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Detox or detoxification includes two things:

1) Withdrawing poisonous substance from the body.
2) Withdrawing one’s mind and soul from the darkness of abused substances.

The term Rapid detox was first used ten years ago and was specially related to opiate addictions. But today, it is mostly used to advertise and describe various methods of detox. Rapid detox can be used to describe the methods of alcohol detoxification, drug detox and other substances.

Drug detox

It is a process to withdraw one from drug addiction. Detoxification assists the overcoming of uncomfortable symptoms at the time of drug withdrawal. The ultimate goal of drug detox is to get the body rid of toxins formed due to drug use. It is carried out in various ways depending on where you decide to receive the treatment. Most drug detox clinics provide treatment only for physical withdrawal of drugs and alcohol.

Alcohol detoxification

Alcohol detoxification is the process to withdraw one from alcohol addiction.

There are various aspects of alcohol detoxification:

1) The first aspect of alcohol detoxification is the medical aspect. There should be a medical specialist and a qualified nursing staff in order to help the patient during the procedure. It is an established fact that if a medical practitioner can set the patient’s mind calm then the entire procedure goes smoothly.

2) The second aspect of alcohol detoxification is physical. During this process there should be a nutritionist in the medical center to put the patient on a perfect meal plan. If the patient takes balanced diet then the rest of the alcohol detoxification process will go more smoothly.

3) The third and the most important aspect of alcohol detoxification is the emotional aspect. The medical center should have a trained team of psychologists and counselors to help the patient psychologically. The process can be extremely emotional at times. Specialists should be there to assist the patient move forward through emotions.

4) Alcohol detoxification always combines a therapy with medication and that of psychological counseling. These programs are often long lasting; they mostly take two to four months and needs staying at medical institutions. Therapy techniques and personal counseling assist the patients to recover from alcohol completely and more comfortably. The drugs are given to avoid withdrawal symptoms that the patients may experience. Complete recovery from alcoholism is most preferable and the ideal situation.

5) Alcohol detoxification therapies use drugs like Disulfiram, which cause a severe and immediate hangover after consuming alcohol. Drugs like Naltrexone, helps in complete and comfortable recovery.

6) Nutritional therapy has also proved helpful in alcohol detoxification. During this stage, some patients feel ‘insulin resistance syndrome’ which results in the failure of processing sugar in body. “Insulin resistance syndrome” causes behavioral upsets and mood swings. These mood swings and behavioral upsets can be controlled with specific dietary regimen. Due to these types of psychological problems one should include a dietary regimen during alcohol detoxification.

7) There are some specific programs that help heavy drinkers who are not yet alcoholics but on the same way yet to become alcoholics. Moderation management also helps such people.

Do you want to avoid your blog being consigned to the great blog dustbin where so many blogs end up with few visitors and no chance of generating income for you?

Too often bloggers complain that after a great start, a year later their blog is as dead as can be. This is a common problem that almost always revolves around a small list of common mistakes made by the blogger. A blogger can sit back and expect the blog to do all of the work for him or her, which is a terrible way to approach blogging. A successful blogger would tell you that great blogging takes a certain amount of dedication and hard effort to make it work. You have to put effort into a blog to sustain it, especially after the first month or so of completing the design. Many people work so hard during the initial design phase that they get lazy after it is complete. To avoid this happening to your blog, check out these five common mistakes that can bury a blog.

Infrequent Updates

One of the biggest mistakes a blogger can make is to “forget” about posting. The most successful blogs are updated with new posts at least once a day. Some larger blogs are constantly being updated. You should try to create new posts as often as possible. If you miss a day here and there, it will be no big deal. However, if you miss a week or more without posting, you might as well consider the blog dead already. You have to take a few moments, even as few as five, a day to create interesting posts or content. If you are writing short and concise posts like you should be, this should not be that challenging. It is easy to keep your blog updated, if you make it a priority.

Too Much Advertising

Most bloggers today do want to make a profit from their blog. This is a trend that can get out of control quickly however. If you are interested in adding ads to your blog, do so with caution. There is nothing wrong with a few appropriately places ads that offer viewers links to places that correlate with your blog’s content. However, adding a massive amount of advertisements on your blog is a mistake. If you have a bunch of flashy ads on your blog, your content will get lost within the hoopla. Therefore, you should always limit your ads to three or less per page. Make sure you place them in appropriate places that let your content shine through. Don’t allow enormous ads to fill up your pages either. They will simply annoy readers. Be smart about including advertising on your blog!

Unprofessional Look

Looks do matter when it comes to your blog. The more professional and crisp your blog looks, the more your readers will take you seriously. If you are interesting in boosting traffic, you should try a more serious layout or presentation for your blog. If you can afford to hire a professional, you should. If you choose to do it yourself however, you must make sure the end product is good. If you have a sloppy blog that looks “homemade” you will not likely have a great response. Try different layouts and approaches to see what gets you the most traffic.

Graphics Overload

Pictures can add a ton to your blog and draw in more readers. However, when done excessively, much like ads, pictures can drive people away. The main reason too many pictures can ruin a blog is because there are many web surfers who still use slow internet connections. When they try to load your page, it will take an excessively long time to do so. This in turn will likely drive them and anyone else with this problem away. Try limiting to a few pictures per page.

Inappropriate Content

Everyone knows that the web is a place where you can freely express yourself. However, if you want your blog to survive, you might want to think about that freedom of expression. Although you should always say what you feel, you can do so in appropriate manners on your blog. There are ways to say anything on your mind, without using profanity or any offensive lingo. If you want your blog to be successful, you cannot be inappropriate with your content.

Intuition, is it something you use? Maybe you call it by a different name. Gut feeling. The little voice inside your head. A hazy image that passes before your eyes. You blink and wonder if you are seeing things. Or you know an outcome with certainty. Before receiving confirmation by phone or person. Like a mother who wakes up suddenly in the night. She knows something is wrong with one of her children.

These are all expressions of intuition. I feel that it is very important that we start listening to our intuition now. Start to re-learn this language. Start to become fluent in its many subtle nuances and syntax. Why? Because we need new ways of thinking beyond our current thought paradigms. Our global problems need solutions that emanate from a higher level of consciousness. Intuition is like hearing messages from a higher consciousness. From the heart. From the soul. From the universe. It reveals our inner truths. Our universal truths. Yet it gets mixed up with head thinking. My head gets filled up with lists of things. Things I need to do. Things I should do. Things I don’t wanna do. Lots of doo-doo.

Technology is speeding up our head thinking. Faster images. Quicker music. annoying txt messages. More advertising channels. More buttons to press. More stuff coming in. Attention span is getting very short. Hence the head struggles to take it all in. I ask myself, where is the melody of life? Too much rapid movement and loud noise. Boom, boom, boom.

So lets look at ways you can access your intuition.

1. Take A Walk In Nature.
Get away from the computer. Turn off the cell phone. Go for a walk within nature. Just be among nature. Your body, your head, your soul longs to hear the sounds and silence of nature. The song of the birds. The whispers of the wind. The breaking of the wave. The silence between the sounds. The silence between your thoughts. Go there now. Your intuition will speak when the head is silent.

2. Clean Up Your Energy Fields.
If your personal or professional life is stressful and soul-destroying than this will affect your energy fields. Your thoughts and emotions are like bioelectrical currents that radiate out from your body. Polluted toxic thinking creates dirty energy fields. It comes through in your words, your thoughts and outlook on life. How many negative people do you know? Do you like being around them when they complain and moan about life. Be careful because you will pick up their negative energy vibrations. Eventually they will pollute your thinking unless you consciously keep your energy fields clean. Deep breathing combined with isometric tension movements are very good ways of cleaning your energy fields. You can even do this when you are out in nature.

3. Start To Speak To Intuition Language.
You must learn to speak and understand your own intuition. Remember the times when you have sensed an outcome before it happened. Or had a bad feeling about a person or situation. Later your feeling was proved correct. Just remember these times. Identify the subtle nuances and syntax in which your intuition communicated with you. Maybe it was a tight feeling in your belly. Or a tiny voice that spoke within your mind. Not the usual mind chatter. Or an image that appeared in a dream. Then you saw it the next day. These are all signs and symbols that you must learn to trust. Each person will have their own intuition language. Yet it will be like learning a new language. Frustrating at first but satisfying when you can converse easily and sincerely.

Your intuition is like the language of the inner self. It can open doors to your palace of higher wisdom. Start now to share your riches with the rest of the world.

Is your computer running a bit slower than usual? Have you recently installed a few programs and now everything seems a little slowed? If this sounds like the problems that you are currently experiencing, then your computer probably just needs a tune up! Running a tune up on your computer can be a relatively routine task that most people can perform from the comforts of their own home.

If you think about it, computer technology has become so much more advanced, since the introduction of the first dinosaur models! In “the old days”, it was not uncommon for a computer to be so large that it actually took up an entire room. Now, in the 21st century, a computer can be small enough to fit into the palm of your hand!

Whether you own a laptop or a desktop, there are certain features that need to be maintained on a regular basis, to ensure that larger problems don’t creep up on you. Everyone knows that when you have a car, you have to perform maintenance checks, such as airing up tires, changing the oil and filling it with gas. What a lot of beginner and even experienced computer users don’t know, however, is that the computer also needs to have regular maintenance to perform optimally.

Computers can do a lot of amazing things, but the most important task is something that they need our help with; they cannot take care of themselves! (This is the one key factor that keeps a lot of people employed these days.) No matter how advanced your computer is, it will take a little T.L.C. to make sure things are running smoothly on a daily basis.

If proper maintenance is not performed on a computer, then some pretty bad things will most likely happen. If you use your computer to work, you cannot afford to have your computer run slow or even worse, breakdown. A computer breakdown can cost a lot of money to correct, if the problem can be fixed at all! The best way to avoid spending more money than you would care to on a broken computer is to just make sure that the regular basic maintenance tasks are taken care of.

A PC Tune Up can consist of many things, depending on how much it is used and how old the computer is. Some of the basic tasks that should be performed on a PC Tune Up include: virus removal, hard disk scanning, security updates, program updates, program removals, driver updates, data backup, Malware removal, update anti-virus protection, defragmentation, spyware removal, hardware upgrades and basic cleaning.

Any computer user can easily perform most of the maintenance checks. It is actually better for you to take care of the tune up yourself, because it is a great way to learn how your computer really works. It might be a little overwhelming at first, but the first time that you successfully add a new keyboard or open up the hood and clean out the dust, you will really be feeling a great sense of accomplishment!

Chances are that you have spent a pretty fair amount on the setup of your dreams, so the last thing you want is to be in the middle of writing your thesis or final page top your novel and loose it all! (Which can very well happen if you do not take the time to tune up your computer on a regular basis.) You can easily protect yourself, and your investment, by performing simple maintenance checks.

When you are ready to tackle the tune up on your PC, there are many resources available to make the job a little easier for you. There is a lot of available software that can be installed that will quickly search for and remove spyware and viruses, some software will upgrade current programs and other software can help to install new hardware. The best part of it all is that you can download the programs right off the Internet or find most of it at your local discount store!

For the most part, you will never have to open the hood of your tower. You will not have to purchase special tools and you won’t have to ruin your favourite shirt by even getting it dirty! The beginner computer user, or the novice can perform this simple tune up tasks. Of course, if you don’t want to do it yourself, there are always businesses and individuals that will do it for a fee, small or not! Unless you just don’t have the time or desire, though, it is recommended that you at least give it a try before handing it over to a professional.

Tomorrow’s surveillance technology may be considerably more effective. But each improvement in technology will typically come at the cost of more intrusion into the privacy of ordinary citizens. The public in general seems unaware of the goals of scientists around the world who have been intensifying their efforts to perfect the art of surveillance, hoping to catch criminals and terrorists before they strike.

Research laboratories foresee tools that could identify and track just about every person, anywhere and sound alarms when the systems encounter hazardous devices or chemical compounds. Many of these ideas stem from the annals of science fiction. For example, an artificial nose in doorways and corridors sniffs out faint traces of explosives on someone’s hair. Tiny sensors floating in reservoirs detect a deadly microbe and radio a warning. Smart cameras “finger” people at a distance by the way they walk or by the shape of their nose. Chemical lab’s analyzes the sweat, body odor, and skin flakes in the human thermal plume which represents the halo of heat that surrounds each person.

Consumer demand for video and audio surveillance products is speeding their development by lowering the cost of the underlying technologies. Camera phones, nanny cams, and even satellite photos are commonplace and can be found everywhere. Human sensors are flooding into households in the form of tests for HIV, pregnancy, and diabetes some of which can relay data to a doctor and soon there will be far more sensitive DNA-based tests to be even more accurate matching than ever. Groups are working on radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. These surveillance tags are sold in stores to help track inventory, and 50 people in the U.S. have had them planted under their skin to broadcast their ID and medical data, in case of an emergency.

These developments portray a high-tech surveillance camera society that could not have even been imagined by science fiction writer George Orwell, a world in which virtually every advance brings benefits as well as personal intrusions. Rapid DNA-based probes, for example, could help protect us from bioweapons and diagnose diseases, but they might also reveal far too much about us to health insurers or prospective employers. The trade-offs are not pleasant, in part, because big corporations and governments will continue to wield the most advanced surveillance systems. But also, ordinary people will also gain capabilities to monitor their home and surroundings with these advance consumer technologies, from Web cams to Internet search and tracking tools, allowing them to watch and be watched from every perspective.

Here’s an example of what could happen in society: A subway commuter posted on the Internet some cell-phone photos he took of a passenger who had refused to clean up after her cat relieved itself during the ride. In no time, a vigilante mob on the Internet identified her by her face and the purse she was carrying, and she became the object of national vilification.

If terrorism becomes pandemic in Europe and America, emerging surveillance tools may be abused in even more bizarre ways. At the same time, the overhead burdens of a police state could impose crippling costs on a free-market economy. Witness the U.S. clampdown on foreign student visas, which could end up crimping a universities ability to do advanced research.

Industry experts disagree about when the most advanced tools to thwart terrorist acts will arrive on the market and whether they will even deliver what they promise. Sensors that can detect bombs, radiation, and toxins exist today, and will be far more sophisticated a decade from now. But strewing them across every city in America would cost untold billions of dollars. High-tech electronic eavesdropping on communications networks can be effective, but only if terrorists use telecom systems. But even with the latest improvements in spy cameras, biometric devices such as iris scans, bomb sniffers, and tracking software, it will be many years before they can pick a terrorist out of a crowd and stop him before he commits his terrorist acts. Sacrifices in society and in governments will be made as our society becomes a surveillance society. The debate will rage on for decades to come.

The Ultimate Universal Sensor, a small and cheap enough to scatter in public places, and smart enough to sniff out anything that comes its way, without being preprogrammed to find specific molecules. Nobody is close to reaching that goal yet, but Sandia National Laboratories has designed a lab-on-a-chip that detects a variety of both chemical and biological agents. It has skinny micro channels etched in its surface. When a gas or liquid moves through the tiny pipes, it collides with special material, and how much that slows the flow betrays the identity of the fluid. Sandia is now developing this technology to monitor the Contra Costa County (Calif.) water supply.

These systems may not be in place in time for the next attack in a Western country let alone in Egypt or Iraq but if terrorists hit the U.S. again, the authorities are bound to strike back. Among other things, today’s restraints on racial profiling are likely to crumble. Then what will we do? In the arms race against the terrorist suicide bombers, will surveillance technologies prove their worth?

Some governments have already used Electronic Monitoring to foil some terrorist plots, and portals that spot guns and explosives make airports safer. Unfortunately, many of the most powerful technologies are simply too new. It may take a decade or more before networks of biochemical sensors are ready to blanket a whole city. And it could take as long before camera systems can pick a known face terrorist or otherwise out of the crowds. For now, only a combination of electronic monitoring and human intelligence stands a chance of holding radicals at bay.

In the meantime, scientists who labor on surveillance prototypes are encouraged that their innovations can bring benefits in health care and food safety. Over time, people may get smarter about how to live with threats and make use of technology without undermining their most basic values. A country that sacrifices its citizens’ freedom in the fight to protect them is no hero.

Many parents today would like their kids to watch a lot less TV, and instead, spend some quality family time. But how do you do that, when both parents are working, and there isn’t a lot of time to prepare fun activities on a daily basis?

Let’s find out what you need to have handy in order to find time to play with your family. Create a family activity center that includes fun things for everyone in the family. Here are some ideas, right from your home:

Toilet Paper Tubes: You can play your own version of “bowling” with these. Stand 10 of them up in a “V” shape, and have the kids throw a rubber ball at them (pick a 6″ diameter or smaller ball). Of course, you can encourage the kids to be creative and color the tubes, and you can also come up with different ways to throw the ball: standing on one foot, blindfolded, push it with your nose, etc.

Plastic Containers & Tops: You can use pudding and yogurt containers, or any other plastic tubs to hold your crayons, markers, and paint. The tops can be used as dials for play dashboards, or even as play dishes, or cookie cutters.

Cotton from Vitamin Bottles: You can use these to make hair for puppets, smoke for volcanoes, or snow for winter games.

Used Gift Wrap: Great to decorate home-made toys, and wrap make-belief gifts.

Fabric Scraps: These have so many uses to keep your kids busy! Make doll clothes, wrap gifts, decorate tins to keep pens in, make pillows and potpourri sachets, create small quilts, etc.

Junk Mail, Catalogs, and Magazines: Great sources of pictures for your family games. You can get decor for that new doll room, people for your next activity, and even a story or two to read.

As you can see, there are many things around your home that can be put to great use for quality family time.

Now, here are some quick game ideas you can play with the family, instead of watching TV:

Reverse Writing: This can make for some great fun for everyone in the family. Ask everyone to write a message for the rest of you, but in reverse. Then look in the mirror to see how you did. Not only is this game fun, but it exercises the brain of all those involved.

Sand Paintings: Take one of your child’s drawings, and make it an art piece. Using a Q-tip apply some white glue, to the drawing, then spread a handful of sand over it and let it dry for a few minutes. Shake the excess sand off, and you’ve got sand art. You can take this a step further, and add color to it, but painting the sand.

Create a Book: Who wouldn’t love being an author? Get together several magazines, newspapers, brochures, junk mail, and mail order catalogs, and look for things your child is interested in. Then, organize the pictures into a story line, glue them onto paper, and tie them together to form a book. Add a “hard cover” made of cardboard and decorated by your kids, and you are done.

It’s not hard to find ways to have quality time: all you need to do is a little planning. Go spend some time creating your own family activity center, and be ready for a lot of fun!

Your email response should be complete,Correct and prompt!

Judging from what we receive, lots of people have not thought much about replying their emails. Yet dealing with it effectively is vitally important to the success of your business. This may be the most overlooked and under-valued aspect of doing business online. Here is what is needed.

-You must answer it!
-You must answer it Promptly!
-You must answer it Completely!
-You must answer it in a honest manner and
-You must answer it with grace and style!

These all seem obvious. They reflect plain good old common sense. Yet we find one or more of them ignored in much of the email we receive.

You Must Answer All The emails!

Apparently many are selective as to what they will reply to; it’s a massive mistake. If we visit your website, ask a question or two and do not receive a reply, we promise you won’t hear from us ever again. period! -and here it goes again “Another potential customer goes begging!”

You say you’re just too busy to deal with dumb foolish questions or stuff of no interest to you? If that is really true, then you can afford to hire someone to do it for you. If a person felt it was worth the time and trouble to write to you, they honestly deserve a reply.

Not so? Try this. Pick three sites you feel are successful and ask them a question, any foolish question. Let it be something way off the mark. Maybe; “I was given this URL as a source of information about web hosting by Dobermans,but the address must be wrong. do you by any chance know of such a source?”
You will definitely get a reply of some sort. It may be brief and to the point, mostly likely but courteous.

Spam is probably part of the problem. Much too much of what we receive is pure junk. Even so, we take the trouble to read at least the first line or two before hitting the delete button, for serious email does occasionally come in looking like junk.

Think about what a Person risks in asking a simple question. Ridicle, rejection, and such, and the possible misuse of the email address that brings more spam. However, an email reply should be mandatory. Besides, it’s a good fundamental of a sound business.

Always Answer Your Email Promptly!

This can be difficult if you are on a full time job. Still, it must be done. If an email is answered every evening, in most cases you provide a same-day response, which is sufficient. You might also consider a morning session before going to work. Since not many messages come in during the night, a short session may work well. You can leave a tough question or issue until evening.

We check our email four to six times each work day. It really pays off. We see it in a reply that begins with: Wow; That was quick! We see it even more clearly when a sale comes through an hour or so later.

Again judging from our email, some apparently wait until the weekend to answer. This may mark you as a part-timer in your web business, a negative to be avoided if possible. For the same reason, we do not reply to business email on Sundays or Public holidays.

You Must Answer Your Email Completely!

Next to waiting too long for a reply, Our pet peeve is a reply that fails to answer the question we asked, or an important part of it. Often these are just carelessness, but consider what it does to a company image. Do you want to deal with careless people?

One of the problems with email is the lack of eye contact and body language available in face-to-face conversation. Even the phone gives something of this, as in a hesitant response, the opportunity to quickly repeat something that may have been misunderstood, or correct a blunder, etc.

This slack is just not available in email. All you have are the words in front of you. To complicate matters, not everyone is a good writer. This sets things up so that it is easy to overlook the real question buried in the one apparently asked.

If you have the slightest doubt about what the question means, you should say so. Maybe: I’m not sure I understand the question; If you meant…blah, then…blah. Then wrap it with; If that is not what you were looking for or I missed something, Please get right back to me.

Complete does not mean it is necessary to write a manual. In fact brevity is king in all business correspondence. If the question is too broad, the best choice is to try a one sentence reply that offers something of the answer, followed by a reference or suggestion.

Answer Your Email Honestly!

As stated, your answer should imply the truth, is the need to be correct. Never try to fake it; people will quickly peg you as a phoney, con artist, or worse. Sometimes the best answer is : Sorry, I don’t know. Maybe continue with; It seems to me … Also provide a resource if possible. Worst case, suggest a search engine; but in whatever you say, be honest and correct.

Answer Your Email With Grace and Style!

Very Few webmasters are professional writers, so how is the above possible? Substitute courteous for grace and first part may make more sense. The idea is to treat the email writer as you would a valued client or customer.

Your first contact with a future prospect is quite likely to be an email. Since you are not meeting face to face, you can not offer a warm handshake, a wide smile of welcome, or show your intense interest with your eyes or posture. While it is not easy.

Style is not as tough as it sounds, for we all have one, whether or not we recognize it. Some tend to be informal, Some tend to be formal. Most are somewhere in between. Whatever your style is, it matters little. The important thing is to be true to whatever it is. To do otherwise will quickly destroy your credibility. That is , cute and clever doesn’t make it, unless you truly are, and so is grand formality doesn’t fly unless it is who you are. Write as you would speak to a visitor to your office or shop.

All of the above has to do with creating trust. Any relationship between you and a customer or client begins with trust. A email question gives you the opportunity to build on the trust inherent in the act of sending the message. Do otherwise, and you will blow it.

Hoodia Gordonii is a fascinating botanical as somehow it manages to minimize the appetite and vanquish all food cravings while at the same time providing stamina and a sense of well-being.

It does not work like other diet supplements (such as caffeine, Dexedrine and ephedra) that speed up your bodily functions and can give you a buzzy anxious feeling.
Also there is no “crash” at the end of the day or mood swings. You simply do not feel the urge to eat or make up for what you haven’t eaten to make yourself feel better after a day of deprivation.

It seems that a substance that is so effective should have some kind of negative side effect. There is one. It minimizes your appetite so effectively that you may lose too much weight a week.

Some people have lost as much as ten pounds a week on Hoodia but anyone who has “been around the block” when it comes to diets knows that this will only cause rebound weight gain once you stop taking it.

It is very important to monitor your weight loss when you are on Hoodia and keep your loss to a minimum of two to three pounds a week. Just two pounds a week is what doctors recommend for healthy, PERMANENT weight loss.

Chemically Hoodia works in the body by mimicking the effects of glucose in the bloodstream. Glucose fuels cells so they can create energy.

Hoodia contains a molecule that is exactly 10,000 times more active in the bloodstream when compared to glucose. This molecule triggers nerve cells within the brain to recognize the hoodia as an excess of glucose.

When these nerve cells detect hoodia within the body, it commands the body to stop eating. This is why when you take Hoodia, you lose your appetite and especially your cravings for anything with glucose (sugar) in it. If you have an addiction to soft drinks, Hoodia may be your answer as it can even cause an aversion to sugary drinks.

When on Hoodia many people don’t even feel like drinking water. However make sure you are drinking at least eight glasses of water a day so that your body is well hydrated and easily flushes any toxins out of your body.

Hoodia is so effective that it is like fasting. The first thing that happens when you fast is that your body begins to detoxify so it is absolutely crucial for you to drink as much water as you can while you are on it.

Unlike other weight loss drugs that work, especially those that are now banned such as ephedra and Phen Phen. Hoodia does not have a stimulant effect at all but it does increase endurance.

You feel full even if you have taken just a tiny bit of the plant as it gives a direct message to the hypothalamus that you are full. The chemical ingredient in the plant responsible for this is called p57.

As a warning if you have had a history of disease to do with your hypothalamus glands, such as cancer, hoodia may not be the right weight loss supplement for you. Always check with your doctor first in case he or she foresees any contraindications to your health (even though officially hoodia has no known side effects except for excessive or extreme weight loss)

Still as with all things that are newer to consumers, use hoodia in moderation.

Ask a typical consultant where their business comes from and it’s no surprise that you’re likely to hear; “Repeat business from existing clients and referrals.” And while there is certainly nothing inherently wrong with those methods, over-relying on them is one of the main reasons why so many consultants suffer from the inevitable “feast or famine” business cycles.

However, expanding one’s circle of senior level relationships is a challenge for many consultants. Cold calling, attending networking meetings and industry conferences tend to be either a) unpleasant or b) immensely time consuming. So, what are the other options available to consultants who feel that they have lapped the track with their existing circle of contacts?

For the consultants that we work with, we’ve found the most effective method for gaining initial traction is a one-page letter. However, the difference between whether the letter gets through the screener, actually gets read and acted upon, naturally depends upon how it is written. And it all starts with the first sentence.

There’s an old saying in copywriting that the purpose of the first sentence is simply to get the reader to read the second sentence. And that’s basically the truth. You either hook the reader with your opening sentence, or your letter gets pitched. It’s that simple.

However, all opening hooks are not the same. First, we need to consider who the reader is. Crafting a compelling letter introducing our consulting services to a C-Level executive is a very different challenge than marketing a consumer product to a homeowner. Thus the opening sentence must “grab” the reader, but do so in a manner that doesn’t scream “This is a sales letter and I want you to buy my services!”

The key to getting immediate attention is 1) communicating that you specialize in their industry and 2) understand a particular problem this group faces. Why are these crucial?

First, everyone thinks their problems are unique. This isn’t necessarily true, but from a marketing perspective it’s important that we accept this perception. Thus, the more we communicate that we “play in their sandbox” the greater the likelihood is that our entire letter will get read.

Communicating a problem that the reader faces requires that we raise a specific, rather than obviously generic, challenge. Simple saying “We know you’re concerned about cost reduction” is just too basic. You need to fly the plane at a lower level. What exactly does “cost reduction” mean to a bank? To a manufacturer? To an educational institution? To your specific audience? That’s what you want to communicate.

So this is quite an objective for the opening sentence. You need to demonstrate that you specialize in the reader’s industry and show that you understand an issue of substance and importance. Let me share with you an example of an opening sentence that has proven to be extremely successful for my clients. The format is as follows:

I know from speaking with other (people similar to the person you are writing to) that many of them are concerned about (a specific problem).

For example:

I know from speaking with other banking executives that training bank personnel to cross-sell financial services is an on-going challenge.

Note that I didn’t say that “more business” was the challenge. Rather I focused on the issue of “cross-selling”, which is a specific challenge for executives in retail banking. Thus I begin to build immediate credibility for myself as someone who truly understands the issues bankers face.

This lesson applies to any group that you are writing to. You want your reader to see a reflection of themselves in the message you are communicating.

Now suppose, despite all of your efforts, what you come up with as an issue still sounds pretty obvious. That’s not necessarily a problem as long as you acknowledge the obviousness and don’t try to package it as some sort of unique insight.

Let me give you an example of a letter I wrote for my own practice (that you can easily adapt to your business) which I stated a generic problem but still got readers to keep reading by adding a second sentence.

“I know from speaking with other partners of management consulting firms that new business development is an ongoing challenge. And while this may appear to be a blinding grasp of the obvious, what is less apparent is what the most successful firms are actually doing to address this challenge.”

I tested this letter with, and without the second sentence, to two mailing lists of consulting firms. The first letter drew a minimal response of .5%. The second letter, which included the second sentence, drew 3.7%, which in the world of direct response is a huge difference.

Naturally there is more to writing a compelling marketing letter that gets read and acted on than just the opening sentence. In future articles I will share with you how to continue to build initial credibility and create a call to action that motivates readers to take the next step in the relationship building process.

The aim of your internet marketing efforts is to find as many targeted leads as possible. But marketing isn’t just about finding leads. It’s also about getting those leads to visit your web site and then converting them into subscribers and lifetime customers. There are many different ways to achieve this goal but ultimately you want to leverage your efforts by finding the easiest and cheapest methods and techniques.

Obviously there are countless ways to advertise so I will list the ones that are effective, low cost and even free. I believe writing articles and submitting them to the article directories is the best value for money and most effective forms of lead generation available. With your articles getting picked up and going all over the internet to ezines and other web sites, your link in the author’s resource box can be getting clicked on by thousands of people all over the world, for years to come.

Publishing your own blog (short for weblog) is another great way to generate traffic and to point them towards your site. Also, submitting your site to as many of the link directories as you can. All these methods are great for getting one-way links pointing back to your site and to increase your ranking with the search engines.

Don’t underestimate the power of referrals, word of mouth, flyers, business cards and car signage. You’ll probably have very little or no competition in the off-line arena.

Whatever methods of lead generation that you employ, it’s imperative that you track your ads to find out where the traffic is coming from. Test your ads and tweak them from time to time to improve the results. Dump the ads that simply aren’t working and for the ads that are working, keep doing it. But the only way you will know this is to TEST and MEASURE

Now that you are getting the traffic pouring into your site, you want to convert as many of those leads as you can into subscribers and/or customers. So check your web site stats to determine the number of unique visitors and number of sales. Now divide the number of visitors into the number of sales to find the “conversion rate”. Once you know that, you can work on improving it.

Setting sales targets is a powerful way to boost your conversion. Why? Because as soon as you commit to a clear target, you suddenly work harder, smarter and you “find” resources required to bring about the goal. Intention is a powerful force.

Once people hit your site, your headline needs to be targeted towards them, address a problem or need that they have, and compel them to keep reading. Different headlines will out-pull others so it’s a matter of testing to find which is the best one. The sales copy must offer a “valuable” solution to their problem and be loaded with benefits, not just product features. Educate the prospect as to “what’s in it for them” and how their life will be better for buying your product. Also, don’t forget to include special bonuses and free gifts to not only entice them, but to give them greater value for the cash they are about to hand over to you. Finally, ask for the sale. Be very clear with the call to action so they know exactly what is required.

Keep in mind, a lot of your prospects won’t buy from you the first time. Research seems to indicate that about 7 exposures to your site/product is required before a purchase is made. So obviously, it’s important to be able to capture these leads so that you can follow up with them and build a relationship with them… to build TRUST.

So, rather than asking yourself “How can I get more customers?” Narrow your focus more and ask “How can I get more leads and convert more of them into sales?” This will change the way that you look at your online business.