Yes, yes, I know claims like that in the title are seen more regularly than a roach in a big city apartment, but I think the ideas behind the strategy I’m about to comment on, might just be real winners.
(Actually, I know they are, but that’s between you and me. OK?)
See here how it was used very successfully with a Get Paid to Drive Your Own Car scheme.
Firstly, I suppose the idea is a bit of a variation on the old adage used for scripting a business presentation:
1. Tell them what you’re going to tell them (sets the scene, gets the audience interested)
2. Tell them (provides the benefits to the listening audience)
3. Tell them what you told them (summarises and tells the audience what to do next)
But, for sales strategies, the idea goes like this:
1. Here’s what I’ve got for you (sets the scene, gets the client’s interest)
2. Here’s what it will do for you (provides details of how it will benefit the client)
3. Here’s what I want you to do next (how the client can start to turn an idea into a tangible benefit)
Now, what could be simpler than that?
A very good friend of mine recently launched a new business, taking full advantage of the massive increase in the price of gas (petrol). His timing was excellent and while the actual business idea wasn’t new, the way he sold it, using the simple strategy above, worked a treat.
He used it with the hugely popular GPT or Get Paid To…. in this case, get paid to drive your own car.
He joined forces with advertisers who make extensive use of billboards, and used the simple three-step strategy to sell them the idea of switching at least a substantial number of their static billboards, into mobile billboards, using Joe Public and their ordinary private cars. What he had for the advertisers was a substantial reduction in the cost of their billboard advertising (#1 above). He told them exactly what savings would accrue and presented them with detailed financial projections (#2 above), with scenarios based upon different multiple numbers of mobile billboards. He told them that he would return in 10 days, with a commitment from as many car owners as they wanted, up to 100 each to start with, and would at that time, present them with a contract that they could sign there and then (#3 above) - their lawyers would have already approved it.
He had already set up a website, fully SEO optimized, to attract car owners who wanted to get paid to drive their own car to totally cover the cost of their gas (petrol). They would do this by agreeing to wrap their cars in an advert from one or other of a number of well known and highly acceptable advertisers. In any case, the car owner would always have the option of saying no, if he or she disapproved of the product being advertised.
In addition he took out quarter page ads in several local/regional newspapers and a 30 second ad on a couple of commercial radio stations.
To attract car owners, my friend adopted again the simple three-step strategy.
For (#1 above) he told interested people who owned a car (any car, SUV, truck or MPV), that they could earn a substantial new income every month. For (#2 above), he told them that this would totally cover their gas or petrol bill AND a leave a lot more to cover the car’s maintenance and even its insurance. In some cases, he told them, it would even leave some over for saving or for spending on car improvements. The easiest was for (#3 above), when he told them all they had to do was go to his website and complete the registration.
All was 100% free. No charges whatsoever. My friend made his money from the advertisers so he could ensure that Joe Public didn’t have to pay one single cent.
Now, is that three-step sales strategy a good deal or what?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Michael is British and a long term resident of Asia (Hong Kong and now Malaysia). After 25 years with a global banking leader, he now has a successful consulting business which has branched out to include database/direct marketing aswell as Internet and Affiliate Marketing. Michael may be contacted through his web site, and for the topic of this article please see http://www.makingdollars4u.com/driving.html His management consulting company and contact details are at http://www.skillnet-resources.com
Friday, August 29, 2008
You seem like a great kid, but I want business contacts, not friends
The traffic experts tell us that we can drive big numbers to our websites and blogs by joining the social networking websites such as Facebook, My Space, Stumble Upon, Blog Catalog, Digg, etc etc.
I agree, and simultaneously disagree.
Yes, it is indeed possible to drive pretty reasonable numbers to your site, but too often they are very unfocused and fall well outside your target audience, even when you’ve been fairly tight on the groups, networks and neighbourhoods you’ve joined.
For example, I’ve only joined business related groups on Facebook, Stumble Upon and Blog Catalog, but I keep getting messages from kids young enough to be my offspring, telling me they’ve added me as their friend and would I please do the same. Sorry pal, I’m sure you’re really nice but if you could be a serious business contact, great, but just for socialising, I’d be a big disappointment to you. Come back when you’re a potential buyer of my affiliates’ products or in business for yourself, and we could then be the best of both – a friend and a business contact.
I’ve got plenty of friends in the real world, but online, I want good business contacts, who could, of course, become very good friends, but I want them as buyers first. Yes, mercenary, I know, but that’s the name of the game, I ain’t on Blog Catalog or Facebook for any other reason than to drive serious, potential buying, mature traffic to my website.
To do this, I’ve been a member on Linked-In for some years, and have found this pretty useful, and additionally I’m a member of several serious and not so serious forums, where 95%+ of the members are very much potential buyers. Here people are far more focused and mature, and frankly could not care less whether you want them as a friend or not. Subtle selling through discreet signatures which appear at the bottom of every one of my posts, is all that seems to be necessary.
What I would like to see, however, is all of the major networking sites add an option to their registration form which allows joiners to indicate whether or not they welcome messages from other members to be either:
I. Business contact
II. Friend
III. Both
That way everyone should be happy.
I agree, and simultaneously disagree.
Yes, it is indeed possible to drive pretty reasonable numbers to your site, but too often they are very unfocused and fall well outside your target audience, even when you’ve been fairly tight on the groups, networks and neighbourhoods you’ve joined.
For example, I’ve only joined business related groups on Facebook, Stumble Upon and Blog Catalog, but I keep getting messages from kids young enough to be my offspring, telling me they’ve added me as their friend and would I please do the same. Sorry pal, I’m sure you’re really nice but if you could be a serious business contact, great, but just for socialising, I’d be a big disappointment to you. Come back when you’re a potential buyer of my affiliates’ products or in business for yourself, and we could then be the best of both – a friend and a business contact.
I’ve got plenty of friends in the real world, but online, I want good business contacts, who could, of course, become very good friends, but I want them as buyers first. Yes, mercenary, I know, but that’s the name of the game, I ain’t on Blog Catalog or Facebook for any other reason than to drive serious, potential buying, mature traffic to my website.
To do this, I’ve been a member on Linked-In for some years, and have found this pretty useful, and additionally I’m a member of several serious and not so serious forums, where 95%+ of the members are very much potential buyers. Here people are far more focused and mature, and frankly could not care less whether you want them as a friend or not. Subtle selling through discreet signatures which appear at the bottom of every one of my posts, is all that seems to be necessary.
What I would like to see, however, is all of the major networking sites add an option to their registration form which allows joiners to indicate whether or not they welcome messages from other members to be either:
I. Business contact
II. Friend
III. Both
That way everyone should be happy.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Is This the Simplest, but Most Effective, Sales Strategy Ever?
Yes, yes, I know claims like that in the title are seen more regularly than a roach in a big city apartment, but I think the ideas behind the strategy I’m about to comment on, might just be real winners.
(Actually, I know they are, but that’s between you and me. OK?)
See here how it was used very successfully with a Get Paid to Drive Your Own Car scheme.
Firstly, I suppose the idea is a bit of a variation on the old adage used for scripting a business presentation:
1. Tell them what you’re going to tell them (sets the scene, gets the audience interested)
2. Tell them (provides the benefits to the listening audience)
3. Tell them what you told them (summarises and tells the audience what to do next)
But, for sales strategies, the idea goes like this:
1. Here’s what I’ve got for you (sets the scene, gets the client’s interest)
2. Here’s what it will do for you (provides details of how it will benefit the client)
3. Here’s what I want you to do next (how the client can start to turn an idea into a tangible benefit)
Now, what could be simpler than that?
A very good friend of mine recently launched a new business, taking full advantage of the massive increase in the price of gas (petrol). His timing was excellent and while the actual business idea wasn’t new, the way he sold it, using the simple strategy above, worked a treat.
He used it with the hugely popular GPT or Get Paid To…. in this case, get paid to drive your own car.
He joined forces with advertisers who make extensive use of billboards, and used the simple three-step strategy to sell them the idea of switching at least a substantial number of their static billboards, into mobile billboards, using Joe Public and their ordinary private cars. What he had for the advertisers was a substantial reduction in the cost of their billboard advertising (#1 above). He told them exactly what savings would accrue and presented them with detailed financial projections (#2 above), with scenarios based upon different multiple numbers of mobile billboards. He told them that he would return in 10 days, with a commitment from as many car owners as they wanted, up to 100 each to start with, and would at that time, present them with a contract that they could sign there and then (#3 above) - their lawyers would have already approved it.
He had already set up a website, fully SEO optimized, to attract car owners who wanted to get paid to drive their own car to totally cover the cost of their gas (petrol). They would do this by agreeing to wrap their cars in an advert from one or other of a number of well known and highly acceptable advertisers. In any case, the car owner would always have the option of saying no, if he or she disapproved of the product being advertised.
In addition he took out quarter page ads in several local/regional newspapers and a 30 second ad on a couple of commercial radio stations.
To attract car owners, my friend adopted again the simple three-step strategy.
For (#1 above) he told interested people who owned a car (any car, SUV, truck or MPV), that they could earn a substantial new income every month. For (#2 above), he told them that this would totally cover their gas or petrol bill AND a leave a lot more to cover the car’s maintenance and even its insurance. In some cases, he told them, it would even leave some over for saving or for spending on car improvements. The easiest was for (#3 above), when he told them all they had to do was go to his website and complete the registration.
All was 100% free. No charges whatsoever. My friend made his money from the advertisers so he could ensure that Joe Public didn’t have to pay one single cent.
Now, is that three-step sales strategy a good deal or what?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Michael is British and a long term resident of Asia (Hong Kong and now Malaysia). After 25 years with a global banking leader, he now has a successful consulting business which has branched out to include database/direct marketing aswell as Internet and Affiliate Marketing. Michael may be contacted through his web site, and for the topic of this article please see http://www.makingdollars4u.com/driving.html His management consulting company and contact details are at http://www.skillnet-resources.com
(Actually, I know they are, but that’s between you and me. OK?)
See here how it was used very successfully with a Get Paid to Drive Your Own Car scheme.
Firstly, I suppose the idea is a bit of a variation on the old adage used for scripting a business presentation:
1. Tell them what you’re going to tell them (sets the scene, gets the audience interested)
2. Tell them (provides the benefits to the listening audience)
3. Tell them what you told them (summarises and tells the audience what to do next)
But, for sales strategies, the idea goes like this:
1. Here’s what I’ve got for you (sets the scene, gets the client’s interest)
2. Here’s what it will do for you (provides details of how it will benefit the client)
3. Here’s what I want you to do next (how the client can start to turn an idea into a tangible benefit)
Now, what could be simpler than that?
A very good friend of mine recently launched a new business, taking full advantage of the massive increase in the price of gas (petrol). His timing was excellent and while the actual business idea wasn’t new, the way he sold it, using the simple strategy above, worked a treat.
He used it with the hugely popular GPT or Get Paid To…. in this case, get paid to drive your own car.
He joined forces with advertisers who make extensive use of billboards, and used the simple three-step strategy to sell them the idea of switching at least a substantial number of their static billboards, into mobile billboards, using Joe Public and their ordinary private cars. What he had for the advertisers was a substantial reduction in the cost of their billboard advertising (#1 above). He told them exactly what savings would accrue and presented them with detailed financial projections (#2 above), with scenarios based upon different multiple numbers of mobile billboards. He told them that he would return in 10 days, with a commitment from as many car owners as they wanted, up to 100 each to start with, and would at that time, present them with a contract that they could sign there and then (#3 above) - their lawyers would have already approved it.
He had already set up a website, fully SEO optimized, to attract car owners who wanted to get paid to drive their own car to totally cover the cost of their gas (petrol). They would do this by agreeing to wrap their cars in an advert from one or other of a number of well known and highly acceptable advertisers. In any case, the car owner would always have the option of saying no, if he or she disapproved of the product being advertised.
In addition he took out quarter page ads in several local/regional newspapers and a 30 second ad on a couple of commercial radio stations.
To attract car owners, my friend adopted again the simple three-step strategy.
For (#1 above) he told interested people who owned a car (any car, SUV, truck or MPV), that they could earn a substantial new income every month. For (#2 above), he told them that this would totally cover their gas or petrol bill AND a leave a lot more to cover the car’s maintenance and even its insurance. In some cases, he told them, it would even leave some over for saving or for spending on car improvements. The easiest was for (#3 above), when he told them all they had to do was go to his website and complete the registration.
All was 100% free. No charges whatsoever. My friend made his money from the advertisers so he could ensure that Joe Public didn’t have to pay one single cent.
Now, is that three-step sales strategy a good deal or what?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Michael is British and a long term resident of Asia (Hong Kong and now Malaysia). After 25 years with a global banking leader, he now has a successful consulting business which has branched out to include database/direct marketing aswell as Internet and Affiliate Marketing. Michael may be contacted through his web site, and for the topic of this article please see http://www.makingdollars4u.com/driving.html His management consulting company and contact details are at http://www.skillnet-resources.com
Monday, August 4, 2008
The Recruitment Interview – A Waste of Time?
In general terms it’s pretty undeniable that the interview alone is a highly flawed recruitment tool, including occasionally even in the hands of an experienced recruiter. As such, interviewees at this level should be (or should make themselves) well placed to take full advantage. But take care. You could also come very unstuck, especially if the company uses a partial or full multiple assessment process, or behavioral interviewing techniques, with or without core competencies are measurement tools.
Why is the recruitment interview flawed?
The major reason, in my view, is that it is not really that hard for the socially skilled candidate to mask his or her flaws because they have “interviewed so well”.
As a former senior HR manager with arguably the world’s largest international bank, I lost count, in the early days, of the number of times one of my recruitment executives told me “what a nice guy! He’s just right for us.” If this was at a recruitment exercise where we weren’t using a multiple assessment process, then that sort of comment scared the pants off me.
What do they mask?
A socially skilled interviewee is of course usually a pleasure to interview. While they may well tell you very convincingly of their successes, and even comment on a few failures for good measure, as an interviewer you take their word for it at your peril. At interview they cannot demonstrate their inter-personal skills in a team environment, nor with colleagues, more senior managers nor lower level staff.
They also of course mask their technical skills level. For example, let’s say you’re interviewing candidates for the post of Production Manager. OK, you can talk with them about their experience to date, and (assuming you’re a line manager with production responsibilities, and not an HR executive), you may well get a certain level of comfort or, of course, the exact opposite.
OK, so what can we do differently?
No, I’m not merely going to drive you towards a multiple assessment approach, for that isn’t always necessary, nor is it always economically justified, especially in times of economic growth when good candidates call the shots, not you.
Have you tried a style that is commonly known as “Behavioral Interviewing”?
Essentially with behavioral interviewing we are attempting to prevent the candidate from waffling, or even fabricating, by having him or her recount a particular incident from their actual experience. They are forced to talk about something real, something which has happened in the past.
For example, I might ask: “Please tell me of a time in your work experience when you’ve been faced with a particularly negative attitude of one of your direct reports.”
What happens if they say they’ve never had such an experience, in which case I would ask them to recount any experiences they’ve had with poor attitudes from shop assistants or similar. Anyone who cannot provide such an example either comes from another planet or are not being truthful.
Their answer can tell us a lot about the way in which they might manage people, even the way in which they lead. It should tell us how well they understand behaviors, and the effect of negative behaviors on those around them.
In another scenario, we might ask: “Tell me of a time when you’ve had a particularly difficult problem to handle, how you approached it, and the resultant outcome.” There is so much we can learn about a candidate from such a question – their balance of analysis and creativity in problem solving, their communication skills, their leadership and managerial approach, their reasoning skills and so on.
This works best, perhaps unsurprisingly, when you are also measuring responses against a set of core competencies (described in a previous article of mine on here), but even without the benefit of competencies, you can still get far better value from the interview, than if you were conducting it on traditional lines.
It’s been quite some time since I interviewed in any other way, and of course the major benefit is that the vast majority of employees selected have stayed, have grown and are a terrific vindication of spending just that little more time and effort in the recruitment process.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Michael is a British citizen, but long term resident of Asia (Hong Kong and Malaysia). After 25 years with a global banking leader, he headed up his own HR and Management consulting company, and today this successful business has branched out to include database/direct marketing aswell as Internet and Affiliate Marketing. For the former, contact is at http://www.skillnet-resources.com and for marketing businesses at http://www.makingdollars4u.com . We look forward to hearing from you.
Why is the recruitment interview flawed?
The major reason, in my view, is that it is not really that hard for the socially skilled candidate to mask his or her flaws because they have “interviewed so well”.
As a former senior HR manager with arguably the world’s largest international bank, I lost count, in the early days, of the number of times one of my recruitment executives told me “what a nice guy! He’s just right for us.” If this was at a recruitment exercise where we weren’t using a multiple assessment process, then that sort of comment scared the pants off me.
What do they mask?
A socially skilled interviewee is of course usually a pleasure to interview. While they may well tell you very convincingly of their successes, and even comment on a few failures for good measure, as an interviewer you take their word for it at your peril. At interview they cannot demonstrate their inter-personal skills in a team environment, nor with colleagues, more senior managers nor lower level staff.
They also of course mask their technical skills level. For example, let’s say you’re interviewing candidates for the post of Production Manager. OK, you can talk with them about their experience to date, and (assuming you’re a line manager with production responsibilities, and not an HR executive), you may well get a certain level of comfort or, of course, the exact opposite.
OK, so what can we do differently?
No, I’m not merely going to drive you towards a multiple assessment approach, for that isn’t always necessary, nor is it always economically justified, especially in times of economic growth when good candidates call the shots, not you.
Have you tried a style that is commonly known as “Behavioral Interviewing”?
Essentially with behavioral interviewing we are attempting to prevent the candidate from waffling, or even fabricating, by having him or her recount a particular incident from their actual experience. They are forced to talk about something real, something which has happened in the past.
For example, I might ask: “Please tell me of a time in your work experience when you’ve been faced with a particularly negative attitude of one of your direct reports.”
What happens if they say they’ve never had such an experience, in which case I would ask them to recount any experiences they’ve had with poor attitudes from shop assistants or similar. Anyone who cannot provide such an example either comes from another planet or are not being truthful.
Their answer can tell us a lot about the way in which they might manage people, even the way in which they lead. It should tell us how well they understand behaviors, and the effect of negative behaviors on those around them.
In another scenario, we might ask: “Tell me of a time when you’ve had a particularly difficult problem to handle, how you approached it, and the resultant outcome.” There is so much we can learn about a candidate from such a question – their balance of analysis and creativity in problem solving, their communication skills, their leadership and managerial approach, their reasoning skills and so on.
This works best, perhaps unsurprisingly, when you are also measuring responses against a set of core competencies (described in a previous article of mine on here), but even without the benefit of competencies, you can still get far better value from the interview, than if you were conducting it on traditional lines.
It’s been quite some time since I interviewed in any other way, and of course the major benefit is that the vast majority of employees selected have stayed, have grown and are a terrific vindication of spending just that little more time and effort in the recruitment process.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Michael is a British citizen, but long term resident of Asia (Hong Kong and Malaysia). After 25 years with a global banking leader, he headed up his own HR and Management consulting company, and today this successful business has branched out to include database/direct marketing aswell as Internet and Affiliate Marketing. For the former, contact is at http://www.skillnet-resources.com and for marketing businesses at http://www.makingdollars4u.com . We look forward to hearing from you.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Get Paid to Test Video Games (and enjoy playing them too!)
If, like me you have teenage kids, one aspect of the internet you’ll have noticed, perhaps negatively, is the massive growth and availability of video games. Whether they are sports related, auto related, sci-fi or cops and robbers, they have all the appeal that youngsters have always harbored for arcade games over the past five or more decades. The only difference is that the arcade is now in your home.
This also means, of course, that the kids of yesterday, today’s adults, can still indulge in their love of the arcade, but without the embarrassment of sitting next to a kid a quarter their age, who seems to be the ultimate Ninja nemesis.
At any one time some 10m people around the world are estimated to be playing one or other of the Net’s millions of video games, and of these some 10% are aiming to make money by winning the game. But that is an entirely different opportunity to the one I am discussing. Mine has zero relationship with gambling, none at all.
It does not take a great imagination to realise that this is a multi-billion dollar industry, right around the globe. Thousands of companies exist from Denver to Dubai, Beijing to Birmingham and from Sydney to Singapore, to design, develop, write the software, test, de-bug and market the countless numbers of new or re-designed and re-issued games that reach the world gamers each and every year.
For anyone who loves playing these video games, and also loves earning extra money, a role exists that is tailor-made for you.
The thousands of video game makers and developers urgently need people to test their new products, often in large numbers. The beauty is that they almost exclusively communicate with their testers by email, and the testers download the beta game versions from private websites, or from an email attachment. Therefore you can live just about anywhere in the world and still apply to be a video game tester.
As a tester you get to:
* Play video games
* Get paid to play video games before their release to the public
* Make money testing video games that haven't yet been released
* Get complimentary copies of video games
* Find out all about level secrets, cheat codes, and other fun stuff, all before anyone else
* In doing all this you’ll also get to learn a lot, an awful lot, about the video game industry. You can learn about how the different departments work, about marketing, about customer service, about manufacturing and about how the whole operation comes together to get a new video game out to the public.
Once you are accepted as a tester, you can expect to earn up to about $50 per hour, sometimes less, occasionally more. It is normal for you to be able to choose how many (or how few) hours you work, but obviously the more you work, the more you can earn.
This soon adds up too. If you chose to work say four hours a day, at $50 per hour you could earn $200 a day. If you chose not to work weekends, but consistently did the four hours every weekday, you would make $1,000 a week and $52,000 in a year!
Many of the gamer testing sites do not impose a minimum age for applying, but the better ones state clearly that they will only send games intended for unrestricted release to anyone who cannot verify their age as being over 18.
Now to the old, thorny question of payment scams or free sites that just want your email address for spamming.
I have adopted the usual maxim which applies across my site: if the game testing site does not offer a money back guarantee, I won’t touch it. If it does not guarantee that it will offer up-to-date contacts with game developers, who will offer you a specific number of games to test each month, I won’t touch them either. If the site has not been in business for over a year, and thus not yet proven as genuine (especially in the prompt payment of refunds under the money back guarantee), this is another I won’t touch.
I suggest you follow a similar maxim.
Michael is a British citizen, but long term resident of Asia (Hong Kong and now Malaysia).
After 25 years with a global banking leader, he began to head up his own Management consulting company, and today this successful business has branched out to include database/direct marketing aswell as Internet and Affiliate Marketing. Michael may be contacted through his web site http://www.makingdollars4u.com or directly via email mikeATmakingdollars4u.com Please particularly check out http://www.makingdollars4u.com/videogames.html where gamer testing opportunities are available.
This also means, of course, that the kids of yesterday, today’s adults, can still indulge in their love of the arcade, but without the embarrassment of sitting next to a kid a quarter their age, who seems to be the ultimate Ninja nemesis.
At any one time some 10m people around the world are estimated to be playing one or other of the Net’s millions of video games, and of these some 10% are aiming to make money by winning the game. But that is an entirely different opportunity to the one I am discussing. Mine has zero relationship with gambling, none at all.
It does not take a great imagination to realise that this is a multi-billion dollar industry, right around the globe. Thousands of companies exist from Denver to Dubai, Beijing to Birmingham and from Sydney to Singapore, to design, develop, write the software, test, de-bug and market the countless numbers of new or re-designed and re-issued games that reach the world gamers each and every year.
For anyone who loves playing these video games, and also loves earning extra money, a role exists that is tailor-made for you.
The thousands of video game makers and developers urgently need people to test their new products, often in large numbers. The beauty is that they almost exclusively communicate with their testers by email, and the testers download the beta game versions from private websites, or from an email attachment. Therefore you can live just about anywhere in the world and still apply to be a video game tester.
As a tester you get to:
* Play video games
* Get paid to play video games before their release to the public
* Make money testing video games that haven't yet been released
* Get complimentary copies of video games
* Find out all about level secrets, cheat codes, and other fun stuff, all before anyone else
* In doing all this you’ll also get to learn a lot, an awful lot, about the video game industry. You can learn about how the different departments work, about marketing, about customer service, about manufacturing and about how the whole operation comes together to get a new video game out to the public.
Once you are accepted as a tester, you can expect to earn up to about $50 per hour, sometimes less, occasionally more. It is normal for you to be able to choose how many (or how few) hours you work, but obviously the more you work, the more you can earn.
This soon adds up too. If you chose to work say four hours a day, at $50 per hour you could earn $200 a day. If you chose not to work weekends, but consistently did the four hours every weekday, you would make $1,000 a week and $52,000 in a year!
Many of the gamer testing sites do not impose a minimum age for applying, but the better ones state clearly that they will only send games intended for unrestricted release to anyone who cannot verify their age as being over 18.
Now to the old, thorny question of payment scams or free sites that just want your email address for spamming.
I have adopted the usual maxim which applies across my site: if the game testing site does not offer a money back guarantee, I won’t touch it. If it does not guarantee that it will offer up-to-date contacts with game developers, who will offer you a specific number of games to test each month, I won’t touch them either. If the site has not been in business for over a year, and thus not yet proven as genuine (especially in the prompt payment of refunds under the money back guarantee), this is another I won’t touch.
I suggest you follow a similar maxim.
Michael is a British citizen, but long term resident of Asia (Hong Kong and now Malaysia).
After 25 years with a global banking leader, he began to head up his own Management consulting company, and today this successful business has branched out to include database/direct marketing aswell as Internet and Affiliate Marketing. Michael may be contacted through his web site http://www.makingdollars4u.com or directly via email mikeATmakingdollars4u.com Please particularly check out http://www.makingdollars4u.com/videogames.html where gamer testing opportunities are available.
Seriously Good Leaders Use Emotional Intelligence as a Primary Tool
It is probably undeniable that the skilled use of emotional intelligence (EI) is of greatest importance within the field of healthcare, most particularly where, for example, a hospice patient is surrounded by a loving family.
A healthcare leader, be they a doctor or an administrator, needs what I would call spiritual and social competency high up in their personal traits. They need to be able to naturally relate to the fragile emotions of the patient’s loved ones, but also to the very human feelings of the medical staff who are caring for the patient.
However, today’s successful leaders, in just about any field, will be skilled in the use of EI as a leadership tool, and be most adept at using the natural competences they have. As commentators on the topic, we too need to recognize that those who are self-aware frequently have an inherent understanding of the motivations and feelings of others. They are capable of not only experiencing their own tense emotions, but are also able to contain them. The skill, of course, is in the compassion they are able to genuinely exhibit, while openly relating to those they are leading, be they patients, staff, or simply team members in any workplace team.
Do not under-estimate the value of a leader who naturally displays these traits. He or she is worth their weight in gold. I’d love to run a few of the political or corporate world’s leaders through an EQ questionnaire, but I think I know what some of the results might be. We can all think of some examples, but discretion being the better part of valor, prevents me from being specific!
One of the questions we must ask is, of course, whether or not EI can be learned and practiced in a way that at least provides the support given by those who are lucky enough to have it naturally. My own answer is that it can indeed be learned, although those whose behavioral traits lean away from sensitivity to others, will be, to say the least, rather handicapped.
Contrary to popular belief, EI is both psychological and physiological. EI uses core feelings and sensations as the source of our emotional sensitivity and therefore our emotional intelligence. It is thought that our core feelings, emotions and sensations are probably conceived in the womb and begin to be developed in the second month after birth. They are the center of our uniqueness, our individuality, our personality and our very natural instincts, such as those of survival, security, competitiveness, independence, decisiveness and anxiety, to name a few.
As trainers, as learning facilitators, we can help delegates to understand because EI is instinctive, it cannot be eliminated from our resource arsenal.
While it may be hidden, the skilled facilitator can help it come from hidden cerebral depths, right to the forefront, and enable such leaders to become skilful users of EI in their workplace leadership roles.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the learning of EI is not really that different to any other form of learning where we take messages on board from both our successes and our failures, learning to develop the latter and turn them into the former. Never was the homily that “Mistakes are Learning Opportunities” so true, as in the understanding of the processes EI learning.
In a business sense, I come from two very different environments. On the one hand my HR consulting company deals exclusively in the real world, with all the issues with which most will be familiar, but my online business is primarily devoid of face-to-face human contact and is perhaps less common. Or is it?
So far we’ve really only thought about leaders in the world of bricks and mortar. Let’s now take a brief look at EI for those who operate not just in the cyber world, but also those from the bricks and mortar world who work primarily alone or at least independently.
That is particularly the world of the work and stay-at-home Mom (or Dad), for example as Affiliate Marketers or earning through working at home on an affiliate’s program.
For S-A-H Moms and Dads, I would ask them to make an effort to integrate their thoughts with their feelings. This can become a very powerful tool and technique. However, the intuitive language of the body may be drowned by the logical language of the mind. Then you may not be able to hear yourself at an instinctive level. Online businesses, more than the bricks and mortar variety, need the creativeness of the intuitive language, as us guys are not so often given the benefit of stimulation by face-to-face contact.
Fascinating stuff, eh? True, but that will have to do for now.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Michael is a British citizen, but long term resident of Asia (Hong Kong and Malaysia). After 25 years with a global banking leader, he headed up his own HR and Management consulting company, and today this successful business has branched out to include database/direct marketing aswell as Internet and Affiliate Marketing. For the former, contact is at http://www.skillnet-resources.com and for marketing businesses at http://www.makingdollars4u.com . We look forward to hearing from you.
A healthcare leader, be they a doctor or an administrator, needs what I would call spiritual and social competency high up in their personal traits. They need to be able to naturally relate to the fragile emotions of the patient’s loved ones, but also to the very human feelings of the medical staff who are caring for the patient.
However, today’s successful leaders, in just about any field, will be skilled in the use of EI as a leadership tool, and be most adept at using the natural competences they have. As commentators on the topic, we too need to recognize that those who are self-aware frequently have an inherent understanding of the motivations and feelings of others. They are capable of not only experiencing their own tense emotions, but are also able to contain them. The skill, of course, is in the compassion they are able to genuinely exhibit, while openly relating to those they are leading, be they patients, staff, or simply team members in any workplace team.
Do not under-estimate the value of a leader who naturally displays these traits. He or she is worth their weight in gold. I’d love to run a few of the political or corporate world’s leaders through an EQ questionnaire, but I think I know what some of the results might be. We can all think of some examples, but discretion being the better part of valor, prevents me from being specific!
One of the questions we must ask is, of course, whether or not EI can be learned and practiced in a way that at least provides the support given by those who are lucky enough to have it naturally. My own answer is that it can indeed be learned, although those whose behavioral traits lean away from sensitivity to others, will be, to say the least, rather handicapped.
Contrary to popular belief, EI is both psychological and physiological. EI uses core feelings and sensations as the source of our emotional sensitivity and therefore our emotional intelligence. It is thought that our core feelings, emotions and sensations are probably conceived in the womb and begin to be developed in the second month after birth. They are the center of our uniqueness, our individuality, our personality and our very natural instincts, such as those of survival, security, competitiveness, independence, decisiveness and anxiety, to name a few.
As trainers, as learning facilitators, we can help delegates to understand because EI is instinctive, it cannot be eliminated from our resource arsenal.
While it may be hidden, the skilled facilitator can help it come from hidden cerebral depths, right to the forefront, and enable such leaders to become skilful users of EI in their workplace leadership roles.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the learning of EI is not really that different to any other form of learning where we take messages on board from both our successes and our failures, learning to develop the latter and turn them into the former. Never was the homily that “Mistakes are Learning Opportunities” so true, as in the understanding of the processes EI learning.
In a business sense, I come from two very different environments. On the one hand my HR consulting company deals exclusively in the real world, with all the issues with which most will be familiar, but my online business is primarily devoid of face-to-face human contact and is perhaps less common. Or is it?
So far we’ve really only thought about leaders in the world of bricks and mortar. Let’s now take a brief look at EI for those who operate not just in the cyber world, but also those from the bricks and mortar world who work primarily alone or at least independently.
That is particularly the world of the work and stay-at-home Mom (or Dad), for example as Affiliate Marketers or earning through working at home on an affiliate’s program.
For S-A-H Moms and Dads, I would ask them to make an effort to integrate their thoughts with their feelings. This can become a very powerful tool and technique. However, the intuitive language of the body may be drowned by the logical language of the mind. Then you may not be able to hear yourself at an instinctive level. Online businesses, more than the bricks and mortar variety, need the creativeness of the intuitive language, as us guys are not so often given the benefit of stimulation by face-to-face contact.
Fascinating stuff, eh? True, but that will have to do for now.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Michael is a British citizen, but long term resident of Asia (Hong Kong and Malaysia). After 25 years with a global banking leader, he headed up his own HR and Management consulting company, and today this successful business has branched out to include database/direct marketing aswell as Internet and Affiliate Marketing. For the former, contact is at http://www.skillnet-resources.com and for marketing businesses at http://www.makingdollars4u.com . We look forward to hearing from you.
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