By David Link

A recent IDC report sponsored by the Cisco Learning Institute reveals a huge networking skills gap is emerging in North America, which spells trouble for enterprises.

Listen to this: “600,000 IT workers were needed to install, configure, manage and secure networks in North America in 2007, 14% of the total IT workforce.” However, IDC reports that another 180,000 engineers with wireless as well as traditional network engineering experience will need to be added by 2011 to keep pace with advances in technology that is transforming the role of the network.

The convergence of voice and video traffic are quickly transforming the growing complexity of networks at a torrid pace. IDC estimates that the skills gap in VOIP should grow to 19% by 2011. This changing profile in the role of the network plays a key role in the skills shortage. Network enabled collaboration tools such as social networking apps and the Webex conferencing/collaboration solutions we use in our business each and every day are demanding a new set of IT skills to deliver business value.

My perspective is two-fold on this issue; the first is what I have seen in the resources we have attempted to hire! We give a very straightforward quick written/oral test to all new technical hires. This requires basic networking knowledge and some Unix commands. On average, (after filters from reputable recruiting firms, some with 5-10 years experience) less than 10% pass muster for the first filter we use in our hiring process. This is a troubling fact, which has cost us considerable time and effort to secure the right resources with competent skills. So I can say from our market assessment in a very strong technological job skills market, core Unix and networking foundation skills are slipping.

The second is that we as an IT Operations Management (ITOM) industry need to keep pushing hard to build better proactive and intuitive solutions to aggregate instrumentation from all Data Center tools, including more work around VOIP, video streaming, and collaboration so that we can ease this transition. If ITOM solutions become more proactive across the typical Cisco infrastructure that is commonly installed in the Data Center, we can free up some additional time for advanced “emerging technologies” training where existing IT workers can enhance their core skills and re-invigorate their careers. We have to do a much better job of getting our existing IT professionals trained on emerging technologies!

About The Author

David Link is president and CEO of ScienceLogic. He and his partners built a thriving company from the ground up by focusing on delivering “products that just work” to the under served IT operations management marketplace. He has held senior management and corporate officer positions at large public companies.MIT Sloan School of Management.

By Cathy Goodwin

“Blogging seems like a chore,” groaned my busy client. “Do I really need one more marketing activity in my life?”

For many business owners, the answer will be a firm “yes.” I”m meeting more and more indie business owners who tell me, “I”m getting more business through my blog than any other source.”

But to get these results, you need consistency. You have to write entries at least 3 times a week. some say 4 to 5 times a week. A neglected blog might be worse than no blog at all. Since I increased my own blogging activity, I”ve noticed more comments, more subscribers and even more queries and customers.

So what do you do when faced with that small space, already dated, begging for words?

(1) Find an article, news release or blog entry on your topic. Write a response, with a link to the original source. If you agree with the article, provide a few additional examples to support the author.

For example, as you read this article, you may think of another effective way to create blog posts - something I haven”t mentioned. Or you may have tried one of these tips and you have a success story to share.

But if you”re really an expert on your topic, you”ll rarely agree 100% with the article. And when you really disagree, you can create an edgy, readable blog post.

For example, I just read an article targeted to executives starting a new job. The article urged new employees to keep asking the boss for feedback - every single week.

Gimme a break. Can you imagine a new employee hounding the boss with that infamous “How am I doing” question? If you have a career blog, you”ve got a golden opportunity to disagree. Just be polite, because the whole world has access to your blog.

Of course, if you”re lucky, a lot of indignant readers will read your post. They”ll send you comments like, “How dare you claim that bosses don”t want weekly feedback.” On a blog, dialogue is good.

(2) Review a book, movie, play or TV show — and relate the topic to yours. Include the name of whatever you”re reviewing in your blog entry title. You”ll attract attention from all sorts of readers who are searching for movie, books and shows.

For example, I got hooked on Carrier, the PBS series about sailors on the USS Nimitz. for my career blog, I created a few entries about “extreme careers.” And I received some amazing comments.

(3) Answer a question posed by a client, prospect or seminar attendee.

My clients frequently send me emails as part of a coaching or consulting package. One day I realized I had just spent time crafting a comprehensive answer to a tough question. “This is too good to reserve for just one person,” I said to myself.

To maintain my client’’s privacy, I disguised the details. I changed names. And I had a blog post.

About The Author

You save even more time when you create a blog, website and articles that work 24/7 to attract clients and
Increase your revenues. Begin with my free download: 7 Best-Kept Secrets of Websites That Really Attract Clients at
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From Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., your Website Marketing Coach. Website Copywriting and Coaching

By Jason Switzer

Everybody wants to make money without putting in much effort. How would you like to make money online from home and you do not have to meet any deadlines? Sounds a bit ridiculous in the beginning, but this is what many people are doing all over the world. I will explain many ways the smart few make money online. DubLi is a unique company to check out if you are going to sell products. This is an outstanding opportunity to become a part of the e-commerce revolution, especially if you have tried other product selling sites and found them unattractive.

First of all you need to be an internet junkie to understand how to make money online. So if you have been dabbling in the web for quite some time, you can get a hang of the online money making process quickly. One way to make money online is through social networking. Some social networking sites actually pay you for creating more impressions of your profile, for referrals and for uploading photos. These sites pay you an amount proportionate to the advertising revenue generated by them. So you earn a sizeable sum of money at the end of the day. This is a good way to make money online from home.

Whether you are an avid blogger or not, you can make money via blogging. One way is to through the ads placed by other advertisers alongside your blog. So this way you can gain some commission off the advertising revenue generated. Another unconvincing technique to make money online is by posting content regarding other companies products on your blog. This is not legal but people are still doing it and getting away with it.

A not so brilliant idea for making money online and work from home is through surveys. You can work the online surveys for companies and submit those to them. The companies will then pay you according to their fixed rates. However, this is a time consuming job and can get monotonous after some time. And also while convincing people to respond to your survey, you will have to give out your personal information. If you are planning to make money by carrying out surveys then you may want to get a new email account, as your existing one may not be enough and become overloaded with unwanted e-mails.

A fun way to make money is via playing games. Some games convert the money won in games to real world money. Thus, you can earn money while entertaining yourself. Also, some games offer real money as a prize for winning difficult levels in their games. Freelancing can be a great option for earning money. You get a chance to exhibit your creativity and earn money. You can freelance online for web designing, writing, translation, etc. Big money can be made via freelancing. However, the companies that offer you work online also take up a substantial amount of your earnings as their share.

One crazy idea to earn money is by making million dollar home pages. Home pages got this tag after an American student decided to raise funds for his college education by selling each pixel of his home page for a dollar. Although this concept seemed absurd in the beginning, this student has earned more than enough money for his college funds, that is, one million dollars. So a little creativity can pay you well. One more slightly crazy idea would be through gambling. People play online poker to earn money and end up either losing a lot of money or making a lot of money. So if you are really, really good at a game then go ahead and gamble, but with caution.

Another way to make money online and work from home is by selling products over the internet. There are loads of online auction sites and e-shopping sites, where you can sell merchandise of all kinds. What you can do is buy good merchandise at cheaper rates and sell them at higher prices online. DubLi can offer you selling everything, in the whole world, with a big team, working for your business, a team that you will choose yourself, to create your expansion. Here you will find that DubLi will do all the work for you and make it very easy to sell products for profit.

If you are interested in checking out the best online shopping site where you can receive free credits to make bids on items at discounted prices and would like to start a home based business, go to the dubliofficialblog to receive valuable information.

About The Author

Jason Switzer is a successful internet marketer, entrepreneur, writer and nutrition expert.
Visit his blogs at: http://www.thedubliblog.com where you can learn more about home business opportunities.

By Deep Arora

To get started advertising your website, a good way to generate traffic is to get involved in pay per click, also known as PPC advertising. There are a few important factors that you begin by considering if you are looking to get involved in this particular advertising movement. To being with you should understand exactly how PPC works and what measures you should be implementing to keep track of how your return on investment or ROI is progressing.

To start out with PPC advertising you need to know about the way in which this particular advertising system works. In the simplest terms, PPC advertising incorporates the elements of keywords, ad and bids, which are combined together and then placed in search engines, portals and websites that receive revenue for having the advertising posted on their pages. The placement is an important element in this mix, as the relevance of the ad to the page on which it appears is crucial to the success of the advertisement. To ensure that advertisements find their way onto relevant sites there is a process of keyword analysis of the page that is vital for this.

The keyword element is one of the most vital elements, as if you are not utilizing the correct keywords the whole thing may start to unravel at that point. To ensure that you have selected the most appropriate keywords, make sure that you select targeted words that express the products or services that you wish to most closely be identified with. Following this you will then need to consider the copy for the ads and this is another important factor, as correctly written copy is the key to a high conversion rate, which ultimately produces a high number of buyers.

Now that you have your keywords and ad copy written, you are going to begin dealing with the next element which is bidding. The process of the actual bidding can vary between search engines, but basically you are going to nominate the maximum amount usually in US dolloars that you are willing to pay for the keywords that you want to include in your ads. Lastly the element of placement comes into play. Placement is determined by the amount of money you are willing to pay for your keywords, and if you pay more or less than competitors then you will find your advertisements will be placed higher or lower in the search engines accordingly.

Lastly you will need to implement some form of tracking on your keywords. There are people who are online window shoppers. These are the people that click on every ad that comes up but rarely actually buy anything. You should have some good tracking tools to follow this. When you track your keywords effectively you are best able to find out which words are brining in positive sales and which keywords are those that are bringing in the window shoppers. This leads into you ROI, and the success or failure of your advertising strategy over time.

It is relatively easy to start bidding and get going on PPC advertising, but to really succeed you should look at the bigger picture. Make sure you approach this as a step by step process and work to fine tune your advertising campaigns by tracking and evaluating your keywords for their real benefit to your over all sales numbers. By analyzing and correcting, you will see genuine results and an increase in quality traffic flows that will make it time well spent.

About The Author

Deep Arora is an Internet marketer with over 7 years of online experience and he teaches internet marketing from his blog at HowIDid.com. Check out his blog for some amazing techniques today..

By Connie Ragen Green

Blogging to build your business has been a hot topic of discussion for several years now. If you want to increase your credibility and visibility online, starting a blog is the best way to do this. Blogging allows you to get your information out to others, while also giving your readers a way to connect with you and to be part of the conversation. You can also repurpose your blog posts into an eBook, and is the preferred method for writing eBooks by many people.

When you first start to blog it may seem like you are writing to yourself. Everyone goes through this for a month or so at the very beginning. But if you define your target audience and use your keywords in your blog post titles and blog domain name, readers will begin to find you and you will see the results very quickly after that. If this will become an eBook, think about who will be most interested in this topic.

Make sure that you have a form on your blog where readers can leave their name and email address. This will help you to build your list and give you the opportunity to contact them away from your blog. Depending on your type of business, you will want to promote other products and services that will be of interest to your readers. It will also give you a list of prospective readers of your eBook when it is completed.

Post to your blog regularly. I recommend posting every day for the first one to two months. This will give your blog lots of good content and be a great resource for anyone who finds you through a search of any kind. The more content you have on your blog, the higher it will rank in the search engines. Every time you make a new post you have created a new page. The search engines will crawl your blog and make it appear more relevant for your keyword phrases.

Choose your categories wisely. Think about your business and the topics that you will want to cover to share your information with others. Make a list of these topics and add them to your category list. A new visitor to your blog will be able to click on the category link and see all of the posts you have written in that category. That is convenient for you and for your readers. If you are writing an eBook, categories will help you to organize your chapters.

Ask others to write guest posts for you. This gives you a break from blogging and makes your blog more interesting and informative to others. Many people will be glad to have the opportunity to write on your established blog to gain more exposure for themselves.

Blogging will enhance your current business, help you write your eBook, or help you to build a new business online. I encourage you to get started right away so that you can reap the rewards of regular business blogging.

About The Author

Connie Ragen Green teaches you how to write articles and eBooks to build an online business, as well as how to use the technology needed. Visit http://www.EbookWritingandMarketingSecrets.com to find out more.

By Ranju Kumar

There are many ways to get what you want to get from life. One of the best ways that you can get what you truly deserve is to have the right income. The right income can provide you with the most fantastic life for yourself and for your family. There are several ways that you can get a six figure income. A six figure income can allow you to live the life that you have always dreamed about, but it is important to know what you are doing so that you can get that income.

A six figure income can allow you to do many things. First of all, it can give you the luxuries that you might have only dreamt about. A six figure income can allow you to make the most out of the type of money that you”ve made, by allowing you to purchase the types of things that you would like to purchase. A six figure income allows you to buy those items that you have always wanted. It can allow you to be comfortable in your life, but to be more than comfortable. It can allow you to truly feel free in your life, and in the lives of your family members. Therefore, a six figure income should be one of your best goals. This will be an income that you can truly take advantage of.

Ok, so you know that a six figure income is one that is well within your grasp. You know that it is something you would like to obtain. So, how do you go about getting this type of income for yourself? There are several things that you can do in order to get a six figure income. One of the most important things that you can do is surround yourself with people who want to help you succeed- and do something that can truly allow you to make the most out of your income.

Doing direct sales is something that you know can either make you or break you. Direct sales might not always be the best type of sales in fact, sometimes direct sales can be difficult. However, if you have the proper training and you know what you are hopping to achieve with your direct sales, you will find that it is not actually that hard to figure out.

By doing direct sales, and by doing it correctly, you will find your way into the place where everything is possible. Direct sales can lead directly to that six figure income that you have always wanted to achieve, and it can be something that you know you want to obtain. However, it can also require work. In order to make the money that you want to make, you need to be willing and ready to set up a direct sales program or to participate in one. This can make you the income that you have always wanted. So set up your own direct sales program today, and have the income that you deserve.

About The Author

Ranju Kumar an associate of the website www.greatwealthforyou.com, which provides an opportunity to earn money by utilizing direct sales method. Make money by working at home and become a top income earner in a short span of time.

By Ranju Kumar

There are many ways to make money online with affiliate marketing. You can make a moderate to lucrative income by simply specializing in promoting and selling the products and services of another. If you would like to make money in the affiliate marketing industry, it is essential that you are aware of a few of the strategies that the most successful in the industry. Here, I will be sharing with you some of these secret strategies.

1. One of the most important things that you can do when it comes to your success in affiliate marketing is to ensure that you take the time to join the program sponsored by Google called “Google AdSense”.This program involves the use of advertisements that are related to your website content on search engine result pages and other locations on the internet. Not only will your affiliate marketing program receive a lot of hits, but it can also rank the website that you have much higher in the search engine result pages.

2. The next way you can make money online with affiliate marketing is to ensure that you website that you have is properly optimized for search engines. By implementing the use of keywords, keyword phrases, backlinks, and hyperlinks that all refer back to the landing page of your affiliate program; you will rank higher in search engines.

This means that you have a higher chance of receiving the traffic that you are wanting, and the potential for sales also increases. If you have little to no experience in optimizing for search engines, there are many companies that offer properly optimized content for next to nothing! One of the best that I have found is Need-An-Article.Com. Not only can you get high quality content at a great rate, but you can get it quickly!

3. The next way you can make money online with affiliate marketing is to learn effective strategies for promoting your website! The first way that you can do this is to ensure that you submit your website to the top search engines. These include Google, Yahoo, MSN, and more!

You may also elect to participate in link exchange programs that can backlink to your landing pages. Offering free eBooks and courses that are directly related to your niche is also a wonderful method of getting your website noticed!

As you can see, there are many ways to make money online with affiliate marketing! The three strategies listed here can drive massive amounts of traffic to your affiliate marketing website, and potentially lead to massive streams of income as well! There are many affiliates who sit back idly only to discover that they end up losing money in affiliate marketing. You should avoid doing this at all costs!

It will take a little work on your part in order to succeed in your affiliate marketing business. By implementing the use of the steps here, you will notice an immediate spike your website statistics! You will be able to finally make money online in affiliate marketing!

About The Author

Ranju Kumar an editor of ezwealthsolution.com/?gtfoxsr which is a the most lucrative cash leveraging system on the internet today that pay’’s daily. You can easily make money from home selling other people’’s products. Visit http://Ezwealthsolution.com/?gtfoxsr and learn how to make money easily by marketing other people’’s products.

By Robert Starr

Starting in the 1990s, and especially now with the shift away from the more traditional types of advertising to Internet based marketing, there is a greater need to find qualified writers that can fill the ever increasing amount of content writer jobs available online.

These jobs were once filled by people who had a minimum of writing experience and the industry soon learned that the best website content writer was the one that had a professional command of the English language and a background that allowed them to produce persuasive interactive content on a regular basis. For this reason, the early trend toward cheap writers that came in large part from countries like India has reversed itself and the freelance web content writer who does the best in today’’s market generally has a degree or background in journalism or some other related field.

To that end, there are certain things that need to be factored in if the modern website content writer is to be successful, and these are generally factors that tie in quite well with the tenets of journalism. The number one rule concerns itself with clarity. If you take a chunk of text out from the body of the work, does it make sense on its own? If there are two or three different ideas presented in a chuck of 100 words does the transition from one idea to the other flow smoothly?

It’’s important to remember that when it comes to the size of the text in almost all website copy, the old writing adage ”less is more” comes into play. There are many statements such as ”as you probably know” that are better left off a website, blog or even web article. Brevity is the key here and as far as punctuation goes, frequent stops and starts are much better than longer sentences that make use of colons and other more literary marks.

The text should always be understandable right away to everyone, especially those with limited education and a different cultural background. It’’s not the job of the website content writer to show off and treat web readers to their vocabulary and command of fancy grammar. That’’s better left to the literary crowd and their specific audience.

Remember too that self editing is an important feature that can help bring your work into focus. No writer of any worth would think their copy is ready to go after the first draft

About The Author

Robert Starr is a professional writer/editor with several published books and a degree in journalism. He’’s brought 20 years of experience in the craft to his own on line writing/editing service. You can reach him at
robstarr

By Matt Bacak

The word ”podcasting” is used often around the internet these days, although many people are still not exactly clear on just what a podcast is! Simply put, a podcast is a blog (web log) that is made available in audio format. The audio portion is a standard MP3 file that contains a program or ‘’show” that can be created by anyone. Think of it as a radio talk show that can be transmitted from a computer.

The podcast transmission uses Real Simple Syndication (RSS) technology. It may seem complicated but, as the name implies, it is actually fairly simple. There are many resources available to help people learn how to record and set up a podcast.

The step-by-step instructions are easy to follow. In fact, with just a few easy to learn skills, some low-cost (or free) computer programs, and the basic computer equipment and internet connections that you probably already have, YOU can create a podcast and host your own show.

In addition to setting up a podcast, you”ll also want to provide a written blog that offers helpful, supplemental text for your podcast material. For example, you may briefly mention a topic in your podcast and then tell your listeners: ”For more information on this topic, please see the web site”. In this way, you can expand the amount of information your subscribers receive from your transmission.

When you have set up a blog and website, anyone with an internet connection can subscribe to your show. Listeners will use an RSS ”aggregator”, such as Doppler or Ipodder. Both of these are FREE downloadable program that allow others to subscribe to any podcast of interest. They”re easy to set up and can be pre-configured to check for new podcast updates at set intervals.

In this way, a subscriber doesn”t have to be ”tuned in” to your podcast at a certain time; he can just receive notice of an update that is automatically downloaded to his computer and then listen to it at his leisure. Subscribers listen to these files just like their music files, using Windows Media Player, iTunes, or any other similar audio program that is compatible with MP3 files.

Needless to say, the topics of a podcast are limitless. For example, maybe you have a special interest (even expertise) in fly fishing. What a great idea to have a podcast devoted to the art and adventures of this great sport! You can share techniques, stories, and even take live calls during pre-set transmission times. Podcasting offers you the opportunity to become a true ”internet personality.”

About The Author

There are many strategies to making money on the internet, but nothing makes sense unless you have a big list. Email Marketing is the most profitable way to make money on the internet. Discover how to use the internet and turn your computer into a cash gushing machine. Sign-up right now for Matt Bacak’’s FREE online newsletter to find out how to do exactly that, Go here: www.promotingtips.com

By David Ogden

Publishing your own ezine and can be very rewarding both financially as well as is emotionally. You will build relationships with your subscribers as well as develop loyal customers from them once you have your ezine established.

One problem many ezine publishers face is where to come up with content on a consistent basis. In this article we will take a look at five places you can get ezine content to keep your ezine publishing without missing a beat.

1. Search engines provide a never ending supply of content ideas. This is especially true if you like to write articles yourself. Just type in the theme of your ezine into the search engine and start looking at the results that come out. You will never run out of content ideas from the many excellent search engines online today.

2. Private label right articles offer a tremendous opportunity for you to come up with content without having to do any work. A private label right company will provide fresh articles on a monthly basis, as well as access to a library of thousands of plr articles you can use for your ezine. You can publish these articles just like they are, or rework them a little bit to make them unique.

3. Trade content with other ezine publishers. This is a fast way to keep fresh content coming in for both of you as well as solve your content problem. With the many thousands of ezine publishers on the Internet today you will always have people to trade content ideas with.

4. Hire a writer to write fresh content for you. There are many article writers available on the Internet today that will be more than happy to provide a quality ezine article for you at a reasonable price. The nice thing about this is you are using 100% copyrighted fresh content articles that no other ezine or article directory currently has.

5. Use Search Automator for a never ending supply of ideas for your ezine. This software is very inexpensive to purchase and you can instantly install it and be coming up with unbelievable content in the form of articles, graphics, videos, audio, and so on.

These are five ideas on where to find content for your ezine. The last thing you want to do is miss publishing an issue because you ran out of ideas for articles in your quality ezine.

About The Author

Want to make money online now?Sign up for our FREE Internet Business Training Program and start receiving all the home business training, resources, tools and advice you need to become a successful work at home professional!
Copyright: David Ogden