If you could master the art of advertising, you would soon be an extremely rich individual. An “Advertising Master” could not only sell just about anything, for any price, but could also sell his or her expertise to others for untold sums of money, especially if that Master could guarantee results.Now the bad news. Becoming a true Advertising Master is probably as difficult and time consuming as it might be to become a nuclear physicist! Advertising is that hard! Advertising is that elusive! Advertising is that much of a mystery!Advertising is like writing a brilliant poem on the sand of a beach. Just when you have written a masterpiece, the tide comes in and washes it away forever. Then when you try to rewrite the poem, it turns out not to be so brilliant the second time around – even if you wrote the very same thing. The poem may stay the same, but the world around it changed. It lost it’s the original relevancy that made it brilliant the first time around. That happens with great ads all the time.Is this starting to sound like a philosophy lecture? But here’s the thing about advertising: You never know what good advertising is until it works. That means you can’t tell if an ad is a good, effective ad before it is actually used.Now, let’s get in touch with reality here. We know a lot about advertising. We know a lot about what works and what does not work. It’s just that there’s never 100% certainty about anything. Add to that fact that advertising tends to be extremely expensive and you have a very delicate situation, indeed. Still, very few businesses can exist without doing at least some kind of paid advertising, and very often, advertising can be a tremendous source of new customers, business and profit for just about anybody who is selling anything.When advertising is done right, the profit it can bring to a business can be truly spectacular. That’s why it’s so tempting to roll the dice with your ad budget. But when it comes to advertising, what you need is a healthy dose of common sense, combined with a strategy that risks only as much money as you think you can afford to lose.First of all, one must decide what kind of advertising is right for the business type. The choices are:· print advertising in things like newspapers, magazines and other specialty publications.
· broadcast media eg. radio and television.
· internet advertising is a whole new and different kind advertising world in itself
· directory advertising
· billboards and poster sites
· promotional advertisingIt can all be pretty intimidating. What advertising vehicle is right for you? What if you only had £1,000 to spend. Is it best to spend that £1,000 on an ad or ads in the local newspaper, take out an ad in the Yellow Pages, or maybe buy some radio time on a local station. If you only have £1,000 to spend, which should you choose to gain maximum effect? And by maximum effect, we mean bringing in more than the £1,000 you spent on that ad!Well, we’re only going to talk about some general principles here and give some basic guidelines. That’s because literally whole libraries of books have been written on the subject and art of advertising, and we simply can’t cover it all here. It’s a subject that is nearly inexhaustible, and any entrepreneur worth his salt should be spending a lot of spare time reading up on all the advertising information he or she can get his or her hands on.First, never buy a large print advertisement without testing a smaller less expensive ad first. Maybe start with a classified ad, or very small space ad. If the results are promising, you can reasonably upgrade to a bigger more expensive ad in the same publication. The key is test and measure! You must have a system to determine that the ad you bought is responsible for the leads you get from that ad. It’s not always easy. Take the case of a restaurant.Let’s say that Restaurant A buys an ad in the local newspaper. How do you know that the people who come into the restaurant are doing so because they were prompted to do so by the ad in the local paper? Is it reasonable to ask every patron who comes in if they saw your ad in the paper? Probably not. But if you included a clip out coupon in the ad which patrons can bring in for a 10% discount, you can get a pretty good idea of how well the ad performed. Simple techniques like this can make all the difference.Companies that sell things via mail order key their ads to show where each order sent in came from. All orders which include a key from a print ad will show exactly how well the ad performed. This is an almost 100% accurate way to test a print ad.But what about a radio ad? How could a restaurant advertising on a local radio station determine if their broadcast ads were working? It’s a lot tougher. You could ask patrons to mention your radio ad when they come in, but this is unreliable, to say the least. If business suddenly increases when the ad runs, you might reasonable conclude that the radio ad is working, but you can’t be 100% sure. It’s a tough call, and the smart restaurant owner will have to decide if the radio ad is worth it or not. If business continues to be brisk while the ad runs, it’s probably a good idea to keep it going.Whatever the case, having a reliable way to test ads is essential to making intelligent decisions about the advertising budget. Another major point is this: Always remember the central purpose of an ad.- to bring in customers who will buy what you are selling. This point is so often forgotten and the design of the ad becomes an exercise in creative design rather than something designed to generate new sales.The ad should produce more in income than the cost of the ad itself. This seems obvious, except for the fact that we are all bombarded every day with all kinds of advertising that is not necessarily selling very much. If this is so, then why is all this advertising being bought and paid for?Well, much of the advertising we are confronted with every day is purchased by major corporations with very deep pockets, and gigantic advertising budgets. The big players can afford to buy ads that merely create “name recognition” and help them keep a high profile in the public mind. But small to mid-sized businesses can’t afford this kind of thing.How many times have you seen a TV commercial that is fun to watch, completely hilarious, and really gives you a good laugh — but leaves you with no idea whatsoever about what is being advertised? We all see dozens of these ads every year. They’re fun and entertaining, but they don’t sell much. So why do people buy pay for ads like these? Again, such ads are usually the venue of major players with more money than brains, and who are also willing to take big risks in the advertising game.But the vast majority — perhaps 99% — of businesses can’t afford this kind of thing. The purpose of an ad is to sell, not to entertain. The purpose of an ad is not to “be creative” but to produce profits. The purpose of an ad is not to be a work of art — but to get customers marching through the door. If an ad happens to entertain while making money, well, that’s fine. The trouble is, too many people have been led to believe that an ad must first be funny or entertaining, when the true first task of an ad is to inform customers about your product, tell them where and how to get it, and get them to buy.Many small and mid-sized business owners see a lot of funny and creative ads on TV or in magazines, and then assume that because huge rich companies are using these kind of ads, they must be a good thing. That’s not the case.There are other pressures to create ads that are nice to look at, but which don’t work. Ad agencies, for example, compete for creativity awards sponsored by advertising associations. Ad writers and creators who get awards get a boost to their careers when they win awards. This encourages them to lose sight of what their primary purpose is — to create ads that sell. Many TV ad producers tend to be frustrated film makers. How many TV ads have you seen that have the look and feel of miniature feature films? A lot! It’s great if they actually do something to sell the product, but much of the time they don’t.So how can you be sure that your advertising vehicles have the proper elements needed to make sales? While there is no such thing as a guaranteed formula for ad success, you can give yourself the best chance by remembering the tried and true basics, and those basics are represented by the anagram AICDA — Attention, Interest, Credibility, Desire and Action.An ad must first attract Attention. With a print ad, that task falls to the headline. In a radio ad, that means a loud, attention getting intro made up of any number of sound effects. In TV it’s something similar, but with visual effects added. In a sales letter, its teaser copy on the outside of the envelope, and an attention grabbing headline on the opening page. Photos and graphics can also grab attention in print ads — whatever the case, an ad must first capture attention before it can accomplish the next mission which is…….. Interest. Once you lure the prospect in, you must create instant interest in what you are selling. That’s usually handled with a subhead and the first sentence of the body copy, or the first dialog of a radio or TV ad. Credibility is provided in a variety of ways, including past customer testimonials, statistics which demonstrate success and more.Desire is created by appealing to the emotions of the ad viewer, and this is done my showing what the product will do for those who buy, such as solve a problem, or enhance prestige, or improve health. The final function of an ad is to produce Action! The ad viewer must be compelled to call, write in, stop by in person — or whatever you want them to do. Urging action usually means providing incentives and rewards to do so. For example, putting a time limit on when an incredible 25% discount can be obtained will spur people to action. There are many other ways as well.How you produce the elements of AICDA will be your challenge. There is no one, good way to make sure you have all the elements of AICDA hitting on all cylinders. Again, this is advertising, not mathematics. You may have to test several different versions of an ad. before it really starts working. If you’re lucky, you’ll hit the jackpot the first time you place an ad.Please be aware that this short discussion on advertising is only a primer. Getting advertising right is a major challenge for any business and an ongoing process. A lot of marketing gurus out there offer a lot of hype and unrealistic notions about what advertising can do for a business, but here at Alchemy, we don’t deal in hype. We deal only in reality, and solid, grounded business practices that are guaranteed to work. You will need to advertise, but you must take the correct and careful approach. Do that, be persistent, work smart, and you are bound to succeed. Millions of others have.SummaryFew companies can afford to ignore buying paid advertisements to grow their businesses, but the key is to proceed carefully, intelligently, and stick to the basics. Advertising is by nature a somewhat arcane art. There are no magic formulae that guarantee success. All advertising must be rigorously tested. Buy small ads before risking major money on large ads. Remember the AICDA formula and the real purpose of an advert is to SELL! And not to entertain.
Mastering Advertising
Playing Online Poker For a Living – 4 Simple Tips That Can Help You Play Cards For a Living
Card game addicts can soon start dealing out cards no matter where they are, before you could even say “Indiana Jones”. These people love this game, and no matter what, they will always find a plain simple excuse to play it. Some play online for a livingIf you are quite in their league too, it is no wonder if your fingers itch all the time to try out your luck and fortune at the card games. Well, the solution to itching fingers is only a few clicks away. You can find many web sites where you can play poker online and also win money if you are a host to good fortune and tricky skills.Card players find it easy to play card games online, since here, the ambience is quite relaxed and quiet. You never know with whom you are playing. It could be an old man or woman, or a child as well! But one thing is for sure- here no one will be able to peep and have a look as to whether you have a winning hand or not. Here, no one is there to rush you, no one to call the shots but you. But even though this seems as if the rules here are quite easy and relaxed, actually, they are not. You have to abide by certain laws which if you neglect, will result in your disqualification.o Before you start to play, you must try to decide if you are willing to play poker for your entire income. To do this, you will have to look back at the games that you played in the past, and how you handled your bankroll after a big win. Did you jump into the stakes or invest your winnings?o Then again, if you had never the chance to see so much money while playing poker, but lost about ten tournaments in a row, you have to remember what your action was. Did you move down or up in stakes? These reactions of yours are necessary to judge whether you will be able to make a living on poker.o The main trick is not how much money you win, but how you win it. When you do not have a winning hand, you have to see that you lose very little of cash. But when you have the best hand, you have to try to call the right shots at the right time to milk in a lot of money out of your opponent’s pockets. To maneuver the game carefully you have to assess the situation accurately and rely on your gut instincts.o Another key skill that you need to hone is patience. You might be able to rely on your instincts, and make quite sharp decisions at the crucial moments in the game; you might be able to calculate thoroughly the result of every move of every player around the table; you might be able to tighten your purse strings when you have no winning hand, and get the best odds to win the most when you turn out to be the lucky one, but there is still a chance that someone might come about and upset your plan and shatter it to rubbles. During these times, it is necessary that you do not lose your head, but start to build another plan, so as to win back what you have lost.These rules will help you to get to the very peak where you can earn a lot of money, and there will be no stopping you as well. Remember, rules are important in a game, so that you do not get disqualified, and you can always use them to your advantage.
Your Child and Mental Health
While many adults believe that children live a life of ease, this is certainly not necessarily always true. Your child and mental health is a dynamic world unto it’s own.Children are not without their own emotional, mental, and physical troubles. Just as with older humans, children are capable of feeling all types of feelings. These include feelings of sadness, hurt, mistrust, anxiety, and anger. In addition, the way that children deal with these feelings can have a huge effect on their emotional health. Children and mental health often reflects greatly on the parental mental health that a child has when he or she become a parent themselves. Kids that grow up in a positive environment are much more likely to be positive adults than those that experience negative emotional mental health during their childhood.Infant and child mental health establishes a foundation of self-esteem for life.Children as young as infants are aware of trust and mistrust in others and in self. After a child is only a few months old, their emotional health begins to develop. It is important during infancy that a baby learns he or she can trust the caregiver. The baby needs to know that his or her needs are taken care of when a diaper should be changed or a feeding needs to take place. Infants that go long periods of time without the attention of the caregiver are much more likely not to trust.Once the infant passes through the stage of placing trust in others, a toddler encounters a stage of emotional mental health called autonomy vs. shame and doubt. During this period, the child needs to feel that he or she is capable of independence. While an infant needed others, toddlers are looking for space to obtain good mental health. When a toddler is not given the opportunity to find independence, he or she often grows up having a lacking self-esteem, feeling ashamed as well as a whole assortment of other mental health issues. Much independence during this stage of life is found through potty training with the toddler taking care of his or her own bathroom needs.Your child and mental health goes hand in hand with the circumstance of the family environment while growing up.Initiative verse guilt follows the toddler stage when a child reaches preschool and kindergarten. During this stage, the child emotionally needs to explore others and the world around him or her and begins to become interested in belonging to a group and role-playing within that group. During this stage of life, a person develops much of their background for social interaction. Children who are allowed to explore and interact with others are much more likely to carry over positive social skills into adulthood than those that are secluded from group activities. These others can end up on the opposite side of the spectrum in regards to their social and mental health becoming withdrawn from others.It is quite apparent that child and adult mental health become synonymous throughout life.Part of creating a solid foundation in children to carry over into adulthood is allowing children the opportunity to learn how to make choices. Children need to experience the effects that their choices have on their lives. Instead of continually giving a child direction, it is better to give a child options.When allowed to take some actions into their own hands helps create an emotional mental health framework for the future, Setting boundaries and preparing children for disappointments help children prepare for good mental health and avoidance of mental health issues as an adult. In some cases, children can make choices for themselves. However, children also need to learn that not everything will always be controlled by them. They need to learn to accept the things that they cannot control. A child that learns to cope with disappointment through a caregiver that sets boundaries will grow into an adult with a foundation of more positive emotional mental health than those children that never experience hearing the word “no”. All of this is very critical for child and adolescent development.While all research indicates that the environment in which a child grows greatly affects his or her emotional mental health, not all parents that fail to properly foster their child’s stages of health are neglectful or bad parents. In fact, many parents struggle with the proper methods they should carry out to help their child grow into a prosperous adult.Interaction is a great way to help your child’s emotional mental health bloom. Children need to be cuddled and feel the touch of others. In addition, they need communication. Even as an infant, babies respond to parents and others through coos. Responding to these babbles is an important part of the infant and child mental health development process (both mentally and emotionally). As the child grows older, let him or her know what he or she has to say is important by listening and responding in conversation.In addition to talking, your child and mental health is dependent upon nonverbal responses also. Be certain to make eye contact with the child. Share gestures and facial expressions during daily routines such as dinner, story time, and bath time.Be certain that you have expectations for your child and that they are appropriate for the child’s age level. Placing too much pressure or high expectations on your child can be harmful to his or her emotional mental health. Do not place expectations on the child that he or she is not mature enough to handle.When your child reaches a charged emotional situation, try to help the child understand the feelings and work through the problem. Let your child know that it is okay to express emotions if they are expressed in a proper manner.Raising or working with a child can be a large responsibility when it is realized that the things the child experiences now affects how he or she will respond to the world as an adult. The positive or negative environment that a kid encounters through childhood affects the ways that he or she handles situations independently when grown.Carefully considering the emotional health needs that help a child feel secure about him or herself and about the environment are important to his or her success in the future.
History of Automotive Headlamps From the Beginning to LEDs
I have searched around the web to bring you this article on the development of the automotive headlamp from the beginning right up until the latest LED developments.As far as I can ascertain the beginning of the electric automotive headlamps journey began in about 1898 by a company called the Electric Vehicle Company in Connecticut, based in a place called Hartford. Although we do read of reference to gas lamps (acetylene) used on the first vehicles in the 1880′s.So it was awhile back and also we are more interested in the electric lamp development for the motor car.It is actually quite funny when you read the development especially what was considered acceptable. The filaments (they were incandescent lamps) would regularly burnout, usually caused by the rough road conditions also the cars power supply was pretty anemic and struggled to provide the necessary electric power, especially when we read they were about one percent efficient.In today’s society, faced with the same challenge I am sure we would just give up.All of the above did not deter our friends at Cadillac and apparently they produced the first modern headlight system. This was a totally new arrangement compared to previous efforts and could even be used in the rain and snow without the risk of getting burned. Oh it was considered a revolution in its day.We then move on to a company called the Guide Lamp Company who rolled out the next technological breakthrough in about 1915. This was the introduction of the low beam headlamp. In reality it was not until about 1924 before we saw a proper high/low beam headlamp with an internal switch.The next major development was the Halogen lamp which popped into the automotive headlamp arena in Europe in about 1962. These become mandatory in several countries due to their excellent capability. The sealed beam incandescent headlamp persisted as standard fitment until about 1978. The halogen headlamp is still used today by many automotive manufacturers.The next development was high intensity discharge lighting systems (HID) often described as Xenon headlights. These started appearing in the top end models of some German vehicles in about 1991. These are still a rather costly option and have not yet been fully embraced by the automotive manufacturers. The jury is still out on these.This brings us to the LED which has taken off slowly but appears to be moving ahead quite quickly. Its foray into headlamps is still in its infancy, although their use in tail lamps, brake lights and indicators seems assured.Time will tell, but for now the Xenon is considered an excellent, although expensive, headlight design and the 3157 LED and its derivatives is leading the way for all other small signal and indication type lighting in the automotive scene.