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Managing Conflict In The Workplace
This is not what you bargained for when you started managing people, is it? I mean, you're dealing with professionals aren't you? You know, adults? So why are you being expected to get solve every single personality clash?Well, it may not seem right, but managing conflict in the workplace comes with the territory of managing people. You are, after all, managing people.So what do you do when staff don't get along? Well, firstly, don't assume that it's your responsibility to make sure everyone gets along. Yes, you read that correctly. You do not have to shoulder everyone else's problems!If one of your team members has a problem with someone else, it's her problem...Unless it's having a substantial, negative impact on your team's results.Which may well be the case... leaving you with two choices:You either:1. Identify the cause of the dispute and encourage them to resolve their differences, or2. Forget about trying to find out "why", and simply get them as far away from each other as possible!I like the second approach for its simplicity. After all, you're a manager -- not a counselor!So if you can restructure the work so that neither person has to deal with the other very often or at all, then you may be able to solve the problem without getting involved in the dispute.However, this approach may not work if the conflict is more than just a work-related dispute. If it's more like a "personal vendetta" -- where the two people in question are likely to go out of their way to hinder each other -- t

you will be released from the Google Sandbox after an indeterminate period of time (but within a year, probably six months). In other words, the filter will stop having such a massive effect on your website.

As the ‘Allegra' update showed, websites that were constantly being optimized during the time that they were in the Sandbox began to rank quite high for targeted keywords after the Sandbox effect ended.

This and other observations of the Sandbox phenomenon – combined with an understanding of search engine philosophy – have lead me to pinpoint the following strategies for minimizing your website's ‘Sandboxed' time.

SEO strategies to minimize your website's ‘Sandboxed' time

Despite what some SEO experts might tell you, you don't need do anything different to escape from the Google Sandbox. In fact, if you follow the ‘white hat' rules of search engine optimization and work on the principles I've mentioned many times in this course, you'll not only minimize your website's Sandboxed time but you will also ensure that your website ranks in the top 10 for your target keywords. Here's a list of SEO strategies you should make sure you use when starting out a new website:

Start promoting your website the moment you create your website, not when your website is ‘ready'. Don't make the mistake of waiting for your website to be ‘perfect'. The motto is to get your product out on the market, as quickly as possible, and then worry about improving it. Otherwise, how will you ever start to make money?

Establish a low-intensity, long-term link building plan and follow it religiously. For example, you can set yourself a target of acquiring 20 links per week, or maybe even a target of contacting 10 link partners a day (of course, with SEO Elite, link building is a snap). This will ensure that as you build your website, you also start acquiring inbound links and those links will age properly – so that by the time your website exits the Sandbox you would have both a high quantity of inbound links and a thriving website.

Avoid black-hat techniques such as keyword stuffing or ‘cloaking'. Google's search algorithm evolves almost daily, and penalties for breaking the rules may keep you stuck in the Sandbox longer than usual.

Save your time by remembering the 20/80 r

Hire a PR Firm - Before You Need One
How can a company or individual know if it needs to hire a public relations/marketing firm?There are many factors to weigh when considering if you need to hire outside help to obtain the public relations, media relations, marketing boost, promotional or advertising assistance needed to take your company to the next level.If you aren't completely certain after debating the pros and cons ask these questions:Are we getting all the PR we deserve?Is our competition getting more than their fair share of media coverage?Would media coverage bring more business to the firm?Do we have a PR strategy for continuous year round media coverage?Is our in-house “PR person or department” overburdened with “in-house” work like the company newsletter?First of all, let's define a PR firm, some people interchange a PR firm with a marketing firm, or marketing agency, or even an ad agency. Basically a public relations firm handles media relations and is the interface between a company and the news media.A public relations firm or publicist will “pitch” the media on a story idea involving a company, invention or author. A good pitch about a story that would interest the people who read, watch or listen to a particular media outlet gets coverage.Many larger companies rely on in-house staff trained in public relations or marketing while others hire PR consultants or publicists to handle their PR campaigns.Joe Nicassio, author of Guerrilla PR Brand Manager, says whether a company should conduct its public relations, marke

Ok, so over the past month or so I've been collecting various search engine optimization questions from all of you. Today, I'm going to answer what was the most frequently asked question over the past month.

You guessed it... What is the Google Sandbox Theory and how do I escape it? When you finish reading this lesson, you'll be an expert on the good 'ole Google Sandbox Theory and you'll know how to combat its effects. So, pay close attention. This is some very important stuff.

Before I start explaining what the Google Sandbox theory is, let me make a few things clear:

The Google Sandbox theory is just that, a theory, and is without official confirmations from Google or the benefit of years of observation.

The Google Sandbox theory has been floating around since summer 2004, and has only really gained steam after February 4, 2005 , after a major Google index update (something known as the old Google dance).

Without being able to verify the existence of a Sandbox, much less its features, it becomes very hard to devise strategies to combat its effects.

Almost everything that you will read on the Internet on the Google Sandbox theory is conjecture, pieced together from individual experiences and not from a wide-scale objective controlled experiment with hundreds of websites (something that would obviously help in determining the nature of the Sandbox, but is inherently impractical given the demand on resources).

Thus, as I'll be discussing towards the end, it's important that you focus on ‘good' search engine optimization techniques and not place too much emphasis on quick ‘get-out-of-jail' schemes which are, after all, only going to last until the next big Google update.

What is the Google Sandbox Theory?

There are several theories that attempt explain the Google Sandbox effect. Essentially, the problem is simple. Webmasters around the world began to notice that their new websites, optimized and chock full of inbound links, were not ranking well for their selected keywords.

In fact, the most common scenario to be reported was that after being listed in the SERPS (search engine results pages) for a couple of weeks, pages were either dropped from the index or ranked extremely low for their most important keywords.

This pattern was tracked down to websites that were created (by created I mean that their domain name was purchased and the website was registered) around March 2004. All websites created around or after March 2004 were said to be suffering from the Sandbox effect.

Some outliers escaped it completely, but webmasters on a broad scale had to deal with their websites ranking poorly even for terms for which they had optimized their websites to death.

Conspiracy theories grew exponentially after the February 2005 update, codenamed ‘Allegra' (how these updates are named I have no clue), when webmasters began seeing vastly fluctuating results and fortunes. Well-ranked websites were loosing their high SERPS positions, while previously low-ranking websites had gained ground to rank near the top for their keywords.

This was a major update to Google's search engine algorithm, but what was interesting was the apparent ‘exodus' of websites from the Google Sandbox. This event gave the strongest evidence yet of the existence of a Google Sandbox, and allowed SEO experts to better understand what the Sandbox effect was about.

Possible explanations for the Google Sandbox effect

A common explanation offered for the Google Sandbox effect is the ‘Time Delay' factor. Essentially, this theory suggests that Google releases websites from the Sandbox after a set period of time. Since many webmasters started feeling the effects of the Sandbox around March-April 2004 and a lot of those websites were ‘released' in the ‘Allegra' update, this ‘website aging' theory has gained a lot of ground.

However, I don't find much truth in the ‘Time Delay' factor because by itself, it's just an artificially imposed penalty on websites and does not improve relevancy (the Holy Grail for search engines). Since Google is the de facto leader of the search engine industry and is continuously making strides to improve relevancy in search results, tactics such as this do not fit in with what we know about Google.

Contrasting evidence from many websites has shown that some websites created before March 2004 were still not released from the Google Sandbox, whereas some websites created as late as July 2004 managed to escape the Google Sandbox effect during the ‘Allegra' update. Along with shattering the ‘Time Delay' theory, this also raises some interesting questions. This evidence has led some webmasters to suggest a ‘link threshold' theory; once a website has accumulated a certain amount of quantity/quality inbound links, it is released from the Sandbox.

While this might be closer to the truth, this cannot be all there is to it. There has been evidence of websites who have escaped the Google Sandbox effect without massive link-building campaigns. In my opinion, link-popularity is definitely a factor in determining when a website is released from the Sandbox but there is one more caveat attached to it.

This concept is known as ‘link-aging'. Basically, this theory states that websites are released from the Sandbox based on the ‘age' of their inbound links. While we only have limited data to analyze, this seems to be the most likely explanation for the Google Sandbox effect.

The link-ageing concept is something that confuses people, who usually consider that it is the website that has to age. While conceptually, a link to a website can only be as old as the website itself, yet if you have don't have enough inbound links after one year, common experience has it that you will not be able to escape from the Google Sandbox. A quick hop around popular SEO forums (you do visit SEO forums, don't you?) will lead you to hundreds of threads discussing various results – some websites were launched in July 2004 and escaped by December 2004. Others were stuck in the Sandbox even after the ‘Allegra' update.

How to find out if your website is ‘Sandboxed'

Finding out if your website is ‘Sandboxed' is quite simple. If your website does not appear in any SERPS for your target list of keywords, or if your results are highly depressing (ranked somewhere on the 40 th page) even if you have lots of inbound links and almost-perfect on-page optimization, then your website has been Sandboxed.

Issues such as the Google Sandbox theory tend to distract webmasters from the core ‘good' SEO practices and inadvertently push them towards black-hat or quick-fix techniques to exploit the search engine's weaknesses. The problem with this approach is its short-sightedness. To explain what I'm talking about, let's take a small detour and discuss search engine theory.

Understanding Search Engines

If you're looking to do some SEO, it would help if you tried to understand what search engines are trying to do. Search engines want to present the most relevant information to their users. There are two problems in this – the inaccurate search terms that people use and the information glut that is the Internet. To counteract, search engines have developed increasingly complex algorithms to deduce relevancy of content for different search terms.

How does this help us?

Well, as long as you keep producing highly-targeted, quality content that is relevant to the subject of your website (and acquire natural inbound links from related websites), you will stand a good chance for ranking high in SERPS. It sounds ridiculously simple, and in this case, it is. As search engine algorithms evolve, they will continue to do their jobs better, thus becoming better at filtering out trash and presenting the most relevant content to their users.

While each search engine will have different methods of determining search engine placement (Google values inbound links quite a lot, while Yahoo has recently placed additional value on Title tags and domain names), in the end all search engines aim to achieve the same goal, and by aiming to fulfill that goal you will always be able to ensure that your website can achieve a good ranking.

Escaping from the Google Sandbox

Now, from our discussion about the Sandbox theory above, you know that at best, the Google Sandbox is a filter on the search engine's algorithm that has a dampening influence on websites. While most SEO experts will tell you that this effect decreases after a certain period of time, they mistakenly accord it to website aging, or basically, when the website is first spidered by Googlebot. Actually, the Sandbox does ‘holds back' new websites but more importantly, the effects reduce over time not on the basis of website aging, but on link aging.

This means that the time that you spend in the Google Sandbox is directly linked to when you start acquiring quality links for your website. Thus, if you do nothing, your website may not be released from the Google Sandbox.

However, if you keep your head down and keep up with a low-intensity, long-term link building plan and keep adding inbound links to your website, you will be released from the Google Sandbox after an indeterminate period of time (but within a year, probably six months). In other words, the filter will stop having such a massive effect on your website.

SEO strategies to minimize your website's ‘Sandboxed' time

Save your time by remembering the 20/80 r

Career Planning: Great Job But Can't Afford to Move
Q. I live in a wonderful house in the Midwest. Recently a recruiter asked if I would consider a new job with a move to Southern California. The salary would be higher but the cost of living -- ouch! Should I go on the interview?A. Let's do the easy part first. I almost always recommend going on the interview. Of course, do not jeopardize your current job or current clients.But you have little to lose. Occasionally you will be considered for other jobs in the company. You may be able to negotiate a telecommute option. Your interviewer may know of other opportunities in more desirable locations.And now let's say you get a job offer for Los Angeles. You wonder if you can find a place to rent or buy. The only affordable homes seem to be 2 hours away from your job. What can you do?We're focusing here on finding a place to live, but the process works for other must-haves, too: access to the ocean, driving versus public transportation, art museums...even a good bakery or deli.(a) Visit your new city before you accept an offer. Don't skip this step, even if you pay your own way.(b) Look around on your own -- not with an agent or company representative. (If an agent offers to show you around, take another day alone.)As you look, make detailed notes. Stay in touch with an objective friend, family member or paid consultant – someone who can be a sounding board when you are facing a tough decision.(c) Revisit your offer.Often the dollar amount and the terms look different – in either direction -- after your Exploration

s tracked down to websites that were created (by created I mean that their domain name was purchased and the website was registered) around March 2004. All websites created around or after March 2004 were said to be suffering from the Sandbox effect.

Some outliers escaped it completely, but webmasters on a broad scale had to deal with their websites ranking poorly even for terms for which they had optimized their websites to death.

Possible explanations for the Google Sandbox effect

How to find out if your website is ‘Sandboxed'

Understanding Search Engines

How does this help us?

Escaping from the Google Sandbox

SEO strategies to minimize your website's ‘Sandboxed' time

Save your time by remembering the 20/80 r

Boutique - Online Business Vs Retail Shopping
Have you tried traditional means of selling with little to no success? Do you have a product driven, home based business that you would like to grow nationally or even internationally? Are you unsure how to successfully advertise your web site on the Internet? Does your web site get limited traffic? Have you been a vendor at various boutiques but want the continual yearly income that is generated from your loyal customer base?Retail shopping has been the general source of selling and purchasing products for decades. With the expansion of the Internet and other various creative avenues, business owners have been able to grow their business substantially in less time. Boutiques that have a physical location have been popular over the last 15 to 20 years. They are extremely enticing to the growing number of women who enjoy scrapbooking, home decor, holiday crafts, gift ideas and much more.Listed below are 8 reasons why an online boutique could increase sales and grow your business.1. Year round income: Not only would you have a physical location for your customers during various times of the year at boutiques, but they would be able to easily continue to purchase your items year round.2. It will bring shoppers to you: Retail stores spend hundreds or thousands of dollars marketing their business. By advertising your online store when you are a vendor at a boutique, your customers will have an incentive to purchase additional products later.3. Linking web sites: If a vendor from a boutique has a w

theory, this also raises some interesting questions. This evidence has led some webmasters to suggest a ‘link threshold' theory; once a website has accumulated a certain amount of quantity/quality inbound links, it is released from the Sandbox.

How to find out if your website is ‘Sandboxed'

Understanding Search Engines

How does this help us?

Escaping from the Google Sandbox

SEO strategies to minimize your website's ‘Sandboxed' time

Save your time by remembering the 20/80 r

How to Remove Opposition from Your Organization
After Solomon became king, he followed the instructions of his father, King David, to eliminate all his foes. This episode is record in 1st Kings 2:1 - 2:46 of the bible. Politically, it was an astute thing for a leader to do in order to become more powerful. He eliminated his oppositions by killing them off.Today, in some political hotspots of the world, we can still see some of them. But how about our work environment? Some work places have developed political hotspots of their own. Obviously, we cannot kill the oppositions off, but there are other subtle ways of eliminating them. In this article, I have listed down some ways managers can use to eliminating their oppositions legally. If you have more, please let me know.It's a sad thing - an insecure manager will sometimes try to eliminate his/her staffs even though the latter can be very competent, talented or even loyal employees. It does not matter whether you are really against the manager; as long as the manager thinks you are, and then you are out.Talking about losses for the company, this type of action can even reduce the competitiveness of a company, especially during times of manpower shortage. If you are in the Human Resources department, do take note! Are employees really your greatest assets?An insecure manager's goal to eliminate all those who seem to have a different viewpoint from him (or her) depends a lot on his level of maturity. Surprising as it may seem, the age of a person does not indicate his level of maturity. In the book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People",

How does this help us?

Escaping from the Google Sandbox

SEO strategies to minimize your website's ‘Sandboxed' time

Save your time by remembering the 20/80 r

How To Design Employee Communication Strategies That Engage Employees
There is only one question that you need ask yourself to find out whether your employee communication strategies are going to engage employees, rather than simply inform. That question is: Can you establish whether the tools and methods you are using to communicate with employees are engagement strategies or information tools?When I talk about employee engagement I mean that the business issue means something to employees personally – employees understand the reason why for certain decisions. Now going back to the question, engagement strategies are designed sothere is some involvement of the employee. Information tools mean that you are telling employees something, it is information sharing not an opportunity to become involved.This is important because your ultimate aim in employee communication has to be to create the “Aha Moment”. The Aha Moment is based on information that challenges the employee’s belief about an aspect of the business. The information that suddenly helps employees say, “Now it makes sense”, “Now I understand”, “Now I can do something about it”To help you design employee communication strategies that engage employees you need to undertake some research and the best type for this activity is focus group research.Focus group research allows you to ask employees about your business and their thoughts on competitors, identify the largest gap between what customers think and what staff think customers think, and to identify what would create a paradigm shift in employee’s thinking. It also helps you identify how you wil

SEO strategies to minimize your website's ‘Sandboxed' time

Save your time by remembering the 20/80 rule: 80 percent of your optimization can be accomplished by just 20 percent of effort. After that, any tweaking left to be done is specific to current search engine tendencies and liable to become ineffective once a search engine updates its algorithm. Therefore don't waste your time in optimizing for each and every search engine – just get the basics right and move on to the next page.

Remember, you should always optimize with the end-user in mind, not the search engines.

Like I mentioned earlier, search engines are continuously optimizing their algorithms in order to improve on the key criteria: relevancy. By ensuring that your website content is targeted on a particular keyword, and is judged as ‘good' content based on both on-page optimization (keyword density) and off-page factors (lots of quality inbound links), you will also guarantee that your website will keep ranking highly for your search terms no matter what changes are brought into a search engine's algorithm, whether it's a dampening factor a la Sandbox or any other quirk the search engine industry throws up in the future.

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Throughout our industries, both public and private, there persists a perception that motivation is a commodity to be handed out by the manager at his own discretion. Nobody seems to consider the effect of what would happen, if instead of finding time for motivational speeches and conferences, we spent the same amount of time and energy looking for the reasons that people become demotivated in the first place, then simply get rid of those reasons.

There are some things we all do which in the end lose us money and customers, wasting time and making life miserable. Hardly conducive to a good working environment. Problems take your mind off work, limits your growth, they must be prevented. These tips will help.

What exactly does Internet marketing mean and how does it apply to attorneys? Generally, Internet marketing involves information management, public relations, sales and customer service. Attorneys can use the Internet to sell their services to business and private clients as well as provide a platform for client service management.

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