeding becomes heavier or lighter. A woman might experience skipping of periods. These symptoms mark the onset of menopause.

Vaginal thinning
As a result of menopause the production of estrogen decreases. As a result of it the organs such as urinary bladder, vagina, uterus, and urethra become weak and shrink. When bladder and urethra become weak and shrink, they can lead to infection, leakage of urine and painful urination.

As the tissue lining of vagina shrinks a woman experiences pain during intercourse. A woman might also suffer from vaginal dryness, irritation and itching.

Changes in appearance
During the menopause transition, a woman on an average gains 5 pounds of weight. Initially this weight was believed to get concentrated on hips and thighs of a woman. New researches have shown that the weight might settle in a woman’s abdomen too.
A woman might experience wrinkling of the skin, fullness in breasts, and thinning hair.

Behavioral and emotional changes
A woman might experience fatigue, irritability and frustration during menopause. She might experience decreased concentration and memory loss. These changes are a direct result of hormonal fluctuations in her body during menopause.

Weak bones
As a result of menopause the density of bones in a woman’s body tends to decrease. She starts losing calcium from her bones following the drop in estrogen levels. This can lead to a condition of weak bones known as osteoporosis. A woman also becomes susceptible to fractures.

The menopause is completely a natural phenomenon marking the end of a woman’s reproductive term, but not the end of her life. It is a transition time, the symptoms of which can be effectively managed.

Michael Jason writes articles on a number of different topics. For more information on Menopause symptoms please visit www.menopause-guide.org/ and for additional Menopause related articles please visit the following article page www.menopause-guide.org/menopause-articles/

The lodge decor style has an appealing quality that creates a
“safe haven” feeling of a cabin in the woods?

When beginning this decorating process, let your imagination
take you to being stranded in a snow storm in the middle of the
woods, but at the same time, being safe and warm in your little
cabin. Snow falling, warm fire crackling, cozy blanket to wrap
up in on your favorite sofa. With these images in mind, there is
no doubt that you will be inspired to create a cozy cabin
atmosphere in your home.

It’s not that you have to live in the middle of the woods to be
able to create this lodge decor style feeling successfully.
Simply allowing your imagination and creativity to take over
will enable you to express this idea through decorating
techniques, furniture and accessories. You can use outdoor
themes, such as, pinecones, black bears or moose to help you
with accomplishing your lodge or cabin theme.

The abundant presence of wood, either for the floors, walls or
both, has an amazingly warm affect. If you have wood flooring,
enhance its beauty with a braided rug or lodge rug for an
important accessory in any room. These style rugs fit perfectly
with lodge decor. If you do not have wood flooring, you can
still use these area rugs on top of your existing carpeting for
added color, texture, and warmth. If you don’t have wooden
wallcoverings, you can consider painting techniques, or use
wallpaper that has a log or wood pattern. There are some
wallpaper patterns that are very realistic.

Another wallcovering idea that has rustic appeal is stone.
Especially for one wall in a room, while the others are painted
or wallpapered. Cultured or manufactured stone works best for
this project, as they look and feel like real stones, but are
much lighter and easier to apply.

Choose rich, warm colors when considering curtains, furniture,
or wall covering. Warm colors are an essential element for
establishing a cozy home. Of course, there is a characteristic
in plaids that are associated with cabins and lodge style decor.
You can incorporate this print with pillows, curtains or by
placing a plaid blanket over the back of a chair or sofa.

Rustic lighting, such as, metal lamps and wall sconces, are the
perfect lighting sources for supporting your lodge decor theme.
Also, don’t overlook the switchplates, as they can be treated
like a wall decoration.

The lodge decor style, also sometimes considered cabin or rustic
decor, can be created throughout your home, or if you want, only
in one or two rooms. It blends well with all country decor
styles, so whichever way you prefer, it will transition well
from one room to the next.

What can I do to be a better coach? The Eight Step Coaching Model describes the process, yet too often the focus is on techniques only. “How can I say it to win my point, get others to do things my way, or convince them?” Focusing only on one technique is fundamentally manipulative. Good leadership coaching, like good parenting, is a way of being as well as doing. This way of being, or our values, drives our behaviors. Like Olympic figure skaters, coaches should evaluate themselves in two areas; skills and style, the expression of your values.

Neither Gandhi nor Martin Luther King ever took a course in non violence; Harry S. Truman on straight talk; Abraham Lincoln on valuing diversity; or Walter Cronkite on integrity. They trusted their values to guide them toward doing the right things. They were the essence of their values. Similarly, how many times have we admonished our teenagers before departing for a night out with friends: “Don’t forget who you are!”? Your values are on display throughout your coaching discussions and particularly in Step One of the Coaching Model – Be supportive. Note it doesn’t say Do Supportive. Support is an inside job, an inner decision, about how you want to relate to others and the values you will attempt to live in your relationship with others.

Partnering with, versus managing and controlling those you coach, is based on two different value sets. Partnering is predicated on a basic value of helping other achieve their goals. Without a partnering/helping core value, focusing only on supportive words and actions results in shallow words with no heart felt meaning or motivation and disingenuousness.

Which of these two coaches would you like to work with? One who had excellent technique, a real smooth communicator who valued control and getting their way; or the other who lacked good technique but had a fundamental belief in others, and a desire to help them achieve their goals?

Fortunately we are not faced with these black and white distinctions. Effective leadership coaching from a helping value base requires both skills and a critical assessment of how you view your role: a resource or gate keeper; helper or competitor; catalyst or controller; facilitator or salesperson; mentor or boss; teacher or teller?

Before entering into a coaching discussion, ask yourself one simple question: What is my mindset or paradigm, adversary or ally? Your answer to that question will have the most impact in your coaching relationship. Self evident? Then, why in a non-business setting does conventional wisdom make the case that parent–adolescent relationships are unavoidably adversarial? Why is there such a dark history of labor management relationships? Why do managers have such a difficult time with letting go and trusting others to do the right thing? Partnering is predicated on the coach wanting to create an alliance and a helping relationship. This inner decision to live this value will drive the collaborative partnering behavior upon which effective leadership coaching and the Eight Step Coaching Model are based.

If you would like to learn more about effective leadership coaching and CMOE’s Eight Step Coaching model please contact a Regional Manager at (801)569-3444 or visit their website.

As I look through my various forum links and review some of my
company email, I keep coming across questions relating to
generating inbound links to increase web site ranking. No matter
who you are, if you have a web site online you are always
looking for ways to improve your link popularity. While most SEO
practitioners will tell you that getting other related,
non-competing, websites to link to you should be high on your
priority list if you want better PR from Google or better
rankings, most web site designers miss the most obvious way to
get these valuable one way inbound links. There is a way to do
that plus generate additional content for your web site at the
same time. You can get those quality inbound links while
expanding your content which will bring the search engine
spiders to your web site more often. By following my
suggestions, you will be able to kill two birds with one stone,
and make your visitors happy while increasing your rankings and
making the spiders happy all at once.

Everyone is an expert at something.

It’s true, everyone has many years of experience at something.
Maybe you have been in a job for the past 20 years and know just
about every aspect of it, or maybe you’ve been making paper
airplanes as a hobby for just as much time. Either way, you have
20 years of knowledge about something that others could be
looking for information to read on those topics. Maybe you have
already built a web site taking advantage of that knowledge and
are looking to use it as a means to make a living, or maybe it’s
about a hobby and you want to make a living with that. Either
way, each of us has valuable knowledge that other people might
want. Why not take some time, sit down and think about your
business experience or hobby, and then write some “How To”
articles about it? If you have a web site that already uses that
hobby, or work experience, then it is a good way to add content
to your web site, and it’s also a good way to help you get those
inbound links you need to increase your rankings.

Using the Knowledge to Gain Link Popularity through Article
Writing.

Let’s say you have 20 years of experience with a company where
the only thing you did was to conduct interviews to hire new
employees. Let’s further say you were so good at this that it
was the only thing your company wanted you to do. Because your
results were so good, it’s the only thing you did do. Maybe your
prospects always worked out and were some of the hardest and
most competent workers your company ever hired. You could write
some articles on how to interview job candidates to get the best
employees, or maybe write articles telling job seekers what
companies are looking for in their potential employees. If you
have a web site for job seekers, or a web site for learning how
to interview employees, you could then use the articles for
additional web site content. It’s already a known and proven
fact that the search engine spiders can be conditioned to visit
your site more often through your patterns of adding content.
The more often a site updates, the more often the spiders come
to visit. The more often they visit, the better chances that
your web site will begin to jump in rankings because it is
viewed as a fresh content site that updates frequently and would
be more valuable to visitors.

Some might think there are just some topics so vague or
uninteresting that it wouldn’t be worth writing anything in that
topic area, but the professionals know there are readers for
almost any topic area, and no one topic is to be avoided because
of poor readership. It all comes down to your writing style,
ease of reading, and your credibility. If you can write gripping
content that pulls your readers in and informs them, then it
doesn’t matter what you write about. In the end, the reader will
be looking for you and not your article. This is not something
that happens over night. It takes a lot of writing and a lot of
time to hone your skills to that point. It takes writing daily
and forcing oneself to try different topics. It’s good to start
out with what you like, but to become a professional and have
flexibility, you have to write about other things too. Not only
will this experience help you become a more professional writer,
it will also help to develop your communication skills in the
written format. As you continue to use better forms of writing
and grammar, you will begin to write content pages for your site
that rank better with the search engines. It’s a win-win
situation all the way around.

Articles to Increase One-way Inbound Links and Web Site
Ranking.

Speaking of those rankings, that reminds me of those one-way
links I spoke about earlier. After you write your article, you
can submit it to other places online which will post it to their
web site, offer it to other web sites as free content, or both.
Most of these places will allow you to submit your own
information for an “Author’s Box” or “Author’s Bio” area which
they publish at the bottom of each article. These are things
like information about you, your web site, and LINKS you can add
back to your site. There you go, instant high quality in-bound
links without the need to add the other web site’s link to
yours, no begging, no paying extortion amounts of fees for an
ad, just good old fashioned content to promote your own
abilities and web site. It’s the easiest way to get a one-way
in-bound link to your site IF you can develop your writing
skills and your content viewed as valuable to another web site.
If you write garbage, your information isn’t credible and is
full of factual holes, or your writing puts people to sleep,
then chances are that your articles aren’t going to do anything
more than waste your time. That’s why it’s critically important
to get into the habit of writing often and learning the flow of
your chosen language.

You see, the more you write, the more you train your ear to
listen to the written words, and the more you learn what
“sounds” right and what doesn’t quite seem to make sense. As I
write an article, I am talking within my mind while I write.
Yes, maybe I am a bit strange, but it works for me. I add my
intonations and elevate my voice for emphasis, and I try to find
ways to convey that in my writing. I’m no “expert”, but this is
what works for me, and I have a decent amount of articles
published, which means I must be doing something right.
WebProWorld and WebProNews seem to like me, or at least my
writing style or the topics I cover. Maybe it’s just my
sincerity LOL. Hey, I do my best. I try to offer the facts and
ensure that I do my research before I write any article outside
my field of knowledge. Character helps to build a writer, and a
healthy dose of commitment to the reader doesn’t hurt either,
but you have to find ways to build credibility and trust.
Without those two things, nobody is going to read what you
write, and if they do, they aren’t going to be likely to click
on links back to your site. You have to get their attention and
compel them to want more of your writing. That’s what will make
your one-way inbound links even more valuable.

The Most MISSED Secret to Link Popularity through Writing
Articles.

OK, so now you have the knowledge to write articles and submit
them as a means to gain valuable one-way links to your web site,
what are you going to do with it? Are you going to sabotage your
own web site by failing to pay attention to the link you
formulate in the articles submitted? The more articles I read, I
tend to find a common error repeated by authors all over the
internet. Now granted, these are writers, not SEO specialists,
but this is just an example where it pays to round out your
knowledge in many areas of web site promotion, ranking, and
design. The BIGGEST mistake I see authors make when attempting
to gain inbound links is the keywords they FAIL to use within
those links. You see, so many writers worry about branding their
name. That works just fine for writers building portfolios for
selling their copy writing abilities where name recognition
becomes the search term a searcher looks for, but if you aren’t
a writer and are just using your knowledge to gain inbound
links, then you need to use your keywords in those links back to
your web site. It’s so simple that most times it’s overlooked.
Many will also use a company name as the link back to their web
site. Many of my articles have ended up that way because I
overlooked the obvious too. Nevertheless, by following this
method, it is a sure way to increase your company name, or your
name, but does NOTHING to increase the link popularity for the
keywords applying to your site.

Take for instance Sanders Consultation Group Plus. That’s my
company’s name. We provide web site design services, image and
graphical art services, business consultation services, SEO
services, and just about anything else to get your web site
promoted, up, and running. I tend to take a page-by-page view of
our site and link popularity. What I mean by that is I take
various areas, choose specific keywords, and search terms I want
our site to gain in rank popularity. I have recently done some
page optimizing for our web site design area; incidentally, web
site design has been the most searched term for web site design
services. It corresponds to one of the services we offer, and
it’s the most popular search-term people use when searching for
that type of service. Let’s say I write an article talking about
web site design. The next article I write on web site design
will include the company name, Sanders Consultation Group Plus,
but it will also include the term “web site design” linked to
the page we have recently optimized for our web site design
services. As I already said earlier, this is such a simple
concept that most people often overlook, and it can be a
detriment to your link popularity goals. And as we optimize each
area of our site, I will continue to write articles based on the
area keywords and phrases, and will then place links in my
Author’s Box to link back to those optimized pages.

It’s a reported fact that one-way in-bound links are worth more
than reciprocal links. However, for many web site designers and
webmasters, the ways to gain them has been somewhat elusive.
Many fear that imparting their knowledge will give competitors
an edge over the writer’s own business. What most fails to
consider is the number of people that start out as the “do it
yourselfer” and then realize there is more work than they
intended to do. When they find your articles, you become a
source for them to get their work done without their need to
invest large amounts of time on the project. This is where the
benefits of article writing will pay off, especially if you gain
credibility and trust through your readers. Even if a competitor
does notice one of your articles, sometimes they can be so
impressed and overwhelmed that they’ll write things about you,
include links to you, and you still come out on top. I’ve seen
it happen before. Someone reads something so profound that it
changes his or her life. They tend to tell others about the
change and how the change occurred.

Articles are a valuable way to get recognition, gain reputation
and credibility while increasing your link popularity. Done
wrongly, and it will do nothing but increase your reputation and
credibility. Done correctly, and it can raise your ranking
popularity and bring you added customers on top of the other
benefits. Take the time to learn how to write effectively. Write
daily and learn the flow of your chosen language. Write
truthfully and credibly. Make sure to give provable facts while
keeping the hype to a minimum. Use keywords in your Author Boxes
and find highly trafficked sites to submit to. Learn to write in
such a way that engages your readers’ minds and makes them want
to read more of your writing. If you can do all this, not only
will you become a trusted expert, but you will also gain
increased traffic to your web site and leverage your web site
income goals through increased link popularity and higher search
engine rankings. At the least, it will give you plenty of
content to update your web site and increase search engine
spidering.

Weddings are a wonderful time. For you, the bride and groom, it is a time to celebrate love and finding the person with whom you will live happily ever after. For your family, this may be a chance to renew ties and have a reunion. For your friends, it’s a chance to party! It is an exciting and happy time for everyone.

The reception is meant to be a time to let the joy sill over so why not plan some activities and entertainment to make it even more fun. For example, in some countries, the single ladies avoid catching the bouquet so the bride doesn’t do the bouquet toss. The ladies are all gathered and asked to form a ring and a bunch of flowers, usually roses, are passed around in time to music. When the song is stopped, the ladies are asked to check if their flower is the one with a special tag or marking. That lady is given the bouquet.

For couples who love to dance, why not have a really good big band play. It’s wonderful to have musicians who can croon you the sweetest love songs and who can also get everyone’s feet tapping to the beat. Your wedding planner is sure to have a list of performers who can get your guests in the mood.

You may also have some family traditions that can keep the celebration swinging. Bring out those dances that can be easily taught and will be a new experience for some of the guests. Reels and line dances are fun to watch and even more enjoyable to do. Get everyone into the groove!

Welcome to the third in my Texas Holdem Strategy Series, focusing on no limit Texas Holdem poker tournament play and associated strategies. In this article, we’ll build upon the poker tournament strategy fundamentals from last time, with some important poker betting strategy basics.

Winning at Texas Holdem poker doesn’t have to be a gamble, since it’s actually a game of skill. Of course, there will always be an element of chance, but there’s a lot more strategy and skill to poker than meets the untrained eye. When you learn to play the odds properly, it can make a huge difference in your winnings.

No limit Texas Holdem is the game of choice these days - and for good reason. The fact that anyone can decide to push a large raise or all of their chips into the pot by going “all-in” at any moment, adds an exciting dimension to the game. Unlike limit Texas Holdem, where each round of betting takes place in prescribed, fixed increments, no limit Texas Holdem is as varied as the players at the table, since everyone chooses their own betting style and approach.

When playing no limit Texas Holdem, you’re faced with some important decisions. Arguably, the most important decision you’ll make is how much to bet in a given set of circumstances; e.g., hand strength, your position at the table, total number of players, their styles, etc. There are many different betting strategies, but one of the first things to learn and pay close attention to are “pot odds” and whether you have a positive “expectation” to win.

You have a positive expectation whenever the odds favor you winning more than you’re wagering at anything greater than 1 to 1 odds. For example, when flipping a coin, there is a 50/50 chance of it coming up either heads or tails. If you flip a coin enough times, both heads and tails will come up an equal number of times.

Casino games, such as craps, blackjack, slot machines, etc. all give the player a “negative” expectation and the casino a positive expectation. If you play these types of “gambling” games long enough, you will ultimately lose, since the game’s odd structure is never in your favor – negative expectation. People who experience “hot streaks” also have losing streaks (they just usually quickly forget about the losing and don’t discuss it). When you’re making a wager, you’d always prefer to have a positive expectation. This is generally true in poker, but not necessarily always in no-limit poker. I’ll explain why.

Pot Odds are the odds the pot is giving you for making a bet. Let’s say there is $50 in the pot and it’ll take $10 more to call - you’re getting 5-to-1 pot odds to call, since if you win you’ll be paid $50 in exchange for risking only $10. For purposes of this decision, any amounts you previously placed into this pot are irrelevant, since they’re already expended and gone (if you fold).

It’s essential to understand pot odds as it relates to your hand odds, as one key factor in making your betting decisions. If the odds of you holding or drawing to the winning hand are better than the odds the pot is giving you, you should call or even sometimes raise; otherwise, you should typically fold (unless you’re going to bluff, a different story).

Continuing this example, let’s say you’re holding a pair of fives, and the board flops 9, K, 2 “rainbow” (no flush draw, different suits). With 9 players at the table, it’s certainly possible and likely that someone else holds a King or a Nine, or both, making your 5’s look pretty flimsy at this point. Your best shot to win is to draw another 5. There are two more 5’s remaining out of the 47 cards that you can’t see (in the deck or in another player’s hand).

So, the odds of pulling that next 5 on the turn or river are: 2 in 47 (2/47 = about 4%) on the Turn, plus another 2 in 46 on the River (an additional 4%), for a total of roughly 8.6%, which equates to a 1-in-11.6 chance of pulling that third 5 to make a set. Since the pot is only giving 5-to-1 odds, it’s generally time to fold. Otherwise, you’d just be “gambling” with a highly negative expectation of losing that additional $10. In no limit Texas Holdem, players will often raise the pot sufficiently to actually lower your pot odds so far that you can’t possibly justify staying in the hand – at least not statistically.

Clearly you can’t sit there in a real poker room with a calculator and run through all of these pot odds calculations while at the table! So, how does one learn poker odds well enough to apply them in real-time? Well, it starts by seeing the poker odds repeatedly, in a context that’s suitable for you to learn and eventually retain them. A poker odds calculator is a piece of add-on software that runs on your PC, monitoring your actual online play. A poker odds calculator computes the prospective hands you and your opponents are capable of drawing at any point in time. It then displays all possible hands you and the opponents could draw, teaching you what the odds of making that kind of hand would be.

This makes it easy to see what’s going on, and since a poker odds calculator displays the poker odds right there in front of you while you play, you’ll begin to learn them, making it semi-automatic, so you don’t even think about poker odds any more - you just know them. So, the first step is learning and internalizing these “hand odds”. Then, you can quickly calculate pot odds anytime you’d like.

Calculating pot odds requires you to pay close attention to the game, a key trait of good poker tournament players. Unlike playing online, where the total size of the pot is easy to determine (the online Texas Holdem poker program typically displays the pot amount right there on the screen for you), when you play in traditional offline poker tournaments, you must keep track of the pot size and chip count yourself, so you can estimate the pot odds and your best betting options.

Pot odds become especially interesting as the blinds and antes increase as the tournament progresses. Let’s say there are 10 players at your table, and the poker tournament structure has you at $25 antes with $200/$400 blinds. That’s a total of $850 that’s sitting thre in each and every pot before anyone even places their first bet! So, before you even look at your hand, you know that the minimum bet is $400, so you’ll need a good hand (with roughly 1 in 2 odds or better) in order to simply break even.

At this point, people will be angling to “steal the blinds” by placing a hefty bet, typically at least two times the big blind, or $800, in order to make the pot odds so unattractive that everyone just folds. Therefore, the first player to act often makes off with the booty, since the pot odds become even less attractive and most everyone hasn’t made a good enough hand to call. Of course, this can definitely backfire…

Let’s say the first player to bet raises to $800 in an attempt to steal the blinds, making the total pot now $1,650. Let’s say that a second player then calls with another $800, boosting this pot to $2,450. To get in on the action, you’d only need to call with $800, which means if you win the hand you’re getting a slightly better than 3 to 1 on your money. If it’s the Flop and you are one card short of making a King-high flush, then your hand odds are roughly 1-in-3. This would be “even money” if you joined in on this basis alone; however, you’re holding a King and there’s a King on the board from the Flop, so you now have a better than 1 in 3 chance of winning – a positive expectation! You place your $800 bet, so now the pot sits at $3,250.

You should generally make this bet, since it will yield a good return and you have the high pair (Kings), plus a flush draw, thereby improving your odds even further. Let’s say there was an Ace also showing, making your Kings second best pair. In this case, it time to fold because you have a less than a 1 in 3 chance of winning this hand, and if you continued throwing money at this pot, you’ll end up “pot-committed” and beaten by a pair of Aces (there’s usually at least one player in 10 hanging in there with an Ace hole card).

So, let’s say the last player to act goes “All-in” - after we’ve put our $800 in this pot. Now what? The first reaction should be – what kind of hand *could* this player actually hold? If the player is a relatively tight or solid player, chances are they’ve made a set or an Ace high flush. It’s always possible they’re bluffing, but very unlikely if they’re a good player, since there are already far too many people in this pot and it’s likely they’d get called with a real hand when bluffing.

So, what’s happened to our pot odds? Let’s say they went all-in with $5,000, pushing this pot up to $8,250. If you called with $5,000, you’re now only getting a 8.25 to 5 return, or roughly 1.65 to 1 – especially unattractive under the circumstances with highly negative expectation and so many players in this hand, further reducing your chances of winning. Therefore, everyone will likely just fold; unless they have a very strong hand plus a great draw (some outs).

There’s clearly a lot more to poker betting strategy, including position and acting first vs. last. Generally speaking, though, if you’re going to take a shot at that pot, and you’re in a position to act first, there’s a good chance everyone else will fold; however, you’d better think carefully about the pot odds the opponents will be getting after your bet is in there.

If your bet modifies the pot size such that it improves their pot odds (by limping in with just a small bet), you’re actually encouraging the opponents to hang in there with you, since they still have a good, positive (and improving) expectation level. If you bet enough, such as two to three times the size of the big blind, you’ll be reducing their pot odds enough to swing into a negative expectation, so they’ll be much more likely to fold. It’s really important to think your bet amounts through and understand the pot odds implications of your betting.

When you make such a play at the pot, it’s ideal to have some kind of hand, along with a good draw. If you find yourself short-stacked, then this may be as good as it gets. Bluffing will be covered more thoroughly in a later article, but at this point it’d be great to have at least a small pair, as well as a good straight or flush draw (since you’ll also have the potential to make a set of trips, too). In this situation, you have so many good “outs” that your small pair begins to look a lot stronger, and your hand odds acceptable enough to go on a “semi-bluff” at this pot.

So, these are the basics of Texas Holdem poker tournament betting strategy that you should know and practice (the other good players do). Knowing your basic hand odds and being capable of quickly calculating pot odds are essential to making intelligent betting decisions under fire in poker tournaments, and regular ring game and limit play for that matter. A good poker odds calculator will help you learn the hand odds, and along with practicing calculating your pot odds, you’ll be making better decisions and getting the best of it the next time you play Texas Holdem poker.

In the next article, we’ll explore a popular Texas Holdem poker tournament format – the Sit & Go poker tournament. Until then, have fun. And as always - good luck!

Rick

Rick Braddy is an avid writer, Texas Holdem player and professional software developer and marketer for over 25 years. His websites and Texas Holdem poker software specialize in helping people become better Texas Holdem poker players. If you’re a poker player, be sure to visit his Texas Holdem website today and learn how you can play better Texas Holdem, too.