Reference Page

Every business owner I consult with views a Google first page listing as the holy grail of online business marketing.

It's rare to discuss any business growth strategies without someone complaining they can't get their products & services on the first page on Google.

Google web page SEO secrets of listing on Google first page outlines strategies for the first page of Google. This Google website page first technology placement is achievable.

I consult for several different business across 42 different countries and I have noticed a definitive shift in conventional business marketing during the last three years.

Business owners are becoming more comfortable with internet business and e-commerce trading. I have noticed a sharp increase in the number of conventional businesses making the transition to an online presence.

And why not. E-commerce offers all businesses a tremendous opportunity for exponential business growth by tapping into additional complimentary revenue streams that they could not access in a conventional business.

One should think of search engines as contemporary dinosaurs, i.e. huge monsters who dominate the world of online marketing. In reality Google is the biggest meanest search engine in the land. This is why business owners and marketing specialists are keen to achieve a Google first page listing.

Google Web Page SEO Secrets Of Listing On Google First Page # 1 Natural Organic Listing

A first page of Google on the left side of the Google website page, is what is referred to as natural or organic listing.

Whenever customers search for a product or service on the Google submit page and land on the Google results page they are 4 to 6 times more likely to buy from a search engine organic listing than from a sponsored link or Pay Per Click listing.

In relation to first technology, the first page on Google is king. Some business consultants refer to this concept as pages Google.

Google Web Page SEO Secrets Of Listing On Google First Page # 2 Pay Per Click PPC

One of the quickest ways to get on the first page of Google is to invest in a pay per click marketing campaign to run on the Google website page.

In no time at all you can rise up the first page on Google by simply paying more than your competitors.

One of the best kept SEO secrets is that a new business can place higher on the PPC Google results page than a huge competitor who has been trading for many years. From a first technology perspective PPC advertising on the Google submit page offers many added value benefits for your online marketing campaign.

Google Web Page SEO Secrets Of Listing On Google First Page # 3 Search Engine Optimisation SEO

SEO on the Google website page is one of the best kept SEO secrets. Unfortunately many online marketing companies exploit what is known as first technology.

By this I mean many SEO specialists prefer to baffle conventional business owners with first technology black art terminology.

Some SEO marketing companies deliberately mislead non techie business owners by informing them they need a lead time of anything from 9 to 18 months to achieve a natural first page of google listing for your products or services.

In reality if you know a trust worthy SEO specialist he or she can get you a natural organic SEO listing on the first page on Google in a week and sometimes less.

Google Web Page SEO Secrets Of Listing On Google First Page # 4 Top 5 Listing

When business customers search via the Google submit page a top five listing on the Google results page demonstrates a sense of confidence in online buyers.

This is known in first technology parlance as positioning 'above the scroll on pages Google.' I am of course referring to a top 5 listing on the first page of Google for natural organic searches.

Google Web Page SEO Secrets Of Listing On Google First Page # 5 SEO Page Domination

If as already discussed, we know that online buyers are 4 to 6 times more likely to purchase products and services from a natural organic first page on Google. And we know that customers have more confidence in companies placing in natural search engine placement then it makes good business sense to try and dominate the organic rankings.

The very best way to dominate the search engine rankings is to employ the services of a professional business writer who is trained and skilled at writing proven successful articles about business products and/or services which have proven successful at dominating the search engine natural organic listings.

Online SEO business writers agree that any article which places 3 times in the top 10 positions on any search engine search page dominates the SEO page.

If this writer can gain high placement on pages Google then it is likely he or she will achieve similar high placement and domination on the other main search engines.

To view how a professional article can achieve SEO page domination cut and paste the following article title; Serious Organised Crime - Financial Scam By The British American Security Expert into Google MSN Bing, Yahoo, Ask or AOL and look at how many times the same article features on the first 3 pages of each search engine page.

As a matter of interest, when I just checked it out for myself, the same article actually placed in the 1st 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12, 13th,14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, & 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 28th, 29th & 30th, place on page 1 to 3.

I think any SEO specialist would consider this as true SEO page domination. It is worth mentioning that very, very few SEO marketing companies can achieve true SEO page domination despite the fact that most will tell you they can.

It's a highly specialized marketing skill. Now if one places themselves in the mind-set of a prospective customer looking to buy products or services from the British American Security Expert for example, then he or she can only be seriously impressed at this SEO page domination.

It is worth mentioning that I am only advocating an ethical and legitimate method of dominating the organic rankings by virtue of specialized article writing and submission designed to appear multiple times on the Google results page.

Some SEO companies try to circumvent the search engine rankings by implementing unethical processes known in the SEO business as Black Hat techniques. Attempting to implement any Black Hat techniques will result all of the main search engines black listing your business.

It is exceptionally difficult to get your online business back on track once the search engines have black listed you.

Dr Mark D. Yates The International Business Guru & Growth Consultant grows businesses fast delivering exponential growth, increased turnover & profit margins. He delivers business support to small, medium & large businesses in 42 countries. To claim his FREE business case files e-mail him at drmarkdyates@aol.com.

Sometimes questions will arise around the subject of gateway information pages or doorway pages. People have heard that "doorway pages" are BAD and some have stated that search engines "hate doorway pages".
For clarification on these type of issues, let's start by explaining some simple ground rules looking beyond the jargon and terminology.
Do Search Engines Hate Doorway/Gateway Pages?
To answer this we'll examine it in two steps.
Let's understand:
1. What it is that the Search Engines "HATE"?
and then...
2. What type of pages the search engines "LOVE"?
With this approach it will help us gain some understanding of the criteria that is most important.
1. What the Search Engines HATE:
a) To put it simply, search engines despise low quality doorway pages that contain little or no useful content. A few years ago these type of low quality doorway pages were rampantly produced as a means to try and trick the search engines. Looking at it from the search engines point of view, why even publish a page if all it contains is a couple of lines of text and an "enter the store" link. Pages with VERY LITTLE VALUE to the reader, do not belong in a search engine's index.
b) Search engines also despise any kind of duplication or use of mirror pages. Again, little or no content (often just garbled text or keyword rich paragraphs that have no real value) were reproduced over and over and cluttered up the search engines. These pages were supposedly going to bring great traffic but the bottom line is that they were and still are all labeled by engines as Spam.
c) Search engines hate any attempt made by Webmasters to manipulate pages optimized with content unrelated to the actual Web site. Some Webmasters were guilty of all types of trickery to try and attract clicks regardless of the site content.
Understanding these issues, clearly you could NEVER blame the search engines for their war on Spam and low value doorway pages which contained no useful content or information.
Next let's talk about
2. What pages the Search Engines LOVE:
a) Search engines love pages that far "information rich" and contain useful, original content that will actually make valued reading to the online visitors.
b) Instead of doorway pages (or pages with no value or little useful content), the term "information rich" can be used to describe a page loaded with useful, quality information. Search engines love pages that are content rich and able to stand on it's own merit. A quality information page is also part of the overall Web site allowing visitors to obtain more relevant and useful information having easy navigation through the Web site.
Instead of lightweight pages with no content, today's pages need to contains high quality information, which is relevant to the online audience. The information rich page is 100% quality, put together with research, relevance, thought and care. No tricks are ever needed.
Next Question is..... What kind of information goes into creating an information rich high performance page?
Invariably this question often comes up when I am teaching one of our live hands-on workshops. People need to understand that this is wide open to all the discoveries you make while researching your target audiences behavior. How you can meet the audience's needs exactly, is only limited to "your imagination" and the most effective way to present the information you know they are looking for, back too them. You want to give them what they "really want" as opposed to what you "think" they want and do this right up front.
The focus is on creating genuinely "useful content" for your ideal target audience of "potential customers" who happen to be already out there searching for you.
Not only is this what your visitors want, it's also the key to success for search engine acceptance. You will never run in to trouble with search engines by offering lots of original, quality content that is interesting, useful and of high value, to your online readers.
In brief, key to success for attracting your target audience, is doing quality research on your target audiences searching behavior and learning to identify their needs and what they are searching for and then, giving them what it is that they really want.
Okay, so what kind of information might a information rich page really contain? That will depend on what "your research" reveals of course, but here are about 20 rough ideas just to get you started thinking in this fashion.
20 Ideas for High Performance Information Rich pages:
Your high performance, information rich pages might be any of the following (but not limited just to these either):
1. A Questions and Answers information rich FAQ page.
2. An introductory story related to the appropriate Web site theme (something that is compelling or educational on topic).
3. Interesting and original statistics which you have discovered through your research, are in high demand by your audience.
4. An interesting interview with someone (make it exclusive and original). People love to read about other peoples experiences and or opinions and views.
5. It might be a page loaded with various product reviews with an emphasis on benefits of each in comparrison.
6. It could be a theme related feature article or story.
7. It could be a detailed tutorial loaded with valuable "How to" or "instructional" advice.
8. Your information page might even be a biography about someone's life that people are looking for detail on. Of course it should relate to the topical interest of your site's theme.
Recent eg. At the recent, sad passing of legendary screen icon Marlon Brando, just do a search for his bio and see all of the movie or film related sites that are no doubt getting additional exposure from Marlon's fans who are looking to buy up some of his old classic films.
9. Your pages might something with a current events or newsworthy or hard news angle. Your audience is probably looking for interesting news if you take time to study what they are searching for.
10. Your information rich pages might want to contain detailed historical information that your audience is seeking.
11. There may be room for the use of information pages that use some humor or emotional content that is still of good value.
12. Would there be value to having a questionnaire which asks your audience a series of important questions. Remember that like real life, most Web based businesses are about building rapport and relationships.
13. You could build an index to a whole library of similarly themed topics and all though your articles would all be similar in theme, each individual information rich page would contain useful and diverse subject matter. Remember high value to your readers but all original (and no duplication in content).
14. What about an information rich page offering an entryway into a useful, interactive section like a message board perhaps detailing terms of use for the message board.
15. It might be a page containing an interesting advice column on your chosen theme. Just old fashioned "good reading" which offers your readers advice or solutions to their challenges.
16. Your information page might be a reference page loaded with interesting, inspirational or famous quotes quite popular with all types of personalities.
17. Your pages might contain a related territorial map (yes images can be used most effectively with text)
18. It might be a sales letter but remember the emphasis is on quality content and originality. Things like detailed product reviews or content that emphasized some value added layout.
19. It could be a community related page with important localized community information. Tremendous value for Web sites that are looking for region specific traffic.
20. It could be any of the above suggestions with a seasonal angle relating to Christmas, Halloween, Easter, or something else appropriate to the Web content within your main theme.
One of the best ways to come come up with original ideas is to think laterally about "your audiences needs" in comparison to how they are searching on the major search engines. For more insight on how to research your audience's realtime behaviours you may want to visit http://www.wordtracker-magic.com
Best Regards,

So, you need to submit employment references. A simple task, right? Sure, you could contact three of your closest friends and ask them to be your references. They may be able to testify to your character, but do they know how well you would perform on the job? Probably not. Let's explore the types of references you must seek, the number of people you should include, and to whom references should be submitted.
Whom To Select
When selecting references, it is always a good idea to find those people who know how well you work. Supervisors you reported to directly or co-workers are some of the best choices. However, some companies frown on supervisors from being a reference and, instead, require that they list the Human Resources department as the contact point. Legal issues play into that decision.
Co-workers can be a good choice, especially if they held a position of authority even if they weren't over you. The company's receptionist may know you best, but oftentimes it is the title [position] of the person that pulls the greater weight.
How Many References?
A minimum of three references should be garnered. Four or five if each one is solid. You need to inform the person you select that they are a reference in advance. Of course, that means you need to get their permission first. Do not put someone on the spot -- kindly ask if they would be a reference; if they decline don't take it personally. There could be any number of reasons why someone won't be your reference; speculating will only cause you to formulate a reason which could be entirely false.
Furnishing References
Never, ever list references on your r้sum้. Simply end your r้sum้ with References furnished upon request. Prepare a separate sheet of paper and list the same contact information you have on the top of your r้sum้ including your name, address, phone contacts and email address. After that, create a heading titled References and list each person's name and title, company, and phone number. Use an address if available and include an email address if available. You can double space it, number it, or use bullets. There is no "magic" to it, simply be as careful with your Reference page as you are with your r้sum้: check for typos, grammatical errors, etc.
Today, many contacts are done through other means [e.g., email], but most of the time companies will want to contact the reference for more information directly. Make sure that all your contact information is accurate.
One Final Point
Do not automatically send references unless they are requested. If a company only wants your r้sum้ send only your r้sum้. Guard your references very closely and only give them out to those who request it.
Matt is the manager of the Corporate Flight Attendant Community, a comprehensive resource center for business flight attendants; http://www.corporateflyer.net; http://www.cabinmanagers.com

Excellent Resume References are a very important part of your job search. Most often you will need to be able to provide three strong references to an employer when applying for a job. Choose carefully who you use!

Tip #1: Keep It Professional

All your references should be professional references. The Employment References you choose will provide a prospective employer with an "image" of you. What type of image will they portray? Do not use a friend or family member for a reference. The employer wants to know about your work ethic and skill set from someone who is an unbiased source. The best person to provide that information is your previous or current supervisor, not someone that you see recreationally. In addition, a friend or family member may give out more information than you want an employer to have access to!

Tip #2:Who to use as an Employment Reference

Pick your references carefully; how they respond to the employer's inquiries about you may be the very thing that sets you apart in a positive or negative way from the other candidates they are considering. When choosing Employment References, your first picks should be the last 2 supervisors that you worked for. They are in the best position to give an accurate account of your work habits, skills and accomplishments, and they are most believable to a prospective employer. List these as the first and third references on your Resume Reference Page.

Here are some additional ideas for reference sources: A Shift Leader or other Professional where you work, your Employer's Human Resource Department, a Professor or Teacher that can verify your work ethic, an Organizational Leader whose group you are a member of, a Pastor or Clergy Member, a Leader of a Sports Team you participate in, a Professional from an Internship Position you held, and Former Customers, Vendors, or Business Acquaintances.

Tip #3: Obtain Permission

Always obtain permission from each person before using them as a reference and give them a copy of your resume to keep your skills and accomplishments fresh in their memory. I have to tell you a funny story that happened to me. My name is well known as a Job Search professional in the local community where I live. I run regular Job Clubs where I assist individuals in finding employment and have been doing this for over twelve years now. When a person starts this Job Club, I always ask for a copy of their resume and references. Many times I can suggest some minor (or major) changes to a resume that will result in the Job Club Member getting interviews where they were not before. Anyway, I was collecting the resumes of my new Job Club members one day, and later sat down to review those resumes and make suggestions where needed. One of my members whose name I faintly remember from giving her a job lead 6 or 7 years ago, had brought in a beautiful resume and I was glad to see that she had taken the time to get the resume professionally done and printed on resume quality paper. She had even included a copy of her Resume Reference page with the resume. How surprised was I to see my own name, professional title, business address, and business phone number listed at the very top of her Reference page! I had not seen or heard from her for 6 or 7 years. Apparently, I had made a great impression on her, because she wanted to use me as a reference! If an employer had contacted me regarding her, I would not have been prepared to discuss her abilities, much less remembered who she was!

Tip #4: Prepare Your Employment References

Once you have decided who you prefer to use as your references, you should contact those individuals. Make sure that you give them a copy of your most current resume and explain the type of position you are looking for. It is a good idea to review the major skill sets that a prospective employer will be looking for and point out for your reference how you meet those requirements. (Make it easy for them!) Another benefit to doing this is that it gives you a chance to network... those references in the business community may have some great job leads that you can reap the benefit from!

Tip #5: Use A Professional Looking Resume Reference Page

Your resume and references are your marketing tool with employers, so make sure you include all your reference information on a professionally done Reference Page to attach to your Resume! Help yourself to a Free Resume Reference Template on my website to make your job search easier!

Happy Job Search!

Marcy Travis is a Job Search Professional who provides Advice, Inspiration, and Direction for your job search. Check out her website JobSearchCafe.com for more helpful tips!

Copyright 2009 http://www.JobSearchCafe.com

As you know if you've spent any time at all surfing the web, sometimes you will see the dreaded 404 error condition. This often occurs because you've entered an incorrect link (perhaps added a ".html" instead of ".htm" at the end of the file) or perhaps because a site has been updated recently and some links were broken.


Virtually all web sites (especially free sites) have some generic 404 error page displayed when this occurs. This error pages is either (a) completely unhelpful to a visitor or more likely (b) is very useful advertising for a web host but completely useless for helping your users navigate your site.


One excellent reason for choosing a paid host over a free host is that you can generally modify the .htaccess file to provide a custom 404 error page. (This is an important feature to demand from a paid host - if they don't let you use this feature, find another host. This is also an excellent reason to choose a host which runs the Apache server software over other brands. For example, Microsoft's Internet Information Server, IIS for short, does not allow for this capability).


So let's say you create a 404 error page. What do you do with it? It's simple - you help your visitors get back to looking around your site.


Tell them what happened - An error occurred, specifically a page was requested and not found.


Make sure they understand they are still on your site - Sometimes this is not clear, so be sure you include your logo and other identifications. In fact, the standard 404 error code often means you will lose that visitor forever because he will immediately assume the site is abandoned.


Give them some reasons why the error occurred - Most people do not know what "404 error" means. Be sure and give your visitors some tips as to what might have gone wrong. Perhaps they misspelled the URL or a link was bad?


Help them get back to surfing your site - Give them plenty of ways to navigate back into your site. Ideally, include your standard navigation menu and perhaps even a search option.


Inject a little humor - A joke or funny picture can help lighten up the mood. Remember, you are presenting an error - you want to get them to smile so they perhaps continue surfing.


Be sure your page is over 1,024 bytes in size - Some browsers will not display error pages that are smaller than this.


The most important thing to remember is that an error message is stressful to your visitors. These immediately give the impression that your site is poorly maintained or perhaps even has been abandoned. You only have a few seconds after the error occurs to get people back to surfing your site, so you had better use that time wisely.


Another useful thing that you can do is call a special CGI routine at the time the error occurs. How do you do this? Instead of modifying the .htaccess file to reference an HTML document, make it reference a CGI routine directly (perhaps with the error code as a parameter). This routine can send an email to you (and perhaps even page you) when an error occurs. This allows you to quickly handle any errors on your web site.


Don't get too stressed out about 404 errors. Remember that no matter how well you keep up your site they will occur occasionally. Even if every single link inside your site is perfect, other people will type or code the incorrect URLs, thus causing errors. Some search engines have bugs and reference pages incorrectly and sometimes the web server itself returns bogus errors. The best script that I have found to perform this function is Error Robot, available at http://www.newmediaone.com/scripts/


Personally, I prefer using a CGI routine to send an email whenever a 404 error occurs instead of asking the visitor to send an email. This removes the burden for quality assurance from visitors and places it upon me, where it belongs.


What can you do to prevent or correct 404 errors?


- Check the links within your site on a regular basis. Correct any references that are broken.


- If an external link, say from an article, is incorrect, you can create a redirect page to move the visitor from the incorrect reference to the correct reference. This is generally a lot easier than attempting to get the author to correct the reference.


- Check each and every 404 error that occurs and take steps to correct them.


Additional Resources


http://www.internet-tips.net/Surfing/404errors.htm The Dreaded 404 error This article tells you the meaning of the dreaded 404 error


http://www.internet-tips.net/Webmaster/htaccess_errors.htm Htaccess file - Custom error pages You can use htaccess to define custom error pages to trap 404 and other error conditions.


http://www.internet-tips.net/Webmaster/maintlinkrot.htm Check your links regularly to prevent link rot Check your links regularly to prevent link rot.


Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge. Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm Daily Tips: mailto:internet-tips@GetResponse.com

Google has established a popularity contest for websites. They have devised a grading system that examines all of the websites on the internet and crunches their existence down to a single number between 0 and 10. While the actual formula that Google uses to establish Page Rank(PR) is a closely guarded secret, there are several factors considered common knowledge that can increase the chances of getting a better PR. Among these factors are the ratio between incoming links and outbound links, the rank of the referring page of inbound links, the frequency with which you update your website, and the amount of actual traffic that visits your website.

The ratio of inbound links to outbound links on your website is an important factor to consider when you are trying to increase your PR within Google's Ranking system. Every day little Google-bots scour the internet and gather facts about all the websites on the internet. These facts are compiled into one large repository that we all know as the Google Search Engine. Once every few months, the Google brain trust crunches the numbers gathered from all those websites and establishes the Page Ranks based on the information gathered. Not only is the ratio of inbound to outbound links counted, but also the PR of the referring website is taken into account as well.

Page Rank can also be referred to as reputation. Websites with a greater reputation or PR give a greater benefit to the websites they refer. However it is tied closely to the ratio of inbound links to outbound links. Consider this example. A website ranked PR10 refers 1 website and a website ranked PR0 refers another website. The website referred by the PR10 website enjoys a greater PR than the site referred by the PR0 site simply by receiving a referral from a PR10 website. Now taking that same example one step further, if the PR10 website decides it likes 9 other websites as well and as a result refers a total of 10 websites the value of that PR10 website goes down. Now the value of the PR10 website is diluted by the number of outbound links. The PR10 divided by 10 links now carries the same weight as a PR1 website referring 1 other website. The PR of the 10 referred websites is still better than the PR0 website. The margin of benefit received by the first website referred by the PR10 website has been greatly reduced.

One of the most important factors that influence the Page Rank is a well-kept website. A website that is constantly updated and fresh receives higher marks than those that do not change. Websites that are kept up to date will get full benefit from the factors that establish the website's PR. The greater the time frame since the last update, the less benefit that website receives from the other factors establishing that site's Page Rank.

Another factor that helps boost a website's PR is the amount of actual traffic that goes to a website. More traffic tells Google that more people value the content of that website. Google will naturally give a higher PR to sites that hold more value for the internet consumer. Conversely, websites with little or no traffic do not hold any intrinsic value for the internet consumer, therefore the PR for those websites is very low.

While the actual method of determining the value of a website with Google's Page Rank system is a closely guarded secret, there are factors that are widely known to affect the Page Rank for a website. These factors include the ratio of inbound to outbound links, the Page Rank of the referring website, the frequency with which the website is updated, and the amount of traffic that actual visits the website. All of these factors are combined to establish a single number between 0 and 10 that sums up the popularity of each website on the world wide web.

Neil Rissler
http://www.100kNameList.com
Rocket Your Website to the Number 1 spot in all the search engines. Drive More Sales and Make Huge Profits.

Page 1 of 3



For Immediate Release



Contact Information:



Wayne Chase

Roedy Black Publishing Inc.

Tel 604-228-8444 (Office)

Tel 604-228-0592 (Home)

Fax 604-228-8424

http://www.completechords.com



wchase@completechords.com



-----



Low-tech "Killer App" for Musicians Beats

Computers



-----



Every so often, a simple, humble invention comes along that knocks the mighty computer off its pedestal.



Wayne Chase and his team at CompleteChords.com have come up with just such a low-tech brainchild for players and students of guitar and piano.



"It's the world's only wall poster that displays the fingering positions of every chord in every key," says Chase, 52, a music and language theorist and inventor with five patents under his belt.



"Actually, we have two of them, one for guitar and one for piano."



Chase and two colleagues, graphic artist Tom Quine and watercolor artist Bettina Lewis, spent more than two years developing the colorful laminated posters, which retail for $16 each.



Both charts are 38 inches wide and 27 inches high. Each contains more than 70,000 graphical and typographical elements.



The charts show each chord in picture form as well as spelling out the musical notes that make up each chord. As Chase points out, "You don't even have to know how to read music to play any chord, even extended jazz chords."



"Compared with computer software and web sites, each of these charts is a killer app," Chase claims. "They have several major advantages over computerized or web-based chord dictionaries. Or even printed chord dictionaries, for that

matter," he says.



"First, with one of our charts on your wall, you never again have to bother scrolling through computer screens or go flipping through chord dictionaries to find out how to finger a chord.



"Second, you don't have to interrupt your musical train of thought just to look up a chord. That's because you don't have to take your hands off your guitar or keyboard. You can keep right on playing with both hands as you learn and

experiment with new chords."



"Third," he says, "these charts provide the only possible way to see each chord in context with all other chords. When you look up a chord on a computer or in a book, you don't get any perspective. All you can see is one screen or one

page of information at a time.



"With our charts, on the other hand, you can see the whole forest as well as the individual trees, the individual chord diagrams. That means you can see at a glance exactly where every chord comes from. You can see how those extended, jazzy

chords โ€˜evolve' from simple three-note chords. So you can quickly get a grasp of the big picture and a solid understanding of chord structure.



"We've organized each chart so that the easiest chords are on the left side. These are the simple major and minor chords. In the middle of the chart are the intermediate-level chords such as sevenths, suspended, and diminished chords. And on the right side are the extended jazz chords such as ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths. This arrangement makes it easy for the player to progress at his or her own speed."



The two charts, called the Complete Guitar Chord Poster and the Complete Keyboard Chord Poster, are distributed by Roedy Black Publishing of Blaine, Washington and Vancouver, Canada.





Biography



After earning a degree in English literature and psychology at the University of Alberta, Wayne Chase, 52, spent several years as a technical researcher in Edmonton, then began his career in music as a recording engineer in Vancouver.



He went on to produce records and live music, and also taught record production and recording arts.



He is the author of several music reference books, and the designer and author of Roedy Black Publishing's best-selling music reference charts.



As well, Chase is an expert on the identification, measurement, and analysis of emotional meaning in language. He holds five patents in the field of language reference technology.



--------



Questions that May Be of Interest to Your Audience



1) What motivated you to create these posters in the first place?



2) Do these charts actually display every single chord in every key? Aren't there thousands and thousands of chords?



3) Would these charts be useful for someone just starting out on guitar or keyboard? Or are they mainly for more advanced players?



4) Do these charts show how to play scales, or are they strictly chord charts?



5) Each of the charts has a rainbow-like color scheme,with a dozen different-colored horizontal bars. Is this design purely for visual appeal, or is there a functional aspect to it?



6) On the left side of each poster are sections labeled "Principal Chords" and "Relative Minor", with Roman numerals next to certain chord types. What's this about?



7) The posters are laminated. How come? Why not just leave them as plain paper posters?



8) When you buy one of these chord charts, do you get some sort of user guide with it?



9) What are the drawbacks or disadvantages of using your chord posters, compared with computer software, the Internet, or chord dictionaries?



10) Do you plan to create similar comprehensive chord charts for other instruments such as the banjo or mandolin?



11) Apart from the chord posters, have you created any other music reference materials for musicians?

August 9, 2004 -- Just when you thought it couldn't get better.. it did!



NEW IN VERSION 2.0:

PowerView - Customizable Color-Coded View to Plan Your 3 Act Structure

PowerTracker - Keep Track of Characters, Plot Devices & Keywords

HTML Export - Color-Coded Web Page Creation & Integrated Viewer

Story Tasks - Helpful Notes & Ideas Management System

Plus New right-click Contextual Style Menu and Word & Character Count!



POWERVIEW

PowerView enables you to view your story structure in a customizable color-coded visual manner alongside your selected Reference Outline.



Your structure is divided into five main sections: Prologue, Act I, Act II, Act III and Denouement, and within Act II there are two Turning Points and the story's Mid-Point. Each stage has its own popup window explaining what it represents and what should be happening in your story at that point.



You can customize the colors for each stage and adjust the scene start points to reflect the structure of your own story, however the Reference Plugin structure is independent of your own in order to help you visually gauge the progress of your story in comparison to your selected movie outline.



With a single click you can expand and collapse the entire outline or individual scenes to reveal or hide scene information, adjust the displayed font, text size and window size to suit your needs and all your settings will automatically be saved for the next time you launch Movie Outline and PowerView.



POWERTRACKER

PowerTracker enables you to keep track of a character, story development, plot device, keyword or phrase through your entire outline in a practical, visual manner.



Simply enter the character name or word you wish to track, such as "John" or "gun", in the PowerTracker window, or select a word in the main outline screen and choose PowerTracker from the new right-click Contextual Menu, and you will instantly see a small blue arrow icon appear beside the title of every scene that includes this text, and the line that contains the tracked word will be highlighted in red.



You can also independently track words in your currently loaded Reference Outline and both user and reference words will be stored in memory each time you access PowerView.



HTML EXPORT & INTEGRATED VIEWER

As well as being able to print and export your outlines to plain text files, rich text files and PDF documents, Movie Outline 2.0 now enables you to export your outline with the current PowerView structure colors to an HTML web page and then view it via an integrated HTML Viewer.



You can choose to display a Color Key at the top of your web page and export either a full outline of Titles and Scenes or just a list of Titles. With HTML Export you now have the option of sharing your color-coded outline on the web or with colleagues!



STORY TASKS

When writing a story, there are always bound to be ideas popping up along the way about characters and plot points, such as: I must remember to make Jessica find the gun in scene 12 or John should meet Mary before he gets mugged but after his date with Abby. You can't control when inspiration strikes and that's exactly where Story Tasks come in!



To help you keep track of all those complex character arcs, plot devices and story objectives, Movie Outline 2.0 now enables you to keep a task list specific to each outline you create. You can check, uncheck or delete completed tasks and print a full list of task Titles and Notes or just a list of Titles.



Other Key Features:

* Simple, user-friendly interface

* Movie Reference Plugins for Simultaneous Comparison - 6 Genres Included:

-Die Hard

-Good Will Hunting

-Scream

-There's Something About Mary

-True Romance

-When Harry Met Sally



* Easy Scene Reordering & Organization

* PDF / RTF / TXT Export

* Styled Text & Printing

* Notes Field

* Unlimited Undo / Redo

* Find & Replace

* Spell Check (130,000 word database)

* Tip of the Day - Practical Screenwriting Advice



System Requirements:

* Microsoft Windowsยฎ 98/Me/NT/2000/XP operating system.

* 25 MB of free hard disk space.

* 200 MHz CPU or higher.

* Intel Pentium/Celeron Compatible Processor.

* 64 MB of RAM.

* VGA or higher monitor resolution.

* Internet Connection for Download and Product Activation.



Availability:

Movie Outline 2.0 is available now and may be downloaded through our

Website at http://www.movieoutline.com/.



Contact Information:

Michael Trent: sales@movieoutline.com

Software Support: support@movieoutline.com

World Wide Web: http://www.movieoutline.com/

Getting organized is hard. If it weren't, we wouldn't put it off until it got even harder. There are hundreds of books out there on how to get organized; they have ideas on how to work in your garage, in your living room, in your mind, in your job. They offer every sort of idea for every sort of situation... but you know what happens to most of those books? They end up in the middle of some pile on our disorganized tables and desks.


What we need is some simple, applicable ideas and systems that we can start applying today. Here are my suggestions that I've come up with after working with all different sorts of clients and situations.


First of all, get an 'information assistant' (IA) that you can carry with you throughout your day. A paper-based daily planner, a personal digital assistant (PDA) like a Palm Pilot, or even a simple notebook where you keep everything written down (those are harder to keep organized, but don't think you need to spend a bunch of money on this tool).


Once you have that IA, use it. Have it be your calendar, your address book, your notebook, your reference page, your task list. Use it every day, and keep it up to date. I now always recommend a digital solution (like a Palm) if you already have a computer as these are much easier to keep updated, and are generally easier to carry around. I love that I can carry mine in the breast pocket of my sports coat. I used to have a paper planner, but I'd never take it with me in the evenings. Kind of hard to 'hit the town' with a notebook under your arm. More importantly, more and more of our lives are connected to the internet, and this flood of information will only grow. In addition, the data on a PDA can be backed up almost instantly, so if you lose it, there's no loss of information.


It takes a bit of time to get used to these tools, and of course you run into problems setting them up. It's a bit like a computerโ€ฆ Once there's one on your desk, it's all set up and you know how to use it, you get a lot doneโ€ฆ but it took a while to get used to it. Plan on learning how to use your PDA so you're not fumbling around with it.


Now that your information is organized, let's look at the other important aspects of getting organized. Look around your office or home: what disorganized stuff is bugging you? If there's one particular room, or corner, or drawer that really bothers you, tackle that now. Try to deal with this one space until it's cleared, but if you can't finish in one or two hours, don't worry, just come back to it again, until you've got that biggest 'monkey' off your back. Once you feel the lightness from that, you will be more ready to tackle the next one.


How do you tackle that spot? By applying two main rules to each and every piece of paper or stuff: (1) If it takes less than two minutes to deal with (to file it, to act on it, or to trash it), do it now. If it takes longer than two minutes to deal with, "contain" that project (meaning file/box it), and put it on your calendar to deal with it in the next week. (2) If you haven't used it in over a year, toss it.


An example of this might be a crafts table, piled high with craft ideas, old mail, maybe a couple of shoe boxes of photos. (Sounds sort of familiar to many of us, doesn't it?) Well, for example, take those photos, put them in a container that they just fit in, and put on your task list/calendar a time when you will get to that project. Now, you'll probably not find the 7 hours you'll need to put those photos in order all in one block, so plan on spreading that project out over time. Keep going through that pile using these two 'golden rules' of organizing.


The first step for 'tomorrow', Day 2: Managing time.


A great way to figure out 'where the time goes' is to spend a day tracking where you spend your time. You'll be surprised at how much of that day is spent on things you didn't expect. Your work can be full of interruptions, distractions, problems, moments of relaxation, etc. Try to keep track of what you're doing for one whole day, in 15 minute increments. Do you really intend to spend 3 hours a day responding to email and/or surfing the web?

Set up systems that allow you to focus on your priorities when you want to. Do things such as:

Set your email program to only check for email 3 times a day, not every minute. That way you won't be tempted/bothered when that latest email 'dings' into your inbox.


Don't answer the phone. Let the machine get it, and return calls all at once, on your schedule, when you're ready. Plan an hour in the morning, and an hour in the afternoon.


Be smart about messages and emails you do send. Don't just call back and say, "yes, let's talk about that".. Say, "Yes, let's talk. I'd like to follow up on point A before we talk, and if you could handle point B and just CC me on the email, that'd be great. Call me back at either 4pm Tuesday or 11am Wed." In other words, move the conversation along, and give others options to choose from that work for you.


Step Two for Day Two: Setting priorities and scheduling review


We've all heard about setting goals and breaking them down into manageable, achievable chunks... Now it's time to prioritize those chunks and get them on the calendar. Then add a weekly review onto that calendar so you can look back at what you did in the last week, and what you'll do in the next week to meet those goals.


The big issue disorganized folks have is that they work really hard to get organized, then in a couple of days or weeks, it's all back to normal, and those great goals and lists are buried. A solution might be to share your weekly priorities with a friend or colleague who will hold you accountableโ€ฆ And you do the same for them. (You could make a bet that if one of you doesn't get through your list, you have to buy dinner that week.)


Setting priorities and sticking to them is really hard for all of us. This is why organizational tools that spread your 'core' values into your everyday consciousness are such good organizational tools. Steven Covey's 'Seven Habits of Highly Effective People', the Franklin Planner's goals and values process, and it's why I suggest looking at your long term goals at least once a week during your weekly review. You need that reminder on a regular basis.


And the next day: Future steps.


As your systems start to fall into place, and you start to feel the benefits of getting organized, build on that momentum and start looking at what your overall life goals are, and what influences you. When you start working smarter and more effectively, you have to ask yourself what you're going to do with the extra time? Are you going to work more to accomplish more? Or do you want to take that time to do something else? You certainly haven't become more organized just so you can do more sitting in front of the TV have you?


Where do we look for models of how we want to live once we get the clutter out of our way? The following three cultural influences can be excellent guides for helping us focus our goals.


Zen and martial arts

As you gain mastery over your time and your 'stuff', look to become a master of whatever you do. The cultural precepts of most Asian martial arts, from Tai Chi to Kung fu closely follow precepts of Zen philosophy. As I attempt to understand what they're about, I read it as 'practice what you do until you can do it effortlessly, automatically. Do it in a reverent, loving way. Once you have mastered that action, move on to the next level, and focus again, on the present action.' Once you see the connection between your focus, clarity and the need for a clutter free, prepared environment, you will not want to move back to the old ways of distraction and stress again.


American 'Can Do' digital age

There's always a better way to do things, and American culture is always trying to invent it. There's much in the American way that can distract you from your new-found organization, like consumerism and greedโ€ฆ But you can also use this influence to always be looking at how to bring more efficiency to all your projects. Is there a paperless way to do what you have in mind? Do you need to carry all that computer equipment? Can we do a 'virtual meeting' instead? Adaptation and absorption is the norm in American societyโ€ฆ Use this opportunity to do more in less time.


La Dolce Vita

The Mediterranean culture has long had a handle on 'the sweet life'. From Morocco to Jordan they have always prized time with family, time for art, music, food, for life. Italians are aghast when they learn Americans only get two weeks of vacation... Turks struggle to understand how American male friends don't spend time together discussing politics, art, and relationshipsโ€ฆ A two hour lunch with your family on a workday is not an indulgence, it's expected. Let the Mediterranean culture influence your new found time. Focus on life, and living, not simply working more.


The goal of looking at these different important influences as you look to get your life organized is to create a *lifestyle*, a way of living that allows you to focus on what's important, to do more, grow more, and to live better. Get started today.


Tys Sniffen, Founder of Idea Mountain, has helped hundreds of individuals and small businesses deal with what's slowing them down. Working nationally, he consults both in person and โ€˜virtually' with clients to help them be more organized, work better, and get more out of life. Please visit www.ideamountain.com for more information, or call 415-606-7746


Tys Sniffen, Founder of Idea Mountain, has helped hundreds of individuals and small businesses deal with what's slowing them down. Working nationally, he consults both in person and โ€˜virtually' with clients to help them be more organized, work better, and get more out of life. Please visit http://www.ideamountain.com for more information, or call 415-606-7746